Is selling T-shirts online profitable? The answer is yes.
It gets sweeter if you decide to go the dropshipping route, as you won’t have to keep any inventory or worry about warehousing. And what better dropshipping platform to choose than Shopify?
When done correctly, T-shirt dropshipping via Shopify can make you a lot of money. For one thing, it’s easy to start and requires zero expertise. Plus, you can launch one for as little as $100.
Cool huh?!
But here’s the catch: T-shirt dropshipping can be insanely competitive. In fact, we are willing to be that you know one of two persons in your circle that are already into it. What would you expect for a business that is so easy and cheap to start?
Nevertheless, you can still be successful with it, regardless of how fierce the competition is.
And that’s what this post is about: to guide you through the ins and outs of running a T-shirt dropshipping business.
Let’s dive in!
Is Dropshipping T-Shirt Online Profitable?
The following stats argue that dropshipping T-shirts is a profitable venture:
- The T-shirt industry has generated over $38.88billion in 2022 alone.
- On average, consumers have spent $5.11 on T-shirts so far in 2022
- The T-shirt industry is expected to grow by 11.3% by 2023
It might also interest you to know that over 2 billion T-shirts are sold globally every year. This goes to show how huge the T-shirt market is. So you will readily find customers for your products.
What about profits? How much can you make on average for each T-shirt you sell? Well, the thing about the T-shirt business is that you can sell at whatever price you want, and nobody will raise an eyebrow.
But if you want a figure, go for a 50% profit margin – most T-shirt retailers do the same. For example, if your supplier sells a shirt for $10, you should sell it for $15.
How to Start a Successful T-Shirt Dropshipping Business on Shopify
Ready to launch your T-shirt dropshipping business on Shopify? Here are some battle-tested strategies to try out:
1. Develop a Brand Idea
In a fiercely competitive industry such as the T-shirt industry, memorable branding can be the only thing that sets you apart from the competition.
A memorable brand will help you connect with customers and generate sales for your business, no matter how saturated the market is.
By branding, we mean a logo, a tagline, your messaging, your background story, and anything else that is exclusively unique to your business.
But how do you develop a memorable brand without spending thousands of dollars on consultation fees with branding experts?
Well, one easy way to do so is by doing some research to know exactly who your target audience is. Are they millennials, Gen Zs, or Baby boomers? What is their income bracket? What might they like?
Answering these questions will make it much easier to develop branding that sticks.
But hey, you don’t have to sweat it. You can start with something basic and refine it along the way.
2. Develop Your T-shirt Business Plan
Once you’ve developed branding for your branding, the next step is to develop a plan.
Your plan should detail how you intend to find prospective customers and market your products to them. It should also give some idea how you intend to finance your business, source for materials, print your shirts, etc.
It doesn’t have to be impeccably detailed, but at least should give you a fair idea of where you are headed with your business.
3. Create Your Designs
Creating unique, eye-catching T-shirt designs is pivotal to the success of your business. But don’t complicate things in the name of creating unique designs.
Try to keep your designs as simple as possible. This is not to say you have to stifle your creative flow. Just keep it simple.
If nothing else, simple designs are easy to create and sell quickly.
Not much of a designer? No worries, you can use T-shirt mockup templates – there are a ton of them online, and they tend to be free.
If mockups won’t work, try hiring a freelance designer from talent marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork.
4. Figure Out Your Printing Option
It’s one thing to create a stunning design for your T-shirts; it’s yet another to bring that design to life by printing it out. So while slugging it away on your PC trying to design products your customers will love, you need to figure out how to print out those designs.
Here are some printing options to try if you are stuck on ideas:
Self-printing
Self-printing involves printing your designs by yourself using your printing equipment – or rented ones.
There are a couple of options you can try in this arrangement, and they are as follows:
Heat transfer printing: Heat transfer printing is your best bet if you are on a low budget and have limited time. It’s a printing process that involves using heat to transfer a design unto a shirt, usually using heat transfer paper.
This makes heat transfer an ideal option for printing T-shirts in small quantities.
Direct-to-garment printing (DTG): This printing method involves creating prints on tees using an ink spray or an inkjet. Often, the material is treated with chemicals to make the ink dry faster and stick longer to the T-shirt material.
Like Heat transfer printing, DTG is also fast and cost-effective.
Screen printing: Screen printing is another great DIY route to take when starting a T-shirt business. In this arrangement, silk or polyester mesh with a design is pulled over a tee, and then ink is applied to the mesh. The ink would then sip through the cut-out holes to form your intended design.
Screen printing is ideal for printing tees in large quantities quickly.
Print-on-demand Services
Printing your tees yourself might not always work, especially when your business starts to grow. As such, you are better off using a print-on-demand service.
One of the major benefits of using a print-on-demand service is that order fulfillment is taken care of for you right out of the box. This frees you a lot of time to focus on marketing your product, offering support, and growing your business.
Thankfully, there are lots of print-on-demand services you can use. We will get to them shortly.
5. Set Up Your Dropshipping Store
If you haven’t done so yet, it’s about time you set up your dropshipping. And what better platform to use than Shopify?
For as little as $29/month, you can start a dropshipping store on Shopify. One good thing about Shopify is that it’s simple and intuitive. This means you can get up and running pretty quickly, even if you have never used Shopify.
On top of that, Shopify comes with many dropshipping apps that allow you to set up a functional dropshipping store in a breeze.
6. Set Up Your Marketing Channel
Believe it or not, much of your effort and time will go into marketing, as the success of your business largely depends on it. As such, you need to put some careful thought into it.
So, what marketing channel should you opt for to drive the most sales? We will say social media.
Try running a couple of ads on Facebook and Instagram and see how it goes. One thing about social media ads is that they enjoy good engagement and are usually cheap. Plus, they tend to work well with dropshipping.
If social media ads aren’t working, try Google PPC ads. But you have to be careful, Google PPC ads can be expensive, and you might blow up your entire marketing budget if you don’t know what you are doing.
Other marketing channels you can try include influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, SEO, etc.
3 Tshirt Dropshipping Services for Shopify
Leveraging a T-shirt dropshipping company can help improve your business flow and streamline your business operations.
That said, here are some T-shirt dropshipping solutions you can try.
1. Printful
Printful is undoubtedly one of the most popular T-shirt print-on-demand solutions for Shopify.
Why use Printful?
Firstly, you don’t have to make any upfront payment while using Printful – you only pay when a customer places an order.
In addition, Printful comes with an intuitive design editor that allows you to quickly knock out stunning print designs, even if your design skills are nothing to write home about.
Plus, Printful enables you to customize your product packaging, packing slips, and invoices to fit your branding.
Cost: Free starter plan. Paid plan starts from $9/month.
2. Printify
Printify is another great T-shirt dropshipping solution you can count on. One of the cool things about Printify is that it has an expansive network of printing providers spread across the world, thus allowing for faster fulfillment.
Using Printify allows you to focus on growing your business because the logistics, fulfillment and printing are handled for you right out of the box.
In addition, Printify is super easy to use.
Cost: Free to install. Paid plan starts at $29/month.
3. Teelaunch
And we wrap things up with Teelaunch.
Like Printify, Teelaunch has production and fulfillment centers in many parts of the world, handling thousands of print orders daily. These facilities handle everything from T-shirts, leggings, hoodies, and baby wears to plates, cups, electronics, and many more.
Best of all, Teelaunch is totally free.
Conclusion
When done correctly, T-shirt dropshipping can fetch you a lot of fortune. We hope that with the tips we’ve shared in this post, you should be able to set up and run one successfully.
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