Easily Start Your Own Apparel & Accessory Shop With Nothing
Owning an online accessory shop is one of my sources of income as a graphic designer. But you don’t necessarily have to be a graphic designer or need a graphic designer to start your own online shop. Every day, someone either asks me how I started my line or tells me they want to design their own custom tees but they don’t have the time, money, and it seems like a lot of work. So today, I’m going to help you start off small, even if you just want to do it as a hobby or sell clothes that you want to wear on your own. If you’re a blogger or brand, adding a little merch to your website can’t hurt either.
No Skills Needed
No Major Up Front Cost Needed
Just Time & Patience
With my tiny apartment and kids, there’s no way I can fully keep stock of items inside my home or have the time to ship things. Joseph gets into everything and right now it would just be too overwhelming. So, I use a print on demand company to help me with printing and they do the shipping too, with my brands name on the packages.
Why you don’t really need a designer
If you just want to create basic items, the company allows you to create on their website using their text editor and clipart. Once you’ve designed your product, you can choose from various mockups and post them to your social media or upload them to your website as product pics.
Need A website to Post Your Products With
I suggest using Etsy, Shopify and Squarespace. they have integrations with these sites and a few others so that your customers order goes directly to them. They’ll debit your card, print the order and ship it for you. You don’t have to do anything but sit back and collect your cut. It’s also an option to process your orders manually as they roll in, too. Sounds easy right. Please note, it does take some time on your part to sync and connect your products together. If you’ve never had a website before and you’re on a budget, I’d recommend using Etsy. They already have a huge following of buyers and you wont have to pay a monthly hosting fee like you would for a website. Just know that Etsy will take out their own process fee per sale, so make sure to keep that in mind when you are putting a price on your products.
Ready to create your own line of products? Go here to see who I use.