# What Are the Best Approaches to Selling T-shirts Online?



## brushyourideas

It isn’t a surprise as to how everyone can easily design one’s apparel today. T-shirt enthusiasts are always on a look out for online t-shirt store that can provide them with t-shirts that match their persona and choices. They can create designs on an e-stores that enable them to upload their designs and give it to the print-on-demand retailers who dropship the orders thereafter.

If you are planning to move your t-shirt store online, there are several platforms you can choose from including Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce and Prestashop. However, that alone will not suffice. You need to integrate a t-shirt design softwarethat can be integrated with your platform. Using it, your customers can design the t-shirts that have their favorite logo, quote and designs.

Through today’s article, we will talk about the different approaches you can take up for selling t-shirts online. It will help you decide the way that suits you the best and how you can make the most out of the lucrative t-shirt selling market.

* Sell Through T-shirt Sale Websites*
The first and the simplest approach to sell t-shirts. There are many t-shirt printing marketplaces that enable you to create an account on their store and add your t-shirt designs. Thereafter, whenever someone places an order, they get it printed and ship it to your customers. They give you the cut of profits which you can set when are creating your tee. If you are a newfangled entrepreneur and want to see how your t-shirts sell before you set up a full-fledged store, it is a good way to start.


* Sell via Drop Ship through Print-on-Demand Vendor*
This again is an easy way to sell t-shirts online. Through this option, you can have your own brand with the t-shirt that your can sell and market online. However, you do not need to have the printing facility. You can take help from a print-on-demand vendor who can print the customized t-shirts of your customers and ship it to them. Some of them also make use of t-shirt design software that easily integrates with your website and helps you enlist the sale of t-shirts. Once they make a sale of your t-shirts, they route the orders to your POD vendor who can print and ship t-shirts to your customers and bill you the wholesale cost.

* Sell, Print, and Ship Yourself*
Last but not the least, this is the most widely embraced option. Majorly because it gives a lot of freedom to the online t-shirt vendors to sell the way they want. It also asks for skills and knowledge to sell customized t-shirts online. In case you do not have the required technical knowledge to set up a store, there are companies that provide the e-store owners with ready to sell web to print stores. They create your website from the scratch, add products and integrate a t-shirt design software with your website. Thereafter, you can just start selling. But if you choose this option and lack technical knowledge, you must ensure that its backend is easy to operate.

You can launch a simple ecommerce website and start selling t-shirts that you print and ship to your customers. The best way to boost your business and make your brand well-known amongst t-shirt vendors is to provide your customers with a tool to design their own t-shirts through your website.

* So, Which Option Should I Go for?*
There are several factors you need to consider before choosing the right option for you. In case you choose to sell through other website, you need to find out what t-shirt sales sites cost. Some of them enable you to set up a free account, upload your t-shirts and sell them. Not just that, they also pay for the t-shirts that they sell for you. If you go for this option, you might have to spend on advertising your tees on social media platforms like Facebook.

* The Wrap…*
As today’s digital marketplace is flooding with several t-shirt sellers, it is imperative to stand out from your competitors. You need to ensure that you come up with a unique t-shirt design store and market your brand well on social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. We wish you the best!


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## kotharinaman

Sell, print and ship yourself is the best option. selling on other platforms will increase your costing and reduce the margins and you have to bear the return products sipping cost. 

So the best option is to create your own design, sell it on your own ecommerce platform with the help of social media marketing and strong SEO techniques.


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## ms6276176

Using facebook marketing is one of the options. Try SEO for your site, it takes some time to show some results. There is a lot of competition in the market.


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## KingdomBuilderCo

Which option to go for really depends on your skill set. There are benefits to both.

First, in regards to using Facebook marketing or social media to sell shirts... You need to have a much more specific plan than that. The fact is Facebook ad costs are steadily increasing, and organic social media reach is becoming hard to come by. If you go the organic route, you will need to take the time to build up your audience - but even then, you want to move that audience to an email list as soon as possible. Why? Because reach is constantly changing. A large portion of your organic audience will not see your posts without some sort of paid boost. So consider this is you choose this method when selling shirts.

In regards to FB advertising/marketing... If your audience is well-targeted, and your shirt design compelling, you're looking at CPAs ranging from $2-$4. However, ad costs are steadily rising - by comparison, a year ago average CPAs were $1.75-$2.25. For a strong advertiser, there are ways to manage your costs and get creative with your advertising, but I mention this so you realize the importance of having a back-end to your t-shirt business. Consider the cost of your products as well as your costs per sale. Think about ways to add on items in increase the amount per purchase. Think about email marketing as a follow-up to get repeat customers. Think about how to use advertising to increase the overall traffic to a store so you can get more sales.

That being said, you original question asked which is better... POD gives you the opportunity to test styles and see what sells before making a large initial investment. However, as many have said, the margins are horrible. But if you can find a design that sells, consider it a break-even project and use it to test ideas. Once you find a winner, than invest in printing the shirt yourself so you can profit.

Also, consider marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon. Yes, there are more fees in the beginning, but the marketplace also offers a build it traffic source. Yes, you will need to do your own marketing as well, but if you're just starting out, you can leverage their tools to start making sales and building a following, before you tackle the task of digital marketing on your own.

Hope this information helps. Feel free to ask any additional questions .


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## mrsweet

You can also try affiliate marketing, linking to amazon shirts and get commissions. The most tedious part for every option is marketing and SEO


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## linneasandel

Wow, you have mentioned the very useful points and this is the best way to sell the t-shirts online. I really like your point of "*Sell Through T-shirt Sale Websites*". Because when a person goes for searching for any products then they go with a particular name.


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## devbackham079

There are lots of great reasons to start selling t-shirts online. Maybe you have a killer design you know folks will love. Or, perhaps, you're a custom t-shirt connoisseur looking for a side hustle. Regardless, you could be tapping into a market worth more than $1 billion in annual worldwide sales.

#1 Sell on T-shirt and Art Marketplaces
#2 Sell T-shirts on Retail Marketplaces
#3 Sell Your T-shirts on Facebook
#4 Sell From Your Own Online T-shirt Store


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## thenoveltylocker

Hi I have a question. Do you actually get sells from tshirts on Print on Demand?


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## PocketPairDesign

I have some really good designs but a very lousy budget! I use Shopify and have been really happy with the functionality and flexibility. My problem is my POD vendor. They are SO EXPENSIVE. My margins are miniscule and I am under water after start up costs and advertising costs. My designs are very niche (for poker players), so I need COVID to be over so I can get in front of poker players at casinos and card houses. Any other ideas?


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## into the T

PocketPairDesign said:


> I have some really good designs but a very lousy budget! I use Shopify and have been really happy with the functionality and flexibility. My problem is my POD vendor. They are SO EXPENSIVE. My margins are miniscule and I am under water after start up costs and advertising costs. My designs are very niche (for poker players), so I need COVID to be over so I can get in front of poker players at casinos and card houses. Any other ideas?


the spade design could use a touch more distressing, the center looks shockingly different compared to the outer

the undistressed design on the caps is really good, but i would try a distressing on the tees with this design
gives the impression of experience at the table imho, i think a distressed left chest would be nice too

maybe bring in a really distressed design and something like 'las vegas inaugural poker open' and the date of las vegas's actual incorporation/founding

hard to find the crack right now, but most of your designs can be done in-house for a small startup cost

don't give up, you have a good concept and good designs
patience can be your friend, just step back and re-assess


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