Tips For Setting Up An Online T-shirt Business

Are you looking to find tips for setting up and online t-shirt business? The humble t-shirt may be seen as casual wear, but the custom t-shirt industry is expected to reach $10 billion dollars in the US alone this year.  Universally adopted by males and females, t-shirts are a great way for artist and designers to sell their artwork. This has led to t-shirt businesses becoming increasingly popular online- entrepreneurs will find that starting an online t-shirt business is a great way to start your brand until you can add more products.

Because the online t-shirt industry is so popular, you will need to really make your brand stand out from the crowd. To do this, Team TBF have put together our list of our top tips below to help you build your brand:

Find Your Niche

Think of how popular t-shirt brands are. There are millions of them out there but by being specific with your style, you can really make your voice be heard. A great example of this is Superdry, although they are a huge brand that offer more than just t-shirts, all of the the t-shirt that they sell are incredibly unique to them. The brand combines vintage Americana styling with Japanese inspired graphics and text, that are easily identifiable as Superdry when you see someone wearing one while walking down the street.

Generally, t-shirts with overly broad slogans won’t attract an audience that loves your brand, so you should aim to create something that a certain group of people would love: you can’t please everybody. By finding your niche, you will stand out as a brand, and make your product more desirable. Being true to your brand will help you stand out online but also attract the right audience for you without blowing your budget.

Create Your Designs

This point follows on from finding your niche. Majority of people that are purchasing t-shirts online are looking for a great design. Consumers want graphics and slogans that connect with them and reflect their opinions and personality. There is also the idea of originality. Try to make your graphics as unique to your brand as possible, if your design is the same as someone else, why would the customer choose to buy from you? While designing, think about who your audience is, and what they represent.

In saying this, the artwork on your t-shirt doesn’t need to be complex. Sometimes it is the simplest of designs that are appealing.

Source Quality Materials

One of the most important parts of building a great businesses is finding the best materials possible. You want people to love your business and give you great reviews, so there is no point in sending them cheap, flimsy t-shirts. Graphics that fades and cracks or a cotton t-shirt that shrinks and rips isn’t going to get you a second sale in the future. If you want to keep people shopping with you, you will need to give them a quality product that will stand the test of time.

There are three popular methods for printing onto t-shirts. Screen printing is an old technique that is still widely popular with many artists. Screen printing can produce durable and long lasting result, but is a labour intensive process to set up, so is only most cost effective when you are printing in bulk. Heat transfers is another method of printing onto t-shirts. You may have seen basic heat transfer paper that are available at stationery shops or online. Although these make it easy to print your designs, they won’t be of high enough quality when it comes down to running a business. The more advanced version of heat transfers are called plastisol transfers and are printed by professional printers. The direct-to-garment printing process is the third option. It acts much like a ink-jet printer that you would be used to having at home. DTG prints ink directly onto the t-shirt and can produce full color images with accuracy.

Of course, each method has its pros and cons, so you will need to do lots of research before you decide on what’s best for you.

Create A Strong, Interesting Brand

If you have followed all of the steps above – niche, interesting design and quality product- your brand will already be pretty strong. If you want a business that lasts, branding is hugely important. Think about your business, what are your key qualities? Maybe you cater to the youth culture market, or you believe in sustainability and only use eco friendly materials and packaging? Your key qualities need to be seen right throughout your brand. When customers have more choices, it becomes extremely important for an ecommerce business to have a distinctive presence to capture customers’ attention. If the branding aspect of business intimidates you, get in contact with a digital marketing agency such as The Business Fairy to help you with a branding strategy.

Create A Beautiful E-commerce Website

You have you t-shirt designs, made your mockups and validated your idea, it’s time to build your online shop. This is where The Business Fairy can help you with your new business. We have years of experience in creating amazing e-commerce websites that are designed and branded specifically for each client. Because we have the knowledge and experience in creating e-commerce websites for all different types of businesses, we know the best solutions for problems that those who are inexperienced to web design are bound to face. Cost and time efficient, working with Team TBF will leave you with time to do what you do best: designing amazing t-shirts.

So there you have it! Our top tips for setting up an online t-shirt business. If you are in the process of setting up your online business and are looking to have a digital marketing agency such as TBF help you with your branding and e-commerce website, email us at info@thebusinessfairy.ie to find out more information.