Where Can You Get Merchandise Made?

This is a question that requires another question to make sure that it is properly answered. You simply can’t ask where can you get merchandise made. You must first understand how you plan on selling your merch.

For the sake of merchandise, you can sell it using two different models. Those being:

• Dropshipping (you pay your supplier only when you make a sale) and...
• Holding Inventory (you pay your supplier before ever making a single sale.

Each of these different models has pros and cons. I won’t go too deep into them due to the fact that there are better sites suited for that. (I recommend you check out Shopify’s The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping, Chapter 1 already covers the advantages and disadvantages to either option well enough)

In short, using the dropshipping model offers a low starting cost with, most likely, low margins (less profit per unit sold). One major benefit is that you don’t have to hold inventory. One major downside, you don’t have nearly as much control over price and how you’re goods get to your customers.

In contrast, the model which requires you to hold inventory generally has a high starting cost with, potentially, higher margins (more profit per unit sold). The major benefit of this model is that you can have more control over your products and it’s selling price. One major disadvantage is that you have to pay a lot upfront. You’ll also have to find a place to keep all your merchandise.

If you’re starting out with the whole “I want to sell my own merchandise” plan, I would recommend what I plan on doing; start with the dropshipping model. Comic creators aren’t known for having a lot of money to invest in any venture that requires a high startup cost.

Oh, but wait. Before you can even get to ask, “where can you get merchandise made?”, there is yet another question that needs answering. Just what kind of merchandise do you want to get made?

If you go around checking the sites of other comic creators (that have the right to make and sell their own merchandise) you’ll find that a lot of them have similar ideas.

Some examples being: t-shirts, hoodies, posters, mugs, pillows, wallets, etc.

With that in mind, my advice is this; find a company that can do it all, or most, of the merchandise that you plan on selling. This way you get to deal with fewer people.

I do have a note to the wise on that advice though. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Keep looking around and find alternatives and build business relationships with these producers or at least keep them all in a tidy little document that lists them all out.

You know, in case anything bad happens to the one company you’re dealing with.

This question is quite subjective (I know how cruel this is all appears).

If you’re looking to get some t-shirts to slap a design on you can’t fail to find a decent t-shirt printing company that can do the job you’re looking to get done.

If you’re looking to find a company to slap a design on something a little less conventional, you may have to search for a long time before you find something or give up.

What I found matters to me when looking for a company, or companies, that produce merchandise are their services.

Like I mentioned in my example before; there are dozens, if not hundreds of t-shirt printing companies you can find almost anywhere in the worlds and on the internet.

What sets them apart is what they can offer besides merchandise production.

Some services to look into are:

• Web storefront (perfect if you don’t want to set up your own e-commerce store)
• Third-party e-commerce integration (if you want more control over how your e-commerce store looks and feels)
• Customized packaging
• Agreeable return policies
• Good location (really important, but depends on where you plan on selling)
• Offer dropshipping services (not all merchandise manufacturers offer this)
• Account assigned sales staff (you’d only ever have to talk to one person)

I also mentioned before that I am not the best provider of advice for business models (that’s just not what Unknown Comics is about). There are definitely much better sites available for that (I still definitely recommend checking out Shopify’s The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping and other resources).

After a long time researching merchandise manufacturers (with a major focus on companies that offer dropshipping services, customized packaging, and have good third-party e-commerce integration) I found that Printful offers just about everything that you’d need to start a pretty good looking dropshipping business for selling your merchandise.

Allow me to mention the ones that I like the most:

• Lots of different product types to choose from
• Easy-er integration with third-party e-commerce sites, specifically Shopify.
• With Shopify, you can set up automated ordering. This saves a lot of time!
• Easy-er to use pricing calculator
• Professional product photography services
• Design help
• Optional warehousing services
• Free to sign up and use
• Lots of information is readily available on their site

The benefits that Printful offer are vast. I definitely didn’t list them all here, please feel free to check out their site for more.

Well, even I have to admit I took a whole different angle to answering this questions than what I was expecting when I first started writing this.

Let’s cover what we’ve learned, shall we?

We’ve figured out that before we begin our search for where you can get merchandise made you must first ask yourself which type of business model you plan on operating your business with. I know this is late in the article, but yes, if you’re going to start selling merchandise you better believe you’re operating a business. We, lightly, covered the dropshipping and inventory holding models. I also made reference to Shopify’s resources that are available for free for anyone to enjoy.

We also figured out that as long as you’re looking to sell what many consider to be conventional merchandise you can easily find any company to produce it. What sets them all apart is the added services they offer. Always compare services!

I even shared a good option for any comic creator to start with by mentioning Printful as a merchandise manufacturer.

With this information, you can definitely give yourself the direction you need to find the best place to get your merchandise made!