﻿Do you ever wonder how other store owners create their best-selling designs? How do they
price their products? Or, what’s the first step they take when they’re just getting started with
their business? If you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, then keep watching!
Hey everyone! It’s Josh from Printful. I know that starting a business and running
it can be quite challenging. But you’re not alone in your struggles.
Other people have had the same business-related questions that you have. So we’ve gathered a
group of online sellers, who’ll be spilling the beans on some of your burning questions.
In this three-part mini-series we’ll cover questions about:
* product design * starting a business and dealing with taxes
* best product marketing practices We’re publishing these series every Wednesday,
so make sure to click the bell icon so you receive a notification when we post the next episode.
Let’s meet your fellow sellers! Hi, my name is Morgan Kemp, and I’m
the owner of “A Wild Things Art”. I started my business about a year ago
and it’s been awesome ever since. I mostly focus on wildlife portraiture and conservation,
as well as anything that pops into my head. I have lots of original art pieces, as well as
prints and apparel. I have hats like this one. I have t-shirts, jackets, all that jazz. And
it’s great access for people to be able to have my artwork in a way
that they feel the most stoked about. Hello, my name is Kelly, and my store is
“Birds Kept North”. “Birds Kept North” is my creative outlet that I founded back in 2012.
I specialize in printed apparel focused on nature and adventures of the North,
highlighting Minnesota, where I live, and North Dakota, where I grew up.
Hi, my name is Amelie. Hi, my name is Mai, and we are a mommy and daughter duo.
We sell tees and apparel on hustleandlove.com. We started our business over the pandemic. We
were trying to find a hobby for us to work on. We started selling polymer clay jewelry and we
were trying to find some cute tees that we can wear together and we couldn’t find any.
So we decided to make our clay tees. And a lot of the clay makers that we knew out there were
also really interested in these tees. And then we expanded, right?
We started selling to other small businesses and moms and their kids. Just different fun designs
that empower women and small businesses. Hi, my name is Dora Barbaric. I’m an art
historian graduate, a self-taught illustrator from Croatia. I started my Etsy store at the
beginning of 2021 and focused on selling my illustrations as posters, postcards,
coffee mugs, and tote bags. I create mostly travel art with
Croatian destinations as the main theme. My art is perfect for travel lovers and adventurers,
especially for people who love to have a memory of their favorite place they’ve visited.
We’re starting the first episode strong, diving right into the tips and tricks to
create amazing designs. After all, if your customers don’t like your designs,
you’re not going to sell the products they’re on. But let me tell you,
figuring out how and where to get product design ideas is sometimes the hardest part.
Our tip for designing the best-selling tees is finding a niche where you can stand out.
Our bestsellers are clay tees. That’s what we started with, and it’s still
our best-selling category to this day. I would say my best tip for designing best-selling
t-shirts is just making things that are authentic to you. I noticed in my own business the things
that I made because I thought it was trendy or I thought people would buy them never did well.
Usually, they had maybe zero or one sale. And then the things that I just made because
I felt excited about them were my best. Like this hat right here. Or like flamingo-covered
yoga shorts. I made both of them because I wanted them, and then everyone else was as stoked about
it as I was. Create what’s authentic to you, so you drive the right audience and people that
are excited and loyal about your designs. It’s going to help build a successful business.
My tips for designing best-selling t-shirts would be to do some market research and ask
for creative criticism. Market research could be as simple as typing in a phrase to your search
engine and seeing what catches your eye. If you find something that fits your shop’s niche then
totally redesign it and make it your own. Another tip is to ask someone else’s opinion. Now,
I know this can be scary because art is personal, and it’s hard to hear when
someone else doesn’t agree with you. But I like to ask what someone else thinks of
a design as I’m working on it because they can contribute a different perspective.
This helps me think outside the box and keeps my designs fresh and unique.
The most popular t-shirt colors in my store are shades of gray and blue.
I think that’s because those are nice base colors for my designs to be featured on.
Another reason I think they are popular is that they hide stains well. And one of my main target
markets is kids apparel. So people like the darker color options versus their traditional
white one-pieces you see everywhere. Just to add in our observations at Printful—black
and white t-shirts will always be a wardrobe staple, so we recommend adding them as color
options on your store. Another bonus to the black and white t-shirt popularity
is that these shirt colors will have a smaller chance of running out of stock.
In case you’re wondering if the t-shirt you’re selling comes in these staple colors, head over to
our Product Catalog, click on the product of your choice, and scroll down to the “Availability” tab.
Here you can see which colors are available in each fulfillment location.
For creating all-over print designs, I like to start by
creating a design in the middle of the page.
And then I use the offset filter on Photoshop for an easy, seamless repeat. You can then fill
in the blank parts of the design and create an entirely seamless design with a basic repeat.
The most important part while making a design for textile print is color matching, so you don’t get
surprised if the color of the design doesn’t match the color of the printed textile. Printful offers
a lot of articles explaining where you need to be careful while designing and printing.
You can check the article “Color matching guide for print on demand products”, which will be
attached in the description. Thank you for watching! I hope to
see you back here in the next week’s episode as well. In the meantime,
if you’re interested in learning how to build your own print-on-demand ecommerce business,
check out Printful Academy courses. We have a thorough video course on starting your own
POD business where we advise on how to choose the right products and platforms, and we also
talk about the technical side of your business and how to successfully get your first sales.