A Rookie?s Guide to a Low-Cost T-Shirt Design E-Store

Posted by Pratik Shah on April 26th, 2018

Congratulations for thinking about moving your brick and mortar t-shirt store online! It is indeed a great move as most of the customers choose to purchase clothes online today. The advancement of technology has also made it easy for ecommerce store owners to set up their e-store in minutes. Moving online can give you a lot of freedom to get innovative with your  selling methods. However, thinking about opening a t-shirt design store is one thing and having one is whole another.

For those who want to have a successfully running e-store, we are here with a small guide. Here is how you can go about having one for yourself:

Identify your Audience

Well, this is the first step you need to follow for having any kind of e-business. Ask yourself whether you would be selling t-shirts to adults, teenagers, or children. What would be the theme of your t-shirts? Would it have funny quotes, sarcastic ones or have pictures with a message? If you are looking forward to sell irrespective of the audiences and want to give your customers with the much-needed freedom, provide them with a t-shirt design software.

Using it, all your customers would be able to create a t-shirt of their choice from the scratch. However, you must ensure that the tool you provide is user-friendly.

Get Your Website Developed

Shopping for attires online is a trend that can help you yield good sales. So, having a website on which you can sell t-shirt is the best way to go. There are companies that provide ready-to-sell print storefronts. All you need to do is provide the developers with your requirements and they will create a ready storefront for you by integrating a product designer tool into it. When it comes to having a web-to-print website, Magento is the best option.

If you already have an ecommerce store, the Magento development companies can also create a web-to-print tool and integrate it with your website.

Choose the T-shirt Printing Method

If your business is upcoming, you might or might not have an in-house printing facility; in case of which, you might need to get in touch with professional printers. Thereafter, you would have to choose the type of printing method you would want to go with. Some of the most popular printing methods are given below:

Screen printing: It is one of the most popularly chosen methods of printing. The reason being, it renders impeccable design quality, color variety and soft finish. The only drawback of this method is, it might be cost-effective for small business owners and is a more viable option for mass production of t-shirts.

Heat Transfer: In heat transfer printing, the printing takes place by combining heat with pressure. The printers prepare the design by digitally transferring it on heat transfer paper or vinyl. This technique is not as effective as Screen printing as the image fades faster as compared to the prior method.

Direct to Garment (DTG) Technique: Works exactly the way its name suggests. All one needs to do is feed the t-shirt into the printer and the design gets printed on the t-shirt directly. DTG is also not a good option for upcoming business owners as it can prove to be expensive.

Start Marketing Your Business

There are several ways to market your business. Out of these, social media stands out to be the best marketing channel. Create a page of your t-shirt selling brand on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc and establish a personal relationship with your customers. You can also involve local communities by organizing road shows and competitions to spread awareness about your brand.

You can also get in touch with a digital marketing company that helps you with the email marketing campaigns. It is a good way to promote your products and advertise them rightly.

Above-given is a brief guide to start with your small customized t-shirts e-store. There are many other minute steps that can be a part of the whole process. Make sure you conduct ample amount of research, speak with your peers and experienced e-store owners and try to follow some of their guidelines. Doing so, is sure to yield you better results. We wish you the best with your venture!