How to sell t shirts online with print-on-demand

Published 26/11/2025 By James

Freelance

Make Money Online

Sell T-Shirts Online

The beauty of running a side hustle is that you’re in control of how much time and effort you put in. You can be as hands-on, or -off, as you want. For example, if we look at how to sell t-shirts online, you could do everything, something, or practically nothing…

What do we mean by that? Think about the different stages of running an online t-shirt business, from designing to printing and then shipping orders out. Not to mention maintaining the online store and marketing your products. There are a lot of moving parts but it could definitely be worth the effort.

As you’re considering selling t-shirts online, the chances are that you have some creative experience. If you have existing skills in Illustration, Design, or Freelance Copywriting, it’s likely you could design the t-shirts yourself. In this case, you can save yourself some money, as well as maintaining creative control over the products you want to sell. However, if you want or need to hire a freelancer to design t-shirts, then that’s always an option too.

So what about when it comes to the other stages of t-shirt manufacturing? Again, if you have experience in t-shirt printing, it makes sense to do that yourself. However, if you don’t, you’ll have to outsource this to a printing company. There’s plenty of online companies such as VistaPrint UK that offer a platform to upload your designs so they can print them for you.

T-Shirt Printing Demand

The global market for the custom t-shirt printing industry is experiencing incredible growth. This growth is driven by a combination of advancements in technology, the rise in E-commerce and companies relaxing dress codes and opting for branded t-shirts.

The global t-shirt printing market was worth $9.23 billion in 2023 and projections suggest it will hit $17.27 billion by 2032.

What is Print On Demand?

With print-on-demand (POD), items are only printed when an order is placed. This avoids you having to print estimated orders for an item in advance. Instead of a business owner having to place a minimum order and then store the inventory, POD means that they can print single items or in small quantities. This can save you both upfront costs and storage space, making it a low risk method to sell customised items.

Of course you can print-on-demand at home, if you’re doing things on a DIY basis. For example, if you have the set up to do screen printing, iron on transfers, or photosensitive dyeing, then you can still print orders individually.

However, if you choose to print your own t-shirts, be aware that you may need a lot of space as you’ll need to have your equipment and stock on hand.

Why Use Print On Demand To Sell T-Shirts Online?

There are so many benefits to using a print-on-demand service when selling t-shirts online. As well as minimising the risk associated with placing a large bulk order, prior to knowing if you’ll make any sales, POD can also save you time.

Let’s look at some of the advantages of selling t-shirts with print on demand:

Budget Friendly Costs

No requirement to buy bulk stock.
You pay for items after customers have bought them.

No Equipment Required

No need for expensive printing equipment.
All orders are printed, packed and shipped by the POD partner.

No Stock Management

No unsold stock lying around.
No need to keep an inventory of stock, colours or sizes.

Trial Designs At No Cost

Zero costs involved to test multiple new designs.
If a new design isn’t popular, remove it with no losses.
Perfect to test new trends and add seasonal products.
Flexibility to spend time designing instead of managing orders.

Scalable

The process is the same whether you sell 1 item or 1,000.
No panic if you get large orders – the POD partner will handle everything for you.
You can expand your range from just t-shirts and add things such as mugs, bags and hoodies.

Global Reach

Lots of print on demand partners offer dropshipping platforms and will ship globally.
You can advertise to customers anywhere in the world.

Drawbacks To Using Print On Demand To Sell T-Shirts Online

So, we’ve explained the advantages of selling t-shirts using print on demand above. However, it’s rare that any side hustle or business doesn’t have its risks or drawbacks.

Whilst the plus points by far outweigh the negatives, here’s some things to consider:

Lower Profits

POD items are more expensive than bulk buying stock.
You will likely be charged fees by your POD partner.
Your costs might mean a higher price for you items which could affect how competitive you are.

No Quality Control

You don’t get to see the products to check the quality.
Poor quality can lead to customer complaints.

Longer Dispatch Times

Custom items can take longer to produce and result in delayed shipping.
International delivery can take weeks.
Shipping might take too long for those used to using services like Amazon Prime.

Reliance on POD Providers

Your business is reliant on the performance of a third party.
There’s little you can do if the POD partner increases prices or runs out of stock.
Any errors by the POD partner will reflect badly on your business.

Customer Problems

Even though you don’t make the products or handle the shipping, you’ll still be responsible for customer service queries.
It can be tricky to handle returns, refunds and complaints.

Sell T-Shirts Online: Marketing

Even with the “set it and forget it” approach to running an online store using a fulfilment service such as Amazon FBA, there’s still a lot for you to do.

Marketing your t-shirts is an essential part of having a successful business. If no one can find you, how can they buy from you?

Here’s some of the ways in which you can promote your products and attract customers.

Social Media Presence

A lot of people use social media to shop nowadays. Speculate to accumulate and build brand awareness by organising a giveaway or competition. There are some mechanisms you can use to work with the algorithms and increase the visibility of your posts. For example, encourage Likes and Shares.

Social media influencers

Work with social media names such as popular Instagram influencers to promote your t-shirts. Look for influencers who fit your brand and make contact with them. Remember that they will be representing you, so it has to be a connection that both parties are happy with.

SEO

Optimise your content so that you appear for relevant search terms. There are a number of ways to do this but researching the best longtail keywords is an important one. Once you’ve determined what your target audience is likely to be searching for, it’s time to incorporate them into your content. Think about product titles, descriptions, tags, etc.

Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads are used to bring visitors who have previously visited or bought from your site back again. For example, they can be used to attract repeat custom and encourage people who abandoned their shopping basket to return and complete their purchase.

Print On Demand Service Providers

Now we know what a print on demand service is and how it works, let’s have a look at some potential print on demand platforms you might consider using:

Amazon Merch On Demand

This service isn’t widely known about but as you can imagine, with it being Amazon, it’s a very efficient set up. Don’t confuse this with the well-known Amazon FBA.
With Amazon Merch, Amazon will take care of the product printing, shipping and even handle the customer service for you.
To join Amazon Merch you need to apply for an account and let them know if you’re an individual or business, provide your tax info and bank details. ALWAYS BE HONEST!
Once approved, you can upload your designs and start setting up your selling page. This is as easy as adding a title, product description, and some images.
You will be paid a royalty from each sale. Be warned, the payments aren’t great and you would need to sell a lot to make good money.

Here’s an example of what they are paying in royalties for standard t-shirts sold in the UK in August 2025.

Purchase Price	£14.99	£15.49	£15.99	£16.49	£16.99
Royalty	£1.92	£2.26	£2.59	£2.91	£3.25

PLEASE NOTE – Amazon posted a job in July 2025 on LinkedIn for somebody to handle the implementation of customisable print on demand t-shirts. This will add another dimension to sellers on Amazon Merch in the future which could be extremely profitable.

Printify

Upload custom t-shirt designs and start selling through the seamless integration with online ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, and Wix.
Similar to some of the other POD services on offer, Printify also fulfils and ships orders on your behalf.
Once you’ve set up and connected your online store, you can start selling and have Printify take care of things for you.

Printful

Printful is an example of a POD site that offers other services such as graphic design, product photography, and a mockup generator. This means you can elevate your online store with professional, high-quality images and also see what the end product will look like before it’s been printed.
You can either open a storefront on Printful or connect to your existing online store. Through integration, orders placed on somewhere like Etsy, once you have set up an Etsy shop to sell your products, are automatically forwarded for fulfilment.
Unlike with some other platforms, you can set your own prices which means that you’re more in control of what you earn.

Sell T-Shirts Online: Your Shop

Once you’ve worked things out behind the scenes, it’s time to create your storefront.

Use an e-commerce platform such as Shopify to build and house your business.
Your store can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be, thanks to the tools and third party apps you can bolt on.
Shopify can also integrate with a number of print-on-demand and dropshipping services which makes it the perfect place to host your storefront.
To ensure that there are as few moving parts as possible, choose a POD and/or dropshipping service that easily connects to Shopify.

Other Side Hustles To Make Money Online

If selling t-shirts online or running a print on demand business isn’t up your street, there’s plenty of other side hustles out there that can make you money.

You could stick with the idea of selling garments and sell clothes for cash or set up an Etsy shop.

Alternatively, you could take a look at matched betting which takes advantage of bookmaker promotional offers to guarantee profits. What’s more, all the profits are tax free. Interested? Take a look at the OddsMonkey guide to matched betting.