How to Design and Sell Top Selling Retro Shirts For Etsy

How to Design Best-Selling Retro T-Shirts for Etsy

When you create t-shirt designs for print-on-demand, your primary mission is straightforward: to start selling t-shirts as soon as possible. Of course, Etsy shops are a great way to start making money quickly.

However, if you already have an Etsy account, you know that thousands of Etsy sellers have the same idea.

In other words, selling t-shirts, as well as other print-on-demand design ideas, is very competitive. Nevertheless, it can be a very profitable business venture - if you know what you're doing.

Specific tried methods can help you sell t-shirts on Etsy. In particular, you can direct your marketing towards a specific audience to gain more customers easily. Naturally, this strategy will work on every sales site, including Etsy.

In addition, you can nail the t-shirt design for your customer base using Kittl. The online design platform has all the tools you'll need for the job. You can sign up and design the ideal t-shirt in minutes, either by customizing existing t-shirt designs or by starting from scratch.

This article will give you a tutorial for creating retro t-shirt designs with Kittl. But before we jump into that, let's go over some tips on how to sell printed shirts on Etsy.

1. Research Best-Selling T-Shirts on Etsy Store

If you want to sell t-shirts on Etsy, the first thing you should research is the most popular t-shirt designs on the online marketplace.

You can use the search function on the Etsy store to find the t-shirt type that interests you. The top search results will display the best-selling items. Note which print designs Etsy customers like the most.

Check out the average price of those graphic tees to understand what's comfortable for most Etsy shoppers and how much profit the sellers can make. Also, pay attention to whether the sellers offer free shipping. Shipping rates may impact product prices, but they'll often draw in more customer likes.

Analyze other details as well, such as product descriptions, what target audience the sellers are going for, whether they have a production partner, and if they're running Etsy ads for marketing. Some sellers even use QR codes to link customers to other product listings or special offers. You can generate these easily with the best QR code generator. This information will give you a better strategic direction moving forward.

2. Know the T-Shirt Type for Your Niche

Any Etsy shop owner who's started selling t-shirts successfully will tell you that knowing your niche is crucial. If you want to ship custom t-shirts, you'll need to know what makes your target audience tick.

It would be best to focus on a style that fits you the best and let your design preferences drive you toward a particular niche. Once you've determined your market area, mission and vision statement for your business, you can dive deeper into the types of t-shirts your audience will be interested in buying.

3. Pinpoint the Target Market for Your Etsy T-Shirt Shop

While niching is a core business strategy, a successful Etsy shop manager will go deeper with cross-niche research. This means getting super specific about the customers you're trying to attract. For example, your ideal customer could be a yoga enthusiast, but your gold mine may be in yoga practitioners who also love spending time outdoors.

Understanding your customers to the finest details will largely impact your Etsy t-shirts business. Ultimately, it will give you more visibility as your shop starts making sales, driving up your profit margin.

New sellers who get this aspect right will attract one interested customer after the other, especially as they introduce more listings and invest more in marketing.

4. Get Inspired by Other Designs on Etsy

You can learn much from best-selling shop owners in terms of print design. Look for a store that caters to the same niche as you, and check out the shirts that sell the best. Also, try to figure out specific details like where those Etsy sellers buy their shirts, which body shapes sell more than others, and, of course, which shirt designs drive sales better.

Investing time in design research will help you gain ground on the sales platform. After all, buyers aren't only attracted to low prices. Many care about the graphics above everything else, including the price. That's why learning about the most successful designs can quickly help your store get better sales figures.

5. Learn How to Design Best-Selling Shirts for Etsy With Kittl

Once you know what t-shirts you're going for, it's time to create some new designs to print. Kittl will be the right platform for just that.

In this article, we'll give you a tutorial on how to create retro t-shirt designs that will sell on Etsy stores. Using what you learn here, you can make various types of t-shirt designs, from funny ones like this t-shirt template to 70s-style creations like this Free Spirit retro design.

Kittl offers plenty of learning resources, templates, and design tools. Before we get started, you may want to check our ultimate guide on designing a retro lettering t-shirt or learn how to create an amazing t-shirt design that sell. And if you're ready to go, let's see how to make top-selling retro t-shirts for Etsy shops.

Choose a Retro Font

Kittl has a large selection of retro fonts that will give your t-shirts the style you want. Add text to your project and go to the right sidebar. You'll find the font selection menu under "Text Settings."

We'd recommend fonts like Sunship, Spicy Rice, Pacifico, or Cherry Puff for your retro t-shirt design. Of course, there are many others to try out.

Apply Text Effects

Relatively basic text effects will make your t-shirt stand out. In particular, let's see how changing the borders can impact the look of your print-on-demand design.

You can change the inner and outer text border in Kittl, as well as add a double border. For the inner border, go to "Text Settings" and increase the border weight.

Outer border settings will be under the "Effects" tab, where you can add shading and decoration. Choose a block shadow with zero offset and a -90 degree angle, then adjust the outline width for a thicker outer border.

Finally, combine the two methods to make a double border. This effect can produce great results, especially if you play with border colors.

Adding Strokes to Script Fonts

When you apply an outer border to a script font, you'll notice that the effect doesn't look quite right. The letters gain a border around the pieces that carry over. Luckily, there's an easy workaround to fix this and add seamless strokes to any script font.

Instead of adding a border, create a shadow effect on the script font and remove the offset.

Find and Import Color Palettes

If you want to expand your color options, Kittl allows you to import color palettes from other sources. For instance, you can find amazing color palettes on websites like Coolors.

To grab a color from Coolors, click on the shade you like and copy its code. Then, in Kittl, simply paste the code in the color selection tool for any object you wish.

Create the Basic T-Shirt Layout

Your t-shirt layout doesn't have to be very complex - you can create an amazing design with one witty sentence, a good font, and a clever application of effects.

For example, we wrote "All you need is love and coffee" in the Sunny Drop font. We made "is love" larger, then placed "and coffee" below it in a smaller font size to emphasize the punchline.

Use the Wave Effect

Wave text effects are a great choice for retro t-shirt designs. While Kittl has a "Wave" effect in its toolset, we'll actually use a different option to get the desired look - "Distort." This effect is in the "Text Settings" menu under "Transformation."

When you apply distort, several nodes will appear around the selected text. You'll want to find the handle nodes and drag them to start distorting the text. Manipulate the nodes to create a wavy shape. For our example, we used the effect on the first two lines but left the third line as is.

Choose the Right Colors and Add Illustrations

Bright and lively colors will be the right choice for this design. We went with tan pink for "All you need," a darker pink for "is love," and brown for "and coffee."

We also applied a brown shadow to the first two lines. For "is love," we copied and pasted the text without moving it. Then, we added a very light pink shadow and increased its offset to create a double shadow.

To wrap up the design, we took a coffee bean illustration from the "Add Elements" menu and inserted it over the letter "O" in "love." Then, we changed the bean's color to match the rest of the letters and increased it to cover the "O" completely.

As a finishing touch, we threw in a couple of hearts in different colors.

Dominate the Etsy T-Shirt Business With Kittl

Kittl allows you to design t-shirts any way you want. You can keep customizing the retro print design that we've showcased here or try a different tutorial like this Vintage Skull t-shirt design guide for more tips on another style.

Wrap up your Kittl project, get it printed, and begin making money selling t-shirts on Etsy today. Great designs will become your best marketing method, whether on Etsy or any other site.

Coffee lover t-shirt template in Kittl