I've been adding more merch to my store today! For someone that's supposed to be running a game company, I sure seem to just be selling merch 😅 But! Here's a thread about that.
I launched my own studio a week before I signed as the head of US Sales for a pretty big publisher. The timing was done specifically for legal reason re:contracts, and everyone involved is happy with the deal. But I work a 50-60 hour work week job in games and then my hobby is.. running my own game studio.
For my own studio, Cabin Games, I have a game signed that's in development (actually we're moving to the refinement stage and art, so yay!). I gave myself a small starting fund to pay for this game's everything short of printing, as well as my studio's branding work, website & legal fees.
While we work on getting this first game done, which will be a year start to finish, I need something that I can sell to "keep the lights on" with the website and business license fees. Enter Merch.
Because my brand artist @Nosoulnoproblem is freaking amazing, he worked with me to make sure my branding was generically sellable.
I wanted my studio brand to be an almost lifestyle brand, because for me gaming is a lifestyle. Ben picked that up and ran with it.
He developed a logo and branding that is super easy to customize quickly for a variety of things. So now I have spooky and winter themed shirts, a super perfect tagline for sweats, and an amazing line of stuff people just wanna wear.
I definitely went into my business with a small merch line planned. I did not expect my branding to be this popular. I'm trying to be really picky about what types of items I make, but people just want it on everything.
I'm using Printful's on demand service which is extremely convenient, but it is pricey. If I don't have my prices set correctly, I could lose money on every purchase. Even with the prices I have now, I make less than 8% on most sales. It's a fine line.
But! In the month my store's been open, I've made enough to cover the cost of hiring Ben for my branding! Everything I sell moving forward helps directly support the cost of maintaining my site, which should have more games soon.
In addition to selling my own products, I intend and already am selling other's. So far I just have the fabulous @bethsobel's River & Stone deck. But soon I'll have more items from small creators! If you know of someone you think would fit my brand, let me know.
@theonetar We also use Printful for our merch, and I love them!
Our webstore is built with WooCommerce, so this is not an option for us, but if we had built the store with Shopify, I would test out participating as a brand in their collab/affiliate network to help drive sales. https://www.shopify.com/collabs/find-brands
(Of course would need to adjust prices to account for affiliate commissions.)
I can’t tell whether your store is built on Shopify, so thought I’d mention this in case.
T. Caires
beth (she/her)
dnlnwmn
Ben Green
Adam Stichter
Protospiel Online