There comes a time in every webcomic's life where the creator begins pondering the wonderful world of merchandise. From stickers to books and more, the possibilities are endless and the idea of opening your own shop can be both thrilling and intimidating all at once. But have no fear! Our hosts, along with special guest Star (@starfishface), are here to help and provide their strategies for things like store hosting, what type of items to make, and how to make sure this endeavor is worth your time!

For a lot of creators, the merch ideas form as the comic is developed. Many, if not all, of us adore our characters and want those characters in keychains, on prints, stickers! EVERYWHERE! And this flow of ideas runs in sync with the story development and creation. For others, the merch ideas comes after a comic has been running for a time and has a built up following. And then of course there's everyone in between.

Whichever part of the scale you fall into, we're here to share some things to keep in mind when deciding if the time is right to open your store.

Start small with easy things like stickers to test the waters. If people are buying stickers of your characters, they would likely be interested in keychains. And shirts. And books! Test the waters with something small before you dive into the deep end.

Kickstarters are another great way to kickstart (heh) a store. You'll be able to gauge interest and are only committing to creating the merch if the Kickstarter is successful. And even if it doesn't fund, you'll be able to get an idea of how many people were interested and can use this to decide if a shop would be worth it.

And if you have a shop that is separate from your webcomic, it's never a bad idea to toss a few comic specific items on there (again, go small with this to begin) and see if they sell.

Original IPs are always more difficult to sell because the emotional connection to the characters does not exist right off the bat. You need to build that connection from scratch and that starts with the readers. Your webcomic readers are your audience and the ones most likely to purchase merch about your webcomic, so when it comes down to it, use your readership to help you decide if a store would be worthwhile. Fan art is much easier to sell because the emotional connection is there and often established IPs have prebuilt fandoms. If you take this route you'll need to be wary about the potential for DMCA by the IP owners. Finding IPs that have explicitly okayed fan art and sales of said art is a safe route to take.

Now you've decided to start making merch, but what kind of items should you start with? When choosing items to sell, you'll want to keep a few things in mind. The big two we're going to talk about are shipping and manufacturing.

Shipping cost is something you'll always want to consider and calculate before listing an item for sale. Some items, like stickers, are very cheap to ship whereas others, such as books or plushies, are much more expensive. And you do not want to lose money on shipping because you did not calculate correct shipping/tax/customs/whatnot. You'll want to take all of this into consideration when deciding what you're selling and where you're selling to. International sales can have a lot of extra fees that you may know about, so you'll want to do your research.

Manufacturing options also need to be considered. Stickers for example are easy to make on your own if you have the tools and also easy to have made by a third party with lots of options. Prints are also easy to make, but the larger they get the more expensive and harder to ship they get. Beyond that, things like pins, charms, and plushies are harder to make yourself, cost a lot more.

Have we convinced you to start with stickers yet?

And finally, Star put together a great list about types merch and the pros/cons of each:

• Stickers: Easy to make, easy to ship, cheap, low MOQ (minimum order quantity). Easiest to get into by far- great beginner merch item!!
• Prints: Easy to make, slightly more expensive, harder to ship large sizes, low MOQ
• Acrylic charms/pins: Slightly harder to make, involves manufacturing and sourcing a manu. Quality can vary wildly depending on manu. Slightly harder to ship- needs padded mailers and ships based on weight. Higher price point, higher MOQ, can be harder to move
• Enamel Pins: THE HORRORS. Prohibitively high MOQ, high cost, can be frustrating to source due to wildly differing quality between manufacturers.
• Plushies: Depends. Flat, pillow-esque plushies can be fairly cheap to manufacture with low MOQs depending on manufacturer. Actual character plushies are another beast entirely- lots of time and effort and money is spent on prototyping with a manufacturer and trying out different methods and materials. I’ve never made a plush myself but I’ve seen other people go through it and it seems like a nightmare. I do not have the strength (yet).

Remember: If it sells well as a sticker, it has the potential to sell well in other forms. Stickers are your friend.

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Episode Release Date: June 13, 2023

Episode Credits:

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

Megan Davison (@star-berrymint) - she/her, sorceryshenanigans.com

Star Prichard (@starfishface) - she/her, thestarfishface.com castoff-comic.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.