Learn how to make custom phone cases for your personal use or selling. In this guide, I will also tell you how to start an online store to sell the phone cases that you make.
This article has two parts. First, I will tell you a super-easy way to make amazing phone cases. Next, we will discuss how to start an online phone case business to sell them online.
How to make phone cases?
Here are the 2 simple steps to make amazing phone cases for personal use or selling.
1. Get your phone case design
Everything starts with a good design. It can be with a pattern, illustrations, words, photos, or you name it. So, there are two ways to make phone case designs.
Do it yourself
If you have access to design software like Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other FREE online graphic design app like Canva, you can create a phone case design. Also, you can find some amazing phone case designs on Freepik for free, which you can download to your computer and edit using Photoshop as you wish.
Hire a designer
It won’t cost you more than $10 to hire a freelance graphic designer to get a professional-looking custom phone case design. Head over to Fiverr and get your design done without any hassles; it is an efficient way to get a really good design.
2. Use a print-on-demand service to make your phone case
Once you are ok with your design, head over to Printful, select your phone case type, upload your design, and submit an order. Yeah, that is it.
There are many different POD services, but I recommend using Printful because they have an easy-to-use editor interface, and I have been working with them for years to make phone cases for my online store.
Starting your very own phone case business
In 2014, I started dropshipping phone cases from Chinese suppliers. Then, after some time, I have started using print-on-demand services to make phone cases with my own designs. In that way, my profit margin was improved, and I started making a passive income from designing customized phone cases – yes, I am charging separately for custom designs.
So, I will also tell you the exact steps I have followed to start an online phone case business, which generates more or less $100 in profits a day passively.
Alright, now when I say $100 a day, do not let that put you off!
There are tons of click-bait articles on the internet which say that you can earn $100,000 a month with such online businesses. Well, I have been doing online business for more than 10 years now, and I could never make that much.
$100 a day by selling phone cases online is a realistic valve and be ready to have dry days too. But, still, that $100 a day is a worthy effort as you don’t have to spend more than an hour or two for this business every day. So that you can keep your day job while earning some extra money every day as I do.
Making and selling phone cases – FAQs
Before you go ahead and read about how to start a phone case business, I am ready to answer some of the FAQs about making and selling phone cases.
How much does it cost to start a phone case business?
How much does it cost to start a phone case business?
Starting an online business doesn’t cost much. In fact, you can start an online phone case business for less than $200 in hand. But, of course, this $200 includes the cost of starting your very own online store and running the first ad campaign.
Well, depending on where you live, you might have to get a business registration to run an online business as well. If it is the case, you will have to check with the local authorities about the business registration fees.
Please note that here we will talk about using dropshipping or print-on-demand services to sell phone cases. With dropshipping, you don’t have to buy anything before you are making a sale. So, nothing goes out of your pocket to build an inventory. That is why you don’t need a big fat budget to start an online phone case business.
Can you make money selling phone cases?
Can you make money selling phone cases?
Selling phone cases is an evergreen business. Everyone has a mobile phone in their hand, and they need a phone case. And, some people buy a set of phone cases in different colours to change them to match their outfits.
Likewise, if you do proper product selection, targeting, and marketing, you can sell around 5-10 phone cases daily without much effort (based on my experience). So now let us do the maths to find how much money you can make selling phone cases.
You can find an iPhone 11 case on AliExpress for less than $2. And, you can sell it for like $20 on an online store. But then, usually, it will eat up around 50% of the selling price for other costs, like payment gateway fees, advertising costs, shipping, etc. So, it gives you about $8 profit for each phone case you sell. That means you can make around $40 – $80 as profits every day by selling phone cases online.
Oh, Wait! You might feel like $40 a day is not enough. But, remember that you can make this $40 without having to spend more than an hour or two in front of a computer at night. That is the beauty of online businesses. Isn’t that an easy way to make money online?
If you have any other questions about making phone cases or starting a phone case business, send me an email, and I will try my best to answer you.
How to start a phone case business
Now this section about starting a phone case business might get a bit longer. But I’ll try my best to cut the crap and get to the point. So, try to stick to it. I promise it is all valuable information.
1. Find the best selling phone cases and trends
I don’t how many phone brands and models are in this world. So, please do not get overwhelmed by searching through them all. It won’t be worth your effort.
In my experience, more than 80% of the sales are usually generated from phone cases for 2 to 3 types of the newest iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phone models.
So, forget about the rest.
Next, head over to Amazon bestseller listings for phone cases and carefully see the trending products. It is updated frequently, so make sure to check it at least once a day to identify the signs of early trends.
2. Find and list phone cases for dropshipping
Now, you should try to find the best dropshipping suppliers for the 10-15 best-selling phone cases.
If you don’t know what dropshipping is, check this beginner’s guide to dropshipping. Why? Because we are going to use dropshipping to sell generic types phone cases on our store.
Do not put much effort into the generic phone cases. You cannot make a good profit by just dropshipping phone cases. So, we automate the workflow for those products. We will only use them to inflate our product portfolio on the site.
However, if you plan to build a niche store, you can avoid these generic phone case designs altogether.
3. Design customized phone cases
Alright, now it is the time to hire designers on Fiverr and use print-on-demand services like Printful to get your customized phone cases printed. We have discussed all these steps in the beginning.
Printful also delivers the phone cases you sell to your customers. So, you don’t have to worry about printing, packing, and delivering the phone cases.
Where to find phone case designs
When you make and sell phone cases, you have to come up with irresistible design ideas.
If you are not getting any good design ideas, do not worry. Just surf around Pinterest to get plenty of design inspirations. Or, you can even hire a freelancing designer on Fiverr or UpWork to get your designs done.
Find a freelancer to design phone cases for just $10. So, you can save time focusing on developing your phone case business.
Hiring a professional designer to make your phone case designs can bring a premium touch to your business. You can find some really talented graphic designers on freelance platforms to get your phone case designs done. Hire a graphic designer for your business
Validate your design idea
Once you come up with a design, generate the mockups using the above tools, and use social media to validate your design.
Post your mockups on Facebook or Instagram and measure the amount of engagement and positive comments to get a better idea of your design.
Pick a POD service that works seamlessly with your online store platform
There are many print-on-demand services available. However, if you select one that can be integrated into your store platform, you can manage your whole business through a unified dashboard. Well, Printful and Shopify work pretty well. And, those are the two tools that I have been using. We’ll talk about Shopify next.
4. Create an online store to sell phone cases
You can use Shopify to create an amazing online store without any technical knowledge. It has everything your need to create an online store for a phone case business. And, best of all, here, you can try Shopify for free first.
Starting an online store is super easy. Now you can create an online store without any coding or design skills.
Shopify is a great platform to build your online store and sell phone cases. It has plenty of themes, apps, and templates to create an amazing eCommerce website. Also, you can integrate Printful with Shopify to make and sell phone cases from one dashboard.
Why Shopify?
Sell phone cases anywhere and sync your inventory
You can reach customers on Facebook shops, Instagram, Amazon, Etsy, or even In-store and manage all your inventory and sales data from one location with Shopify.
Beautiful designs to choose from
You can easily customize your online phone case shop with well-optimized themes. So, you do not need any special design or coding skills to create a blazing web store to sell clothes.
Apps to add custom functionalities
Shopify has a great app library, where you can find an app to add many custom features to your online store. It also has apps to run dropshipping or Print-on-demand clothing stores.
Scale-up your clothing business as it grows
From $29 a month to $2000 a month, Shopify offers scalable pricing plans for every stage of your online phone case business. It is a great way to start small and grow big.
However, if you need any support to create an eCommerce store, you can hire a freelance web developer to get it done. It will not cost you more than $50 on Fiverr.
Start marketing your phone case business
It is super easy to start an online phone case business. However, building a strong marketing strategy for your business is going to be a little bit tricky. It’s a whole new mind game to play.
Digital marketing is a must-have skill for any business owner. So, in this section, we’ll talk about the five most impactful marketing strategies for a phone case business.
1. Branding
Branding can make or break your phone case business. When you sell online, customers have to pay you upfront. So, if the face of your business doesn’t look authentic, they won’t trust you.
Yes, the face of your business is your branding. This includes your logo, colours, website, website theme, product photos and descriptions, and everything.
A good branding design helps your customers remember your business and its products. And, it can also give you an edge over the conversion rates.
Hire professional designers to create a logo and other creative content for your phone case store
Any business is a serious investment. So, allocate some budget to hire a pro designer to create your logo, ad copies, banners, etc.
The logo is an important element of your phone case business. It will appear on your website, social media, labels, packaging, invoices, and everywhere.
So, it is important to have a good logo design for your business. Hiring a professional logo designer is the right way to get it done.
2. Paid Ads
I told you that marketing for a phone case business is a mind game. If done right, it’ll be downhill all the way.
Running paid ads is easy. I mean, you can just run ads on Facebook in a minute. But, if you haven’t done your homework right, it will eventually drain all your investments into your ad budget without getting results.
Data driven marketing
If you have the right data, you can build a highly efficient marketing and advertising strategies without losing your investment. So, I would recommend using tools like Semrush to see the overall picture.
You can try their Advertising research tool to see the ad strategy of your competitors for free. Give it a try. You can even see the exact ad copies and ad targeting of your competitors using Semrush.
The more you know about your ideal target audience and working ad copies for them, the more you can bang for the buck.
Where to run ads for your phone case business
In the beginning, focus on Facebook ads and nothing else. You will find plenty of potential customers on Facebook, and it is easier to run ads on Facebook as well.
There is a reason to focus only on Facebook ads. The paid advertising for online businesses has to be done very carefully. As a beginner, you will find it is hard to measure and keep track of the cost of conversions.
And, sometimes, your paid ads won’t work from the very first try. Most of the time, you need to do a little bit of tweaking to make it work. If you do not understand this, your paid ad campaigns can go wild and eat up all your marketing budget without making any sales.
3. Social media
2.5 billion people across the globe are waking up to social media. So, if your phone case business does not have a proper social media marketing strategy, you are basically leaving your money on the table.
Building a strong social media marketing strategy is a whole new subject. So, it is worth spending a little more time understanding how to use social media to sell better.
We have created a comprehensive guide to learn how to build a strong Facebook marketing strategy for your eCommerce business. Also, you can try to sell on Instagram to boost your reach as well. Check it out.
Content marketing
Running ads for your phone case business is easy and quick but costs money. That is why you need a long-term and sustainable way to bring in customers to your online store. And, that is why you need to focus on content marketing.
Content marketing is the best way to engage with your potential customers before they make a purchasing decision. Here is how it works for an online phone case business.
Many people buy a phone case as soon as they buy a new phone. So, your target should be those who are planning to purchase a mobile phone in the near future. Now, what type of online content would they look for? They will search for phone comparisons, reviews, selection guides, and discount offers.
So, what you can do is, you can start writing blog posts or creating videos for the above topics. Then, you can promote your phone cases to the visitors who are coming to read and watch those content.
That is the basic outline of starting a content marketing strategy for an online phone case business. Dig deeper, and find some other topics that your customers might be interested in.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for online businesses. By combining your social marketing strategy with an influencer campaign, you can quickly build a targeted and engaged audience to sell phone cases.
As a new business, don’t try to hire top-tier influencers to promote your products.
What you can do is, try to find a girl in your friend list with a lot of followers. Then, gift her with a free phone case and ask her to help you by promoting that phone case on her account.
Trust me; she will go overboard doing this. I always use this simple strategy to promote the products in my online stores.
You don’t have to limit this process to one person. You can multiply this process by reaching different people on different networks.
This strategy is similar to using influencer marketing but at the micro-level. I know that this strategy works better than any other method.
Are you ready to make phone cases and sell them online?
In this guide, we have discussed how to make phone cases and start a phone case business from scratch.
We have discussed how to select devices and phone case types to focus on your business. Then we have discussed how to find phone cases to sell and how to make your own phone cases. Also, we have discussed where you can sell phone cases online. Then finally, we have talked about how to market your phone case business.
I genuinely believe that this article provides a comprehensive guide about how to start a phone case business.
So, what is next?