Once you’ve set up an online store, it’s time to price your t-shirts to attract customers while making a high enough profit. This article will help you plan a t-shirt pricing strategy, factoring in your brand, competitors, and target customer base.

We’ll cover how to determine product expenses with the print-on-demand fulfillment model and how Printify can give you an advantage when setting up your custom t-shirt price list.

Evaluate your expenses

To start pricing t-shirts for profit, you must first consider your expenses. A retail business has two types of costs: fixed and variable.

Fixed costs remain mostly stable, regardless of your production volume. These are your overhead expenses and may include:

• Monthly utilities
• Internet access
• Office space
• Employee salaries
• Platform subscriptions
• Product listing fees
• Web domain hosting

Variable costs are the expenses you pay to create products. The more you produce, the higher the costs. Variable costs will help you calculate the final retail price and total profit margin of your t-shirts. 

They’re not a regular thing, and they usually happen during specific times, like when you’re developing a new product and need to hire a freelance designer. Fulfillment costs also fall under this category, as they cover shipping and other logistics – but only when something actually sells. 

Here are the common variables when it comes to selling t-shirts online:

• Design costs – These are the costs of hiring a talented designer to bring your t-shirt vision to life.
• Production costs – This covers printing your design onto each t-shirt, including materials and labor.
• Platform fees – These are the fees charged by your selling platform, like Shopify or Etsy, for listing and selling your products.
• Shipping costs – The price of getting those awesome t-shirts safely to your customers’ doorsteps.
• Marketing costs – This includes any expenses you incur promoting your apparel business, like social media ads or influencer partnerships.
• Taxes – Don’t forget about those pesky taxes! These will vary depending on your location and business structure.

What are the costs of Print on Demand?

With a print-on-demand service, you don’t have to worry about stocking inventory or buying expensive printing equipment. Products are only made when customers order, so you only pay for what you sell.

Printify makes POD even easier, with no upfront costs, automatic order fulfillment, and a transparent pricing structure.

Printify offers dozens of bestselling blank shirts for printing, all with a set production cost and shipping price in our Product Catalog. Our pricing calculator makes setting prices and profit margins easy.

How to price custom shirts for retail

Before we get into pricing estimates, let’s look at a few factors successful sellers use to gauge how high they’re willing to set their prices.

• Target audience – What is the customer willing to pay you?
• Competitors – What selling prices do other merchants set?
• Fixed costs – What are the monthly expenses of running your business?
• Variable costs – How much does each t-shirt cost to produce, promote, and sell?
• Customer experience – Does the quality of the product have the potential to make sales?

We can divide these factors into two opposing categories: existing market estimates and your own t-shirt business expenses. To price t-shirts successfully, you must find a balance – a competitive pricing sweet spot.

T-shirt profit margins

In retail, the markup you add to compensate for expenses and earnings is called a profit margin percentage. The higher the percentage, the more you get. However, you’re less likely to attract customers if you charge higher prices.

Cost of manufacturing + profit margin = final retail price

What is a good profit margin for custom t-shirts? We recommend retailers shoot for a minimum profit margin of 40% for their t-shirt business. 

This is usually enough to pay for fixed and variable costs, keep prices competitive, and make enough profit to continue growing your store.

As an example, the following formula shows a retail price calculation for Gildan’s Unisex Heavy Cotton T-Shirt with a combined manufacturing and shipping cost of $14.06:

$14.06 (base cost) x 40% (profit margin percentage) = $5.62 (final profit)

$14.06 (base cost) + $5.62 (final profit) = $19.68 (final retail price)

You can round up your shirt’s retail price to $19.99, resulting in a profit margin of $5.93. Use this formula to create a basic profit estimate for any t-shirt.

How to update your custom t-shirt pricing on Printify

If you’ve decided to sell t-shirts with Printify, updating your shirt pricing is simple. Log in to your existing Printify account, or sign up for free. Once you’ve created a custom shirt, follow these steps to update pricing:

1. Go to the My Products page on your Printify account dashboard.
2. Choose one of your t-shirts on the list and scroll down to Pricing.
3. Apply your new retail price for an individual variant, or use the bulk pricing feature. For the latter, select multiple products or click Select all, update new costs through Edit Price, and check any relevant details from the pop-up menu to sync with your online store.
4. Click Publish at the bottom of your product page.
5. Go to your store to see the updated price.

Our best-selling custom t-shirt price list

To compete in the ever-growing t-shirt market, you have to know what sells best. Let’s look at some of the bestselling t-shirts offered in our Catalog for an optimal retail price breakdown. Keep in mind that with Printify, the shipping cost isn’t calculated into the final retail price since customers will pay that separately.

T-shirt Name	Manufacturer	Production Cost (USD)	Shipping Cost paid by customer (USD)	Suggested Price (USD)
Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee	Bella+Canvas	$11.42	$4.29	$19.03
Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee	Gildan	$9.77	$4.29	$16.28
Men’s Short Sleeve Tee	Delta	$13.67	$5.19	$22.78
Unisex Garment-Dyed T-shirt	Comfort Colors	$14.69	$4.29	$24.48

Interested in more bestselling picks? Go to the Printify Catalog and select t-shirts from our Bestsellers category.

Then, scroll down to see our Print Provider options with detailed production and shipping costs. It’s best to select a Print Provider that fulfills products in your target audience’s region.

Some t-shirt pricing strategies

Before you sell, ensure that your rates can compete with existing markets, grow your business, and reflect the quality of your t-shirts. Here are a few popular t-shirt pricing tips and strategies to implement depending on your specific goals.

Value-based pricing

A value-based strategy sets your average price based on how much money customers think your shirt is worth. This framework is often used by specialty stores or luxury brands and requires a lot of research, customer service, and continuous improvement to be successful.

Communicate with your audience and research competitors to create a buyer persona. Learn about customer wants and needs and add those designs and features to your t-shirts for a competitive advantage.

Competitor-based pricing

Set a t-shirt price that’s similar to your competitors’ prices. This will ensure you have as much potential to make sales as other stores in your selected product niche and category.

Research other marketplaces and find retailers with similar product catalogs. Gather the average t-shirt price and use that as a benchmark for your products. Once you’ve gathered the data, you can match, increase, or lower your price depending on your growth.

Dynamic pricing

With dynamic pricing, you aim to change your t-shirt costs for different customer demographics and sales channels. This strategy establishes a baseline to reach more customers, changing prices depending on what works best at any time. Basically, you price your t-shirts not based on a fixed value but on a fluid scale that responds to real-time market conditions and customer behavior.

Sell on different marketplaces and see what works in the long run based on market trends and customer demands. Offer occasional sales, holiday season promotions, or increased costs at different times to keep prices dynamic and evaluate your sales throughout the year.

Psychological pricing

Use psychological trends to set a shirt price that customers are more willing to buy. First, while customers know that $0.99 is only one cent short of a dollar, it will still appeal more to them subconsciously.

Add limited-time offers and discount percentages or manufacture limited deals that give off a sense of urgency. Use math to make prices more appealing. For instance, instead of creating a 50% discount, use bundle pricing – offer a buy one, get one free deal.

Threshold pricing

This is one of the more effective pricing techniques for eCommerce stores. With the threshold pricing formula, you add a price break off the original cost to customers willing to spend a bit more than they normally would.

Offering free shipping, bulk deals, coupons, or other discount pricing features if a customer adds a certain number of items to their cart or has reached a specific upper price limit can significantly increase your sales.

Penetration pricing

In highly saturated markets, penetration pricing is a method where you sell at a price cheaper than the market average to get more traffic from new customers.

While this method can often lower your profit margins, it will develop a customer base for future growth as you slowly increase costs for a sustainable income.

Other things to consider with t-shirt pricing

Our recommended profit margins are not one-size-fits-all. Test various margins and see what sells best and gives you a nice profit. Start selling online the smart way by tracking your expenses, conducting market research in your niche, and adding more value to your products.

Respond to new fixed and variable costs of your business model

As your store grows, change your t-shirt prices based on new estimates. If you’ve added advertising fees, designer fees, a new hourly wage, and other fixed expenses, they should be covered by the profit margin while still having decent profits.

Variable costs can change based on market conditions. For instance, supply chain issues can affect production costs and shipping expenses, which you will have to either absorb or increase your total costs at buyers’ expense.

Consider your sales goals

Always consider what is more important for you at any point in your custom apparel journey.

You can have one or multiple objectives at a time:

• Increase overall profits
• Sell as many t-shirts as possible
• Grow your store traffic and site clicks
• Create seasonal campaigns for events
• Focus on product quality and brand image
• Increase your social media followers or viewers

Set a goal for the future. Decide on the monthly revenue you want to achieve and plan your pricing strategy accordingly. You don’t always need to strive for the maximum – consider increasing traffic before raising your desired profit margin.

Do market research

Keep track of competitors on your eCommerce platform and other sales channels. Reseach new trends in pricing, product tags, descriptions, and promotions to update your costs accordingly.

Choose whether to sell on a marketplace or an eCommerce platform. Marketplaces will always have more competitive prices, while your own store domain will rely more on a quality brand image.

Develop a niche target audience

Find an audience that will value your t-shirts the most. Very rare and niche products can be more expensive than average, so research how much your audience is willing to pay and find an undervalued niche with limited merchandise available to them.

Create a quality brand

Want to increase your t-shirt prices? Win over a loyal following that will buy anything associated with you. Think of how you can add more value by creating your own content and displaying more real-world use cases for your t-shirts.

FAQ

Conclusion

By following these pricing tips and experimenting on your own, you’ll find your business’s pricing sweet spot. 

To make things as easy as possible, set your t-shirt prices following these pricing tips from Printify. We offer a transparent production and shipping cost list, not to mention a Catalog full of products waiting for your incredible designs. 

With Printify’s print-on-demand service, you can save money since there are no overhead costs. Plus, we offer t-shirts and other products at a lower cost than anywhere else on the market. Price your products right, and you’ll be well on your way towards your dream lifestyle.

Shopify pricing plan overview

Shopify offers a range of pricing plans for different business needs and available budgets.

Compare the monthly and annual pricing for each Shopify plan, as well as the corresponding transaction fees that will likely add up in the long run.

So, let’s dig in and explore the specifics.

Plan	Pricing (Monthly)	Pricing (Annual – 25% off)	Transaction fees
Start	$5/month	–	5% plus $0.30 per online transaction
Basic	$39/month	$29/month	2.9% plus $0.30 per online transaction
Retail	$89/month	$79/month	2.9% plus $0.30 per online transaction
Shopify	$105/month	$79/month	2.7% plus $0.30 per online transaction
Advanced	$399/month	$299/month	2.5% plus $0.30 per online transaction
Shopify Plus	Starting at $2,300/month	–	The lowest fees of any plan, vary by country

While it’s important to go through the details to find the absolute best Shopify site plan for your store, you can also first try Shopify free and get the next three months for $1/month.

Find the best Shopify plan for your store

To accurately figure out which Shopify subscription plan works best for your online store, it’s clear that you need more than just a raw pricing overview.

We’ll go over all the available Shopify plans in more detail, covering everything you need to know before making a choice for your new or existing website.

Shopify Plans Compared

Hold on, why haven’t we explored Shopify Lite yet?

Although some Shopify users are still on the Shopify Lite plan, new merchants can no longer join.

The good news is that the Shopify Starter plan for the low price of $5/month is all you need to get a good idea of whether Shopify is the right platform for you.

This plan offers all the essentials for selling items through social media and messenger DMs.

If you want to increase the value and popularity of your small business, choose Basic Shopify for $39/month (or $29/month with the annual plan) to access a dedicated store and valuable marketing reports.

However, if you already have a profitable and financially stable business, it would make sense for you to go with the Shopify plan for $105/month (or $79/month yearly) or any other advanced plan.

Advanced Shopify plans offer both lower Shopify fees and tools that allow you to manage several store locations from one account and expand globally, taking your success to an entirely new level.

Start a Shopify eCommerce business with Printify

Join other successful Shopify websites in selling customized products by partnering with Printify.

Create products, list them in your store, and start selling!

Additional Shopify costs

Subscriptions and transaction fees are not the only expenses Shopify stores encounter on this eCommerce platform.

To run your store effectively, it’s important to review and understand all the features and services you’ll need – let’s take a closer look at all these extra costs!

Shopify vs alternatives: A pricing comparison

It’s worth looking at other platforms and website builders similar to Shopify to see what works best for your eCommerce store.

Feature	Shopify	Wix	Squarespace
Starting price	$5 per month (Start plan)	$16 per month (Light plan)	$16 per month (Personal plan)
Ease of use	User-friendly and packed full of features.	Beginner-friendly platform.	Simple store builder.
Technical features	Shopify themes, apps, and store integrations.	Built-in support for 100+ languages, great speed, and support for store integrations.	A great number of design features and apps.
Marketing and sales features	Good email marketing and blogging features.	Excellent email marketing and blogging features.	Email marketing only through a monthly subscription, various blogging features.
Customer support	24/7 customer support.	24/7 customer support.	Support through live chat, email, and help center.

Shopify pricing FAQ

To summarize

From the main Shopify pricing plans to additional expenses – refer to our breakdown of features and choose a plan that best matches your needs.

Use Printify for free and earn a profit from selling custom merch online!The right plan, combined with effective strategies and dedication, can catapult your business to new heights in 2024 and beyond.

Make it happen today!

Start selling