We all have to sell something. It’s a fact of life. Many of our clients at Fire Sign Merch are entrepreneurs of another discipline, like comedy or music, and they often find it frustrating or confusing to monetize their creativity. Too many believe that running an e-commerce business is complex, laborious, and time consuming, even at step one (choosing your products.) The truth is, it doesn’t need to be.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a death metal band from Florida, a momfluencer from Iowa, or a streetwear designer from Los Angeles; fans of your creativity will buy your products based on the emotional tie they have to what you created. And as fun as it is be unique, most people use and enjoy the same basic things. Consumers need utility and comfort. The elements that will make your merchandise truly unique should be in how you choose to stylize, brand, and curate products that already exist. Don’t overcomplicate things before you even begun. After all, you’re busy enough in the studio working on your next album.
Every year Shopify updates their list of trending products based on data they collect from entrepreneurs selling on their platform. We are able to source and decorate nearly endless options of high quality and fairly priced goods in all 9 categories below. The best part? Many of them command as much as 50-100% profit margin when marked up to MSRP.
Here are the top 9 most popular soft and hard goods sold by US Shopify merchants, along with some notes on how you can customize them with us:
Coats & Jackets
The possibilities are truly endless when producing outerwear. For some, the possibilities may be too endless; they can be downright overwhelming. You can cut-and-sew a completely original shape and design. Material options can be cotton, polyester, leather, silk, linen, and on and on. You can implement an array of pockets and zippers. Your outerwear could be long, short, heavy, light, and with or without a hood. Once the piece is assembled, you can add your custom tag to the neck, or decorate it with screenprinting and embroidery.
For our part, Fire Sign Merch has developed relationships with a long list of garment producers whose products we trust. If your goal is to keep your product line simple while you focus on your creativity, we’d suggest decorating a blank that our partners have already tested and proven.
Art & Crafting Materials
In the world of influencer and content marketing, visual artists have found a new way to make money: Sell the art supplies that they use in their work. Paintbrushes can be printed with your brand’s name along the handle. Packs of chalk, watercolors, crayons, pens, and colored pencils can be packaged with your logo on the outside. In some cases you can develop a combination of your own custom shades and colors of the supplies themselves.
Drinkware
Cups, mugs, and glasses of all shapes and materials can be decorated with your logo on the outside or bottom. The most popular decorating methods we get requests for are frosting, etching, engraving, grooving, and printing. Most people would think of custom drinkware in association with a bar, coffee shop, or ready-to-drink brand promoting their beverage, but there are many clever ways to sell drinkware. Our clients Snarky Puppy sold custom Snarky Puppy camper mugs at their festival run last year, which was a great way to provide novelty and utility to their fans.
Socks
The sock trend really started to boom 12 or so years ago with, Happy Socks being early to jump on it. These blank canvases can be kitschy, clever, funny, loud, or sleek. They can be low top, knee-high, thick or thin. Optional decoration methods include embroidery, knitting, printing, or heat transfer.
Bedsheets
Bedsheets command a great margin when resold at retail rates, and are as easy to customize as socks, t-shirts, and posters.
Posters & Artwork
Our favorite posters are screenprinted, but digitally printed posters and offset printing are also great options. Be sure to have hi-res imagery ready and we can discuss what stock, size, and weight will be best for your art.
Underwear
The same sock and sheets spiel applies to underwear. The branding opportunities here lack the benefit of advertising your brand publicly the way that a t-shirt or socks can, but the positive side is that if you create a great underwear product and an emotional tie between your brand and your customer, you will be remembered and recommended by your fans.
Mobile Phone Accessories
The average American spends 4.5 hours per day on their smartphone. Having your brand attached to that usage is a powerful way to maintain top-of-mind-awareness with your fans. Product options are endless, and decoration methods are many.
Blankets
Blankets are an oft-forgotten merch item. Did you know your art can even be woven into a custom blanket? Imagine a 120″ x 120″ fleece canvas of your album cover, your latest promo shot, or your original hand painting that went viral on Tik Tok. It’s an incredibly cool way to format your art, and delivery comfort to your fans.
If you’re curious about the other products Shopify has proven with their data, find the complete list here.