23.6 Billion Dollars - that's a large sum. While you could buy 2 or 3 yachts and the LA Lakers, it’s actually the projected amount Americans will spend on those special ladies in their lives. That's an average spend of $186 dollars per person. That makes Mother’s Day the 3rd largest retail holiday in the US. To jump into the lucrative market of Holiday Merch - you need a few things to be successful.At ViralStyle we want to make sure you are ready with merch available for buyers who are looking to honor the Mothers in their lives. We have the platform to support your custom Mother’s Day Gifts. So we created this Ultimate Mother’s Day Merch Guide just for you.
One thing you have to get as a merchandiser is planning, preparation and marketing of Holiday related products happen months in advance. This guide will help you get a merch calendar set so you don’t miss out on this billion dollar holiday.About 29% of Mother’s Day purchases happen online and most are impulse buys. So you want a few things happening to get the most from those potential sales:
• Must-Have Designs
When it comes to holidays like Mother’s Day - the awesome thing is that most moms will wear something “mom-themed” any day of the year. So while the sales will be the largest around Mother’s Day May 12th - if you have an evergreen message you will increase the “wear time” and the willingness to spend money on your product.So let’s break down the essentials you need to know to be successful.
Let's get your ideas down on paper. Just anything that comes to mind - write it down. You can always go back and start to refine your ideas and choose the concepts you want to bring to your final products.
It’s always good to get some feedback on your ideas to find the approach with solid sales potential. This brings you into the design phase. If you have a great social media following - share the ideas with your followers and see which ones they like.This will help get some buzz going so that when it’s time to market and sell - you'll start off with stronger traffic.
What is the message?
Sentimental, Feminine, Hard-Core, Humorous, Edgy? Do you want this message conveyed with just typography and fonts or graphics and images? How are your fonts, colors and any graphics conveying this message?
Who do you want this T-shirt to be for?
Mother’s Day honors the women in our lives that have been role models for us. So thankfully that casts a wide net over target audiences and niches. Here are some sub-niche audiences to get those creative design ideas flowing.
• Mom’s themselves - Moms enjoy being recognized. It’s why this holiday is so great and the products really can be worn year round. If your message is a general “Mom is awesome” themed - that will increase wear time. I’ve seen Moms wear shirts with a flowery “Mom” on it in November.
Pro tip: Being a mom is totally a badge of honor - and really, every day is Mother’s Day - right. So stay away from “Its Mother’s Day” type messages which narrow your product to one day a year.
• Step Moms - These ladies have stepped into the Mom role and need a shout-out as well. Plus this niche is very large so don’t miss out on the opportunity here.
• Adoptive Moms - Another niche of amazing ladies to keep in mind are the adoptive mama's out there.
• Mothers-In-Law - Don't forget this group of ladies - because honestly, they won't let you. They are in your life and they are here to stay. Ladies with this title, need some recognition for sure.
• First Time Mom, New moms who have had a baby recently, or Expecting moms : A mom’s first Mother’s Day is an important occasion. So design with them in mind!
• The Children - After all what better way to honor mom than t-shirts that say “I’m cute like Mom”. Little kids wearing shirts that celebrate mom are a must have!
• Grandmothers - Ok, I know there is a grandmother’s day September 8th - but they can definitely get a little love on this day as well.
• Aunts - There is a huge population of ladies out there who may not have kiddos of their own but their nieces and nephews definitely fit the bill. So keep this group of ladies in mind.
• Moms of Fur-Babies - This is a fantastic area to get into. Those fur-babies take up our time, love and attention and should totally be tax write offs. Don’t miss out on this huge area of Moms that chose an alternative responsibility such as dogs (can go breed specific), cats (always popular) or not-so-common pets like birds, reptiles or even rats.
• Teachers - This group does a lot for society in general, everybody knows a super awesome one and here is a great way to show them some love.
• Dads that are a mom too - So maybe pulling on the heartstrings but it is a niche. Props to the Dads who are both parents and ditto on Father’s Day to the Mom’s who do it all also (yep we will get another worksheet so jot that idea down).
• Mash-Ups - Most ladies have multiple hats they are wearing. For instance, they are Moms and Step Moms. Moms of parrots and kids. While this may drill down way to narrow of a niche, it’s an idea to keep in mind.
• Pop culture - There's so much here you can draw from. Finding popular moms on tv series and movies. From quotes to popular sayings to play off of - look to the trends around you in media for inspiration. Keep in mind there is a big difference between inspiration and copying. When dealing with fan art, celebrities and media keep copyright laws in mind.
• Your own experience - Not everyone has a shared experience, but there are themes that seem to be universal. From love to funny things moms seem to do, to general concepts - draw on your own experiences and memories.
• What is important to your niche - This is an easy one for Mother’s Day. But you can go beyond just the focus on the kids to what makes a mom great. What makes her go above and beyond every day?
When creating your designs or having them designed, you want to have enough time to actually get the correct graphics and/or fonts together. The overall aesthetic is working together to convey your message.
This creates a “must have” t-shirt.You may also be working with a designer to bring your vision into fruition. If you already have a working relationship with the designer, chances are you understand their time frame work-wise.
Yet there are always things you can run into - so give them plenty of time to finish and make adjustments before the date you want to start marketing.
A Great Idea + Awesome Design = Winning T-shirt. But this formula can take some time.
If you are the designer you know about how much time you will need to achieve the aesthetic you are ultimately wanting to see.
Still, leave yourself enough time to plan and get the design just right.
We all lead busy lives, so unless you are a full-time independent artist (and even if you are) there are a lot of responsibilities you are most likely attending to. So give yourself enough design time and start as quickly as possible.
By March 25th - you want that design complete. You need to keep two things in mind when focusing on Holiday designs, that is production time and wear time.
Since we focus on high-quality printing processes, our production and shipping time is around 10-21 days. This is an important number to keep in mind when marketing as well.Mother’s Day is May 12th (in 2019), and you want to allow for some wear time.
You don’t want Moms receiving their product on May 11th. So give them plenty of time to wear their item around their special day.So let’s get our campaigns ready on ViralStyle. We understand that we are a few months from Mother’s Day - but that’s the point. We don’t want to procrastinate.
You also want to allow for some testing time so you can get a good solid campaign running. After that you want to repeat this process again. That’s the key to keep sales coming in; a solid campaign creating profit and then rinse and repeat.
After you have your design ready to go, you will want to get your campaign set up so you can see sales coming in.But first things first.If you haven’t already, begin by signing up at ViralStyle and get your Print on Demand Business going!
Login to ViralStyle and choose your product. For this example, we choose the Women’s Crew Tee.
Upload your design and make sure you follow the best practices to get the most from the image you upload. We used a really simple hashtag for this example: #MomLife.
Your description is really the introduction buyers have of you. Not only are you using a strong and descriptive title, but your description is able to get that sale.
If you have a humor-themed product - don’t be afraid to put a bit of your personality in the description as well.Keep in mind that you will begin marketing your campaign way before Mother’s Day is near.
So you will need to convey a sense of urgency on why to BUY NOW.Because production time is 10 - 21 days, you want buyers to purchase now so that Moms will receive their gifts and be able to wear the items before Mother’s Day on May 12th.Some Examples:
Work a sense of urgency into your description.
Remember that 29% of buyers are online. So give them more reason to feed the impulse of buying by adding something to their cart with an upsell that compliments the main product.For this example, we chose to upsell to a necklace. ViralStyle has amazing necklaces that would go well with this holiday. You can offer 2 upsells on your campaigns, so be sure to make the most of that option as well to increase sales.
Remember the feedback you asked for from your amazing followers on social media? Well, they loved your idea and are now ready to see the finished product. So share your campaign with them!If you want to take an in-depth look at marketing, ViralStyle offers additional training for you to take your POD business to the next level at the ViralStyle Academy.
Good news! By partnering with us, we take care of production and shipping. Not to mention customer service as well.Once the orders come rolling in - we have that covered. You don’t have to worry about overhead and reliable printing. We got it.
So you rinse and repeat this process.
When you have campaigns that are converting and making sales, it’s time to brainstorm, design and upload again.
It’s time to get started.Holidays are an amazing merchandising opportunity but you have to prepare ahead of time. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, it's time to begin the process now to jump into that 23.6 Billion Dollar spend.
After all, didn't your mother ever tell you to not put off tomorrow what you can do today? Or was that - because I said so.
Either way, go call your mother and let's get brainstorming!
In an effort to maximize conversions on your Mother's Day ads, see below to utilize some of our proven, top-selling product mockups!
Click each of the links below to download and customize today! Remember -- the backgrounds are editable.
Heart-Shaped Necklaces:http://bit.ly/2HPMVqJ
Mugs:http://bit.ly/2HEPtIM
Canvas:http://bit.ly/2UbCmof
Smartphone Cases:http://bit.ly/2HENWCN
*Opening Mother's Day Spend Statistics found at https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/mothers-day-spending-reach-231-billion
