In this step-by-step guide, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to start selling t-shirts online and build a successful print-on-demand business, from doing your market research, to designing your first shirt, to setting up your Shopify store and getting it live.
You can start selling t-shirts online today, with no inventory, no printing equipment, and no warehouse. Seriously.
If you’ve been looking for a flexible income stream but don’t know where to start, print on demand makes it simpler than you think.
You create the designs, your print provider handles the printing and shipping, and Shopify gives you your own branded store where customers aren’t comparing your prices to a hundred other sellers.
Let’s get into it.
Is print on demand worth it in 2026?
Yes, and the numbers back it up.
The print on demand industry is projected to grow at a 26% compound annual growth rate, with the global market expected to reach $102.99 billion by 2034.
Apparel, including t-shirts, hoodies, and custom clothing, leads the market with a 39.7% share of all print on demand products.
And here is something worth knowing: Shopify hosts 62.8% of all print-on-demand and dropshipping stores globally.
Most print-on-demand sellers make an average profit margin of around 20%, with some reaching 30% or higher, depending on the niche and product (Podbase)
The opportunity is real.
3 things make the difference between a profitable e-commerce business and the ones barely breaking even:
1) Picking the right niche,
2) Building your own brand,
3) Setting your store up correctly from the start.
That is exactly what this guide will show you.
Why Choose Shopify over Etsy for a Print on Demand Online Store
If you are just starting out, Etsy feels like the easier option. However, if you are looking to build a solid business for the long term, here are 5 reasons why Shopify is the best choice for your e-commerc platform:
1) You are building a brand, not just a listing
On Etsy, you are renting a space in someone else’s store. On Shopify, you own the store. You build your brand the way you want to and you make all the rules.
2) You are not competing on price
On Etsy, buyers scroll through dozens of similar listings side by side and pick the cheapest one. On Shopify, your customer is only on your store. They are not comparing you to anyone else. This is why you can charge higher prices when you drive traffic to your store.
3) You can build an email list
This is huge. On Etsy, you do not have access to your customers’ contact details. On Shopify, every buyer becomes a lead you can market to again and again, with new launches, sales, and coupons.
4) Your profit margin is higher
On Shopify, there are no fees eating into your earnings. You only pay a flat monthly fee. This means that if you sell more, you earn much more than what you could make on Etsy.
5) You have full control over your store
You decide what to show, how to present your products, and how to sell. You can run sales, create bundles, add “frequently bought together” suggestions, and implement advanced marketing tactics that Etsy simply does not allow.
Etsy is a great place to do market research, but Shopify is where you go to build something that actually grows.
How to start selling t shirts online – Full Tutorial 2026
This is going to be a full step by step guide to a profitable online t-shirt business! Follow the steps and you’ll be up and running in no time:
1) Do market research
The best place to do market research and see what your target audience is buying is Etsy.
This is because it is a huge marketplace for t-shirts, and with the right tools, you can see which niches are in demand, which designs are working, and which aren’t, instead of spending all this time and money starting from scratch. These sellers already have the sales data that you need, so why not use it! 🙂
A great tool that I’ve been using for years to check other sellers’ data and find the best sellers is the EverBee Etsy tool. Apart from being the most comprehensive Etsy tool you can find, it also shows you sales data for any seller you want in under a minute.
You can read more about how I use EverBee to find best sellers in this post.
Checking Etsy before you start creating any design will help you find trendy passion t-shirt niches that are best sellers right now.
2) Pick a name for your new store
You can browse Etsy for store ideas, or ask ChatGPT to help you come up with a great store name.
If you can’t decide on a name yet, that’s totally fine. You will be able to go through the whole process of setting up your store and decide on a name at the end, just before you hit publish.
If you have decided on a name, it is recommended that you purchase a domain name as soon as possible so no one else can take it. All my domains are registered with GoDaddy and Namecheap, both of which are very reliable domain registrars that offer great support for everything you need.
3) Open a Printify account
Click this link to open a free Printify account.
You will need to fill out your payment details because, when a customer places an order, Shopify collects the payment, and it arrives in your bank account a few days later. Printify will need to charge the cost to start production and shipping right away.
Can you start selling with a free Printify account? Absolutely.
If you are only starting out and don’t have a lot of sales yet, then go with the free account – there is no limit to how many designs you create!
The benefit of the Premium account is the huge discount you get (33%) on the product manufacturing costs, so when you start to see traction in your store, then it absolutely makes sense to make the switch to the Premium plan.
4) Create your first t-shirt design with Kittl
You can start using the free version right away to learn the platform and get used to it; however, it is important to note that in order to use Kittl for a print-on-demand business, you will need to upgrade to the Pro plan. The Pro plan will allow you, among many other features, to download high-quality files for your designs (which is a must for your print to look great) and use their premium graphics, elements, and fonts to make your design professional and unique.
Click on ‘Add new project’
A pop-up to choose an artboard size will open up – select the ‘T-shirt’ option to start a design of 4200 px X 4800 px – click ‘Create’ – this size is going to be perfect for a Printify shirt.
Click on ‘Illustrations’ (flower icon on the left) and search for an illustration that matches your t-shirt idea.
I’m going to create a teacher’s shirt design, so I’m looking for books.
Search for the element that you want and drag the illustration to your canvas, and place it in the middle
Adjust the colours of your illustration.
To add text, click the text icon on the left:
Then you can change the font and also the illustration colors using the menu on the right.
Here is my end result:
Click the ‘Export’ button in the top right to download this design.
Make sure you download it with the same dimensions we created the file in, and at 72 dpi for high quality (you will need a Pro account to download it in these dimensions).
5) Create your first t-shirt on Printify
Now that you have your design ready, let me show you how easy it is to upload it to Printify and create your custom t-shirt:
1) Go to the Printify catalogue
2) Select a t-shirt under women’s (or men’s) clothing
3) Select one of the best-selling t-shirts. For this example, I chose the Bella Canvas 3001
4) Choose the supplier (choose manually) or let Printify choose for you (using Printify’s choice).
I am going to select Monster Digital as they are one of the most recommended print providers for t-shirts. Click the ‘start designing’ button.
5) Upload your design and centre it in the middle – then click Preview
6) The preview mode shows you what your design looks like on a t-shirt, so you can decide if you want to make any changes (to make changes, go back to ‘edit’ mode).
7) When you’re done, click ‘save product’ (then if you go to ‘My Products’, you’ll be able to see your new t-shirt there marked as ‘unpublished’. Once you have connected your Shopify store to Printify, go back to your saved products on Printify and hit publish.
Your product will automatically appear on your Shopify dashboard.
6) Purchase beautiful mockups
So what are mockups actually? A mockup is a blank product photo that you overlay your design onto, so buyers can see exactly how your t-shirt will look in real life before they purchase it.
Your mockup images are one of the most important parts of your product page. The way your product images look will make all the difference when a buyer is scrolling and deciding whether to click on this t-shirt to see the details.
Yes, you can use the free mockups on Kittl or Canva. But the truth is, they will never look the same as stylish professional mockups. Free mockups are generic, while paid mockups make your store look like a real brand.
Here are 2 great places to buy t-shirt mockups:
- PlaceIt by Envato: Envato offers a special subscription model (very affordable) that gives you access to beautiful, high-end mockups. This model is great for anyone who is regularly adding new products and does not want all their product pages to look the same.
- Etsy: A one-time purchase of a mockup bundle.
Both are solid options. Pick the one that fits how often you plan to launch new products.
7) Place your design on your mockup
You can use Canva or Kittl to create your mockups.
For this tutorial, I will use Kittl’s free mockup. Here is a step-by-step on how to do that:
- Go to Kittl and click on ‘Mockups’ (a T-shirt icon on the left menu)
- Once you select a mockup, drag your design into the green box
When your mockup is ready, download it to your computer as a JPG file so you can upload it to your Shopify product page.
PNG files are very large, and over time, when you have more and more product pages, it will slow down your website loading time, which makes a bad user experience and also hurts your Google rankings.
8) Start your Shopify free trial
Now that you have your designs and mockups ready, you are ready to open your Shopify store and upload your product pages. Here is a step-by-step guide to start your online store:
1. Click this link to start your free trial. This special offer from Shopify will give you 3 days free, then $1 a month for the next 3 months (so you actually have 3 months to finish setting up your store and start marketing it).
Important thing to note: make sure to use the same email address you used for Printify for your Shopify account. Otherwise, when you try to connect your store to Printify, you will not see your products on Shopify (and you will see an empty page).
2. Select the Basic plan – this plan is great not just for starting up, but also when you grow. You will need to add your payment details to start the free trial and the $ 1/month 3-month subscription.
3. Don’t forget to confirm your email address at the end of the process to get access to your Shopify dashboard.
9) Connect Printify to your Shopify store
Connecting your print-on-demand provider to Shopify will automatically sync all your saved products on Printify to your store, and send every new order processed on Shopify to Printify immediately, with no additional work on your end.
There are 2 ways to connect your store to Printify: connecting from Shopify or connecting from Printify. In this guide, I will show you how to start this process by connecting from Shopify:
- On your Shopify left menu, click on ‘Apps’
- Search for the Printify app and install it with one click
- Log in to your existing Printify account
- Once it’s connected, you will see the Printify app in your Shopify menu
10) Create your product pages
Go to your Shopify dashboard and click ‘Products’. You will now see all the products you created on Printify. All you need to do now is click on each of them and add the missing information like description and images.
11) Add title, description and product images
You can write your title and description on Printify or directly on your Shopify store. If you add your title and description on Printify, it has a great AI assistant that can write your product title and description for you if you want to use it.
Use KeySearch (a beginner-friendly and very affordable keyword research tool) to find Google keywords, including low-competition keywords that can give your product page a boost in search results much more quickly.
Remove all the product images Shopify automatically created for you, they will never perform as well as the mockup images you created.
Upload your mockup images to your product page and add ALT text to each image. I would recommend that your ALT text be a 3-6-word phrase that describes your short and includes a relevant keyword, for example: ‘white teacher t-shirt’.
12) Add Pricing
As a Shopify seller, you can charge more for your t-shirts than Etsy sellers. This is where the benefit of starting a brand and building your own shop (instead of renting a space in a crowded marketplace) comes to life.
For a comfort color t-shirt, you can price it between $32 – $37 (depends on your print provider costs and your shipping costs). You can start with a price in this range, then change it once you start making sales.
13) Set up Shopify Payments
Go to ‘Settings’
Select ‘Payments’ (left menu)
Click ‘Activate Shopify Payments’
Scroll down and enable PayPal payments (by adding your PayPal account details)
14) Set up your markets
Decide which markets you want to sell to.
Click on Markets (left menu)
Create your markets – you can create the U.S. market, or Europe or any other local market that you want. For each of these markets, you need to set up the currency that you want.
15) Set up Shipping
Go to ‘Shipping and Delivery’ (left menu)
Go to ‘General Shipping Rates’
You will see the connected Printify app
Click the ‘add rates’ button and select ‘create new rate’
Select your markets and create your custom shipping rates.
For the shipping times, you can check your chosen print provider’s information on Printify.
16) Set up your store policies
Before you publish your store, you need a few legal pages in place. Shopify actually requires these, and they also build trust with your customers.
The five pages you need are:
- Return and refund policy: When customers can return products and get refunds or exchanges
- Privacy policy: How your store collects and protects customer data
- Terms of service: The rules and agreements between you and your customers
- Shipping policy: Your shipping methods, delivery timeframes, and costs
- Contact information: How customers can reach you
You do not have to write these from scratch. In your Shopify settings, click “No Policy Set” on each one, then hit “Insert Template.” Shopify will fill it in with a default template.
From there, go through each one and customize it to reflect your specific business. You can use ChatGPT to help you refine the content and make sure everything is accurate.
17) Publish your store – hooray!
You are now ready to take your store live. Here is how to do that:
- In your Shopify dashboard, go to “Online Store”
- Click “Preferences”
- Find the storefront password section and disable “Password Protection”
Once you remove the password, your store is live on the internet and ready to take orders.
You do not need everything to be perfect before you hit publish. A few well-set-up products, your policies in place, and your payments connected are enough to get started.
FAQ
It’s a good question because it feels like everyone is selling t-shirts, I get it
The truth is, the stores that struggle are the ones trying to sell everything to everyone. No clear niche, no brand identity, just a bunch of random designs thrown at the wall.
The stores that do well have one thing in common: they picked a specific audience and spoke directly to them. Teachers. Dog moms. Pickleball lovers. Nurses. These are passionate communities that buy from brands they feel connected to.
There is no shortage of niches. And on Shopify, you are building a brand around yours, not just another listing in a crowded marketplace. That is what makes the difference.
Here are the 3 best options for high-quality custom t-shirts on Printify based on a recent Printify’s research.
1. Bella Canvas 3001
A premium, unisex t-shirt with a buttery soft feel and a smooth surface that produces sharp, clean prints. It comes in a huge range of colors and suits lifestyle and casual wear brands perfectly. This one has been a top seller for years and for good reason.
2. Comfort Colors 1717
A garment-dyed t-shirt with a vintage, worn-in feel and double stitching around the collar. It has a relaxed, heavier fit that customers love, and it has been one of the strongest performers in recent years, especially for boutique-style and niche stores.
3. Gildan 5000
A reliable, budget-friendly option that works well for events, sports teams, and high-volume orders. It is durable, widely recognized, and holds print well. A solid choice if your niche leans toward team or promotional apparel.
Start with one of these three and you will be off to a great start with your POD business.
A print-on-demand supplier is the company that prints and ships your t-shirts directly to your customers, every time someone places an order in your Shopify store.
You are not manufacturing the product or holding inventory. The supplier handles everything on their end, from printing to packaging to delivery.
One of the most popular suppliers is Printify. They have over 1,000 products in their catalog, competitive pricing, and a wide range of print providers to choose from.
When a customer buys from your store, the order is automatically sent to Printify, and your chosen supplier prints and ships it. That’s the whole model.
Start a t-shirt business – your first step
You now have everything you need to sell t-shirts online without inventory, upfront cost or risk, and any experience.
The process is simpler than you think. And the best thing to do right now is just to get started.
Your first step is to open your Printify and Shopify accounts and start creating t-shirt designs for one specific niche. Do not overthink it. The more designs you create, the faster and smoother the process becomes.
Get your store published as soon as possible, as this will be your fastest way to learn. You will immediately start to see what designs are getting traction and what designs are not selling, no matter how much traffic you drive. From there, everything will get much easier.
You do not need a perfect store to be profitable. You need a published one. 🙂
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