> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://pixelsnprofits.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # [Journey] Adding T-Shirts After Mugs: What Caught Me Off Guard - URL: https://pixelsnprofits.com/print-on-demand-t-shirts-amazon/ - Published: 2026-10-17T00:36:45.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T11:31:45.000Z - Author: Nick T - Tags: Print On Demand Version two gave me a consistent [workflow](https://pixelsnprofits.com/print-on-demand-automation-workflow/). For around six months I ran it on one product, mugs, and just kept posting. Then I expanded to my first new product type: t-shirts. The workflow carried over almost untouched. What didn't carry over was everything I hadn't researched, and on Amazon there were five of those. If you're thinking about adding a new product type to a store that already works, these are a few things that caught me. --- ## Why t-shirts came next I was still focused on Amazon. I felt I'd done mugs well up to a certain point, so it was time for my first product line expansion. I picked t-shirts because it seemed logical. They're the most popular print on demand product type anyway, so I didn't think too much about it and went straight to them. --- ## The same four steps, with a few things set up once The whole process works the same way as it does for mugs. The only difference is a few things you set up once so a new product type can run through it. **Research** stays the same, but you have to understand a different customer. People who buy a mug as a gift are different from people who buy a shirt to wear. Understanding the customer is still a big part of research. **Design** works mostly the same, keeping in mind that people are now wearing it. I set up a template so I could bulk the niches onto a t-shirt and swap the variables the same way I do for mugs. **Posting** needed two templates. I created a new product type template in Printify, and my tool uploads to it. For Amazon, you download the upload template for the new product type, fill in the correct information from your supplier, and upload it the same way. You only set this up once. **Editing** is where I tried something different. ### The experiment: cutting the slowest parts At the time I could post around 2,000 products a day, and it took about 7.5 hours. Not every part was taking hours. A few were holding the whole thing back. The worst was mockups. Generating them through Photoshop was slow, because I was making tens of thousands of images. Generating titles also took time. So for shirts I tested three things: - **Handwritten titles** instead of bot-generated ones, to see the difference in impressions. - **Product-generic backend keywords.** Instead of writing about the niche, every backend keyword was about the product type. - **A single mockup** per listing, where my mugs had several. If handwritten SEO and generic backend keywords don't hurt much, working that way might make sense, because those two parts were part of what capped the system at 2,000 a day. The fix for those bottlenecks became version three, written up [here](https://pixelsnprofits.com/print-on-demand-automation-with-ai/). --- ## What I didn't research before switching ### Variations multiply every listing Mugs don't have variations. T-shirts do. Say you sell a shirt in 5 sizes and 4 colors. That's 20 variations for one design, so for the same output you post 20 times the listings. With a strategy built on posting a lot of products, that's a huge pain. I didn't realize it would bottleneck the workflow until I'd already committed to shirts. **Personally, I'd stay away from variations.** You can try it, it doesn't hurt. But mugs are a lot faster and a lot less pain, and the results there are good. ### Merch sellers were already there When I researched shirts, I didn't take Amazon Merch into account. Merch is Amazon's own program: designers upload their designs and Amazon is the print on demand provider. So there are a lot of Merch sellers on Amazon, which means a lot of competition. And those Merch listings are basically FBA, fulfilled by Amazon with the Prime badge, while I'm FBM, fulfilling through my supplier. I was at a massive disadvantage from the start. ### My price couldn't compete On mugs my price was competitive with other sellers. On shirts, I didn't realize my costs would be so much higher than theirs. I had to price my shirts a lot higher, and that made them much harder to compete with. ### Joke shirts get worn, not gifted Shirts are a great print on demand product. But with a strategy like mine, built on posting a lot of products, most of what sells is gifts. > A joke on a shirt is for someone to wear. A joke on a mug is a gift. People see a shirt with a joke on it differently as a gift, and I think mugs do better there. I didn't take that into account either. ### No Buy Box on the new product type The last thing I learned was the Featured Offer, the Buy Box: the buy button sitting right on your listing. I had it right away for mugs. For shirts, I didn't. Without it, buying is harder, and that friction costs you. Amazon holds it back until it trusts you, and in my experience it was per product type. Once you have enough sales in that product type, send good quality, get no complaints and ship on time for long enough, it gives you the Buy Box. How that works is all [here](https://pixelsnprofits.com/no-buy-box-amazon-listing/). I just didn't know a new product type would start without it. You can [follow the build by email](https://pixelsnprofits.com/#/portal/signup) if you want to keep up as it grows. Catch you soon, Nick T