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How To Prepare Your T Shirt Shop For The Holiday Season

get your shop ready for the holidays

Are you one of those people who gets really excited the first time you see holiday items pop up on the store shelves? Or do you roll your eyes and hate how every year, the shops seem to start the holidays earlier? The thing is, those shops are on to something, and we can probably learn something from them.

To prepare your online t-shirt shop for the holidays, you need a careful strategy that includes getting an early start. The holidays can be an incredibly important time for your business, but only if you plan carefully.

Start Early

It’s totally fine if you’re not in the holiday spirit yet, but if you want your t-shirt shop to make extra sales for the holidays, then you have to start planning early.

How early? You want to give yourself at least a few months. Remember that if you have an online store, people will need to order several weeks before they intend to give their gift or wear their ‘ugly sweater.’ And in order for them to do that, you need to have all your designs ready and implemented, and you’ll also need enough time to properly promote them (find Instagram post ideas for product-based businesses here). 

Use Holiday-Themed Promotional Images and Mockups

Is it beginning to look a lot like Christmas on your Instagram page? It should be! Of course you want to stick to your general branding, but don’t be afraid to add a little holiday flare when we’re in season.

Of course, this is especially important if you are selling specifically themed holiday t-shirts. If you’re making a spooky t-shirt for Halloween, for example, wouldn’t it be better to choose a mockup from our Hey Boo Collection, rather than something generic? These pretty t shirt mockups show the Bella Canvas 3001 in black, white, heather orange and heather maroon, so customers can really get a feel for how their new Halloween tee will look (see how easy it is to use our mockups here).

Plus, in these mockups, our model is posing on a cute Halloween background, making them a fun and attractive way to get your profile in the spirit.

And if you’re going for a Christmassy theme, we’ve got lots of collections for you, like Cozy Christmas, Kids Holiday, and Simple Holiday. Again, these t shirt mockups feature models wearing holiday-colored clothing, posing for a holiday-themed photoshoot. Win-win. Finally, remember that we all get a little busier during the holidays. That’s why, again, it’s a good idea to have your images and mockups ready well in advance of when you’ll need them. And note that when you sign up for a membership, you get instant access to 1000+ gorgeous mockups, plus the ability to 1-click download entire collections if you’re in a hurry.

Set Up For Success

If you’ve done the work early and started promoting your Etsy shop, then you should be well on your way to a successful holiday season. But remember that a successful holiday season also means a busy one.

That means you need to plan on more orders coming in, and therefore ensure that your supplies, team and marketing efforts are ready. Check out our list of the best supplies for t-shirt businesses if you get stuck.

Holiday SEO

Understanding and utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important things you can do for your business (learn more about Etsy optimization here). You want search engines like Google, Etsy and Pinterest to show your store in people’s organic search results, and SEO is the best way to accomplish this.

A big part of SEO is using the right titles and tags for your products and images. When it comes to holiday products, that means you want to make sure you’re including the holiday name or theme in your title (ie, ‘Christmas T Shirt’ instead of ‘T Shirt’).  Something this simple can go a long way in creating greater visibility for your products.

And of course, the best way to prepare for any holiday is to have a thriving shop that generates sales all year round. Download our 4 free t-shirt mockups here to see how much a difference they can make in your business today!