Post: #51

(07-06-2016 05:02 PM)Mr.GoodThread Wrote:  I appreciate it. Can anyone sign up for Amazon Merch, or are there certain requirements one needs to meet?

Also, I'm gonna consider taking your advice about using Canva and Fiverr. I just get concerned about finding someone on Fiverr that will do good work.

Also, do you only sell on Amazon or elsewhere as well? Did you sign up with Amazon Merch and then create your company name?

I'm just trying to figure out the main difference between your method and the thread starter's method (like, are you shipping the stuff yourself, or just Amazon ships it for you?).

I'm not that smart with these kinds of things, so please let me know, or send me a PM please. Thank You.

There are some excellent designers on Fiverr. One piece of advice I would give you is when you get a completed design ask for a revision or two even if you like the design. Reason being some guys will basically steal designs off google images and deliver to you so by requesting a few revisions you can be assured that your getting a unique design.

I just sell on Amazon Merch, reason being all I do is upload the design and it's hands off from there. I dont ship, I dont handle customer service, I dont collect payments. I upload my design and it sells on Amazon. Unlike teespring and these other sites Amazon already has organic traffic. If I make a yoga shirt people who search for yoga mats on amazon may see my shirt. Adversely with teespring, teechip, etc people dont go there to shop so the only way people will see and buy your shirts is if you run fb ads or do somethign to drive traffic. They are also not as trusted sites as amazon, ie everyone has an amazon account. Lastly most print on demand sites have shit quality shirts where as Amazon has American Apparel if you opt for it.

As for joining, no special requirements, it is invitation only but you just go on merch.amazon.com and request an invitation. if you have a blog or site to include in your application that helps to get accepted, it will probably take a couple week.

I havn't sold my designs elsewhere yet but was considering listing them on etsy and ebay at a markup so for example shirt sells on Amazon for $19.95, I list it on etsy for $24.95. If it sells i make the $5 markup and also get a $6 commission from amazon on the shirt I bought.

I wouldn't bother creating a company for this, you dont need to and I doubt it will make you enough money to where there's tax advantages to doing so, if you find you are maknig money you can revisit creating a company later but just do it as a sole prop using your social.

Lastly as others have touched on the t-shirt game is WAY oversaturated. It's such a low barrier to entry, everyone wants to create their own brand, youhave Youtube gurus promising riches by selling shirts. Because of that it's worth it to do Amazon merch as its the best site and its completely passive once you get designs up. To those who want to setup campaigns on teespring or who are setting up shopify sites I would say don't waste your time or money. Its only worthwhile IMHO if its passive. The only way it will work is if you have an online presensce or following already ie if Roosh put out some shirts of a black and white silouette of his face with some clever phrase or something many people on this site would probably buy it. Vitaly the youtuber sells shirts that say vitaly villians, if you have a tribe or a following its easier to sell swag but if your just trying to sell shirts with no following its an uphill battle.

Post: #52

Many thanks for this thread that only has cometh upon my attention!

Are any of you guys familiar with spreadshirt?

I've been wanting to set up a shop like this for my own website as I am not in a position where I can hold any inventory.
But not only on shirts but also in things like mugs and other objects/accesories

The main difference here is that me and the ladybird are actually artsy so we can cut the middle man part on the hire 3rd party artist step, but the model idea... That's inspiring!

Post: #53

ThreadMeUp doesn't work anymore. Are there any similar websites that can be used?

Post: #54

Threadmeup looks to be down, what else are you guys using?

Post: #55

Applied to Amazon Merch as an experiment after seeing this thread, here's some info:


- Took about 7 months to be confirmed.
- Product appears to be available to US audience only - even for UK designers.
- There is a 30% withholding tax for overseas sellers.

- Feedback in various forums show quick designs often outselling ones made with TLC. Quantity Vs Quality.

- Shirt type is limited to: 'Anvil' (Men's/ Women's/ Youth). DTG printing.

- There is now a 10 product limit, 2 design uploads per day (which dropped to 1 for the last few shirts). They are throttling supply partly due to processing capacity and also the copyright infringement issues they were having.

- Takes about 24hrs for each uploaded shirt design to go live. Approval team appears most likely to be in US (based on time when processed).
- No T-shirt approvals occur on weekends.

- No publicly available info on 'Tiering up' to the next level. Early users have 8000+ slots available to them. It is strongly a numbers game so the 'Gold Rush' phase may be over for new guys.

Current Royalty info:

   
   

Post: #56

I'm working on this right now, I started an instagram page around a niche/hobby and once I get to a certain number of followers I plan on releasing some unique shirts that I've already designed, just need to have produced.

Does anyone know how many followers would be a good number to reach before you start pushing merchandise? I was thinking somewhere around the 5000-10000 mark, the page is 3 weeks old and I've got 650 followers right now and a lot of engagement, hopefully it gets some steam as it grows, I have other product ideas besides T shirts too.

Also torn on production, obviously a hands off approach is best if you want to do this and be free to travel, but I'm thinking maybe its better at the beginning to find a screen printing service to make the shirts/products, do a small run, handle the shipping and receiving myself, and then eventually figure out a distribution solution (this is the murkiest part for me).

Post: #57

^So I am ready to go... I have a fitness kid I promote and he has 14K followers.

I have found a cheap t-shirt supplier in town and now I need a website.

My question is how will I receive payment? Is paypal as the only payment good enough?

Post: #58

How is this going in 2017? Anyone got a quick update on the scene?

PS. I would avoid Shopify. Use Printful + Gumroad and your own e-commerce store. Cheaper in the end.

Post: #59

(04-11-2017 05:48 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  My question is how will I receive payment? Is paypal as the only payment good enough?

People are currently migrating to Stripe as the payment system. You don't have to store customer data but they can still input their payment information.

Stripe acts as the middleman for processing payments. This can also be used to build consumer trust by letting them know that Stripe is handling payment processing rather than the data being stored on your website if your brand is relatively unknown.

Video showing off Stripe for a WordPress website:

(06-09-2017 05:13 PM)SnowHugger Wrote:  How is this going in 2017? Anyone got a quick update on the scene?

T-shirt thing is still an oversaturated market. Ecommerce as a whole though is still poised to grow by 10% this year. Amazon is eating up a ton of the ecommerce market, but a rising tide lifts all boats and ecommerce is the future of retail. Boutique websites will exist in that future since Amazon's brand is limited to middle and lower income consumers.

Post: #60

Meanwhile the two Irish teenagers who founded Stripe are billionaires. Seems like a great way to run an economy...

Post: #61

This is pretty fascinating. While markets can be saturated, it's important to always ask ourselves what the quality of the saturation is. Are there any potential pivots within the saturated market that would separate us from the commoners? (This is a common theme in all areas of business, even in game. While there are plenty of "PUAs", there's a reason why the highest ranks here have the title of "innovative Casanova"... because they innovate (hopefully). Same goes with the apparel/fashion market.

I just researched my potential niche and the type of design/brand I would build in this niche. No one has approached my niche market with my point of view that I have in mind. Anyway, I'll do my due diligence... by August i'll have time to jump in this.
Loving this forum. Kick ass ideas.

Post: #62

(04-04-2017 06:26 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  Does anyone know how many followers would be a good number to reach before you start pushing merchandise? I was thinking somewhere around the 5000-10000 mark, the page is 3 weeks old and I've got 650 followers right now and a lot of engagement, hopefully it gets some steam as it grows, I have other product ideas besides T shirts too.

If you are using these passive, print on demand methods, why wait until you have 5,000 followers? What does it hurt to add a link to your product now? In terms of "pushing" product, maybe blog post every time a new design is added and send an email about product once a month? But create the designs and the store now.