In 2025, a dramatic shift in the merch business can be witnessed where people are now creating unique designs in t-shirts and other merchandise products and selling those to potential customers. Thanks to AI, there is no lack of design options, as people can create high-quality design outputs in minutes.
In the Print-on-Demand segment, there is a rise as custom merchandise is becoming a trend. One can capitalize on that through the dropshipping endeavor that can build a profitable business.
There are also options for a loan or an initial capital to set up a print machine. Through the dsa agent, one can get the right lender who can provide the initial loan and that’s enough to kickstart the venture.
Step 1: Choose the Right Niche
When selling merch online, the first task is to find the niches where the trend is happening on social media, for example, choosing a pop culture reference that will substantially impact people. It can be a thing from movies, gaming, or TV shows, and in those, there are characters that one can apply in their t-shirt designs.
As well as one can also take inspiration from the motivational quotes and themes that can be printed on the merchandise. Here, it can be a funny meme or a design that will help you to get attention from the customers, and through that one can start the work towards building products around that niche which is selling more.
Step 2: Use the Right AI Design Tools
AI is a significant element that can change your business. Here, as a creator of the brand, you can start with the DALL-E & Midjourney, which helps create work that will have high quality. One can also increase the product catalog by keeping hoodies and other accessories in the portfolio.
Apart from that one can also use the Canva AI templates that are essential for creating better design work. Adobe and other products have also introduced AI work in their software; therefore, for a person to sell merchandise of unique designs, there are now enough platforms from which they can manage to do that thing.
Step 3: Choose the Print-on-Demand (POD) Setup
In setting the proper Print-on-Demand Setup, one needs to handle the printing process, then consider shipping and integrate the payment options that are useful for the service of POD.
Now, there are two options one can follow in this process: either you can choose to outsource the entire manufacturing work and focus only on marketing and selling, then the dropshipping mode is the perfect one for you. However, to make the process in-house, one must invest in one such printer to create any t-shirt design.
Here, one can get the option of a loan for building the initial setup, and one can get through a DSA partner who can navigate between the borrower and lender to find the best rate for the borrower and offer them the loan options that are essential for the setup of the business.
Step 4: Build the Perfect Online Store
The next thing one can do is create an e-commerce store essential for building the brand online and have options for the customer to purchase online. Getting customers online and fulfilling orders through a delivery system is always better for a new POD brand.
It allows the brand to maintain the business’s asset-light nature and the markup you, an entrepreneur, are putting on that product. While setting up the store, you can prefer the Shopify or the WooCommerce option, which will help you build the website for the brand quite effortlessly.
Step 5: Use Efficient Marketing Tools To Get Customers
Social media has a great advantage for new businesses to get close to their customers. You can start with running the essential social media ads to target your brand’s niche and provide the customers and the lead your business wants. Now, as a new brand, it’s also required that you build a strong online presence through organic content, which will help the brand generate organic followers.
Following these five steps allows a person to start building their merchandise business from scratch with the help of AI-led tools to create their USP, i.e., design.
