A lot of creators make a substantial portion of their income through merch sales. However, the main challenge they face is determining what kinds of merch will sell well. While many creators lean towards basic shirts and hoodies, fans often appreciate products that are a little more tailored to appeal to them.
Here are four kinds of merch your fans will rush to order.
1. Create a product directly related to your content niche.
Viewers often subscribe to several channels within the same content niche. The interests that unite niche channels with their audiences can be a great springboard for launching new products. Release merch that appeals to the niche interests you share with your audience by creating a product directly related to your content niche.
You can relate your merch to your content niche regardless of the size of your niche. For example, a lot of prominent beauty vloggers release makeup palettes or start their own beauty brands. These products appeal directly to their viewers because they turn to these creators for makeup advice.
You can take a bit more leniency, though. Creator Moriah Elizabeth is part of the maker community. She’s especially known for her painting videos. However, rather than design an activity book about painting, she went for something with wider appeal. Her Create This Book series invites fans to make art with whatever medium they prefer.
2. Craft a piece of merch by hand.
Handmade items hold a lot of sentimental value. Imagine if you could have something your favorite celebrity made themselves. While you may not ever be able to buy a canvas painted by Beyonce or a beaded necklace made by Kim Kardashian, you can create extremely unique and special handmade merch for your own fans.
Handmade merch is probably more common than you think it is. It’s very typical in the slime community, where many creators have their own online shops for selling slime they’ve made themselves. They even promote their own shops by sending their products to other creators to review.
Plenty of creators in other content niches hand make items for their Etsy shops. This is especially true for creators in the DIY community. For example, Chelsey DIY, who’s popular for her squishy-making videos, runs an Etsy shop in which she sells things she makes herself. In this video, she showed viewers how she made polymer clay keyrings and linked them to her Etsy shop, where the keyrings were for sale.
3. Sell usable items like phone cases and Pop Sockets.
When you think of creator merch, you probably envision things like hats, shirts, and hoodies bearing your channel logo. Basic clothing items are very standard pieces of merch. However, you can also put your channel logos and custom designs on other items, which your fans can get more use out of.
Put your channel logo on things fans can use every day, such as phone cases or Pop Sockets. Turn your designs into home decor items as well, such as posters, pillow case covers, or even throws. Other usable items include mugs and tote bags.
If you want to create more things your fans can wear, go with sunglasses, slides, or bracelets. For smaller designs, try stickers, buttons, or enamel pins. Mixing up the kinds of merch you sell will prevent fans from getting bored with new releases.
4. When deciding what styles of clothing to sell, listen to your fans’ preferences.
Clothing items like t-shirts and hoodies are such popular merch choices because they’re fairly easy to make and sell. However, if you want to sell a lot of clothing, then you should listen to your fans’ opinions when it comes to style and fit. They’ll be more likely to buy clothes that were designed with their preferences in mind.
Use polls and read comments to determine the kind of clothing items your fans actually want to buy. If you’ve already released a few shirts, then they might want sweatpants to go with them. Survey your audience to find out what fits and styles they prefer as well. Ask if they prefer their shirts unisex or fitten, normal length or cropped, etc. Take into consideration any suggestions for designs or quotes to put on shirts as well.
For example, the Try Guys release a lot of clothing designs in their merch store, but they noticed their fans kept asking for cropped versions of popular products. So, the guys added cropped shirts and hoodies to their online store, which they showcased in this video.
Sell out your merch shop by designing products that are both unique and usable. Listen to your audience’s requests so you can best tailor your merch designs to suit your target customers.
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Kristen Harris enjoys listening to a wide range of music, from Taylor Swift to, on occasion, Celtic instrumental. She also spends her time writing, reading, and baking.
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