14 merchandise ordering/ silkscreening cost saving tips

Written by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment

Krafty Entertainment is a music business development coaching company dedicated to providing guidance to musicians (and their teams) on how best to nurture supporters and profit from doing so. Krafty Entertainment’s founder Kyle Kraft has over 20 years experience in assisting both developing and established artists in substantially growing their net income from their music. Interested in working with us? Let’s talk!

- Price breaks for blank shirts/ sweaters/ hats etc are usually in quantities of dozens, so aim to order blanks accordingly. Keep in mind you can always order more blanks than you are getting silkscreened right away for better prices per unit, and then use those blanks for future printing.

- Don’t cheap out on the type of blanks you use. You will make more sales by selling high quality items that people actually want to wear, and offering anything that isn’t high quality has the potential to have a negative impact on people’s perception of you.

- Consider the social ramifications of the blanks you choose to use. Clothing that is manufactured in third world countries may be cheaper, but are very likely to be manufactured in sweatshops. Being able to say to your supporters that you are doing your best to ensure that you aren’t supporting sweatshops will often not only be likely to have more people support you, but likely also result in more sales. 

- Don’t forget to order a full range of sizes, and be sure to get the split of sizes right. The exact range or sizes should depend on your specific audience, the region you are trying to sell merch in, etc but will likely include at least M – 2XL shirt sizes. Don’t order as many of the smallest and largest sizes in the range you are ordering, as you are most likely to sell mostly the middle range size(s). If you order equal amounts of each size, you are likely to run out of the middle range size(s) first.

- Be conscious of seasonal temperature differences when making orders. Heavy hoodies and beanies are not going to sell as well in the summer, and tank tops are going to be a harder sell in the winter. 

- Silkscreening usually involves set up costs for each time you print so you are going to get cheaper prices per item by ordering more at once BUT

- You don’t want to tie up your cash flow by sitting on tons of unsold inventory, so it would be wise to only order as much merch as you expect to be able to sell (based on past sales) in the next few months.

- Aim to have merch designs that are so good looking that people who aren’t even familiar with you would be interested in wearing them. Investing in some graphic design for your merch is a wise idea, and definitely don’t just make merch that is little more than your name on a shirt.

- If you are just starting to offer merch for the first time or are trying out a new design you would be wise to consider starting by just offering one color way per design to start with. That way you can see how well received the design is without having to invest multiple times the amount into manufacturing by having multiple color ways. Black shirts are often the bestselling color, so are a good choice to offer a new design in first.

- Each color you use in a design on each side of a blank adds roughly a dollar per unit to the cost of printing, so ideally have as few colors as is possible in your design to keep your costs down and only print on both sides of the blank if the additional printing is likely to increase sales.

- Poll your supporters online to see what design options you’re considering that they like the best. After all, they are your target audience who you are trying to sell your merch to so you would be wise to get their input before investing in new merch.

- Once you have your design and colors picked you should consider setting up an online pre-order campaign to take orders (and generate some income) from your existing supporters before you have the merch. As long as you let people know when they will be able to get their shirts, this could even help with cash flow without resulting in anyone getting upset about how long it takes them to receive their order.

- Offering “bundles” with shirts and other merch at the same time as you start taking orders for a new album is a great way to upsell supporters beyond just paying for an album, or to get support from people who aren’t inclined to pay for music at all.

- Analyze what merch is selling best, and what designs you should consider discontinuing.

This information was compiled by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment. Whether you are an artist who is in the early stages of building your career and have next to no money to invest into it looking for the best paths to generating income, are an artist that has established a following and are interested in getting assistance with securing tens of thousands of dollars in funding to further your career, or are an artist or collective with an extensive fan base that would like assistance with increasing the efficiency of your business development, we can help you.

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