If you’re looking to start your own business, selling t-shirts online is just one of many ways to do so. Online sales as a proportion of retail, specifically in the textile, clothing and footwear categories has increased by 17.3% according to the ONS year on year. Giving an indication that online businesses in this sector aren’t just sticking around but they’re actually growing.
T-shirts are an extremely popular item in the retail industry due to not just being a staple in your everyday wardrobe but also a way for people to express their passions and interests. We’re going to be talking all about how to start your own online t-shirt business and exactly how to take your new business to market in a competitive ecommerce marketplace.
Competitor research
When looking into your competitors you need to be looking out for their pricing, shipping costs, returns and marketing amongst other things and take note of this.
You’ll firstly need to identify your direct competitors, the businesses who sell exactly what you’re selling. Conduct a small SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threat) analysis of each competitor and this should give you a good idea of their position in the market.
This can also help you to identify any gaps in the market that your competitors are currently not filling and could give you an edge while trying to enter the market. Start out by searching for your products, and make sure to check out your competitors content and social media, news mentions, any press, reviews and online communities.
Once you’ve done this you’ll have a pretty good understanding of your competitors but you’ll also need to look into their marketing strategy. You need to be looking for what kind of channels they’re using to push their products, is their strategy purely based on social selling, word of mouth or do they have a brick and mortar shop etc.
Once you’ve visited their websites you should also have a pretty good idea if they’re conducting any remarketing through platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as you should now see these adverts appearing. Also, take note of any offers or exclusives either within the ads or just the content of their site and social media.
Find your USP
The first thing you need to do is figure out what makes your business different. The retail industry is very competitive especially within the t-shirt business, as it is a somewhat easy to set up a business model in today’s digital age.
There will be a lot of competition out there so finding what makes your business unique is key to getting a good foundation for your business. To give some examples, you could focus on something specific just like 9tees.co.uk who sell 90’s and gaming merchandise.
Or your USP could be that you create and sell your own artwork and designs, just like randomhappiness.net who work with artists and illustrators to create unique designs as well as ensuring that they are hand printed in the UK.
Whatever you decide your USP is, make sure to first stick to it but also make sure that you promote it as much as possible. The idea is to be known for that particular thing so your brand is the first place people think of when mentioning your USP. For example, EKM’s USP is our Evolution Mode which is something none of our competitors do and is unique to us, therefore if someone wants an ecommerce shop that can be continually optimised and updated, they would use EKM.
In the case of a t-shirt business, the two examples above both sell t-shirts online but they have vastly different USP’s and as a result vastly different target audiences. Your USP will help to mould the way your new business looks and feels and who you’ll end up targeting, so make sure it’s something that either no other business does or you can do it better or cheaper.
Create your brand
Once you’ve narrowed down your USP and done some competitor research, it’s time to start building your brand. We would recommend that you start out brainstorming some business name ideas. Remember to make sure that the ideas relate to what you’re selling but are also quick and easy to remember.
Once you’ve narrowed your ideas down to a handful, you now need to check if they’re available as a domain. You can use tools like Google Domains to check the availability but keep in mind the way a domain looks without any spaces as you’ll want to avoid any silly looking domains.
If you’ve found one that’s available that you’re happy with, the next step is to check if that same username is available on all social media platforms, but think about buying it if you’re happy as it might not be available if you leave it too long. To do this you’ll need to begin to create a new account for each and each platform should tell you if that name is taken. If you’re already smitten with the idea of one name in particular on your social channels, you can look at creating a variant for example, instead of @EKM we have @EKM_UK.
Once you’ve secured your domain and all your new social media accounts, you can start working on the fun part – the design of your brand. Keep in mind your USP when coming up with your logo, brand colours and fonts but also your competitors branding too. If you either don’t have the time or don’t feel you have a creative flair, then why not look into hiring a designer.
There are lots of options out there for hiring freelance designers from places like Fiverr, 99designs and Dribble to name a few. Your designer should be able to not only create you a brand new logo but also a set of brand guidelines and social media assets so you can ensure that your branding is consistent across all platforms and therefore recognisable. However, this isn’t the only part of the preparation you need to be considering before you launch your new t-shirt business. You also need to think about the logistics of your customer journey.
Is print on demand right for you?
As a t-shirt business one great and easy way to get set up quickly is by using a print on demand service. Businesses like Inkthreadable take the responsibility of printing and delivering your goods out of your hands, leaving you free to work on your business – which is a great solution for some.
Using suppliers like this certainly takes some of the hassle out of the logistics of printing your own stuff but like with most things there are pros and cons. If you want to hand over the printing and delivery of your items then print on demand could be perfect for you.
However, if you’d like more control over the printing and delivery then, finding another solution such as a local printer or printing them yourself might be a better option. Either way, when sourcing your products, make sure to ask for samples and a range of different fabrics so you can ensure that the quality of your products is good.
Create your own designs
Once you’ve secured a deal with a supplier, you then have the option to create your own designs if you’ve chosen your USP to be unique designs created by you for example, or you can look into commissioning designs to be done by either local artists or find some online.
Commissioning the work by local artists and designers gives you a great marketing tactic as you’re supporting local artists in your area and this can be a great selling point for customers also wanting to support them. However, if you design them yourself you can sell them as unique pieces, providing an air of exclusivity.
Find an ecommerce provider
Now you’ve decided on the products, suppliers and logistics of your t-shirt business, you now need a way to take your products to market. An online shop is the perfect way to start selling your products.
There are, of course, plenty of ecommerce providers out there but you need to do your research and find one that provides you with the specific features you need for a t-shirt business. You should look out for a provider that can work with your print on-demand solution, if you’ve chosen to use it or the courier you’ve chosen if you’re printing and shipping the products yourself.
Some if not most providers have specific themes built for selling t-shirts and clothing items but you should make sure that the theme you choose can be customised to fit your brand perfectly. But it’s not just about the look and feel, you also need to have access to great rates for your payment gateways as well as the right SEO and Advertising tools.
You should also look to get a free trial of these platforms and set aside some time to have a play with each one to see which best suits your needs. Take note of things like how the useability of the shop editor is, how easy is it to edit the look and feel of your site or to add payment gateways and upload products for example.
Upload your products
Once you’ve chosen your ecommerce provider and are happy with the platform, you’ll now need to spend some time getting it all setup, and this includes uploading your products. The initial upload may be a quick process but you don’t want to leave your products without custom descriptions and images.
Writing your own product descriptions has its benefits and it helps you differentiate between your products and your suppliers for instance. If you’re using the same product description as your supplier then you are directly competing against them in the eyes of Google. Writing your own product descriptions is invaluable for both the customer experience and your sites SEO.
Your product descriptions should be exactly that – descriptions. Imagine trying to explain what the product is to someone who can’t see or feel it and if it’s something that either you’ve designed yourself or had someone else create the design, make sure to include that so the customer knows. If the material was made from recycled materials or it’s eco-friendly etc also include it as it’s a great selling point.
The same can be said for your product images. Creating your own product images also has many benefits. While this can also be time-consuming, the impact it can have on a customers decision to purchase is invaluable. Not only will it help you to create images that compliment your brand, it again will help to differentiate you from your supplier and more importantly your competition.
You will need a few bits of equipment like a camera, tripod, lighting but remember to also take some lifestyle images too. These help give the customer an idea of what they look like on people in real life and allows the customer to imagine themselves with the product.
Submit your product feed to Google Shopping
Submitting your product feed to Google Shopping is the first step to getting your site out there and marketing it to the internet. You’ll firstly need to open a Google Search Console account. Through this, you can submit your sitemap to Google, which tells Google that it can crawl and rank your website on it’s SERP results. It will crawl your content and looks for relevant keywords to figure out what type of website you have and then what kind of items you’re selling, and then display them on relevant search results.
If you want to be able to sell via Google Shopping you’ll also need to set up a Google Merchant Account. It uses the product feed you create in your EKM shop to populate your shopping feed which is why it’s important that you customise your product descriptions and images.
Once you’ve created your product feed you can then start creating your first campaign. Make sure to do your research on what keywords you should be targeting and try to keep them specific rather than generalised. Otherwise, you’ll attract low-quality traffic that isn’t likely to convert, but if you’re specific with your keyword targeting then you’re more likely to attract converting visitors.
Market your t-shirt business
While advertising your product through Google Shopping is the start of advertising your business, you also need to now market your business and there are many ways to do this.
Social media is a big part of marketing your business and you’ll now need to populate your new social channels with some content. This can be a variety of things from new releases, sharing others content, liking and commenting on other posts all the way to sharing customer reviews later down the line.
To build up your following you could try running a small competition where someone could win a free t-shirt if they follow, comment and share the post. This is also a great way to expand your audience and brand awareness on these platforms.
We covered Google Shopping earlier in this post however when a customer visits your site but doesn’t make a purchase, should that be the end of their journey? Definitely not. You need to be utilising remarketing to help convert customers. Most don’t purchase the first time they hit your website, it will take quite a few touchpoints for the customer to complete a purchase which is why remarketing is so valuable.
It allows you to remind them of products that they’ve viewed and keep your business in their mind, rather than them searching for the same item later on, only to find your competitor advertising it to them.
To try to keep your customers coming back there are also a few things you can do, including offering loyalty points or exclusive offers and discounts, when they sign up to receive your email newsletter. This will help you to not only build up an email list of engaged people but also incentivise new visitors to do the same to get access to these exclusive offers.
While there are more marketing and selling strategies you could employ, if you get started with the basics in this blog, you’ll be on your way to creating your own successful online t-shirt business.
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