The couple made 1.78 million in three years, just by selling T-shirts

In the United States, in addition to Amazon, a niche platform called Etsy is also extremely popular. In many people's inherent impression, this platform is mainly for the sale of handicraft products. But in fact, there are many forms of business on Etsy, such as "print on demand" which has attracted much attention in recent years. This article will introduce two sellers who are relatively successful in this regard, as well as the model of this business.

The couple opened the store for three years and earned 1.78 million

Cassiy Johnson from Michigan, USA, has always wanted to add another source of income. During her research, an account on YouTube that introduced a "print on demand" store caught her attention. According to the account, sellers can design patterns on blank T-shirt templates (called mockups), then send orders to manufacturers, who will print and ship the patterns.

Cassiy was very optimistic about this business model, so she decisively opened a store on Etsy. Unexpectedly, in just two months, the store's sales reached $30,000. And she only spent 30 minutes a day on it.

After more than three years on Etsy (from May 2020 to September 2023), the store's total revenue exceeded US$760,000 (about RMB 5.33 million). Among them, profits accounted for about one-third, or about RMB 1.78 million. During this process, the highest revenue in one month reached US$100,900.

Cassiy’s strategy is pretty simple: “Figure out what people are looking for and then put something in front of them to sell.” She does this by searching Etsy monthly for trends worth watching and then diving in. She also shops at Walmart and browses social media for inspiration.

From the whole operation process, she will design the pattern on the graphic design platform Canva, then superimpose it on the pre-purchased model photo, and finally upload it to the Etsy store. Throughout the process, the T-shirt does not exist until someone buys it and sends an automatic request to manufacturers and distributors such as Printify integrated by Etsy.

Cassiy also has her own ideas for graphic design. Many of her designs involve popular phrases, either in unique fonts or slightly modified for groups such as nurses or teachers. For example, grandmother-themed T-shirts use popular phrases such as "My favorite person calls me" followed by Nonnie, Mimi, Gammy, etc. In 2021, one of her most popular products has a pattern with letters that are half cheetah print and half neon font.

This business also brought her two other sources of extra income.

1. Print on demand sellers usually buy photos of models wearing blank T-shirts and then photoshop their own designs on them. These photos are called mockups. Cassiy also opened such a store on Etsy, where she sells photos of herself wearing blank T-shirts. Although this is far less profitable than print on demand, it is also a good income.

Second, Cassiy shared her experience through videos on YouTube. Her account attracted more followers very quickly, with more than 110,000 followers in one year, and the income she brought in exceeded the profit on Etsy. It takes up to 20 hours a week to make these videos. In contrast, print-on-demand sales are much less time-intensive.

However, because of this, Cassiy became increasingly busy, so her husband decided to quit his job and work with her.

The 36-year-old mother's store revenue last year was 1.54 million yuan

To this day, Emily Odio-Sutton, 36, still remembers the moment she sold her first product on Etsy.

She was at a child’s birthday party at a gym in Florida and had just eaten her birthday cake when her phone alerted her that her store had sold a speech-language pathology-themed T-shirt for $22.

Emily started this business in 2022, when she was still working at a classroom book publishing company, but the nine-to-five job prevented her from picking up her daughter from kindergarten. So she opened an on-demand printing store on Etsy, using Canva software to design patterns for Etsy-friendly products such as T-shirts and candles. Whenever a customer places an order, a manufacturer called Printify will print the design on the product and help her ship it.

What she didn't expect was that this turned out to be a viable business. It is reported that last year, her store sales revenue was $220,300 (about 1.54 million yuan), of which 30% was profit, or about 460,000 yuan. She used the money to pay off student loans, open a college savings account for her daughter, and go on a cruise with her husband.

After the success of her first sale, Emily quickly opened a second store selling downloadable event materials, such as registration forms and schedule templates. So far in 2024, the store has generated $17,200 in sales.

She only needs to spend 10 hours a week on these two stores, which is very easy. Emily said that using the software, she can design 10 candle labels in batches in one day, and then make links to sell them on Etsy the next day. The other digital product store has a lot of print materials related to activities, such as schedule templates and invitations. Customers can download them by themselves after placing an order according to their needs, which does not take any time at all.

However, although these two businesses are profitable and easy to replicate, they are also very easy to copy. For example, the startup cost of print on demand is less than $40: $10 per month for Canva Pro, $15 for Etsy to open a store, and $6 per month for downloading research tools such as eRank.

To stand out from the crowd of competitors, Emily took a template approach. “I did a lot of black and white designs, a lot of text only. Then, if I had a template that was selling really well, I would go in and put new text on it,” she said.

She also uses ChatGPT, for example, to list the “top 100 careers” or “top 100 hobbies in America,” and then does some design research on Etsy and Pinterest. Her goal is more to make an emotional connection with the items, whether it’s funny, sentimental or relatable, rather than something really trendy.

She also uses Google to search for buzzwords. For example, she looks for HR memes. "I have a social worker-themed candle that's all about data and reports. You won't find that at Target or anywhere else," Emily says proudly.

Many people fail when doing this business. Emily believes that in addition to the fact that the market is saturated, another important reason is that they don’t narrow the scope enough. “If you release a ‘mom’ T-shirt, it’s difficult to stand out, but if it’s a ‘twin mom Halloween’ T-shirt, the chances are much greater.”

In addition, many people think that publishing 20 designs is enough. But her experience shows that sellers must go through many attempts and constant failures before they can find effective methods. "I have almost 1,500 designs that have been eliminated because they can't be sold at all."

As we all know, clothing has long been a red ocean category in the field of cross-border e-commerce. Now, some sellers are making considerable profits on the niche platform of Etsy through a new model. It is really amazing.

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