How to sell socks online? I am selling socks online for 10+ years now, and here is what I know about this business in a nutshell.
How to start selling socks online?
This information is more than enough for anyone to start selling socks online. And, here is my first-hand experience selling socks for 10+ years.
- People mostly buy fun socks from online stores. So, make them colorful, fun, and enticing.
- Regular and boring officewear socks are not that popular among online sock buyers.
- Customers love custom printed socks (or print-on-demand socks).
- Influencer marketing and Facebook ads give the best marketing results.
But, since this is a guide to sell socks online, let me explain them in detail. And, I will tell you how to start an online store to sell socks as well. Don’t worry; I am not going to make it super boring.
Take a look at this video first. There is a lot to learn about selling socks in that video.
Alright, time to learn how to sell socks.
Selling fun socks online
If someone wants to buy a regular pair of socks, they would not wait till some advertisement pops up on Facebook to buy them. They would most probably buy them while they are shopping for clothes.
So, there is no point in trying to sell those regular boring office wear socks online.
But, when someone see an advertisement like this, there is a higher chance for an impulse buy!
Where to find socks to sell?
There are three ways to find socks to sell online.
- Use dropshipping to sell socks online.
- Sell custom-printed or print-on-demand socks with your cool designs.
- Buy a bulk stock from a wholesale supplier and have your own inventory.
Using dropshipping to sell socks
The first method, dropshipping, is the easiest way to start selling socks. There you don’t have to worry about maintaining an inventory or designing socks. You can forward the orders you receive to your dropshipping supplier, and they will pick, pack, and deliver the products on your behalf.
If you are interested, you can even start dropshipping for free. So, you can keep your investment to a minimum and lower your risks.
Using print-on-demand to sell custom printed socks
Next, if you like to have your very own product line with unique designs, you can sell custom-printed socks online.
There are many print-on-demand services available, and the ones I use for my stores are Printful and Printify.
So, when you made a sale, you can forward that sales order to your print-on-demand service. So, they will print, pack, and ship that order to your customers within 1.5 days from their US or European factories. And, if you are using their fulfillment plugins with your online shop, you can even automate this whole process.
And, unless you are a pro designer, I would recommend hiring a freelance graphic designer to get your sock designs done. It won’t cost you a fortune to get some professional support. For example, if you use Fiverr to hire freelancers, you can find one for less than $30 per job.
Buying and selling socks from wholesale suppliers
If you can afford to buy a bulk order from a wholesale supplier, you can enjoy higher profits when selling socks online.
However, even though I am not a business guru, I would strongly advise you to try a low-cost and low-risk method like dropshipping or print-on-demand before spending your money on a large inventory. Because it would be a headache if you end up with an unsold stockpile of socks after a year, so go for bulk orders after you can understand the product trends and market directions.
How to handle storage, shipping, and delivery when selling socks with an inventory
The simplest way is to keep all those socks in your house and pack and ship as you are getting orders.
However, some of us live in apartments and small houses where we cannot maintain storage like that. In such cases, you can use a third-party fulfillment service to ease your process.
You can pay an additional fee and use a service like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to manage your inventory. So, you can send your bulk order to their warehouses, and they will pick, pack and ship your products to your customers on behalf of you.
However, if you choose to manage storage, shipping, and delivery all by yourself, check this guide on managing eCommerce shipping and delivery to learn the process.
How to create an online store to sell socks
You can sell socks on different platforms. You can sell them on your very own online stores, or sell them on online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.
Create an online store to sell socks
Do you know that you can even start an online store without any technical knowledge? Yes, if you have basic internet skills, you can quickly create a stunning online store in a couple of hours.
Here I am going to introduce you to a beginner-friendly shop building platform called Shopify. It is a low-cost ($29 per month, including the hosting) platform to start an online store.
What we love about Shopify is that it offers a wide range of solutions to easily manage an online store without having to know any technical stuff. For example, if you want to integrate PayPal to receive payments, all you have to do is log in to PayPal through Shopify. It is that easy.
Create your online sock store on Shopify
Shopify has everything you need to build an amazing online store without any technical knowledge. You can start right now, and scale it up as your business grows.
If it is too complicated for you to create an online store to sell socks, you can hire a freelancing web developer to create an online store for you under $50.
Selling socks on popular marketplaces
Selling socks online on popular marketplaces have certain advantages and disadvantages.
For example, if you use eBay or Amazon, the shop templates, listing templates, and everything is preset and optimized. So, you don’t have to worry a lot about formats and store designing. Also, you will be automatically included in their marketing campaigns, promoting your products. But, on the other hand, this can eat a lot of your profits as listing fees.
If you are running low on budget, perhaps selling socks on online marketplaces is the best option for you to get going. Check these guides on how to sell on eBay or 10 hacks to sell more on eBay to get a head start.
Pricing and Marketing for your online sock business
First, let me give you an example of a typical purchasing journey to sell socks. This will give you a brief overview of our target.
Jen, a mother of a 10-year-old, scrolls through her Facebook feed, and suddenly, she saw an ad for a cute pair of kids of unicorn socks for $15. Then, she clicks on the link and land on your online sock store. If the site looks authentic and if the delivery time and prices seem reasonable, would she care to search for the same sock for a lower price? No. She would definitely pay with her PayPal account and order one.
The above example is a typical flow of a customer journey for an online store. It teaches us a few things about selling socks online.
- Sell visually intriguing products – to grab the attention
- Do proper targeting – mom of a 10-year-old for kids socks
- Authentic store design – to build trust for an unknown brand
- Reasonable product pricing – Not to undersell or oversell
So, keep in mind the above points when developing your marketing strategy.
In this guide, I am going to tell you two definite ways to market your socks online. Just try these two methods, and that would be more than enough for you to make sales. Later you can learn and improve your marketing mix with more strategies.
Facebook marketing to sell socks online
Facebook is a massive audience. And, they have a super-effective advertising option for you to run paid ads for your business. So, this is the best place for you to start marketing for your sock business.
Apart from using paid ads to find new customers, you can even use organic ways to sell socks on Facebook for free. Also, you can even bring your customer support to the Facebook platform to offer a speedy service through messenger.
Likewise, having a Facebook marketing strategy gives you unparalleled opportunities to sell socks online.
Instagram marketing to sell socks online
When you sell visually intriguing products like cute socks, you can easily create content to grow an audience on Instagram. So, it is a marketing platform that you should never miss out on.
If you are running a Facebook paid ad campaign, you can even sync your accounts to roll out the same ads on Instagram. And, if you are selling on Shopify, you can even link your store to the Instagram account to increase your chances of making more sales.
Learn more on how to sell on Instagram.
Are you ready to sell socks online?
I hope this guide gives an overall idea about how to start a successful online sock business. Selling socks online and making profits is doable, and I did that. So, give it a try anyway. If you follow the steps that we have discussed here, you can start selling socks online without spending a lot.