Selling Merchandise Directly to Your Fans

After covering the basics like what merchandise is, what you can consider putting on merchandise, as well as figuring out where you can get merchandise made we’ve finally reached the point where we can discuss where and how you can start to sell merchandise directly to your fans.

To be clear, this article will be discussing the tools and places you, a comic creator, can consider using to display, sell, and upsell (offering more at the point of sale) your own merchandise.

This article will not discuss how to indirectly sell merchandise to your fans or other consumers.

For the sake of this article you’ll be figuring out how you can deal with the type of buyers that you can get in front of you; both physically and digitally.

Let’s start with the more... traditional method.

I’ve worked in a few sales positions in my life. For some people that know me, they would probably never guess that I had much trouble with it. But in truth, when I first started dealing directly with people it was a nerve-wracking experience that I had to plow through with a smile on my face (somehow).

With that said, I do understand that for a lot of people this can be a tough hurdle to overcome. So before we proceed with this discussion I’d like to take the time to say something.

It’s ok if you’re uncomfortable. It’s ok if you’ve never put yourself out there. It’s ok if you’ve never sold anything in your whole life.

All it takes is some time, some occasional failure to learn what not to do, and some determination to not give up after a few rejections. Friends and fans that can encourage you can go a long way.

Eventually, you’ll find your groove and figure out your own selling technique. If you have any doubts you can always Google some good practices. There is no shortage of resources for selling goods.

So, let’s get started with how you can sell at conventions.

As a comic creator, attending comic conventions is a great way to reach out to your existing readers as well as grabbing the attention of some new ones.

With that said, having a table at a convention is a valuable piece of real estate. Alongside your comics, you can also promote and sell your merchandise.

It can be significantly more difficult to sell to people unfamiliar with your work. Either way, it’s a great place to try!

Now I know this is a topic I’ve discussed before when it comes to selling your comics to readers and improving business relationships with your comic retailer contacts.

Besides showing up to a comic retailer and offering to sign a few books you may have a chance (as long as it’s ok with the retailer) to sell some of your merchandise directly to your fans.
In contrast with comic conventions, you’re far more likely to be dealing directly with your readers at your own book signings. So those attending your book signing are far more likely to be interested in supporting you by purchasing some of your merchandise.

Maybe they can walk out with more than just a signed copy of your comic.

The downside is that you can only manage to sell what you brought with you to the convention or book signing

That is unless you fail to take advantage of modern technology. If you have a tablet with an internet connection you can always offer those interested in your products a chance to order your merchandise from your site. I may write an article that goes into this topic a little deeper.

This takes a little more investment and setting up on your part. Either way, it’s a chance to keep selling even after you’ve run out of inventory!

If you can’t manage to set this up, you can always take contact information and send those who’ve stopped by a coupon for your store.

This would remind them who you are and how they wanted to buy your merch. As well as a great incentive to buy!

When it comes to selling merchandise on the internet you typically have two options. Either you sell your merchandise on your own site or you sell it on a third-party site.

It shouldn’t come to anyone as a surprise when I mention that I prefer this method. I also shamelessly recommend you consider using the Shopify; the popular e-commerce content management system (CMS).

When using your own site you typically have:

• Control over how the site looks, how it feels, and how it operates.
• Method of payments available.
• Control everything from prices, comment, and design or functional changes.

Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m not an expert when it comes to e-commerce. I typically will recommend you check out the resources available on Shopify, they’re usually pretty good.

Now let’s talk about selling merchandise on other people’s sites.

Now, this is a pretty popular choice for a lot of people interested in making and selling their own merchandise.

There are usually two different options available to you, using your merchandise manufacturer’s offered online storefront or utilizing an online service that allows you to post and sell goods through their own platform.

Let’s take a look at these two options.

There are a number of different merchandise manufacturers that offer their customers a digital storefront service. This is usually a place that they will let you list the products that they manufacture for you and, to a limited degree, allow you to customize to suit your needs.

One benefit that most of them offer is that you can set up your own URL (i.e. www.digitalstorefront.com/your-store/). A neat little service that you can use to lead your fans to a web page with all your goods.

Alternatively, some that offer a digital storefront don’t offer this service. On the bright side, this means that you can probably sell to people that have never heard from you if they check out the e-store’s general page.

One significant downside to this is that I haven’t really found one that allows you to list products that the manufacturer themselves doesn’t produce. So, if your merchandise manufacturer doesn’t make wallets, but you want to sell wallets, tough. You can’t list those wallets on the digital storefront offered by the manufacturer.

A typical complaint from people that use this type of service is also the lack of customizability. Sometimes you’d really like to change the color of the background or be able to offer different tabs for product info. You have to make sure that if you use this route that it has everything you want to offer to your customers.

These are your eBay’s and your Amazon’s. These are places where you can list your products and have them bought in a very reliable platform.

Amazon and eBay have a very low likelihood that they’ll crash. They have tons of support and a time-proven user interface that you can trust to help you make your sales.

You almost have zero control. Besides what you get to say, and what photo’s you get to upload, you pretty much have no say on how your product page will actually look.

Your product page will look just about the same as every other.

It can be very tough to build a recognizable brand from the ground up when you look like everyone else.

There you have it folks, a neat little article outlining the options available for selling merchandise directly to your fans.

Everything from selling in person at comic conventions or book signings. To making your merchandise available in the digital realm by using your own e-commerce site (that you would have to manage) or utilizing web services provided by either the merchandise manufacturer or trusted platforms like eBay or Amazon.

Pros and cons were covered, now thoughts begin to bubble. Take some time to consider your merchandising strategies.