If you’ve got a creative flair and are looking for a way to start an online business, then an ecommerce t-shirt store is a great way to go.
Ecommerce has grown hugely in recent years and is only set to keep growing. Creating an online t-shirt business is a great way to benefit from this growth in online sales and gain experience with ecommerce.
So, how do you go about setting up your own online t-shirt business, and what are some things to look out for? Here are five tips you should be thinking about when writing your business plan.
1. Do Your Market Research
Though it is tempting to jump straight in and start selling t-shirts, you must take your time and do the requisite market research. There’s a big market for t-shirts, but there’s also a lot of competition, and you need to figure out where you fit into it.
Once you’ve identified an area where you can make a difference in the market, then you can create a business plan that’s going to serve as your blueprint to success.
2. Choose a Business Model
One of the nice things about starting an online t-shirt business is that there are different ways you can choose to do it.
The two most common t-shirt business models are purchasing your own stock and fulfilling the orders yourself or drop shipping.
Drop-shipping requires less up-front costs as you don’t have to purchase stock and warehouse it. Instead, you take the order, pass it on to your supplier, who prints your design and sends it out to the customer.
Each option has its benefits, which allow you to use the best model to suit your needs.
3. Choose Your Platform
You also have got different options for how you set up your ecommerce store. Different platforms, such as Shopify, Magento, and WordPress, offer different packages at different prices to suit your needs.
These are all excellent options, but it is important to find the platform that best suits your business.
4. Build Your Brand
When you’re competing in a competitive market, it is important that your branding stands out.
You want people to associate your name with amazing products, but to do that, you’ve got to have good products, and you’ve got to have good branding. When you get these two things right, you can create loyal customers who keep coming back to you and spread the word about your great company.
5. User Experience
It’s important to make sure your website is offering a good user experience. People understand that you might be a small business, but they still expect a professional-looking site that works well.
Many platforms make it easy to build a clean, fast store, but it’s easy to get carried away with fancy plugins and ruin the user experience. Make sure your customers are your main priority, though, and that you’re making it easy for them to navigate your site.
