How to make and sell merch on Twitch (+ merch ideas)

By Susanna read
10 Mar, 2024
How to make and sell merch on Twitch (+ merch ideas)

Let’s be honest:

If you want to become a full-time Twitch streamer and make a living from your streams, you will need to find a way to make money beyond Twitch ads.

And, at this point, it’s no secret that topmost Twitch streamers earn a majority of their income through their own merch stores. Selling merchandise is clearly one of the most effective ways to monetize your audience and elevate your channel.

It simply isn’t enough to rely on Twitch income alone. So, selling Twitch merchandise is the most direct way for your viewers to support you as a streamer and pay for your content. Plus, all the profit will go directly to your pocket.

So, if you’ve been looking for a website to create and sell Twitch merch, then keep on reading. We have all the tools to get you started. As a bonus, you’ll also get examples of Twitch merch ideas to inspire your own!

How much do streamers make off merch?

According to behavioral economics, profit depends entirely on getting to the heart of your customer. In other words, you don’t necessarily need to have a large audience to make money from branded merch—what matters most is that viewers love your content.

This is why earnings will vary greatly between different streamers. Some will make anywhere from $50 to $1500 per month while others will make thousands.

For example, Twitch streamer Valkyrae was able to sell as many as 40K orders on her first merch drop. That is a significant amount considering the fact that she had around 20K followers at the time.

Valkyrae tweet

Then there’s Pokimane, one of the highest-paid Twitch streamers with a following of 9.1M who’s made millions off her merch.

So, should you sell merch?

The short answer is yes, you absolutely should! Merchandise has become a huge part of the live streaming world—viewers love to show off who their favorite streamers are by wearing their merch. So, if you have a decent following, you definitely shouldn’t miss out on selling merch.

But, how do you get started? There are several ways to create and sell merch, but most streamers prefer starting a print-on-demand business for its cost-effectiveness.

pokimerch
Pokimane‘s famous merch line Pokimerch.

Here’s why print-on-demand is the best way to sell merch:

  • No start-up costs—you don’t have to financially invest in product manufacturing.
  • No logistical issues—order fulfillment, printing, and shipping are handled by the POD partner.
  • No minimums—you can sell an unlimited amount of POD products to any market or audience.

Since you won’t need to hold physical inventory, your only potential expenses will be graphic design services (unless you’re an artist) or eCommerce platform fees. However, you can always add your expenses to the product price!

how sellfy's print on demand works
An example of how print-on-demand pricing works with Sellfy.

Your merch concept: 3 easy ways to design merch

Designing merch tailored to your viewers may sound like a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Essentially, there are three different ways to get the design(s) you’re looking for: you can explore graphic resources to find ready-made designs, use free or paid programs and design tools, or hire a freelance graphic designer.

To find royalty-free graphics and ready-made designs, you can look at:

  • Vexels—vector graphics for t-shirts and other types of products.
  • Shutterstock—thousands of free high-quality photos and vectors.
  • Flaticon—1,720,000 icons in every category.
  • Freepik—similar to Flaticon, but requires a license for commercial selling.
  • Creative Market—a marketplace with over 880,000 ready-made graphics.
creative market vector graphics for merch
Creative Market‘s vector graphics for merch.

You can also take a look at Clint English. This awesome Sellfy store sells high-quality graphic design resources—from text effects, fonts, and illustrations to textures and pre-made artwork.

Then there are free and paid design programs like Inkspace, Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator that you can use to create illustrations, logos, or typography. If you have an iPad, you can get Procreate, a highly popular and intuitive design app.

And, last but not least, you can try a beginner-friendly design platform like Canva, which has thousands of premade t-shirt templates.

canva t-shirt templates
Canva‘s customizable t-shirt design templates.

Alternatively, you can find designers at:

  • 99designs—the go-to graphic design site for most merch sellers.
  • Upwork—the biggest freelance marketplace for finding talented designers.
  • Fiverr—a beginner’s space where you can hire designers for as little as $5.
  • Dribble—a great platform known for having reputable designers.
99designs custom t-shirt design
You can get a custom t-shirt design from 99designs.

A couple of words on color palettes

As far as color palettes go, it’s good to stick to what generally works well together. I recommend keeping an eye on Pantone’s Color of the Year and their seasonal color trends.

But, if you want to stay original, you can also play around with color palette generators:

  • Coolors—for randomizing colors and exploring trending palettes.
  • Colormind—for generating color palettes that can be applied to existing products.
  • Colorhunt—for staying up-to-date with the most popular color palettes.
  • ColorSpace—for generating thousands of schemes based on one color.
trending color palettes
Trending color palettes on Coolors.

How to sell merch on Twitch with Sellfy?

So, how do you make your own Twitch merchandise? To sell merch on Twitch, you will need an online store with a print-on-demand function. So, if you’ve been looking for the best merch store for streamers, then Sellfy will perfectly fit your needs.

Here’s why:

  • No hidden monthly fees
  • Quality print-on-demand
  • Fully customizable store themes
  • Mobile-first design
  • Instant payouts
  • Advanced VAT & tax settings
  • Multiple payment options
  • Unlimited bandwidth & file storage
  • 24/7 customer support

1. Open a Sellfy merch store for your Twitch channel

I’ll show you how to build and customize a merch store in less than 5 minutes.

sellfy merch store theme
Sellfy comes with premade store themes such as the merch theme Mode.

Here’s how to start selling Twitch merch with Sellfy:

  1. Sign up for Sellfy, or start a 14-day free trial—all you need is a valid and verified email address. If you need access to more features, you can always upgrade to a paid plan later.
  2. Choose one of our premade store themes, or use Sellfy’s Store Customizer to customize your merch shop design from scratch.

2. Create your print-on-demand products

Now that you’ve set up your merch shop, you can start adding products! Locate the option to add print-on-demand merch under your dashboard’s PRODUCTS section. Then, click Add new product and you’ll see our POD categories.

What print-on-demand products can you sell?

You can choose from a rich selection of the following categories:

  • Men’s, women’s, and kids’ clothing (jackets, t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, tank tops, long-sleeve tees, bodysuits, etc.)
  • Hats (custom print and embroidery on caps and beanies)
  • Bags (backpack, laptop sleeve, fanny pack, and tote bags)
  • Home & living (embroidered apron, water bottle, spiral notebook, canvas, posters, mugs, and stickers)
  • Phone cases (iPhone and Samsung)

Have you decided on what print-on-demand product(s) you want to sell? Then it’s time for the fun part—design! Sellfy’s POD has an easy-to-use editor tool (think of it as a Twitch merch maker) that’ll help you design your merch without any hassle.

All you have to do is choose from up to 45 different colors, and then add text or upload your own designs.

Sellfy Tip
If you’re a Sellfy creator using trademarked designs with your own products, you’ll need to obtain a licensing agreement from the copyright owner and submit it to support@sellfy.com.

Once you’ve created your products and added your own designs, you can generate mockups or order samples for Twitch.

Creating mockups with Sellfy is super simple—we provide product and model images that you can preview and download on the Edit product page. These mockups show what your designs will look like in real life

However, if you don’t want to use Sellfy’s product photos, then you can purchase mockups from the Clint English store or use Placeit to get free mockups.

clint english graphic design resources
Clint English‘s high-quality graphic design resources.

3. Promote your merchandise on your Twitch channel

Now that you have an online store, it’s time to start promoting your merch! It’s worth keeping in mind that 90% of people tend to buy from brands they trust and the same applies to streamers. There’s nothing more convincing than fans, friends, and family members spreading the word about your merch.

So, here are a couple of promo ideas you can try to get the word out:

  • Wear your merch while streaming. Honestly, there’s no better way to announce your merch than showcasing your products in your streams! This can increase your sales by at least 50%.
  • Do a live tour of your merch store while streaming. Introduce your store to your fans, talk through your designs, and use marketing tactics like offering a free giveaway or a discount on limited edition merch.
  • Exchange merch with fellow streamers. Setting up a merch swap is a great way to support fellow streamers and make your audiences curious about your merch.
  • Use apps like Nightbot or Streamlabs to create custom commands. When someone types a command like “!merch” in chat, a message pops up with a link to your merch store.
  • Optimize your live stream titles for selling. Mention your merchandise in the titles of your videos and add custom merch commands.
  • Add a merch overlay to your streams. Optimize your overlay with images of your merch or a merch command.
  • Remind viewers to visit your merch shop on your BRB screens. Use your BRB, intro, and outro screens to re-introduce people to your merch. For example, you can add your Sellfy store URL, a merch command, or images of your products.

Another effective way to promote your merch is to add illustrated Twitch panels (custom banners) like “Ways to support”, “Donations”, or “Merch” to your About section and link them to your Sellfy store.

twitch streamer merch
NotThatZena‘s merch panel in her About section.

And, finally, it’s also a good idea to cross-promote your merch on all of your socials, especially for loyal fans who will follow you beyond Twitch. So, make sure that you’ve covered all your bases.

3 inspiring Twitch merch ideas with examples

To give you some inspiration, I’ll provide a few examples of popular items that viewers love to wear. These are real examples of stuff sold by Twitch streamers just like you.

T-shirts with your Twitch channel name

The classic t-shirt is an essential part of anyone’s wardrobe. And, this is evident by the fact that most viewers will buy t-shirts from their favorite streamers. So, why not create and sell t-shirts with your channel name or logo?

Example: FrankthePegasus, a popular Twitch streamer who plays puzzle, adventure, and simulation games, sells t-shirts with her name (Frank) and logo (a rainbow pegasus) to her 31K viewers.

Twitch streamer t-shirts example

Color block hoodies with your Twitch logo

Who doesn’t love a good hoodie? With the rise of unisex and oversized clothing, hoodies have become another staple in people’s wardrobes. So, selling a line of trendy hoodies is an absolute must for a Twitch merch store.

Example: moistcr1tikal, a highly successful esports streamer with a following of 4M, sells color block hoodies with his channel logo. Color block is the biggest design trend of 2024!

Twitch streamer hoodie example

Cute cartoon mugs and stickers

Mugs are often overlooked yet surprisingly popular products. A survey by the Heinz company revealed that nearly 60% of people had an emotional attachment to their favorite mug. Another highly overlooked product is the sticker. Stickers are much cheaper than other accessories, which makes them a great option for viewers on a tight budget.

Example: NotThatZena, a Pokémon streamer who has monetized her content and fan base of 1.4K with cute dinosaur mugs and stickers.

Twitch streamer mugs and stickers example

Ready to start selling merch?

See how easy that was? All it takes is launching your Sellfy store and promoting your merchandise on Twitch. Now you can go ahead and stream as much as you like while Sellfy takes care of the rest! To learn more about selling products with Sellfy, make sure to check out our blog for some useful tips and tricks.

Do you have more questions? Sellfy Help Center has answers to the most frequently asked questions, and you’re always welcome to reach out to our support team at support@sellfy.com at any time.

 

Susanna is Sellfy's Content Guru with a genuine passion for copywriting, storytelling, and eCommerce. With years of content marketing experience behind her, she helps to create the best possible landing pages, blog posts, emails, and other types of copy. She also keeps close tabs on social media trends and enjoys digging deep into marketing psychology.