Custom T-shirts are a growing industry expected to reach just over $9 billion globally in 2023, up from more than $3.5 billion in 2022. As with any other industry, the growth of the custom t-shirt market has many people interested in getting involved. Getting involved in the industry has never been easier.
For one thing, there’s a variety of ecommerce platforms that make it easy for you to build your own professional ecommerce store. For another, print on demand companies offer an affordable and easy way to have your designs printed and sent to your customers.
However, if you are interested in getting involved in the custom t-shirt industry, you will need to get various aspects just right. One of the key aspects behind any company’s success or failure is the price of its products.
Finding the Right Balance
For a business to be successful, it will need to find the right balance between maximizing its profit per sale while also keeping the price low enough to encourage sales. The good news is that there are various ways you can set your pricing strategy to help give your business the best chance of thriving.
We created this brief t-shirt pricing guide to help explain how to set the best prices for your t-shirt business to help ensure your business is a success.
How Much Should I Sell T-Shirts For?
Work Out Your Costs
Before you can work out a suitable price for your t-shirts, you will first need to know what your costs are. This process includes calculating all costs of making your t-shirts, such as materials, labor, and overheads. You will also need to consider other costs like marketing, website hosting, etc.
Before setting a price for your t-shirts, you will first need to know how much it costs you to make each item. To do this, follow the process below:
- Calculate the total cost of having your t-shirts made
- Divide the figure by the total number of t-shirts you’re making
- The figure you are left with is your cost per unit. You can then use this number to ensure your business will profit from each t-shirt it sells.
- Most creators aim for a profit margin of around 20% per t-shirt, but this figure will vary from company to company.
The above calculation sounds easy, but in reality, it’s not easy to put a single figure on costs. For example, some costs like electricity and other utilities will vary, so your profit margins will not always remain the same. However, when working with a print on demand partner like Printbest, many of your costs will be bundled into a single fee, helping make it easier for you to manage your costs and create a t-shirt price list template.
Check out Your Competitors
One place to find a good t-shirt pricing guide is to check out your competitors. Have a look at different stores online to see what they are charging and make a note of how many they are selling. Platforms like Amazon are a good way to check out the competition because you get an idea of how many products they are selling. Perhaps even better is that you can read reviews to see what customers say about a particular product, giving you some guidance with your own designs.
If products with higher prices are selling too few t-shirts, it could be a sign they’re charging too much, although there are other factors like demand and market saturation to consider. Regardless, there are several pricing strategies you can consider:
- Use Similar Pricing: A common strategy is to use a similar price to competitors selling similar designs. Such a strategy makes sense; after all, you know, people are willing to pay that much for similar t-shirts. However, such as strategy may not be ideal for fledgling companies that need to generate revenue quickly and build their brand reputation.
- Undercutting the Competition: Another strategy is to try charging a little less than your competitors to undercut them. However, setting your prices low can negatively impact your overall profits. Charging low prices can also make your brand appear cheap and poor quality. This makes it best to avoid the temptation to charge low unless you’re really struggling to sell anything. Such a strategy can also be the best option for companies that need to make revenue quickly.
- Higher Prices: Another option is to charge higher prices, offset by including free extras such as accessories to increase value. This method is a good way of making your products appealing, helping to generate revenue in the short term while also helping make your brand appear high quality and good value. This strategy will likely involve some investment in extras to boost your product’s value, but the investment can help boost your overall fortunes.
- Free Shipping: Another strategy offered by some businesses is to offer free shipping. This strategy can be effective considering around 79% of consumers say they are more likely to buy a product if free shopping is available. In reality, the cost of shipping is usually included in the price, with the product costing a little more than others. Regardless, it’s still a strategy that can help compel potential customers to buy from you.
Offer Bundles
Shoppers just love a deal, and even a few dollars off can help make the difference between somebody buying from you or choosing a competitor instead. In addition to lower prices, you can also try offering bundle deals, such as two t-shirts at a slightly lower price than if the two were bought separately.
Such deals can be very effective at helping you make sales, with around two-thirds of people saying a promotion will help close the deal. Such deals can help boost your sales and your profits overall and is a great way for fledgling businesses to earn much-needed revenue as they try to get established.
Another tip is to avoid selling your t-shirts for rounded figures such as $30 each. Instead, sell them for $29.99 or similar. Although there’s only one cent difference between the prices, the difference can still have enough of a psychological impact for the customer to make the decision to buy your product.
How Reputation Affects Your Pricing
Another factor behind t-shirt pricing is your company’s prestige. If you are a new company just getting started out, few people will have heard of you, and your brand will not have acquired much prestige. As such, you will likely need to charge lower prices to encourage sales until you can get established and make a name for yourself in the industry.
Below is a t-shirt price chart including a few different types of companies and how much they charge for their t-shirts.
- Company A: A large online retailer selling customer t-shirts and other items holding a sale on its products. A large company like this can afford to charge low prices because they will still make healthy profits through sheer volume of sales.
- Company B: An artist who’s popular on social media. He sells various products through his ecommerce store, and his designs include his own artwork.
Company C: A small, niche store that sells its products internationally. Their designs are simple, and they don’t have a wide range of products to sell. - Company D: A large, well-known brand that sells a wide range of apparel in addition to printed custom t-shirts. The company works closely with media companies and stars to create designs that appeal to fans of different stars and genres.
Prices in USD
Product | Company A | Company B | Company C | Company D |
T-Shirt | $12.00 | $20.00 | $26.00 | $40.00 |
Hoodie | $32.00 | $35.00 | $50.00 | $70.00 |
Tank Top | $17.00 | $20.00 | $28.00 | N/A |
The above table shows just a very small selection of company types. New businesses will typically start off small and have few products and little prestige. Such businesses will often start with low prices to attract customers, gradually increasing their prices as their brand becomes better-known.
Work With a Print on Demand Partner
Pricing becomes much easier when you work with a print on demand partner like Printbest because many of your costs are bundled into a single cost per item. Not only will this help to make it easier for you to set a price for your t-shirts, but it can also help make it easier for you to manage your company.
Working with print on demand companies also offers other benefits. Such benefits include not having to invest in stock first, which helps to reduce your financial risk. You also don’t need to be concerned about having a place to store your inventory, and products are sent directly to customers, reducing your workload further.
The team at Printbest will be happy to help you with pricing and anything else when it comes to running a successful custom t-shirt business. You can also visit our website and use our t-shirt pricing calculator to help you set suitable prices for your t-shirts. Overall, we can be a valuable business ally that will help you get your business established and successful.
