Web to print Software Solution

Funny, sarcastic, obscene, rebellious, tribal, and puerile. Type “buy t-shirts online” and you will come across thousands of online ecommerce stores selling t-shirts based on different themes. If you own a t-shirt estore, you might have an experience of selling t-shirts and the knowledge about the kind of t-shirts that sell. But, what makes you different? And why should people buy from you?

 

Questions like the above ones are tough to answer. However, just so that you know, in 2019, you cannot keep selling the same type of t-shirts. You need to offer your customers with attires that stand out from the rest. T-shirts that are personalized. Nowadays, the trend of buying custom t-shirts is accelerating amongst the online buyers.

 

You must have come across several Hollywood celebrities wearing t-shirts that are personalized and message giving. If you are a t-shirt e-store owner, this must ring a bell. For helping your customers design a t-shirt of their choice, you must integrate a t-shirt design software with your store. But before you configure a tool like that one, we bring to you:

 

Why t-shirt printing business will trend in the year 2019?

 

1. Influence of Social Media

 

Social Media has been a great influence on people and it continues to be. On October 17th, 2017, Alyssa Milano tweeted #MeToo. A movement that took a world by storm and empowered women to come out with instances of sexual assault. In no time, people started flooding on ecommerce websites to buy t-shirts to show support towards the movement. Several t-shirt e-store owners also started running online t-shirt design software and started supporting this movement for free.

 

So, when it comes to social media, you never know what goes viral and when. To provide your customers with what they want, a t-shirt design software can be of good help. You can easily integrate these tools with your website and start selling.

 

1. Fad for TV Series

 

Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Walking Dead, and Big Bang Theory. Go anywhere and you are sure to find someone who goes gaga over one of the characters from the above series. While the seasons of these TV series are on, the fans often like to flaunt attires associated with them. If you have a t-shirt design software, you can enable your customers to choose their color, design, favorite quote and make a T-shirt that displays a quote or favorite dialogue from their favorite series.

 

A website named Slice Intelligence had published some nifty graphs which showed the percentage of Game of Throne merchandise sale house-wise. And it showed that whether Daenerys Targaryen rules the seven kingdoms or not, she rules the world of t-shirts!

 

1. Promoting a Safe Planet

 

A cause that you can run, but not hide from. As global warming is causing a havoc with drastic weather changes, people are donning eco-friendly attires. These t-shirts do not just have quotes that motivate people to save the planet, but also use minimal amount of energy and carbon. Why not think about starting an eco-friendly online t-shirt printing business? After all, there is no planet B!

 

If you don’t know how to go about having an online t-shirt printing business, we have an exclusive t-shirt printing business guide for you. By following it, you will get some useful tips and it will help you build your online store from the scratch.

 

1. For Making Style Statements

 

Swaggers are always up to making style statements. And to reveal their style statements, they always resort to wearing custom printed t-shirts. They can also flaunt their identity by wearing t-shirts that help them stand out from others. If your target audience is teenagers and youngsters, you can install a t-shirt design software. Using it, they can create t-shirts with logos, quotations, and images. All they need to do is design and place an order.

 

As an e-commerce store owner of t-shirts, you should never fall short of ideas to make your software more creative and user-friendly. Only then you will be able to provide your customers with what they want.

 

1. Advertising & Marketing

 

Advertising through t-shirts is a traditional and effective ways for businesses and organizations to promote their products and services. When it comes to t-shirts, company owners often opt for screen printing method. This is because when it comes to bulk printing, this method is cost-effective. As the ways of marketing have changed today, businesses promote themselves by giving complementary t-shirts to their customers.

 

So, the companies, who want to enhance their brand value might approach you for printing their t-shirts. You can also provide them with a mini design guide that makes it easy for them to design customized t-shirts to promote their merchandise.

Aspiring designers are often confident about embarking upon any business related to clothing industry. So if they are introduced to the industry of printing t-shirts, they think they will be able to handle everything smoothly.

 

But when they actually start working on the new venture, they face hurdles and get stuck.

 

Although such obstacles are small, they can pop up anytime during the entire process right from designing to printing. And when you are unaware about the full particulars related to t-shirt printing business, this is sure to happen.

 

We are quite aware of the fact that every designer has their own way of working and every print shop works on its own rules.

 

But if your short term goal or dream is to have an t-shirt printing company of your own, we have come up with a step-by-step guide which might help you to establish your business and run it successfully.

 

Here are the steps to start a T-shirt printing business:

 

Step 1: Create A T-Shirt Business Plan

Step 2: Decide on the ecommerce solution for your web store

Step 3: Purchase an online product designer tool

Step 4: Make your design tool feature rich

Step 5: Select the printing method you will use

Step 6: Select the right t-shirt supplier

Step 7: Set up the printing infrastructure

Step 8: Set up logistics infrastructure

Step 9: Launch your store

Step 10: Market your store

 

Step 1: Create a T-Shirt Business Plan

 

To become successful with any business, it is important to have a robust business plan. Now when it comes to t-shirt printing industry, you must remember that it has a wide range of audience based on their choice of quality, design and style.

 

Once a company knows what it will sell, it needs to decide whether it will have its own web store for selling printed t-shirts or it will have a business assisted by a large online company where entrepreneurs can have your own section or store.

 

Thereafter, you need to follow these steps:

 

1. Identify the market niche

There are two major ways to segment the market

 

1. Based on the needs of the customers
2. Based on the age of the customers

 

In order to identify the market niche, make sure you ask yourself the following questions:

 

• Will you sell printed t-shirts to infants and toddlers or youth, teen and adults?
• Will your customers have the liberty to design their own t-shirts or you will have a fixed range of designs to choose from?
• Will you be targeting a niche within different age groups? For eg, Printed rock band t-shirts for teens or printed sport t-shirts for adults.
• Will the fashion and quality of the printed t-shirts meet the current market trends?
• Once the industry and market research is done, you need to write the business plan. While creating a custom printed t-shirt plan you need to mull over things like:
• The mission of your company – which can involve offering high quality printed t-shirts at cost-effective prices
• Will you create the basic templates and design or purchase pre-made designs?
• Things to expect from yourself, management team and other staff members
• Know where you will obtain your raw materials from. Will you have a fixed vendor or you will be buying plain t-shirts from a particular brand?
• Create marketing ideas based on marketing analysis by making use of events, social media, fairs, conventions etc
• Analyze the competition and know how will you make your brand stand out from other t-shirt companies
• Gather supporting documents like design samples, vendor agreements and statistical analysis of t-shirt printing business
• Obtain a license applicable to your location and type of business.

 

1. Consider the financial aspects

 

Before establishing a business like this, it is very important to have an idea as to what everything will cost you.

 

If you are an entrepreneur who thinks in a long run, your financial strategy should include the following:

 

• Projected expenses and assumptions of fixed and varying costs
• Costs of investment
• Projected revenues and revenue resources
• Break-even analysis
• Business ratios including inventory turnover, accounts payable and debt ratio
• Monthly profit or loss figures
• Annual gross margin
• You can get printing quotes from different t-shirt printing firms so that you can compare prices and give the best deal, without compromising on the quality.

 

Once you start printing and producing t-shirts, start noting down all your expenses including bagging, tagging, labeling and other finishing methods.

 

Also, include the costs incurred shipping boxes and storing products. Once you work out on these aspects, it will help you to decide about the prices you should quote for your t-shirts.

 

You also need to know how long you can endure with your online t-shirt printing business in case it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to.

 

1. Don’t make these mistakes

 

If you have a robust business plan, you will undergo each step of the planning process. There are times when startups or entrepreneurs handling one-man business think that there is no need to have a business plan.

 

However, this is not a right approach. Make sure you do not make the following mistakes.

 

• Not indulging in market research or having a profit and loss projection
• Not establishing a professional brand image with logo, theme, and mission
• Commencing business before knowing how to accept and fill shipping orders
• Opening an online store without integrating a web-to-print software
• Not having enough t-shirt design templates, colour options and cliparts
• Lack of knowledge about the working of web to print software and its maintenance
• Not checking the quality of final output (printed t-shirts)
• Not taking into account the challenges that any business must know how to cope with

 

Step 2: Decide on the ecommerce solution for your web store

 

The second most important thing to do is to know about the ecommerce platforms you will be using for your online t-shirt printing store. Here, you have two options:

 

1. Choosing a hosted platform

 

Shopify and Bigcommerce are the biggest examples of hosted platforms. The biggest benefit of using these platforms is that they have a very low startup cost.

 

You can purchase a store, upload the logo of your brand, pick the theme you like and start selling printed t-shirts on the platform. Hosted platforms are ideal for start ups and will get you up and running.

 

The only drawback with these platforms is that you can’t have an individual design of your choice and cannot add other customized elements to your store.

 

However, you can choose out of different plans and have a great looking store.

 

1. Having a self-hosted platform

 

You can also have a custom developed Ecommerce solution for your business. Needless to say, it will let you have your own design, provide with the liberty of making custom edits, give limitless options pertaining to Search Engine Optimization and will enable you to add products and set prices at your convenience.

 

Expensive start up cost is a drawback here. So if you have enough funds and are confident about your business’s bright future, you can consider having a self-hosted platform.

 

Step 3: Purchase an online product designer tool

 

There is nothing better than investing into an advanced product designer tool when you are into the business of selling customized t-shirts.

 

You can make your online store stand out from others and add a dash of personal touch by allowing your customers to design their own t-shirt.

 

Initially, you can purchase an online t-shirt design software that fulfills the basic requirements of your customers. Thereafter, if your business is doing well, you can enhance your web-to-print software and add new features to it.

 

As your loyal customer base would be established by then, adding new features will help you to boost your revenues.

 

There are several companies from which you can buy a web-to-print tool and integrate with your ecommerce store. If you have issues with configuration, the professionals also help setting up the entire store for you.

 

Compare T-shirt Design Software Pricing Plan

 

Step 4: Make your design tool feature-rich

 

While designing t-shirts, people love to experiment with colours, designs and templates. So make sure you add ample amount of features to your tool and make it user-friendly.

 

It will help you to win in online t-shirt business. You can provide with ready-made quotes, clipart, texts and fonts of different styles, graphics etc.

 

Features like masking effects, shadows and overlapping can also be added to make their designs look interesting. Based on your printing budget, you can also decide whether your customers can design both front and back of the t-shirt or not.

 

Provide with the facility to save designs so your customers can come back and continue working on the same t-shirt design again.

 

Step 5: Select the t-shirt printing method you will use

 

After you are sorted with designs, it’s time to print! There are three commonly followed ways of printing t-shirts. All the 3 methods have their benefits and pitfalls.

 

So the success of production depends on the amount of time you are willing to spend on the production and the printing method you use.

 

Let us study the 4 popular printing methods in detail along with their drawbacks.

 

1. Screen Printing

 

When it comes to printing t-shirts, screen printing is one of the most popularly used methods. It also provides consistent printing and long lasting imprints.

 

Screen Printing is the most effective printing technique when it comes to bulk production.

 

When there are more than four or five colours involved, it gets a little complicated for screen printing machines. So in such a scenario, it might take more time to print.

 

Drawbacks

 

1. Can prove to be expensive for printing multiple colours
2. Takes more time with complicated designs

 

1. Heat transfer printing

 

This type of printing has been around for several years. Photocopy machines and laser printers work really well on the heat transfer phenomenon.

 

It involves printing designs from your PC and transferring them with iron.

 

Heat transfer might prove to be a traditional method for handing a t-shirt printing business. This is because you have to print fast and in larger quantities.

 

Here’s a little brief about laser printers:

 

Laser printers are quite popular for providing prints that are quite long lasting and don’t get affected by wash. Also, the fabric retains its natural feel after it is printed.

 

It doesn’t look like a design has been unnaturally embossed or printed on t-shirts. If you want to have t-shirts that look professional and attractive, investing into a Laser printer would be a good thing to do.

 

Plastisol transfer is the latest form of heat transfer. This kind of printing is implemented on high quality heat transfer paper. You can order stack or prints from a printer and apply them on the t-shirts as and when you receive orders for t-shirt printing.

 

Through heat transfer, you will be able to print images quite quickly.

 

Drawbacks

 

1. Asks for a lot of time and undivided attention from the printer
2. Less durable as compared to screen printing
3. Needs a lot of investment

 

1. Direct-to-garment printing

 

This printer works like an ink jet printer and that is why there are no additional costs involved. It can print multiple coloured images directly on the t-shirts with perfection.

 

The results obtained from direct-to-garment printing are as good as the ones obtained from screen printing.

 

Needless to say, it is way better than the quality produced by heat transfers.

 

Here’s a little brief about Inkjet Printers

 

Inkjet printers are quite cost-effective as compared to laser printers. Also, they give a bright and vibrant output. If you can accept a little less professional edge for low costs and brighter colour, Inkjet printer might be your way to go.

 

The only drawback of this kind of printers is that their ink is a little expensive.

 

Drawbacks

 

1. Not advisable for bulk production
2. Not possible to give volume discounts

 

1. Embroidered printing

 

It is an ancient printing technique whose origins go back to 5th century BC. Embroidered printing is one of the most unconventional ways of printing.

 

This is because unlike other printing methods, it uses a sewing machine that sews the design in the t-shirt.

 

Lots of polo t-shirts are printed using this method. Embroidery printing is also used to create corporate t-shirts.

 

This kind of printing is still preferred by many as the design looks quite original, professional and elegant when printed on the t-shirt. It also lasts quite long and doesn’t come off easily.

 

Drawbacks

 

1. Printing these kinds of t-shirts asks for a special skill and might takes years to learn. You also might have to spend a lot on labour for doing it on a bigger scale.
2. It is difficult to implement the embroidery of intricate and minute designs.

 

Step 6: Select the right t-shirt supplier

 

Once you have decided to venture into T-shirt printing business, you need to buy blank T-shirts for printing. Do a little bit of research and find out about a manufacturer who can provide you with good quality blank t-shirts for printing.

 

Garment distributors also help the new business owners to go through different T-shirt options to find the t-shirts within their price range. After a couple of orders and production, you will be able to decide on the price points and other factors for your t-shirts.

 

Make sure you maintain a good relationship with your supplier as you lose time and money from your production schedule with every imperfect shirt. Think about the physical characteristics of the material you will use to print.

 

T-shirt designs have to be printed on one of the three sizes. (Small, medium and large) The design should be such that it fits to the centre of the t-shirts and should not cross to the collar, sleeves or hem.

 

So if the design is created at different places on the tshirt, it should remain abstract and not get affected by these variables.

 

There is a huge variety of ink available in the market. These include high density ink (meant for textured and dimensional look), gel ink (which is thick and rubbery) and foil ink (meant for shiny embossing).

 

You can choose the one which is most compatible with your fabric and goes with your customer requirements.

 

Step 7. Set up the printing infrastructure

 

Once you are done deciding the type of printing method and t-shirt printing material, you need to set up a printing infrastructure or a facility wherein printing can take place without any glitches.

 

It is advisable to have a printing studio which is equipped with well-maintained printers along with a coating and a finishing unit.

 

Also, the printer should be able to print n number of design on different quality of fabrics. This is because, the customers who demand for printed t-shirts also might demand for customized caps, bags, jerseys etc.

 

Here’s how you should go about the printing process:

 

• Decide on the colour schemes: If you decide on your color palette first, you can take care of the details which are overlooked by the time it is too late. When working on an apparel order from the scratch, it doesn’t matter whether you pick the garment first or the ink. But there definitely is a link between the two which will be visible in the final print. So you can simulate different inks and check garment color combination by making mock-ups designs.

 

• Save a copy for yourself and another for print: Once you have received the final design from your customers, you need to save an editable file for yourself, so that changes can be made later if the need be. If there are issues in your printer due to the size or resolution of the file, you might have to go back and make changes or ask your customer to do the same. In a worst case scenario, they might have to start from the scratch.

 

• Print the t-shirt: Last but not the least, you can print the t-shirt using whichever method you are comfortable with using the printer of your choice. It is better to hire professionals to do the job if you are not comfortable with the printing process. After printing the t-shirt you have to cure the garment and set the ink in the tshirts to ensure maximum washability.

 

Step 8: Set up logistics infrastructure

 

Once the t-shirt order is placed by your customers, it has to be delivered to them on time. You can ensure a smooth delivery process in 3 ways:

 

1. You can take care of your orders independently with the help of your team and labour force.
2. Sell your product through the drop-shipper who can take care of your orders.
3. Liaise with a logistics company that can take care of your warehousing and fulfillment.

 

There are several advantages of packing and shipping your own t-shirt orders as it is cost-effective and flexible. So the companies that have just started with their business often choose to take care of their own logistics.

 

However, if your business flourishes and you have money to outsource, you can opt for third-party warehousing. You will be able to find several companies who will take care of storage, packing and shipping of your orders.

 

Step 9: Launch Your Store

 

Last but not the least, you can finally start selling some t-shirts! Invite your customers to unleash their creativity and encourage them to draw the designs at the best of their abilities.

 

Ensure that the designer tool is user friendly and the checkout process is simple.

 

This will lessen the number of cart abandonments. Print the right designs on the right t-shirts and bring a satisfactory smile on the face of your customers.

 

If you are serious about setting up an online t-shirt printing store, you don’t have to have the knowledge of programming or coding.

 

All you need as an artistic streak and a good sense of fashion. Also, with a business like this, you can start with limited supplies, funding and equipment.

 

There are several companies out there that can provide you with a ready made set up for your online t-shirt printing business. Are you ready to print?

 

Step 10: Marketing your store

 

Start marketing about your upcoming businesses through flyers, pamphlets and business cards. Hand them out to nearest organizations, businesses and schools.

 

Word of mouth promotion is also very important if you want the message about your printing business to spread amongst the locals. Wear your merchandise and step out.

 

Click pictures, talk to people and put them on instagram. It makes a lot of difference. You can also give away printed t-shirts bearing the logo of your company.

 

Don’t be hesitant to sponsor events, give online ads and use other paid marketing tactics.

 

Conduct online polls and surveys on these channels and post consistently to get people to follow you.

 

To Conclude

 

Even though following the above steps will ensure you are doing everything right with your t-shirt business. But they do not guarantee success.

 

You have to take all your business constraints into consideration, get the right vendors for web-to-print software, printing machines and t-shirts.

 

You will also have to figure out the most cost effective way to get the t-shirts printed and delivered to your customers. And once all those are in place you have to figure out a winning marketing strategy get the all important customers.

 

But if you do all these right, then there’s no stopping you from achieving success.

Some years ago, e-retail was a game with few players. Now, it is a humongous playground with giants like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart competing against each other. In a playground so huge, you might be just a speck. To make your presence felt, you can’t just open up an ecommerce website and wait for people to flood in. You will have to make your e-store interactive. Create a real marketplace.

 

Eddie Machaalani & Mitchell Harper; the Co-CEOs of Bigcommerce said that “By 2020, brick and mortar retail spaces will be little more than showrooms.” The question is how? How can you be unique with your products and stand out? The biggest answer to this is, “Get over the one-size-fits-all” psyche. And help your customers get over them too. If you have a Magento based ecommerce website and you are looking forward to be a one-of-a-kind-store, a Magento Product Designer can work wonders for you.

 

To know how and in what ways, read ahead.

Not Just Customization

 

It turns out that it is not just about providing customers with a little twisted version of your existing product. You need to provide them with exactly what they want. “A book with a brown cover having a tinge of blue.” When the requirement gets so specific, how do you ensure that your customers get exactly what they want?

 

It’s quite simple.

 

You will have to integrate a Magento Product Designer with your website. This way, you can let buyers create their version of your products. By doing so, you will be able to create a USP for your brand and keep your product catalog brimming with new products all the time!

 

Web Traffic & Conversion Dilemma

 

So, you have an ecommerce website in place which shouts out excellent UX and UI. But it’s quite unfortunate that when it comes to buying products, your e-store is not the ultimate choice. For most of the ecommerce store owners, getting site traffic and converting the visitors into customers becomes a tough job.

 

Believe it or not; but during such times, Product Design Tool can solve site conversion issues. Read how.

 

Through a Magento Product Designer, you can give ultimate freedom to your customers to design the product of their choice in the way they want. And if they like what you deliver to them, they are likely to come back again and recommend your brand to others. This will increase the traffic on your e-store and give you more conversions.

 

Freedom from the Mundane

 

T-shirts, Mugs, Cards, and Gadget skin covers. Perhaps, you have been selling what everyone else does for years together. At some point in time, your customers will get satiated with the clichéd gifts that you sell. Result? Shopping cart abandonment and plummeting sales.

 

Guess what?

 

You can get an edge over your saturation using the Magento Product Designer.

 

The Magento Product Designer available in the market are easily integrable and come with an array of features and functionalities. Using it, your customers can create unique products on the canvas you provide. By the year 2020, most of the ecommerce store owners will offer product personalization so that they can get over selling mundane products. If you want to sell one-of-a-kind merchandise, now is the right time!

 

Create Your Worth

 

Ask any ecommerce store owner as to how do they create value for their store? They will tell you sagas about loyalty programs, discount offers and coupons and how their customers benefited from them. But the truth is, when it comes to spending on personalized products, people do not think twice. So, whether you offer discounts or not, they shell out the amount they need to.

 

A research by Custom Gateway, a UK based company proved that 71% of customers are ready to pay premium for personalized products. So, what you need to do is, Create value for your e-store and stand out from your competitors.

 

Once you integrate a web-to-print tool to your website, you can also hold competitions for the best products and give away prizes to the winner. Which means you’re not only offering unique products but are also making your clients happy.

 

It’s Time to Brush Your Ideas!

 

Brush Your Ideas is a Magento Product Designer with the help of which your customers can create personalized print-ready designs. With an array of features, our tool offers value to both; large enterprises and startups. Apart from the features that you would find in a conventional designing tool, it also provides e-store owners with quotation management and an Odoo based ERP solution.

 

Underneath the Brush Your Ideas Umbrella, we offer our clients with A product designer tool, a ready to sell Web-to-Print Estore as well as an ERP solution. Based on your requirement, you can choose to go with one or all of them. But before you do that, you need to book a demo with us. So, what are you waiting for? Find out about Brush Your Ideas Magento Product Designer in detail now!