T-Shirt Business - I have the niche, but is it Tshirt selling really worth it?

tillpro

Free Member
Dec 2, 2019
2
0
Hi,

[Skip this paragraph if your bored of peoples life stories]
I have for many years tried to come up with ideas for my own business and 2 of those ideas i had really good feedback on the development I had done and the plans for them both but ultimately funding was my issue and with a young family I was not prepared to take the relevant risks to make it a success.

Now some years on still trying to find an alternative idea that does not require so much funding every thing leads me back to clothing.

I have my Niche and especially in this Covid 19 period of time, the genre has exploded in a big way and there is currently no store selling these types of t-shirts. Also the genre is quite underdevelped commercially so no competition. However the customers of this genre spend BIG money on their equipment and there is quite a large social and community scene. So i believe that there is definately a market and the few people I have spoken to have really liked my designs. Of course I want to get some honest feedback as well

I have a designer and we are now in full swing of generating the designs and they look really good. I think some might not work but the designs are costing me nothing up front and designer will be paid on commision of each sale of his designs. I'm trying to start with 30 - 50 designs.

I have looked at platforms and Shopify and Wix are the 2 I see as being the best options with a limited budget.

However I feel like im taking the easy way out by dropshipping and having the items directly delivered to the customer without me ever seeing it. I always read about how you should know your product and believe in it. I feel like i'm lying to my cusotmers about my business as i'm literally sticking a design on a template on a website, pay and it gets sent to them. I havent a clue really how these companies operate until I get my first order in. I have of course checked out reviews of them all, but there seems to be a lot of print quality issues with the dropshipping customers.

But these orders must be a success. When it launches I anticipate alot of views. If customers order and it is a long delivery time, poor quality, delivered incorrectly, this will get the business crucified in the community very quickly and severly harm chances of success I fear. And because I do not hold the stock or create the goods or send the goods, I fear my customer support options will be limited to, "I'll have to get back to you", rather than providing a quick answer and solution.

There are lots of t-shirt dropshippers out there. I suppose I have 3 questions from all of the above text:

1. I have no idea about fashion, but I do know about my niche and can generate good designs. Is T-shirt selling really a sustainable business.

2. Is dropshipping a good idea or will it just be holding me back. What alternatives are there if any besides me buying my stock and keeping it myself (storage is a problem).

3. Am I looking at the correct platforms, Is there any here that people would recommend.
 
D

Darren_Ssc

I'll give a tip that seems obvious but took me years to realise (although some much smarter people still haven't yet seen the light).

If you're selling online it takes the same amount of skill and effort to sell high-margin products as it does low-margin. If you find a niche though, it's actually less.

How many t-shirts are you going to have to sell in order to make a living? If you have no hope of achieving very high volumes then walk away now and save yourself some grief.
 
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Mr D

Free Member
Feb 12, 2017
28,915
3,627
Stirling
Nothing wrong with dropshipping.

Your business model will have to factor in missing items, customer returns (with of course full refund including outgoing postage), card chargebacks etc.

But with decent marketing can be made to work.

The big money is what you will be paying out. Bring elements of what you pay out in house and maybe you improve profit per item.
The difference is time, equipment and effort. Paying another company to do stuff frees up your time to do other stuff.
Spend a few hours a day slaving over a machine producing stuff - with occasional mistakes, misprints etc - but saves money.
 
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ExoPaul

Free Member
May 26, 2018
92
37
Look up Teemill. They print and send Tshirts for you, you just provide the designs. They are one of the better ones out there and while profit margins are small, all dropshipping margins are small so I don't see you doing any better than laying down a few £thousand for your own printing equipment. But you will still hit the same marketing issue.
Also, Teemill offer a free online store you can market so not needing a Shopify account, but you can pay similar fees to Shopify fees for a Professional Teemill account that is fully white label for your own business and will give you a lot of benefits, including custom domains.

What I would suggest though, is if you are worried about print quality and material quality, is to talk to them as they do offer the chance to buy samples to check the quality. Even if you just do a design on a tshirt and buy one of them yourself, not only will you get a small percentage of the cost back, but you can physically see how it comes to you packaged, the quality and what it is like. Plus you also have one of the Tshirts you can wear for any photography/marketing.

Feel free to drop me a private message if you need any further help or guidance.
 
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