YouTube Merch Guide: How To Create Merch As A YouTuber?

Last updated on April 15th, 2024

YouTube is amongst the big social platforms that engage millions of viewers and followers daily. For marketers, such a massive channel is a boon to take businesses at its peak by targeting relevant audiences efficiently and turning them into loyal customers. Considering that, thousands of YouTubers create merch, sell to prospective buyers, and earn a steady income. But, they need to adhere to some basics while creating merchandise and selling it to followers. Here, we present a YouTube merch guide that helps to understand how to create merch as a YouTuber. Have a look.

Most businesses target customers by exploring the massive audience that YouTube enjoys today. This social channel is a favorite of marketers as they can engage many thousands of followers and interact with them through creative videos.

The visual medium is popular amongst people also because of its ability to convey a message with minimum stress for the viewers.

So, are you in the business of selling merch? Have you started an online store to sell merchandise such as custom t shirt, hoodies, fitness merch, caps, phone cases, and a wide range of accessories?

But figuring out why your online store cannot sell enough merch and meet your sales goal without marking it making it obvious.

You should know that one of the reasons for selling merch on this visual platform is your channel can grow fast with minimum efforts and investment. To make it more understandable, let’s go through the basics.

According to a report, in the U.S, the audience on YouTube will reach 210 million viewers in 2022, which was 192 million in 2018.

The video-sharing giant has over 1.5 billion active users across the world. Also, thousands of there are many thousands of video content creators active on this platform.

Who Are YouTubers?

A YouTuber creates content for viewers on this social channel. So, YouTubers are also known as YouTube content creators. They are also categorized as a type of videographers who are involved in producing videos regularly for YouTube.

They create content with the intention of entertaining viewers as well as offering authentic content. In this way, they foster an influential relationship and a closer bond with their followers.

What Is Merch?

Merch is short for merchandise, which means any product that is sold or bought from a shop. So, everything that you see in a shopping mall is merch.

In this way, every brand which sells products is dealing with merch. For instance, a clothing store is selling different types of merch, such as , T-shirts, shirts, fitness merch, etc.

It may also be selling accessories such as custom mugs, phone cases, etc. as merch. T-shirts are amongst the most popular custom branded merchandise. Considering that, hundreds of leading platforms are selling T-shirts.

What Is YouTube Merch?

YouTube merchandise is an effective way to earn money and to grow your brand. It is the one of the ways to promote / sell merch to your subscribers through YouTube platform under the channel name.

Many YouTubers create impressive content right from the start. Others take their time to build their audience gradually with video engagement. Sometimes, a single viral video can bring a massive number of people to a video channel.

This is a great way to generate a lot of views and subscriptions. Many YouTubers think that they will first build the audience and then think of monetizing their channel. Then, they start placing advertisements in their videos.

Why Should YouTubers Create Merch?

YouTube is a big platform that engages millions of people daily. It is also a search engine that people use to look for information. But, it is also a huge sales platform that you can explore to sell merch to your followers and fans.

Here Are Some Of The Major Reasons To Create Your Merch On YouTube

i. Engage Your Audience

Your business has a target audience. They are your prospective buyers of merch you create to sell at a profit. YouTube is a visual medium that entertainingly engages people without putting much stress on them.

Therefore, your presentation of merch on YouTube impresses people more, and they start thinking in terms of buying your merch.

ii. Build Brand Recognition

Your brand is all about what opinion people form about it and how they react to it when they use its products.

But to build your brand recognition, your logo design and other brand visuals must be visible consistently. YouTube is a visual platform where your brand will be visible in an impressive way to your target audience.

iii. Create Your Own Unique Merch

YouTubers can create awesome products to generate revenue. It allows you to make your products and sell at 100% profit.

There is no need for you to order merch in bulk and store, and then package and post every single product. You eliminate all these hassles when selling merch from your YouTube channel.

iv. Earn Money

YouTube is your source of earning big revenue regularly. But how much you will earn will depend on how creative your merch designs are. Pricing of the merch also will be a determining factor in earning money from your channel.

v. Give Your Fans Something Back

YouTubers have a large base of followers who are willing to buy merch. They are your support system. So, create a line of merch for them after knowing what they want.

For instance, you can run a poll on social media pages to know what merch design they want and get their suggestions. Then, give your hardcore fans the merch they are looking for.

How To Make Merch As A YouTuber?

Here Are some key steps you should take to make merchandise as a YouTuber.

01. Prepare Yourself Thoroughly

The very first step to take when creating your merch as YouTuber or influencer is to do the necessary preparation. You have millions of followers, but are they actually willing to buy merchandise from your shop?

On the other hand, a YouTuber with a smaller number of followers may be able to sell more T-shirts. Therefore, be absolutely sure that you are ready to launch your YouTube channel to sell merchandise.

To prepare, do some research on whether or not people mention your brand very often. Find out if people engage themselves with your blog posts. You have a large base of followers, but know if they like or comment on your blog posts.

Remember that if your followers show their engagement with your content, they are more likely to buy products from you. You can even ask your followers or audience directly if they would like to buy merch from you.

For instance, if you are selling clothing to fitness enthusiast, find out also what kind of fitness merchandise, they are more interested in buying.

However, a better approach will be to go through the process thoughtfully by following each step carefully. You must have a clear understanding of what exactly you need and how much time you can easily invest without impeding the rest of your daily chores.

02. Research The Interest Of Your Audience

Before you start selling to the customers as a YouTuber, make sure that you have a clear picture of who the customer is.

You must know why the buyer will prefer your merch over many others in the market. So, do the market research to find out the ongoing fitness merch or other merch design trends.

For instance, find out which print-on-demand products are most popular with your audience.

To find it out, you can use Google Trends to have an insight into the customers’ interest in the products. For instance, leggings are popular with women of all ages, hoodies and hooded sweatshirts are other fashionable garments people are buying.

03. Offer Unique Merch

People like to buy something that stands out. Therefore, you should define your custom clothing brand or any other merch brand, and know how it stands out from other brands.

Why should buyers prefer your products over others? You should answer that question precisely to come out with something unique to offer.

Here Is What You Need To Ensure

i. Create Unique Merch

Your merchandise must stand out in its design. So, you should hire an experienced designer or artist or collaborate with them to have branded merchandise ideas and to design the merch. You can even use some design tools that help create designs on your own as per your requirements.

ii. Link The Merch With Events

You should make your merchandise relevant to your followers. For that, think of linking your merch with an event that your fans are looking forward to. For instance, you can create a special T-shirt design to sell it during a sporting event such as the World Cup.

04. Get The Logistics In Place

After you create unique merch, now is the time to ensure that you have the means to move ahead with your plans. Here are the things to put in place.

First, make sure that you have the budget. You should decide on the amount of money you wish to invest in creating and marketing your merch. You will need funds to hire designers. Work out how much money you need to sell merch.

Amongst the important gadgets, you will buy for your merch business is the printer. But to save money, you should switch to a print-on-demand platform that allows you to print your design or artwork on clothes such as a T-shirt.

05. Find Out The Right Place To Sell Your Merch

Pick a platform that you think is best to sell your merchandise. Consider the audience and fan base of the platform when choosing out of many such sites. While you have plenty of options to choose from, PrintShop helps you in many ways.

PrintShop is a print-on-demand platform from Designhill, a leading creative marketplace. At this site, you can start your online store to sell merchandise quickly and without hassles.

One of the biggest advantages here is that you have access to millions of the audience of the owner site Designhill.

So, just create your design at this site and choose the clothing or accessories you wish to print the design on. Then, order the site to print and send the product to the customer. In this way, you can save money in your initial days of running a merchandise selling business.

06. Set Your Goals

When you set out to create merch as a YouTuber, chalk out your business goals well in advance. These goals will also be a standard to know if you achieved what you aspired for from the channel or you lagged behind.

So, ask yourself a few questions, such as what is your goal of setting your channel. Is it about making just a bit of extra money or full-time income? Or, does the channel aim at developing your overall brand?

As you have a clear picture of what your YouTube channel wishes to achieve, it helps in making an effective sales strategy. But you should be realistic in setting the goals. Do not be too ambitious.

Instead, evaluate your circumstances to know where you stand in terms of design skills, marketing expertise, number of followers, etc. Then, set a target that is not too low, and still, it is challenging and motivational.

07. Promote Your Merch

Once you have created uniquely designed merch, think of promoting your business aggressively. A well planned promotional tactic is important for selling the products to more people. The promotional strategy is all about encouraging and enticing your followers to buy more from you.

Follow These Vital Tips

i. Make Original Content

Your followers look forward to your YouTube videos only to get educated on a topic. They want new and updated information on the business and industry that you want to cover in your videos.

So, create only unique and original content. Such videos should engage your followers. With such attractive and useful videos, you can introduce your range of merch to your followers and hope to sell it more of them.

ii. Put On Your Merch

People love to be shown a demonstration of how things work to learn the basics. When making YouTube videos to sell merch, show them that you are proud of the products. The best way to show your pride is to wear a T-shirt or any other clothing you want to show in the video.

When followers see you wearing the clothing, it helps in generating their interest. They will keep the merch at the back of their mind and will hopefully buy it someday.

Also, in your YouTube videos, show your followers wearing your merch. This way, you will generate hype amongst them. When they see others wearing those t-shirts, it fills the prospective buyers with confidence in your products.

Bonus Tips:

Hey YouTubers! Here’s Some Ideas For Your Next Merch Design

A merch design that is routine and boring is not going to sell. People come to the YouTubers to buy something exciting and unique. Keep that in mind all the time while creating your merch.

So, find out some new ideas to create the design. The ideas keep changing depending on the locality, people’s choices, and other factors. But here are some of the themes you can try to look different.

i. Create For Your Community

How about using some community lingo as part of your merch design? Are there some key phrases that your community often likes to repeat? Are there some unique trends emerging up in your audience? Use community-specific choices in your design.

ii. Use Your Channel’s Achievements

After your YouTube merchandise channel has achieved its set goals, you can celebrate that in your unique way. Sell T-shirts that speak loudly about the goals, such as the number of followers or views your channel got.

Print these goals as part of your design on the merch clothing. Your followers and fans will love to buy such clothing to wear proudly.

iii. Support A Cause

Another idea that most YouTubers use is to design something that reflects their support toward a social cause. You will have unique merchandise ideas of merch designs for motivating your audience to do something to help the cause.

Make sure that you donate a good percentage of your profit to the cause. So, sell these items of clothing or accessories at low prices.

iv. Create For Events And Holidays

Events and holidays are the occasions that naturally generate many new design ideas. Consider a popular forthcoming event or holiday and choose an attractive theme to design merch and celebrate it with your audience.

How To Make Money By Selling YouTube Merch?

Making a good amount of money regularly by selling your merch from YouTube is an attractive option. You can earn as much as you can depending on your design skills, marketing strategies, ability to create unique content and engage your audience with what you sell.

First of all, you must ensure that your fans and followers are well engaged with what you do as a merch creator. You should generate curiosity in them about your T-shirt etc. clothing.

Then, create something new and inspiring that helps build your personal brand. Remember that generic merch will simply not sell.

When selling your creative merch, consider the price variations. Do not sell all the merch designs at around the same price. Pricing of the product is also a tactic to sell. So, vary your prices of merch.

Set some of the prices low while others are high or very high to give many price options to the buyers. So, in this way, you cover people with different budgets, and more people can buy your merch.

Use a compelling call to action in your videos. After making a nice presentation of your merch designs to sell, do not forget to provide your online store’s link.

So, these are the key measures you should take to create merch and sell as a YouTuber. But it will take days and even many months before you finally make your channel popular with the audience.

You will start reaping the benefits only after building an audience of thousands of followers and fans.

However, your online store to create and sell merchandise is the basis of your business. Therefore, focus on building a useful store for your customers with creative merch designs.

It is from this store that you will create and order a print-on-demand site to print your designs on T-shirts, hoodies, etc. clothing and also on accessories like hats and custom phone cases.

When planning to open your store that you will promote as YouTuber to sell merch, think of PrintShop from Designhill. At this site, you can open your online shop to create and sell merch for free and earn money as well.

You also have access to thousands of potential customers that are driven from Designhill to your site automatically. You can convert those people into your customers.

Wrapping Up

YouTube is a great platform to sell merch such as fitness merch with attractive profit. But, make sure that you have a perfect marketing strategy to sell your creative merch designs. First, know your target audience and build your follower and fan base steadily. That will, in turn, help build your brand and recognition. Set realistic sales goals. Offer your merch at attractive but varied prices to cover different budgets. Most importantly, come up with unique merch design ideas for holidays and events to sell more.

Get Your Merchandise Design