Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, local marketing tips, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
Well, after doing everything I can think of to get my brand noticed on the Internet (joined Myspace, Twitter, Kaboodle, Craigslist, articlesbase, ezinearticles, Stumbleupon, reddit, Digg, Google Adwords, Yahoo Ads, AdBrite, SEO, and asking for T-shirt blogs to review my shirts...which none have replied), I still haven't made a single sale. My shop is nearly 2 months old. With the exposure my site is getting from all of the techniques listed above, I would think I would have sold at least one t-shirt by now. I generally get about 400-700 hits/day if I'm doing Adwords and Yahoo Ads, otherwise I get maybe 100+ hits/day. And since I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on ads everyday I'll have to settle for the 100+ range until the search engines play nice. People are browsing the designs so I know they're interested. They just have a problem clicking that "Add to cart" button and checking out, HAHA. So out of curiosity, how long did it take for you all to make your first sale? And what other tips do you have for me? Maybe I'm in the wrong niche (graphic tees and urban designs). Next, I will try to make a (probably cheesy) video to put on YouTube.
This statement bothers me...."Yes, when you order apparel from us it's actually printed right then and there. That's why it takes several days for an order to arrive in your mail and end up on your body."
I'm no expert but my first impression is i think your price point is wrong, i.e. I think maybe people are put off by what is a reatively high price for this type of t-shirt (the design style i mean).
Some constructive criticism also - your site looks like it's a template based job, I personally feel the background fights against the swirly logo and also the t-shirt pictures jump around if you mouseover them, messing with the layout a bit (or on my computer anyway). I, again personally, dont like the 'feel ' of the homepage, there's no overall synergy, it's all a bit dissociated. I think for the price you're looking for the site layout doesn't convey the right image.
Ye, the same happens when I hover over a t-shirt image, page goes all funny...one thing that really jumps out is the background - its just so coarse and blinding, especially when you are scrolling up and down..almost dizzying to look at..
One other suggestion would be to change the pictures of the t-shirts..Perhaps get a model and take pictures of people wearing the actual shirt - from the images up there they don't look too realistic..
I do like your brand name though and think something will work out for you...I would strongly recommend sprucing up the site though..good luck with it..
Thanks for the feedback guys. I will work on redesigning the site's appearance and fix the t-shirt image hover issue. As for getting models to wear my shirts, this is a little difficult considering I don't own all of the shirts. They're printed on demand by Printfection. I've recently ordered 3 of my designs and will see how they look first.
The base price for a t-shirt at Printfection is $14.99, so I can't go any lower than that. It's even higher ($21.99) for dark-colored shirts. With the markup I have right now, if I sold any of my designs I'd be making a mere .96 a sale. I'm looking into Zazzle since I've heard it's a lot easier to make sales there thanks to their marketplace. Printfection's marketplace (The Shopping Mall) is virtually useless and they do nothing to promote their shops. But they're the best POD I've seen if you want to create your own "brand" without having their name plastered all over the place.
Love the name ..
The cool thing about the internet is it tells you if your product is desireable or not...quickly.
With 400-700 hits a day and no sales, that tells me I have product design problems . I agree the site is a little scattered, but people will buy despite a bad site if they like the product. Have you ever driven across town to eat in a dump with great Mexican food...and , told all your friends about it . I have .
keep experimenting with themes, designs, ..ask your visitors what they like , and don't ,Let THEM help you design . Maybe pick a niche and own it . Take down the Unavailable designs, looks like they sued you .
Your price points are high . Can you add extra value with packaging, gift cards, ...? to justify the price
yo swaag! Hey, I read your post while I was stumbling around on this site and I read the part where you mentioned you paying up to $20 a shirt. Trying to resell that isn't going to make any money obviously, like you said yourself. I am not dissing your whole thing because I think it's awesome how many hits you get a day already. But honestly, you want to focus on two things that will change everything for you. I love the name, its really catchy, and I think if you even just printed that on a tee you will have better luck. Start super simple. Go buy a speedball screen printer at your local art store and start printing on two dollar hanes shirts. Print simple one color prints that have a simple graphic or name on it. You can make a shirt for under 3 bucks with all your own supplies. You can sell them a little bit cheaper and start making some profit and eventually having your shirts printed in a factory. Don't worry about your site so much right now, it looks fine. Think simple, print your own tees with basic designs, sell them cheaper and you will sell shirts! and make profit!
right.... and thats why i said think simple and do one color straightforward designs.... even if it just said the name of his clothing company on the tees without all the crazy dragon designs they will sell.... then he will make profit...
I agree, if you're wanting to make money from this then using POD that's costing you 14.99 a pop isn't the way to go at all, it's forcing you to price your design above what people will pay for them while leaving you very little margin for profit.
For the price you're charging i'd expect a strong brand, stong design and an appeaing package (ex like oddica packaging & extras). I know you're maybe just testing the market before investing in equipment yoursef but I honestly think you need to work out a way of both deveoping your design skills and reducing your production costs - getting a local screen printers or vinyl cutting company who offers low minimums.
That way you have much more control over the product you're offering your customers and will actually make more profit with the lower outlay costs, the lower price you could set will mean you will sell much more and convert a good percentage of those hits into sales.
right.... and thats why i said think simple and do one color straightforward designs.... even if it just said the name of his clothing company on the tees without all the crazy dragon designs they will sell.... then he will make profit...
Word, but he should try it out using his current setup. If people start buying, then yeah he should definitely try out a cheaper production method.
But this also means he's going to have to start shipping and creating the shirts himself. Going from an on-demand fulfilment service to doing everything yourself is a pretty big step.
must need 2 changes i think.
1) Store on homepage (homepage looks similar to blog). move girl or guy section at home...or best seller/newest t-shirts.
2) American Apparel can be sell at around 20-25$. Gildan can go at 10$ highest. I just can't pay 18$ for gildan with any design..
What else can I do? 
Re: What else can I do? 
