# Can I Make Income from T-shirts Using Fulfillment Services?



## Shocked (Sep 20, 2011)

I setup a couple of shops a few years ago using Cafepress and a 3rd party website plugin so I can sell directly from my own websites. I have only created about 20-30 designs for each shop and they all fit on the home page.

Over the last 3-4 years I have sold about maybe 25 t-shirts with very little effort in marketing or SEO. 

The main problem I have and the thing that is discouraging is the profit I make from Cafepress. I looked at my reports and see I made $10 in last few months from several orders but then I see things like deductions etc and I'm left with less than $2. I can't be bothered contacting them and making a fuss over a few dollars and finding out what happened. All I know is I will need to sell a heck of a lot of t-shirts to make this worthwhile if I want to step it up. I'm guessing I make about 0.80c from each shirt after Cafgepress get their hands on my profits and after their take which seems to be about 99%.

I was considering spending several weeks deigning loads of shirts. I could create maybe hundreds of "Phrase" t-shirts with a one line sentence etc as they are easy to make in bulk. But I prefer to make art, design something nice but that takes much more time. But I feel discouraged as the profits from Cafepress are ridiculous and it's the only thing I can use on my websites. I can of course just use one of the other fulfillment services and just upload the designs to sell directly on their website for a slightly better profit. The only problem about that is I'm not building up my own brand so it's more of a short term thing. 

Anyway, I would like to hear some feedback to motivate me or to tell me that I should not bother as the profits are just not there.


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## tippy (May 27, 2014)

I am averaging almost $100 per month from cafepress sales with 14 designs. I don't have a website to promote these - all sales are directly from cafepress. This was a good testing grounds for my designs. Knowing people wanted to buy my style is what prompted me to purchase a sublimation setup and start making/selling them myself.

The "trick" is finding designs that people want to buy.


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## tchandler52 (Sep 17, 2012)

T-shirt fulfillment can be very profitable and good because you don't need to keep inventory for items you might not sale.


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## Skinbus (Jul 2, 2007)

Considering the time it takes to do the designs, unless you're only doing slogans can be time consuming for little profit unless you find a niche for yourself, or promote yourself in any way possible. Legally, of course & even then, if your designs don't appeal to the masses, you'll make some money but don't plan on retiring with it. IMO the products are already overpriced before you add your royalty. Some shirts I've seen are $30 or more. How many t-shirts would you pay $30 for unless as a gift. I have a store with a certain company but IMO, most but the basic shirts are overpriced & allow for not much more than a 10% profit to keep them in a decent price range that people will consider paying. 10% for all your work & time is barely worth the effort unless you're doing it as nothing more than a hobby. The sites have a million other "designers" doing the same thing. Your products are seen worldwide which is a pretty big deal but even then, with so many people involved you won't get a great deal of exposure from their marketplaces. You have to do a lot of self promotion using social media, facebook etc. or other ways to have your products seen. That's just the nature of the beast. My store revolves around humorous sarcasm with slogans & art of the same type, but there aren't a whole lot of people who "get" my sense of humor so my sales aren't great, but every sale brings a lot of satisfaction because you won't find most of my products anywhere else on the internet because they're pretty much 1 of a kind, which can be good, but that's not really what it's about. Obviously, $$$$ is the bottom line. So if your products don't appeal to the masses, don't expect to get rich. Only you can decide if it's worth the time & effort.


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## Theprintbar (Nov 13, 2010)

You definitely can! We have a range of stores who we (Print Bar) secretly print for in Australia, and one of them makes a commission of over $9000 a month. Just need a good fulfilment centre, good quality product and a good commission rate on the printed t shirts


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## Shocked (Sep 20, 2011)

thanks for the feedback do far and I will consider all the points raised.

On the point about t-shirts over priced. Yes I think that is one of the major problems for me. People expect to get things cheaper online most of the time but some probably don't mind paying for something that they really want and can't find anywhere else. I'm currently traveling though Asia and I can buy really fancy printed t-shirts at the department stores here which are actually even more expensive than the markets and I can pick up t-shirts for less then $5. Also back in my home country Australia I can also buy similar t-shirts at Kmart & Target for the same price on sale. Yes I know there are probably another 20+ of the same shirts sold and they are not as good as getting more original designs but the point is that t-shirts in general have become a lot cheaper in recent years and even $20 for a better t-shirt is pushing it these days. When places like Cafépress cost $20+ for me to have a design printed then I can't make much profit off it as it's already over priced.

I do believe those that say they are making some reasonable money but I think it takes a lot of work to get to that point. I will probably just keep putting out the odd design here and there but I have my doubts now that this is something I can consider to be my primary income source in the future.


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## LucasWorx (Aug 28, 2012)

Hi Printbar,
Could you direct me to the website of the company that made $9000 in commission in a month? I haven't had any success on Spread Shirt, and I would really like to learn how successful people are designing their shirts.

Thank you.


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## Skinbus (Jul 2, 2007)

"I think it takes a lot of work to get to that point?" I don't mind doing the work but being paid 10 cents on the dollar for a design is robbery & an insult to artistry. Some will say "if you don't like it, don't do it" which is the standard of employers who say, "just be glad you have a job."


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## ajspin (Apr 10, 2008)

Just Sent PM


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## djque (Feb 5, 2013)

Why not order plastisol transfers and press them yourself open a etsy or pinterest acount and sell them yourself keep all the profit. These companys are a ripoff. and time will tell.


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## Pressera (Jun 11, 2015)

Skinbus said:


> "I think it takes a lot of work to get to that point?" I don't mind doing the work but being paid 10 cents on the dollar for a design is robbery & an insult to artistry. Some will say "if you don't like it, don't do it" which is the standard of employers who say, "just be glad you have a job."


Have you ever tried Print-on-demand companies' fulfilment services ? Your profit would be much more higher and you would also be able to have your own brand and own e-commerce store.


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