Make Your Own Merch: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Custom Merchandise.

Summary/Overview

Boost brand awareness for your small business with custom merchandise. Create branded T-shirts, mugs, tote bags and more, and turn loyal customers into brand ambassadors. Best yet, you can do this on-demand. This saves unnecessary upfront investments, or inventory management. Just design and sell.

It’s an easy way to expand your brand’s reach, while adding a personal touch that your customers will love. Read on to learn how to get started with Adobe Express.

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What do we mean by making merch ‘on demand’?

Creating merch on demand is a type of business that makes and prints custom merch as and when an order arrives, rather than creating bulk designs. It’s a cost-effective way for small businesses to create and sell custom-branded products without the fuss of managing inventory. You only start producing items once they’re ordered.

It means there are no upfront costs, no bulk purchasing, and no risk of unsold stock. You can focus on the design, marketing and branding and leave the rest to the print-on-demand service. It allows you to quickly adapt to changing customer trends.

Explore free custom merchandise templates.

A step-by-step guide to creating custom merchandise.

It’s simple to create custom promotional merchandise. Follow the steps below to produce merch designs worthy of attention and get your brand noticed.

1. Define your brand.

Before creating custom corporate merchandise, you need to define your identity – what you stand for, your values, the things you believe are important in the way you work, your aesthetic, and the visuals involved. These help to shape how customers connect with you. A strong, consistent brand helps build trust and recognition. These add colour, character and meaning to your offering, making your merchandise more appealing.

Consider things such as the:

• Colour scheme
• Logo
• Typography
• Messaging.

Some examples include bold, edgy, minimalistic or sophisticated.

Do you stand for sustainability? Are you creative? Do you innovate? Your merchandise should reflect these things, striking a chord with your audience. Having your brand identity clearly defined adds more impact to your designs, helping to foster loyalty with customers.

2. Get to know your audience.

You need to know who you’re targeting. If your target audience don’t want it, why would you bother selling it? You need to find out who they are, what the demographics are, and what they love. Is there a problem that needs solving? Be that solution. It’s easier to sell to customers when you know what they want – this lets you tailor your offering to their preferences.

Are they young and trendy? Or more mature, with a professional edge? Engaging with them through social media platforms like Instagram, surveys, and feedback lets you gain valuable insight. Personalising your offering allows you to resonate deeply with them and strengthen their connection to your brand.

3. Decide what you’re going to sell.

Choosing the right kind of merchandise is key, so think about what your audience wants. Are they more likely to go for T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, or mugs? Or a combination of more than one? Their lifestyle trends and seasonality will influence them.

Think about these factors when making your decision. If they are eco-conscious, for example, consider making tote bags from environmentally friendly materials.

Also, it’s a smart idea to see what’s already selling in the market. Do some market research and see what successful brands in your space offer. Which designs seem popular? Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel – simply find what’s selling and make it better than everybody else.

4. Choose your design platform and supplier.

Create and print custom merchandise with Adobe Express. It’s simple and easy to use, with free templates to help you get started. It’s intuitive, easy to experiment, and has tools that help you channel creativity into your designs – plus a printing feature that can help bring your products to life.

For other types of products, you might need to choose a separate supplier. Just make sure to consider factors such as product quality, pricing, printing methods, and shipping times. Get a list together of a few that catch your eye. Then do a comparison between them to see which one best fits your needs.

5. Design your merch.

It may be on-demand, but don’t let that put you off creating merch that stands out. Even if you start with templates, you’re in full control of the fonts, images and colours to align with your brand identity.

Which designs appeal to your audience? For example, using bold and eye-catching visuals may catch the younger generation’s eye. A simple and minimal angle could work with older generations. Test them out, see what works, find out what doesn’t – keep the ones that do.

Don’t be afraid to keep repeating this, as tastes can change over time. Keep the style that reinforces your brand and ensure it’s consistent throughout.

6. Set up your store.

Decide whether to use an e-commerce platform like Etsy or Shopify. Or your website – or both. Use your corporate brand colours so people can recognise your brand. Make your product listings visually striking and easy to navigate, with an efficient checkout process. Avoid the use of too much clutter – less is more.

The images you use need to be high-quality, so consider having professional ones taken, or browse our photo library for stock images. Research keywords for your descriptions to help them rank on search engines.

Don’t forget the creativity – adding an emotional element can help resonate with your audience.

Overall, your platforms need to be professional-looking to build trust and encourage customers to buy. Using customer testimonials can also showcase credibility with potential new buyers.

7. Market on social media.

It’s an attention economy, so if you plan to promote your custom corporate merchandise on social media, you’ll need to cut through the noise to grab your audience’s attention. Social media is a great way to drive traffic to your store and build a loyal customer base. Choose platforms where your target audience is active, such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Adding some behind-the-scenes content can add an extra level of personality to your brand. For example, collaborate with influencers and show them using your products in real-life scenarios. Engage with followers through polls, giveaways, and comments. Use hashtags and run targeted ads to expand your reach.

Find merchandise inspiration with editable template ideas.

Make your own merch with the AI template generator tool.

With a range of different merchandise to create and customise, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. That’s where the Adobe Express AI template generator can help. This free generative AI tool makes it easy for you to come up with new ideas for custom merch. Whether you want to make a cool t-shirt design inspired by your bar, or upgrade your current mug merchandise in your coffee shop, the generator can help inspire your creativity.

Simply sign in to Adobe Express to get started. Then enter your prompt into the tool and it will start to generate ideas related to your search. Choose the template you want, then personalise the different fonts, colours and icons to align with your brand. Then you’re ready to bring your merch to life.

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Useful things to know.

How much does it cost to start a merchandise business?

Starting a merchandise business can be low-cost with print-on-demand. There are no upfront inventory costs, but you’ll need to consider things like marketing costs. It’s best to do a budget analysis before you get started to keep in control of any costs.

How do I set up my own merch website?

To set up your own merch website, you could choose an e-commerce platform like Etsy, Shopify, or WooCommerce. Link this to a print-on-demand supplier, upload your designs, and create product listings. Add your branding, set up payment and shipping options, and get promoting.

What merchandise item is the most popular?

The most popular custom merchandise items are pens, cups and mugs, and T-shirts. Generally the more ‘everyday’ the item is, the more usable it is, and hence more likely to sell.

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