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Stickers are one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to grow or promote your business and brand. They're versatile, as stickers come in a variety of different sizes, cuts, and finishes. Stickers also offer artists another, accessible way to sell their original work and display their talents. And for people looking to explore their creative side, selling stickers is a perfect way to generate extra income.
No matter whether you're looking to expand your marketing activities or start a business, here's a guide to making and selling beautiful, memorable stickers.
How to make stickers in 5 steps
First and foremost, consider why you want to design and sell stickers. Many business owners consider stickers as one part of a larger marketing or product strategy. Others view designing and selling stickers as a business in and of itself. Your goals will dictate things like how much money you want to spend on sticker production or the materials you choose.
Where to look for inspiration
Your stickers can feature your original artwork or represent your brand through illustrated quotations or logos. Your designs can also reflect your hobbies, like music or film, or witty slogans. Your business goals might also provide inspiration. For example, someone launching a new business might make stickers with their logo as a promotional tool.
Be aware that you can't use photographs taken by other people on stickers without permission. It's also best to stay away from making stickers using other copyrighted material, like characters owned by big brands.
1. Create your sticker designs
The sky's the limit when it comes to sticker designs. Your stickers can be a relatively simple shape, like a circle or square. If your stickers involve words or people, you might have more elaborate designs that follow their unique outlines. Stickers also give you a chance to express your personality. Don't be afraid to have fun or embrace whimsy with your designs.
You can work with an artist or graphic designer to bring your ideas to life. If you have a more limited budget, try a low-cost or free tool to make graphic design easier and focus on designs that are within your capabilities.
2. Choose a sticker material
Stickers are one of the most customizable products you can create. As you choose a material, consider where you envision people using these stickers. Something outdoors that's exposed to the weather requires a different material than stickers on water bottles, notebooks, or laptops.
Vinyl: One of the most common sticker materials, vinyl can withstand water and sunlight quite well. It's also a good material for everyday use, as it attaches well to metal, plastic, wood, or glass.
Polyester: Polyester is the most durable material, thicker than vinyl and able to withstand weather. The colors aren't as crisp when printed, so it’s best for less intricate designs, and these stickers can be a bit more expensive.
Paper: These stickers are more environmentally friendly and less expensive to produce. However, they don't last well when exposed to elements like water and aren't as resistant to tearing.
Polypropylene: Polypropylene is good for shorter-term use and does protect against water and humidity, making it a good material for sticking on things like food. But depending on where these stickers are placed, there could be sticky residue left behind if you need to peel off the sticker.
3. Choose a sticker finish
A finish is essentially the coating or effects added to a sticker while printing. This impacts the final look and feel of the sticker.
Matte: A matte finish is one of the most common sticker finishes. With this option, the colors tend to look more vibrant.
Gloss: A glossy finish looks shiny. If used outdoors, sunlight reflecting off your sticker might obscure your design. However, glossy stickers have more protection from the elements, making them a bit more durable.
Holographic: These are metallic, futuristic-looking stickers that often reflect light in striking ways. Holographic stickers are slightly more expensive to produce.
Clear: Clear stickers have a transparent background and offer cleaner lines than other stickers. However, the ink colors can be more limited and might not show up in the same way depending on where a sticker’s placed.
4. Choose your sticker type
The sticker type refers to how you peel off your stickers. Which you choose depends on your designs and how you plan to sell stickers—individually or as sticker sheets.
Die-cut: Also known as cut-to-size, these stickers are the shape of your design. They can be easier to store because they are often smaller.
Kiss-cut: With this type of sticker, a sticker is printed within a larger, standard-shaped sheet. For complicated stickers with bleed, this type can be ideal.
Sheet: Sheets contain multiple stickers in one larger sheet, which can save space and offer customers variety.
5. Get your stickers printed
Like with other physical products, your options are to handle production yourself or work with a third-party partner.
Using a third-party printer: Mail-order printers allow you to upload your graphics and choose your specifications (for example, material and finish) and have stickers shipped to you. Local printers are also a good option, because you can save money by picking up your sticker order. You’ll typically need to order in bulk.
Print on demand: If you don't have a lot of space to store inventory or time to scale up operations, a print on demand service is a great option. Squarespace's Custom Merch feature allows you to submit a design, sync products to your online store, and let a third-party partner take care of printing, storage, inventory, and shipping.
Cutting your own stickers: Technology has made it easier than ever to print your own stickers at home. You can buy adhesive paper at office supply or craft stores and a printer made for sticker printing. This option also lets you print just what you need, so you save money and space.
How to sell your stickers
Many people sell stickers on multiple platforms. Doing this has pros and cons. For example, while you can reach more potential customers, some third-party platforms keep a high portion of your profits as fees. Building your own website to sell stickers gives you more control over your finances and how you present your brand.
1. Create and personalize an online store
If you already have a website , you can add a digital storefront or add a product to an existing store to sell stickers. If you’re starting a new store website or store page, make sure it’s designed to match your brand personality and easy to navigate.
Choose colors and fonts that match your brand and create clear categories and descriptions for your products. You can link to this store from social media posts or in your social profile’s link in bio.
If you have a Squarespace website, it’s easy to integrate your Etsy store with your website so that you can mirror your inventory there. This integration ensures that customers can see things like sticker images, your prices, and product reviews on your own site. You can also be confident you won't accidentally sell something that's out of stock because your inventory appears in both places.
Make sure your website platform has other features to simplify your sales workflow, like shipping features and email marketing tools to help you build customer loyalty.
Learn more about designing an online store
2. Set your sticker prices
Setting prices is one of the most challenging things for a business owner to figure out. If your prices are too high, people won't buy your stickers. If your prices are too low, you won't make a profit; in fact, you might even lose money.
Before setting prices, do research to find out what other people are charging. Be sure to build in any costs you're incurring for materials, production, and shipping and packaging. Once you have these amounts figured out, you can estimate what makes sense for your business.
Business owners on Squarespace recommend charging three times your cost of materials and services as a rule of thumb. It's not uncommon to start selling stickers at one price and adjust up or down once you see how customers are reacting.
Read our guide to pricing your products
3. Set up payment processing and checkout
Most ecommerce websites include mechanisms for payment processing and checkout. You can customize the text throughout this process as well to fit your brand.
Your checkout experience can also help you increase your sales or close your sales. Suggest related products during checkout to encourage added sales. Or ensure your checkout process is smooth and simple, so customers don’t abandon their carts.
Squarespace Payments allows you to offer several payment options to customers, which can make customers feel more comfortable buying from you. That includes common online payment processors like Stripe, Apple Pay, and PayPal, and buy now, pay later services like Klarna.
Learn more about taking payments on Squarespace
4. Ship your sticker orders
You’ll need to add a shipping option to your online store. Stickers are relatively lightweight. But customers tend to like options so they can weigh costs, so you might want to offer flat rate shipping, rates by weight, carrier calculated rates, or consider whether you can afford to offer free shipping.
Some artists opt to have a local pickup option for customers who want to save some money and get their orders in person.
Keep in mind that when shipping, you'll want to use a padded or reinforced envelope so the stickers don't get damaged in transit. Many people also opt to put stickers in a clear bag within the envelope so they don't get bent. Take the opportunity to promote yourself by including a business card or bonus bit of merch, like a badge or postcard.
5. Market your business
If you want to grow your business or earnings, you’ll need to market your stickers to new and existing customers. This will keep a steady flow of potential buyers coming to your website and store. There are a few ways to promote your work, depending on your goals.
Create a marketing strategy. If your primary business is selling stickers, consider putting together a marketing strategy. This will detail how you plan to promote your business long-term, and build in milestones so you can adjust your strategy if needed.
Share on social media. Due to their visual nature, stickers are ideal for visual platforms like Instagram or YouTube. You can also make fun video reels with stickers and share across multiple channels.
Sell at in-person events. Craft or maker fairs are great places for artists to sell their offerings, including stickers. Keep business cards on your table in case someone wants to find your store later.
Add stickers as a bonus gift. If you sell other art or physical products, stickers are a great item to include as a bonus gift to show gratitude and build customer loyalty.
Offer pricing specials. Many people offer discounts for buying sticker bundles or run sales to build a customer base. Offering a periodic discount to returning customers is another great way to gain loyal customers.