Everything to know about selling merch

Congratulations! You've reached the point in your craft where it’s time to consider selling merch. Whether you’re a musician, comedian or any other type of artist, you’re well aware that your creativity doesn’t pay the bills like it should. I’m in a unique position where I’ve toured as a performer, while owning a merch business. I’ve made shirts for dozens of comedians, ranging from national headliners to open micers (who probably didn’t need merch to begin with) and here’s the advice that I give to them.

Designing your shirt:

There are two reasons to sell merch: to make money and promotion. You want a cool design done as cheap as possible, and there’s nothing wrong with that! When you go on tour, there’s limited suitcase space and you want to make as much as you can. I’ve dealt with comics that want complex shirts with 10 colors printed on the front/back/sleeve, and by the time it’s finished, each shirt costs $16. If you sell 100 of those shirts for $20, thats $400 profit. Compare that to someone who orders $7 shirts, they make $1300 profit off the same amount of sales. Remember, just because a design is simple, doesn’t mean it’s bad. The Ramones have sold millions of shirts with their single color design.

When thinking about your design, there’s only one question to ask yourself - Will anyone actually wear this? I see the mistake often with comedians “this punchline always works, I’ll slap it on a shirt!” Now you’re stuck with a hundred shirts that simply say “That Ain’t My Ass!” Sure, you’ll get some sales, people are drunk and they want to support you, but the cooler your design, the more sales you’ll make.

Last but not least, promotion. It’s simple, where do you want people to find you? Your twitter/instagram? Website? Spotify? Put your handle/site small enough that its not intrusive, but big enough so that it’s visible. You don’t want the shirt to scream as a walking advertisement, but you also want some credit.

1 color design - starts at $6.50 per shirt (tattoo artist @natebarnestattooer)

6 Color design - starts at $11 per shirt - (clothing brand @gxdsatl)

Understanding screen printing:

Whether you buy from D’s Tees or any other shop, pricing works pretty much the same. Three things go into pricing:

1. Number of Colors - Screen printing involves making stencils for each individual color of your design, so a 4 color shirt means 4 times the preparation.

2. Type of fabric - There are thousands of different brands of shirts, each bringing their own style and price. Do you want soft/form fitting shirts? Do you want heavier/boxy shirts? Do you want to do hoodies/coozies/hats or any other items that will make your merch stand out? Decide what you want and what your budget is and make the best decision.

3. Quantity of shirts. - Screen printing isn’t the only way to make shirts, but it is the best when it comes to bulk orders. I tell people it’s like baking cookies, if you want to bake 1 cookie, you have to do the same amount of preparation as you would for 3 dozen. Shops have minimum orders, we have a minimum of 25 for 1 color shirts and that number goes up the more colors in the design. It also is more cost effective to order bigger batches to get a better price per shirt.

Sizes/Colors:

A few years ago there was a psychological study where researchers placed a Coke vending machine in a crowded lobby. They studied the average sales for a month, and then they added a Pepsi machine right next to the Coke machine. The results were somewhat surprising, both machines went up 200% of what the single Coke machine pulled in. Why is that? When there’s one option, our brain says “Should I get a Coke or not?” When there are two options, the decision turns into “Should I get a Coke or a Pepsi?”

For this reason, I always suggest people play around with different shirt colors. If you have a simple white design on a black shirt, maybe try half red or half blue shirts, everyone likes options! Start off slow though, when you limit the options, you see what sells best and know better what to order for your second batch.

Sizing works the same way. Start broad and work your way to what sells best. Also consider your audience. Are you a heavy metal band with a mostly bigger male audience? Medium-2xl should be the bulk of your order. If you’re a female based podcast, have a couple more smalls/women’s sizes in the order. You’ll never get it exactly correct, so just don’t go too crazy on any one size. When people are starting their first order of a hundred shirts, I suggest the breakdown of this:

10small 25medium 25large 25xl 10xxl 5xxxl

I tell people its better to be out of sizes and miss out on a sale than having too many of a size and not being able to sell out. If you’re at a merch table and someone orders a size that you don’t have, try to make the sale anyway. Take down their email, address and phone number and mail it when you get more. USPS has flat rate shipping bags that cost about $7 to ship a shirt anywhere in the country. If you’re professional and confident, they’ll trust you and pay knowing that you’ll get it to them.

How to actually sell merch:

Before the show, talk to the club owner/producer/other acts and ask if its cool to set up a table after the show. Although a small percentage will say no, most will say of course, just always be respectful, especially when opening up for a bigger act. Next, notice where you are in the line up. You’re more than likely going up towards the end, so prepare for this by setting up your table early. People will be more inclined to buy merch if your table looks nice. Fold your shirts, it doesn’t have to be all of them, but a few of each sizes. Keep the rest organized nicely under the table. The last thing you want is missing out on sales because you’re busy digging for sizes and holding up the line. Also be personable, people want to talk to you probably more than they want the merch.

For pricing, consider how much you want to make. Say you bought 100 shirts at $8 a piece. If you sell for $20 thats $1,200 profit. If you sell for $15 thats $700 total profit. If they sell much faster at $15 and you can sell 200 in the same time that it takes to sell 100 for $20, then you would make $200 more for selling at $15. Don’t get greedy, any profit is better than sitting with a suitcase full of unsold merch. Also, don’t be worried about running out, shipping across the country is much cheaper and easier than you’d think, just contact your printer when your numbers start dwindling and in a few days you’ll have your next order.

Something that has worked for me and many others in the past is having a “Pay what you want” policy. For every 1 person that gives you $5, six other people will give you $20, some more than that.

The thing about selling merch is that people want to thank you for entertaining them, but it’s not super socially acceptable to just hand you cash. The merch acts as the buffer to make that transaction possible.

Play around with different prices until you settle on what works. Also be prepared to take payment. A lot of people will pay in cash, that’s easy, make sure you bring some change with you so that you can speed through it. Also, make a sign with cashapp/venmo/zelle/paypal, make it easy to read so that you aren’t constantly telling people where to pay you.

Last, get a Square or another credit card reader, once you get it down you’ll be able to keep the line moving as efficiently as possible. Make sure you record all of your sales and keep receipts of every shirt you buy, it’ll come in handy when doing write offs during tax season.

In Conclusion

No one can tell you exactly what strategy will work best for you, but you’ve gotten this far, so experiment and I’m sure you’ll find your way.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach me at Dillon@atlscreenprinters.com

Also, no matter where you are in the country, reach out for a free quote and mention this blog and you’ll get 10% off your first order!