How to Start Selling T-Shirts Online

How to Start a T-Shirt Business Online. This is the ultimate guide to setting up a t-shirt business online, i.e. from registering your domain to securing your website. No need to panic anymore we will show you the easiest way to get your online shop up and running at the best value for your business.

Starting a T-Shirt Business

This guide will help you to set-up your online t-shirt shop with minimal fuss. In our experience you will want to keep full access to your domain name (website address), control of your web hosting, full access to the backend of your website, and complete control of your website. This guide will show you the inside tips and techniques to get your t-shirt business up and running online. In this guide you will find information about: Domain Names; Web Hosting; Email Addresses; WordPress CMS; WooCommerce; WooCommerce Themes; WooCommerce Plugins; WordPress Plugins; Speed Up Your Site; and Securing Your Website.

1. Domain Name

Your domain name needs to be short, reflect your brand and says exactly what it says on the tin. Try not to be too keyword spammy and just go with something short and memorable if you can. We recommend only purchasing both the .co.uk and .com domain names for UK based businesses, and the .com and regional domain for US, EU and Rest of the World based businesses.

Choosing a domain registration company is one of the most important choices you will make for your new ecommerce store. It may not seem like the most pressing choice you will make but when you encounter issues, and you will do, such as terrible support, you wished you spent five minutes selecting the right company. Here are our recommendations for the best domain registration companies:-

UK based T-Shirt Companies

We recommend Tsohost as the ideal domain registration company for UK based T-Shirt Companies. You can get an extra 10% off your domain registration by using the code: “DOMAINS10”.

Visit Tsohost

US, EU and Rest of World based T-Shirt Companies

We recommend Vidahost as the ideal domain registration company for US, EU and Rest of World based T-Shirt Companies. You can get an extra % off your domain registration by using the code: “HOSTSAVE”.

Visit Vidahost

2. Web Hosting

Having a fast web hosting company that helps when you encounter issues is worth more than its weight in gold. There are so many companies offering a cheap service that many people regret choosing.

We hope that you have taken our recommendation of using Tsohost or Vidahost to register your domain as we also recommend that you purchase web hosting from them too. It is uber-fast and the support is excellent.

UK based T-Shirt Companies

We recommend Tsohost as the ideal web hosting company for UK based T-Shirt Companies. You can get an extra 10% off your web hosting by using the code: “GET10OFF”.

Visit Tsohost

US, EU and Rest of World based T-Shirt Companies

We recommend Vidahost as the ideal web hosting company for US, EU and Rest of World based T-Shirt Companies. You can get an extra % off your web hosting by using the code: “HOSTSAVE”.

Visit Vidahost

3. Email Address

A professional email address from your domain name is a great sign that your company is professional and adds another trust indicator to your website.

If you choose to use Tsohost and Vidahost as your domain registration company then you will get free email addresses as part of purchasing your domain. These are easy to set-up in the control panel and you will be able to access them online, on your desktop using software such as Outlook and on your mobile devices.

4. WordPress CMS

WordPress Content Management System (CMS) is free to use and is used by millions of websites and business around the world. It is the number one choice for start-ups and small businesses not only because it is free-to-use but that it is so versatile you can create just about anything you can imagine.

We build all our client’s websites on WordPress and recommend it unreservedly.

WordPress is really simple to install and your web hosting company will provide a simple guide. WordPress has a famous 5-minute install process and you can be up and running in no time.

If you choose to go with our recommended Tsohost or Vidahost then they will help and even install WordPress for you if you ask nicely enough.

5. WooCommerce

WooCommerce will turn your WordPress install in to a fully-functioning ecommerce site. WooCommerce is the number 1 ecommerce plugin for WordPress and is very very simple to install and set-up.

Visit WooCommerce

To install WooCommerce, visit the WooCommerce website, download the plugin, then login to the backend of your website, click the tab ‘Plugins’ and ‘Add New’. Then just upload the file and click install and activate. It is really that simple to do.

6. WooCommerce Themes

You don’t need to pay thousands for a developer or designer to create you a fully functioning and beautiful website. All you need to do is install a theme. A theme is simply a design for your website. You need to get a WordPress WooCommerce compatible theme. The difference between a WordPress theme and a WordPress WooCommerce theme is that the latter is specially designed for the plugins functions.

View WooCommerce Themes at ThemeForest

7. WooCommerce Plugins

WooCommerce is an amazing ecommerce plugin but its functionality can be expanded further through a whole range of plugins. There are two main

View WooCommerce Plugins at CodeCanyon

8. WordPress Plugins

WordPress has some great functionality but you can expand this further to get the results that you want and the user-experience you require.

View WordPress Plugins at CodeCanyon

9. Speed Up Your Site

Speed is an important factor for both search engine rankings and ecommerce conversion rates. So, from that perspective, anything you can do to speed up your website is money in the bank. If you have chosen Tsohost or Vidahost then you are already doing well, but there is one major thing you can do to speed up your website from loading in seconds to loading in milliseconds.

You need to install the W3 Cache with MaxCDN. This is a killer speed combination. The Cache decreases the file sizes among other things while MaxCDN, which is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) which will instantaneously deliver your website to anywhere in the world in milliseconds.

We have a full speed test and guide of MaxCDN with an exclusive MaxCDN Discount Coupon.

10. Securing Your Website

Ecommerce security is of the utmost importance not only to protect your business from unfriendly people but also give the customer that extra trust so they can part with their hard earned cash.

Security is important on any website that requires logins even if it is not an ecommerce website. In fact if you hold any customer data on your website then you need to have improved security.

We recommend getting an SSL certificate. This creates an encrypted link between the customer and the server so nobody can look in or get their hands on any information being passed around.

If you use Tsohost then you can get an SSL certificate at a reasonable cost plus you can use the 10% off coupon: “SSL10”.

If you use Vidahost then you can get an SSL certificate also at a reasonable cost plus you can use the % off coupon: “SSLSAVE”.

If you opt for MaxCDN then you can get a special CDN SSL certificate also at a reasonable price.