Welcome to the era of YouTube entrepreneurship, where content creators are not just video producers for their own YouTube channels, but also savvy business owners. One of the best ways for YouTubers to monetize and engage their audience is by launching a YouTuber merch store full of unique and exclusive merch items to hype up their fans!
These online ecommerce merch stores allow YouTubers to sell their viewers custom merchandise, ranging from apparel to accessories and more. It can be quite a lucrative monetization strategy - Popular YouTubers like PewDiePie and Markiplier have leveraged their massive audiences to sell millions of dollars worth of merchandise. YouTuber Danny Duncan's channel created in 2014 has made over $150 million from selling his merch.
The key to their success? Understanding their audience and creating merch that resonates with them. For YouTubers, merch isn't just about making money with your custom products — it's about extending their brand beyond their YouTube channel screen and into the real world. By selling merchandise, creators can strengthen their connection with fans, who get to wear or use merch items that represent their favorite online personalities.
This guide will delve into the world of YouTube merch stores, how YouTubers set up their merch, the advantages and disadvantages of different platforms, and which companies the biggest YouTubers use to sell YouTuber merch.
Many of the top popular YouTubers, like MrBeast, MKBHD, Charlotte Dobre, and Philip DeFranco, use one of the following two platforms for their merch stores:
Both Fourthwall and Shopify are popular with YouTube channel creators and also Twitch streamers for good reason. They're both private labels (white labels) which allows creators to fully customize their website and their YouTuber merch so that all of their merch is fully branded to them. One great example is MKBHD's Fourthwall merch store, which is so unique to his brand:
Both Fourthwall and Shopify allow you to connect with:
No matter what product makes sense for your audience, these two platforms very likely will find a way for you to sell it!
When choosing the right merch maker for your online merch store, most creators should focus on who has the best print quality and most printing options.
Creators needing on demand YouTuber merch (for everything from stickers to shirts and hoodies and more) can hardly do better than Fourthwall's platform, which integrates with a long list of global manufacturers and fulfillment partners in the U.S., UK, EU, Australia, and Asia, so you can easily bring your merch ideas to life through high quality products and smooth shipping. Fourthwall also handles customer support for all orders sourced through the Fourthwall product catalog, which makes running your shop a breeze!
Unlike Printful and Printify, Fourthwall also helps creators connect with popular dropshipping services for more unusual items, plus other custom merchandisers for all varieties of apparel that creators generally want to sell.
What you're looking for in a platform is a place that will offer the best print qualities for YouTube merch and print on demand (POD) products. When choosing a merch maker, you're choosing who you trust for your merchandising quality. The most important factors are product cost, product quality, shipping costs, and shipping times. Here are six ecommerce platforms to consider:
Ultimately, the best platform for YouTuber merch depends on your specific needs, such as customization options, product quality, and ease of use. While Fourthwall and Shopify are preferred by many top creators for their comprehensive features and integration options, selecting the right merch platform requires aligning with your brand and community goals.
To see what kind of merch ideas and products are available to you for your YouTuber merch store, browse the Fourthwall product catalog here!
Live shopping on your YouTube channel allows creators to showcase their merch, answer viewer questions, and demonstrate product features in an interactive format, creating a sense of urgency and excitement around their merchandise. This real-time interaction lets viewers watch a segment about a merch product, and then purchase it directly from within YouTube.
Utilizing Live Shopping can boost viewer engagement, foster a stronger connection with your fans, and increase conversion rates by making the shopping experience more immediate and personal. Leveraging live shopping also increases the visibility of products, potentially leading to more merch sales and greater brand loyalty.
Both Printful and Fourthwall have a native product rendering engine, so you can easily create a mockup of your favorite products. Mockups are an important way to show that you're using the best print quality and printers, since it lets fans see the product before buying. The better the mockup, the more likely you are to get people to buy your YouTube channel merchandise.
Some of the most popular categories that creators sell and generate mockups for are:
Fourthwall's engineering team has invested over four years in building custom photogrammetry software to ensure that your merch store mockups are as perfect as possible. This is true across techniques like print on demand, screen printing, sublimation, and embroidery.
For example with this Fourthwall pint glass (below), you can see how the shadows and UV lighting are perfectly rendered using Fourthwall's mock up generator, giving your potential customers a great look at exactly what kind of merch they're going to get!
Let's look at a trio of impressive creator YouTube merch stores, and how merch plays an important part in each YouTuber's branding strategy.
Check out popular YouTuber MrBeast's shop at mrbeast.store, where he features a clothing line including MrBeast T-shirts, hoodies, and hats, plus more unusual custom items like MrBeast stickers, basketballs and shoelaces.
Check out Orly's shop at store.thediydesigner.com. Her online store offers a wide range of T-shirts and hoodies, as well as custom tote bags and backpacks.
Check out tech review expert MKBHD's (Marques Brownlee) store page at mkbhd.com. where you'll find Marques' hoodies, shirts, water bottles, and more merchandise items, including several featuring his distinctive logo.
And as a final example, browse the New York Magazine boutique merch shop at shop.nymag.com, which includes their classic logo collection of merch plus mugs and baseball caps.
Merch stores offer creators an exciting opportunity to monetize their branding, engage with fans, and express their creativity through their merch ideas. Both the most popular YouTubers and many up-and-coming YouTubers are choosing Fourthwall to launch their shops! It's the easiest way for creators to launch their merch lines with great print quality, no inventory management, and excellent customer service. Creators also keep full brand control from their domain to their logo to their data.
Whether you're in the gaming community on YouTube, the cooking crew, the science makers, or any other kind of content creator, once you're ready to launch your unique brand for your audience, get started on your best ecommerce merch option - Fourthwall!
There are no monthly fees, no upfront costs, and no contracts to use Fourthwall. You set your prices and choose your own margins. Here is how our pricing and splits work when you sell:
Additionally, all US-based credit card transactions have an added 2.9% + $0.30 payment processing fee (same as Shopify). Fees vary for PayPal and other providers. Learn more.
Product costs are listed directly in our product catalog.
If a t-shirt is listed in our catalog at a $10 cost, we will automatically deduct that amount from your profits whenever you make a sale. You can sell products for any price you want.
For example, if you sell the shirt for $22, you'll make $12 in profit on each unit sold. If you sell it for $50, then you'll make $40 in profit on each unit sold.
Yes! Fourthwall works with manufacturing & fulfillment partners around the globe in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Japan.
Shipping rates are dynamically determined by the size of package and destination. We work with most major carriers and pass through the true cost of shipping. That means that you can offer low-cost, fast shipping to your fans. Most items have a delivery window of 5-8 days.
Be sure to browse our product catalog to find products that are fulfilled out of your target regions to provide the fastest & cheapest shipping for your community.
Yes! Fourthwall operates as the "Merchant of Record" and automatically supports the following payment methods on checkout:
Fourthwall operates as the "Merchant of Record", which means that we're responsible for handling all sales taxes. This includes nexus registration, collecting sales tax, and remitting this to US states & other countries.
That way you can focus on designing products and promoting your shop, not taxes.
Yes. You can connect a custom domain or subdomain on Fourthwall. Learn More.
If you need help finding an artist or designer, check out our design community.
This is a vetted network of exceptional designers that can help you make great quality designs for your audience. We also recommend tools like Canva or Kittl.
Yes. For any product from our product catalog, we'll handle all customer support for you.
From answering general order questions to making address changes, our team is there to ensure that your buyers are treated with the same level of care that you would personally give them. We have a 12-hour or less average reply time, including nights and weekends.
For any items that you source on your own and ship from home, however, you'll need to do customer support.
Yes! Over 200,000 sellers use Fourthwall to power their storefronts. This includes creators, podcasters, artists, musicians, startups, non-profits, and more.
Get inspired and browse all examples sites.
Fourthwall supports many free integrations, including:
There are no requirements to join Fourthwall! Sign up now.