3 Websites To Create & Market Your Own Hooping Products
Are you a hula hoop-entrepreneur looking for a low cost way to market your personally designed hooping products? Maybe you have a t-shirt design, or an inspirational hoop poster you want to offer to the world, but you don’t know how to go about materializing it. This article identifies 3 different websites that allow you to customize and sell merchandise, providing you with a preset commission for your work. They take care of the order management, fulfillment, payment processing, and customer service. You just design the product, wait for it to sell, then get paid! Sounds too easy, right? Well, guess what…it is.
*This article contains links to other websites.*
1. Zazzle
Zazzle is an online retailer that allows you to create your own merchandise and then turn around and sell it on their website. When one of your products sell, you receive a commission (or royalty) on that item. The royalty rate is predetermined by you. The higher you set your commission rate, the higher the product price will be. Zazzle takes care of all of that for you though with a handy calculator that automatically determines the price breakdown based on your desired cut. (This is an awesome feature!) This site allows you to create your own shop, free of charge, where you can list your products and direct your customers. There is no cost to sign up with Zazzle. They have a $50 payment threshold and hundreds of retail items available for you to personalize. There are many support guides and promotional tools available through the site as well. Zazzle claims to bring in 25 million shoppers monthly…certainly a great place for an aspiring artist to start! They also offer an Affiliates Program, offering you yet another way to make money through their site!
2. CafePress
CafePress is another option for creating your own store that has no set-up costs or membership fees. They have over 250 retail items available for you to personalize including t-shirts,
bags, mugs, wall clocks, calendars, and myriad other products. Just slap your hoop design on your desired product and then offer it up for sale in your CafePress Store! Each time the site sells one of your personalized hooping products, you receive a royalty. That royalty percentage is usually set at 10% at CafePress (you do not have total control over it the way you do at Zazzle). With this site, you have several different store type options, two of which are free. CafePress also offers an Affiliates Program which can earn you up to 15% commission on directed sales. This is another great (and widely recognized) option for marketing your hoop products online. Check it out! Payout begins after $25 earned, versus having to wait for the $50 threshold at Zazzle.
3. Spreadshirt
While Spreadshirt focuses largely on their custom clothing offerings, they also offer accessories like bags, mugs, phone cases, buttons, etc. This website has a fantastic clothing design tool, allowing you to see real time edits on your project. Just like the former websites discussed, Spreadshirt allows you to design products, open a store, and market your hooping products for FREE. They also offer a business partner plan for companies that have an established brand name, allowing you to work with an international sales team to implement your personalized campaign. Spreadshirt begins paying out after $25 earned, and allows you to set the commission rate you receive on your design (like Zazzle). With over 150 products to choose from, Spreadshirt is another competitive alternative worth exploring.
Have experience with a site not mentioned here? Or perhaps a personal account with
one of these companies you would like to share? Comments are welcome below!
