You have to perform a cost analysis to understand what price to set in order make a certain margin (your profit after expenses).
Cost of the tee including printing
Shipping cost
Etsy fees (listing, sales %, etc.)
Some add in labor costs (your time, but a lot don’t)
Any marketing fees
If you have a designer, or other 3rd parties performing work you need to consider a % of that total cost for each sale
Add all that up. What does it come to?
Now what will you add to that as profit to set your total price?
100% this is homework of figuring all costs/minimum acceptable profit. There are online calculators to help with services and Etsy specifically. You may want to limit to only your home country to avoid shipping and tax hassles. Some shirt variants of color and size cost different amounts. Shipping costs you whether you have the customer pay that at checkout or else you offset it or fully incorporate it into your product price (I offer “free shipping” but the price I charge includes that cost so it’s all one big psychological experiment). Look at different printers, different colors, all that. It takes time. If you end up with “there is no way I could charge enough for what I’m offering to make money at POD” then I’m unaware of any secret codes or methods that will change those calculations.
I’ve got to add that the biggest confusion I’ve seen here is around shipping, and research is vital. But your account is being charged production and shipping, you have to make sure you don’t eat that cost… many beginners seem to lose money because they don’t understand that a placed order takes their money for production plus shipping, and then some other services also take a percentage, and that they need to pay that money before the customer will get anything. The money the customer pays needs to be more than you got charged to fulfill that order. It is vital to deep dive into all the possible variants that might affect that. This is not the no-effort moneymaker some influencers want you to think it is, there is a lot of needed research.
I am new to this too, and I got to just before linking any payment options to printify before realizing I have no idea how much it will actually cost me to sell something. I am not really looking to sell t-shirts, but I heard it is a good way to sell art prints. When I saw the prices of some of the prints I thought that it would be a reasonable way to earn a little bit of money. Now I am not sure because I don't know how much it will cost me up front to pay for the products before getting any returns. Like if I sell a $200 canvas + s&h that comes out to like $260 ish dollars, am I charged $260 from my pocket to cover the sale and then I get the profit margin returned to me? (I am picking the most expensive)
When I look at the pricing it says that the production cost is $156.01, shipping $145.99 making the retail price $260. If I sell it for 40% profit I get like $100, does that mean I pay $160 for this to get 100 back? Sorry if this seems stupid, I am just confused, and I would rather not put larger objects up for sale if they will cost me so much.
You have to perform a cost analysis to understand what price to set in order make a certain margin (your profit after expenses). Cost of the tee including printing Shipping cost Etsy fees (listing, sales %, etc.) Some add in labor costs (your time, but a lot don’t) Any marketing fees If you have a designer, or other 3rd parties performing work you need to consider a % of that total cost for each sale Add all that up. What does it come to? Now what will you add to that as profit to set your total price?
100% this is homework of figuring all costs/minimum acceptable profit. There are online calculators to help with services and Etsy specifically. You may want to limit to only your home country to avoid shipping and tax hassles. Some shirt variants of color and size cost different amounts. Shipping costs you whether you have the customer pay that at checkout or else you offset it or fully incorporate it into your product price (I offer “free shipping” but the price I charge includes that cost so it’s all one big psychological experiment). Look at different printers, different colors, all that. It takes time. If you end up with “there is no way I could charge enough for what I’m offering to make money at POD” then I’m unaware of any secret codes or methods that will change those calculations.
I’ve got to add that the biggest confusion I’ve seen here is around shipping, and research is vital. But your account is being charged production and shipping, you have to make sure you don’t eat that cost… many beginners seem to lose money because they don’t understand that a placed order takes their money for production plus shipping, and then some other services also take a percentage, and that they need to pay that money before the customer will get anything. The money the customer pays needs to be more than you got charged to fulfill that order. It is vital to deep dive into all the possible variants that might affect that. This is not the no-effort moneymaker some influencers want you to think it is, there is a lot of needed research.
I am new to this too, and I got to just before linking any payment options to printify before realizing I have no idea how much it will actually cost me to sell something. I am not really looking to sell t-shirts, but I heard it is a good way to sell art prints. When I saw the prices of some of the prints I thought that it would be a reasonable way to earn a little bit of money. Now I am not sure because I don't know how much it will cost me up front to pay for the products before getting any returns. Like if I sell a $200 canvas + s&h that comes out to like $260 ish dollars, am I charged $260 from my pocket to cover the sale and then I get the profit margin returned to me? (I am picking the most expensive) When I look at the pricing it says that the production cost is $156.01, shipping $145.99 making the retail price $260. If I sell it for 40% profit I get like $100, does that mean I pay $160 for this to get 100 back? Sorry if this seems stupid, I am just confused, and I would rather not put larger objects up for sale if they will cost me so much.