In 6 easy steps build your own drop shipping t-shirt business
Young Indian emerging market has potential for drop shipping t-shirt business to fulfil dreams of both retailers and brands in t-shirts sector with market size of larger than US$ 2 billion
By Admin
Overview Drop shipping t-shirt Business
Globally, youth always fancied about t-shirts and is very popular. India having very young population with average age 27 years, cannot be an aberration, this segments hold immense opportunities for brands and retailer alike. India youth are very savvy, urbane, look for comfort and styles in their attire be street fashion or versatile segment.
A Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd. report suggest that India is set to register the highest growth rate for t-shirts sale in the Asia-Pacific region in the next five years. Presently, the size of the t-shirt market in India is estimated to be at INR 25,532 crore which is expected to grow at CAGR 10% to reach INR 61,954 crore by 2027. The price point is low and competitive at INR 199 for a basic t-shirt and designer t shirt sale as much as INR 3000.
Presently, t-shirt business model are shifting towards online. For selling t-shirt online one can choose between a online market place or own website. This blog will cover how you can build your own drop shipping t-shirt business with your own website. The six easy steps are:
- Step1: Starting your T-Shirt Brand
- Step2: Producing your T-Shirt
- Step3: Design and Brand your t-shirt
- Step4: Creating your Website
- Step5: Directing Traffic to your website
- Step6: The future step of t-shirt business
“A Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd. report suggest that India is set to register the highest growth rate for t-shirts sale in the Asia-Pacific region in the next five years. Presently, the size of the t-shirt market in India is estimated to be at INR 25,532 crore which is expected to grow at CAGR 10% to reach INR 61,954 crore by 2027.”
Step1: Starting your T-Shirt Brand
T-shirt brand business is proven business model with very limited risk and more benefit with creation of successful brand.
To start the T-Shirt business we have to have a niche. You can follow simple market research steps to discover your nice. This part becomes easier to find out if you have large followers on your social media pages. You do not need to lose heart, if that is not the case. You can easily open source information in social media pages, market reports, syndicated reports etc. to get your niche idea.
Usually, a niche t-shirt business may have 30% to 35% traction from social media pages (you tube, facebook, twitter, instagram etc.).
Advisory Action
To keep the business on track following parameter are to be keep in mind:
- Budget allocation for the business
- Time dedication in the business
- Automating the business or hands-on approach
Step2: Producing your T-Shirt
Option 1
All do it yourself – that is manufacturing t-shirts and print your design yourself. This model will not be cost effective
Option 2
Hire service a provider who will manage inventory, print, fulfill and ship order. Design has to be supplied to service provider as per your desired brand along with logo / insignia and tagline
Once you have an order you send the service provider with the address where to ship.
Advisory for choosing a service provider
Some of the parameters for choosing a services provider are:
- If you have a specific type of t-shirt in mind, like a specific style or fabric, find a service provider who stocks that type of shirt.
- If you want the largest profit margins possible, find a service provider who offers the lowest prices.
- If you plan on creating a completely automated business, choose a service provider who has an app that integrates with the ecommerce platform you use (more on ecommerce platforms later).
- Depending on your location or the location of your customers you may want to choose a service provider who is based conveniently.
- Choose a service provider based on your desired printing method (Read more on step3)
t-shirt service provider
- Qikink
- Printrove
- t-shirt loot
Alternatively it will be required to check with the ecommerce platform as well with which service provider the platform has integration app or facilitate integration for automation of your t-shirt business. Some technical expertise may require doing so.
Choosing a ecommerce platform
There are two options of doing this.
Option 1
Self hosted brand t-shirt business, a resource consuming approach for starter.
Option 2
Brand aggregator ecommerce platform
For a new starter business a brand aggregator ecommerce platform is suggestible for many reasons like:
- Increased Security – already placed professional team
- Ease of Setup – no coding knowledge required
- Technical Support – bug, uptime and running issue
- Cost Effective – with ecommerce platform you know you monthly cost
- Ease of Day-to-Day Use – As there are thousands of user ecommecrce platform make it easier to handle on a-day-to-day basis
Choosing a ecommerce platform
Some selection parameters:
- Price – select-within your budget
- Ease of Setup – user friendly less time consuming
- App Integrations-availability of permission of service provider app for integration with ecommerce platform
Some available ecommerce options are:
- Shopify
- Amazon
- Flipkart
Step3: Design and Brand your t-shirt
T Shirt Designing
You will have to make your own design or hire some designer for niche t-shirt design. Favorable file format for a design should be png and appropriate pixel size as required by service provider and also as per requirement of ecommerce platform.
Producing Your T-Shirt Designs: There are several ways you can producing t-shirt designs:
- Create your own artwork
- Engage a designer
- Acquire a design
- Apply DIY templates to create your own designs
Printing Methods
Any of following four main printing methods can be applied depending on choices.
- Screen Printing – oldest and time tested quality method
- Heat Transfer- old method but quality is not as good as screen printing
- Direct to Garment (DTG) – new method and extremely cost effective ( similar to inkjet printing process), suitable for small order printing, produce high quality and lasting result with less labor intensive
- All-Over Sublimation - newer printing method that’s generating a lot of attention in the apparel drop shipping world at the moment because it allows you to print a design all over the entire garment as opposed to just in one place
Most service provider use the DTG printing method because of its ease of use, color accuracy and ability to print in small quantities.
Choosing a T-Shirt Style
Options typically include short-sleeved t-shirts, long sleeved t-shirts, cap sleeve t-shirts raglan t-shirts, pullover hoodies, zip-up hoodies, tank tops, cropped t-shirts, crew necks, v-necks, scoop necks, youth t-shirts, infant t-shirts and unisex t-shirts.
Visualizing T-Shirt Mockups
Essentially mockup will give a sense of what the final product will look like and this can also be used as product photos on product website.
Building the T-Shirt Brand
The shirt should connect your user with the theme of your channels giving them a sense of their expertise on PC gaming and hardware space.
Typically the brand should be able to corroborate with following brand elements:
Controllable Brand Elements
- Brand Story
- Business Name
- Logo
- Brand Colors
- Typography
- Photography Style
Uncontrollable Brand Elements
- Customer Experiences
- Customer Expectations
- Word of Mouth
Registering for Trademarks & Copyrights
- A trademark lawyer can be consulted for invaluable advice on how to go about it.
- Trademarks apply to identifying elements of a brand such as a logo.
- Copyrights apply to literary and artistic works such as designs, books and videos.
Step4: Creating your Website
You can select your own ecommerce platform for your own brand new niche t-shirt business. It is best advisable to select Shopify as your ecommerce platform host, as it provide as the best option for every ecommerce t-shirt business.
Some main step of building t shirt website is:
- Design your homepage
- Integrate with your service provider
- Set up the rest of your website
- Launch
Step5: Directing Traffic to your website
Getting Sales
This one of very important task that will needed to be taken care for acquiring new customer and driving sale for your t-shirt. Synchronize the social media channels to get connected with all the video viewer or subscriber to your channels.
- Customizing Your social media channel for Your Online Business
- Setting up social media channels for t shirt business for using as marketing tool
- Get testimonial from User
- Apply number of clicks-through from the post in social media pages to t shirt business portal
- Apply you social media page analytics
- Apply Google analytics
Strategies to Get Sales
- Influence well wisher, Friends and Family for purchase
- Connect the Business on other Social Media like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. by following, hash tagging, commenting and posting to get brand out there and get people who are interested in t-shirts following your accounts.
- Organize a Contest or Giveaway-a great way to get the business on the radar of lots of people and generate buzz around brand and to boost your sales.
- Subscribe to Paid Advertisements - Paid advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google and Reddit
- Implement an Email Capture plan - the best way to acquire emails is to: (1) Give customers an incentive for signing up like a discount or a free product. (2) Have customers create an account with your website in order to check out. (3) Use a tool that creates pop-ups
- Create Content – apply content marketing technique
Step6: The future step of t-shirt business
- Utilize email list for gaining more user
- Upgrade and continue with design and product already working
- Expand sale on other market place
- Get user feedback and take action for improvement
This give a complete processes you need to go through while implementing your dropshipping t-shirt business plan. Feel free to ask question if you need any further clarity or if you get stuck up in implementing any of the above steps.
