If you want to become a full-time Twitch streamer, you'll definitely need to find a way to make money beyond Twitch's ad share, which starts at 50/50 for most streamers (unless you qualify for "Partner Plus," which can boost your share to 60/40 or 70/30 at the highest base level.)

Merchandise is an excellent revenue source for Twitch streamers! Think T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, mouse pads, and more, all emblazoned with your logo or custom art. So now is a great time to learn how to create your own custom merch, and how to sell it without upfront investment.

Let's dig into Twitch merch shops, how Twitch streamers create their merch, the advantages and disadvantages of different platforms, and which companies some of the biggest Twitch streamers use to sell their merchandise.

Why Should Twitch Streamers Sell Merch?

For both the biggest and up and coming Twitch streamers, launching a merch shop is one of the best ways to make money and support yourself in the live streaming space; and while it can be a solid source of income, selling merch isn't even solely about making money. It's also about extending your brand into the real world, letting your fans in chat "touch grass" while repping a T-shirt, a hoodie, or any other product from your exclusive merch line.

Growing your brand in this way can be beneficial in both the short and long run. For many streamers, merch is one of their top sources of income, and is also a great way to build a sustainable long-term revenue stream.

How to Sell Merch on Twitch

Determine What Kind of Merch Your Viewers Want

Creating on demand merch is easy for streamers on ecommerce platforms like Fourthwall. If you're not familiar with print on demand or "POD" manufacturing, it means that:

• All products are made to order, so there's no inventory risk
• There are no up front costs, so you can start for free
• Some POD sites, like Fourthwall, let you customize your print on demand merch store so you can align it with the colors, fonts, and vibe of your brand!

But before you begin, you should consider:

• Do you have a logo that fans love?
• Do you have any regular characters in your content?
• Do you have a catchphrase or something easily recognizable? 
• Are you able to involve your chat in your design process? Doing this can help fine tune your merch into something that your community will really love!

Choose Your Products!

The Fourthwall product catalog is a great place to get started figuring out what types of products you want to create in your merch store! 

Fourthwall's product catalog offers a huge range of items ready for your custom merch designs, including:

• Shirts, T-shirts, Hoodies, and Tank Tops
• Sweatshirts and Sweatpants
• Stickers
• Mugs
• Hats
• Phone Cases
• Mouse Pads
• Tote Bags
• Plushies
• And many more

Create Your Merch Designs

If you've got graphic design skills, great! You can create your own logos and merch designs, and then use tools like Fourthwall's mockup generator to see how they'll look on your merch products. If you need some help to get your design ideas going for your online store, you can try these resources: 

• Graphic designers or artists in your Twitch community
• Easy graphic design tools like Canva, PlaceIt, or Adobe Express
• Freelance marketplace sites like 99Designs or Fiverr, which connect you with artists

If you're still not sure where to get started with apparel designs, we recommend reading Fourthwall's "Design Tips & Tricks" article.

Make Mockups of Your Merch Products

Once you've come up with your designs, you'll need to turn them into professional-level mockups. Mockups are an important way to show that you're using the best print quality and printers, since it lets your fans (and potential customers!) see the products before buying; you'll digitally place your design on each item of merch, to make sure it suits the product and is placed correctly. The better the mockup, the more likely you are to get people to buy your merchandise!

Fourthwall's mockup generator is one of the best in the industry. The technology used is similar to the ray tracing software used in Unity's gaming engine, but it's designed for products that you want to sell. The result is beautiful lighting, clear merchandise images, and photorealistic designs, so you can showcase your products to your audience like this:

Promote Your New Merch!

Once you have your products designed, share them all over your socials! You can use your mockups to make product announcements, letting everyone know about your merch drops so you can build some hype. Another great way to promote your merch on Twitch is with Twitch Gifting.

Twitch Gifting on Fourthwall lets you open up a whole new world of possibilities for your chat. They can now gift any product (your merch, your plushies, your memberships) from your Fourthwall site to other viewers via a random giveaway while you're streaming. Not only does this help with your profit margins and sales, but it also helps your community to feel more involved and engaged. 

Check out Twitch streamer Sneegsnag talking about selling with Twitch merch gifting, and how it helps a channel's engagement and profits:

What's the Best ECommerce Platform to Sell Merch?

The best ecommerce platform for selling merch can vary, depending on what kind of merch you're looking to create, and what you expect out of the platform. Both Fourthwall and Shopify are popular with creators, since they are both private label (white label). That means that they allow creators to fully customize their website, so it's fully branded to them. 

How Do the Biggest Twitch Streamers Sell Merch and Apparel?

Many of the top streamers like CohhCarnage, AquaFPS, Jenntacles, Ninja, and DougDoug use one of the following two platforms to power their Twitch drops:

• Fourthwall - Fourthwall is purpose-built for content creators and Twitch streamers (no matter if it's your first stream or you have millions of viewers.) It lets creators pick from hundreds of instantly available products, and lets you customize their site down to the code. Fourthwall is free for streamers, so there are no monthly fees and no upfront costs. 
• Shopify - Shopify also allows creators to tailor their sites for their channel, but it's designed more for conventional ecommerce brands. This complexity often hinders streamers without a dedicated team to handle the Shopify backend. For instance, creators using Shopify must manage their own customer support. Plus, Shopify's monthly fees for creators range from $39 to $399.

Both Fourthwall and Shopify allow you to connect with:

• Print-on-demand (or POD) manufacturers like Printful
• Custom manufacturing partners for screen-prints and bespoke apparel
• Third-party fulfillment centers to sell anything you've sourced yourself

No matter what product makes sense for your audience, these two platforms allow you to offer it! StreamElements has also recently directed their merch to Fourthwall, so you can utilize StreamElements alerts and widgets to further promote your merch line.

What Other Merch Makers Do Streamers Use?

There are a number of other merchandise platforms that creators use to sell merchandise online, but many of them have become less popular over time due to either having limited customization options or not having the best print quality. These include:

• Streamlabs - Similar to how StreamElements works, Streamlabs also allows Twitch streamers to design and sell merch alongside their alerts and overlay tools. But it does lack many of the ecommerce branding tools that streamers have become familiar with on Fourthwall or Shopify. 
• Teespring (now Spring) - Spring (Teespring) was one of the original merch makers, but Teespring's product prices can be higher than platforms like Printful or Fourthwall. 
• Threadless - Threadless is known for unique, artist-designed merch, and makes it easy to add your designs to several different merch items all at once; but it's not particularly streamer-focused, which can make branding (and getting fans to find) your Threadless page something of a challenge.

No single platform is perfect for every creator, but there are reasons that many of the biggest creators have their own fully branded online store. This is why either Fourthwall or Shopify tends to be the best tool for most Twitch streamers that are looking to launch their own apparel, merch, or clothing line, and why creators should take the time to choose the best platform to represent their brand and their Twitch channel. 

Choose Fourthwall for Your Twitch Merch to Get Great Results!

Merch stores offer creators an exciting opportunity to monetize their branding, engage with fans, and express their creativity while taking their brand out into the "real world." And so many of both the biggest Twitch streamers and Twitch streamers who are just starting their streaming journey are choosing Fourthwall to launch their merch shops!

Fourthwall offers an easy way for creators to upload their designs, launch their merch lines, sell their first hoodie or T-shirt, and give their fans the best print quality. In addition to your own custom merch store, you can also sell memberships and exclusive content through your Fourthwall site, treating your fans to a fully branded experience and growing your audience. Ready to launch this big boost for your merch and your community? Get started on Fourthwall today!

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