Drop Shipping Strategy For T-Shirts

definitely correct, no room for profit at $20

basic tee with print, ship & handle fees needs to come in at a lot less than that figure.

you'd need to know your required production volume in advance in order to drive down the cost per unit.

can be done, but would require clever marketing & promotion techniques.

Just my opinion.

I'd be thinking closer to $13-14.95 tops, if you wanna be on par with some of the online t-shirt sites & platforms and be capable of attracting & selling to mass buyers.

But this also depends what part of the world your based in, whether you're a physical business as well as online plus what & where your main client targets are based.

If your not directly involved in the textile print & supply business yourself right now, then you could approach screen & digital printers local to you, establish & develop a relationship with them based specifically on you bringing volume based business to them to benefit both parties. Find out their regular prices for print production and negotiate a dropshipping arrangement with them whereby they print, produce, and ship directly from their premises under an exclusive supply agreement with yourself.

Of course, this will work mostly in cities or regions of large population - in order for their to be strong competitive presence of multiple print service businesses. If the population, both individual consumer & business to business exist then multiple source options will most likely exist naturally.

I have some experience in this niche, via marketing & strategy consultancy for a t-shirt company based in Australia that also doubles as a promotional product supplier (print & branding etc) nationwide from a single physical base in one average sized city. The physical business enables the capture of local clients while a strong website & internet presence allows the capture of clients from around the rest of the country.

A high volume business has developed over time coupled with an un-rivalled service & satisfaction reputation that means a very strong position in the marketplace for them.

In effect they have become their own dropshippers by virtue of being able to attract volume & in the process drive down per unit cost....increase profits.

Im not sure whether any of that is relevant to your intentions or whether its even suitable for your location base (depends on where). But it is an angle maybe worth exploring a bit further.

But...plenty of variables exist with this model.