“You should put that on a t-shirt!”
Sometimes all it takes is a simple idea or suggestion from a friend to start an amazing creative project.
About a year and a half ago, I started my own custom clothing brand as a creative outlet for my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The frustrating aspect of starting a clothing brand is that you need to find a place to supply your blanks and make and ship the items yourself or find a platform that dropships your items to your customers.
For my newest collection, I have chosen the latter.
First, you must choose a platform to host your e-commerce website. I use Shopify, they are a secure platform with many free plug-ins and applications that assist with shipping to customers. Shopify allows users to customize every aspect of your site, and even allows users to password protect their website while in the process of getting it built. Before using dropshipping platforms, you must open your Shopify or other e-commerce platform store and connect it to your dropshipping platform.
When it comes time to find a platform to integrate into your e-commerce website, there are many options. Printful, Apliiq, Teespring, and Printify just to name a few. Today I will use Printify to show how simple it is to create a product and put it on your e-commerce website in 5 steps.
Step 1: Make a design.
If you are a beginner at graphic design, Canva is a great platform to create basic graphics to put on your items. For those who use Photoshop, you’re ready to go. For Printify, they only accept .jpg or .png files, so I will have to export my Photoshop file as a .jpg and save it. Be sure that your file is transparent.
Step 2: Choose a product
Printful has a whole catalog full of items that can be created and designed to your liking. Since we are still going through a pandemic, let’s design a mask, under the accessories category.
Step 3: Import your design.
After choosing your mask from the blanks/templates available, it’s time to import your file.
Step 4: Place your design and choose your color options.
You can move your design accordingly using your mouse or trackpad, and change the size with the arrow in the top right corner or using the table to the right. Change your background color to your desired product color.
Tip: By clicking on the preview tab along the top of the page, you can see what your product will look like on mock-ups before you save the product to your website.
Step 5: Save your product.
After you have your design perfected, click “Save product” in the bottom left corner. Now, your saved product will be visible in Printify. After saving it in Printify, it’s time to rename your item to be ready to be shared on your e-commerce platform. I’ll call this item “Gravity Logo Purple Mask.” To share it to your website, click “Publish”, and your item will be added to your e-commerce platform.
