Stickers are one of the most accessible physical products you can sell online. Low barrier to entry, low cost to produce, high margins, and a passionate buying audience. The sticker market has grown steadily alongside the rise of small business culture, journaling communities, and personalisation trends, and Shopify is one of the best platforms for turning a sticker idea into a real income stream.
This guide covers the whole process: how to design your stickers, how to get them made, and how to set up your Shopify store to sell them properly.
Why Stickers Are a Smart Product to Sell on Shopify
Before getting into the how, it's worth understanding why stickers work so well as a product:
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They're low cost to produce, with per-unit costs as low as 10-30p depending on size, material, and print run
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They're lightweight and cheap to ship, which keeps fulfilment costs down
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Customers buy in multiples, a single order of 5-10 stickers is common, which boosts average order value
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The repeat purchase rate is high, sticker fans come back regularly
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They suit a huge range of niches: plants, pets, fandoms, mental health, travel, cottagecore, skateboarding, you name it
The margin on a well-priced sticker sheet can comfortably sit at 60-80%, which is better than most physical products you could sell.
Step 1: Design Your Stickers
You don't need to be a professional designer to create stickers that sell, but you do need designs that stand out. Here's how to approach it:
Find Your Niche
The most important design decision happens before you open any software. What community or aesthetic are you designing for? A sticker shop trying to appeal to everyone usually appeals to no one. The shops that do well pick a lane: witty office humour, watercolour botanicals, chunky gothic lettering, kawaii animals. Your niche should be specific enough that someone who stumbles across your shop thinks 'this is exactly for people like me.'
Tools for Designing Stickers
You have several good options depending on your skill level and budget:
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Procreate (iPad): The industry standard for hand-drawn sticker illustration. Brush packs are available that replicate felt-tip, watercolour, and ink styles. A one-time purchase of around £12.
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Adobe Illustrator: Best for vector-based designs that scale to any size without losing quality. Subscription-based but industry standard for clean, bold sticker art.
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Canva Pro: Not ideal for illustration but excellent for text-based designs, quote stickers, and simple graphics. The free version covers basic needs.
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Affinity Designer: A one-time purchase alternative to Illustrator that handles vector work well at a fraction of the subscription cost.
Design Specifications
When designing for print, work at 300 DPI minimum. Most sticker printers accept files in PNG (with transparent background), PDF, or AI format. Check your chosen printer's specifications before finalising your files, as requirements vary.
For die-cut stickers (where the cut follows the outline of your design), leave a 2-3mm bleed area and provide a separate 'cut line' or ask your printer to generate one. For sheet stickers, design to standard sheet sizes (A4 or US letter) with a clean grid layout.
Step 2: Get Your Stickers Printed
You have two main routes: print yourself or use a professional printer. Both have their place depending on your volume and goals.
Printing at Home or in-House
Home printing works if you're starting very small and want to test designs before investing in a print run. You'll need a good quality inkjet printer (Canon Pixma and Epson EcoTank models are popular choices) and printable sticker paper. Vinyl sticker paper gives better durability than standard label paper.
The downsides are time, consistency, and quality ceiling. Home-printed stickers can look great, but they rarely match the quality of professionally printed vinyl. They're also more time-consuming at scale.
Professional Print-on-Demand (Best for Shopify Beginners)
Print-on-demand services integrate directly with Shopify, meaning you don't hold any stock. When a customer orders a sticker, the print-on-demand company prints it, packs it, and ships it directly to your customer. You pay the production cost and keep the difference between that and your retail price.
Printful, Printify, and Gelato are the most widely used options. They all have Shopify integrations, reasonable per-unit pricing, and a broad range of sticker formats. Compare their per-unit costs and shipping times before settling on one.
Bulk Printing for Better Margins
Once you know which designs sell, ordering bulk print runs dramatically improves your margin. UK-based sticker printers worth looking at include Sticker Mule, Diginate, and Printed.com. MOQ (minimum order quantities) vary, but most allow runs from 50-100 units.
Bulk printing means holding stock, which requires storage space and upfront investment. For a first print run on a new design, start small (50-100 units) to test demand before ordering hundreds.
Step 3: Set Up Your Shopify Sticker Store
Now for the Shopify side. Here's how to set up a sticker shop that converts:
Choose a Theme That Showcases Imagery
Stickers are a visual product. Your theme needs to let images do the heavy lifting. Shopify's free themes like Dawn or Sense work well. Look for themes with large image areas, grid-style collection pages, and a clean product detail layout. Avoid themes with heavy text-dominant designs.
Organise Your Collections
Group your stickers logically so customers can browse easily. Common collection structures for sticker shops include:
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By format: Individual die-cut stickers, sticker sheets, sticker bundles
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By theme: Plants, animals, quotes, seasonal
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By colour palette: Particularly useful for journaling and planner communities who coordinate aesthetics
Product Photography (or Mockups)
Real product photos are ideal. Show your stickers on laptops, water bottles, journals, phone cases. Context photography helps buyers visualise the sticker in their life.
If you're using print-on-demand and haven't held the physical product yet, mockup templates work well. Placeit and Creative Market both have sticker mockup templates. Avoid making all your images look like renders though, at least one or two lifestyle shots (real stickers on real objects) builds significantly more trust.
Write Product Descriptions That Sell
Sticker product descriptions are often overlooked because 'it's just a sticker.' That's a missed opportunity. Good sticker descriptions include:
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Exact size(s) available
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Material (vinyl, holographic, matte, gloss, waterproof)
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Finish options
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Whether they're dishwasher-safe or weather-resistant if relevant
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Application tips if useful (a sentence on surface prep for vinyl decals, for example)
Keep the tone consistent with your brand. A shop selling dark humour stickers should sound different to a shop selling delicate botanical illustrations.
Step 4: Price Your Stickers to Sell Profitably
Pricing stickers is where a lot of new sellers go wrong by undercharging. Here's a framework:
Individual die-cut stickers
Typically £2-£4 each at retail. At a production cost of 30-60p (for a professionally printed run), this gives you solid margin. Don't price at £1 competing on volume. That's a race to the bottom that hurts the whole sticker market.
Sticker sheets
Usually £4-£9 per sheet depending on size, quantity of designs, and niche. Sheets are great for increasing average order value because they feel like better value to the buyer even while maintaining or improving your margin per order.
Bundles
Three to five stickers bundled at a slight discount to buying individually. Bundles are one of the most effective ways to increase average order value in a sticker shop without running blanket discounts.
Step 5: Sort Your Packaging and Shipping
Packaging matters more than most new sticker sellers anticipate. Sticker buyers are often part of communities where unboxing is shared on social media. Good packaging is free marketing.
At minimum, ship stickers in a rigid mailer (cardboard-backed envelope) to prevent bending. Add a thank-you card with a QR code linking to your shop or social media. If your budget allows, a branded sticker on the outside of the envelope, tissue paper, or a small freebie sticker goes a long way.
UK Shipping Options
For lightweight sticker orders, Royal Mail large letter format is cost-effective. A typical sticker sheet order fits within large letter dimensions and ships for under £2 with tracked delivery. For larger orders or bundles, small parcel rates apply.
Set your Shopify shipping rates to reflect your actual costs. Offering free shipping on orders over a certain threshold (for example, free shipping over £15) encourages buyers to add one more sheet to hit the free shipping threshold.
Step 6: Market Your Sticker Shop
The sticker community is active and engaged across several platforms. Here's where to focus your marketing energy:
Instagram and TikTok
Visual platforms suit a visual product. Post process videos (designing your sticker, cutting sheets, packing orders), flat lays of new releases, and styled shots showing your stickers in context. The sticker community on TikTok in particular has a strong creator-to-buyer pipeline. Showing your process builds the personal connection that makes people buy from small shops over Amazon.
Sticker aesthetics perform well on Pinterest. Create boards around your niche and pin your product images with links directly to your Shopify store. Pinterest traffic compounds over time, making it a good long-term channel.
Etsy (As a Secondary Channel)
While your Shopify store should be your primary home, listing your stickers on Etsy as well captures buyers who are already in shopping mode. Drive Etsy buyers back to your Shopify store through packaging inserts and email sign-up incentives to build a direct customer relationship.
SEO for Your Shopify Sticker Shop
Use keyword-rich product titles and descriptions. Think about what someone searching Google for your sticker type would type: 'waterproof vinyl plant stickers,' 'A5 mental health sticker sheet UK,' 'die-cut cat stickers for water bottles.' The more specific, the less competition and the higher the intent of the buyer who finds you.
Want to Get Your Sticker Shop Live in 7 Days?
Getting from idea to live store often stalls because there are too many decisions to make in isolation. The 7 Days to Launch programme gives you a clear daily structure: what to do, in what order, and how to make each decision quickly without second-guessing yourself.
Physical product or digital, the framework works for sticker shops, PDF stores, and everything in between.
[Link to 7 Days to Launch]
FAQs: Making Stickers to Sell on Shopify
What equipment do I need to make stickers to sell?
To print your own, you need a good quality inkjet printer and printable vinyl sticker paper. A cutting machine like a Cricut or Silhouette Cameo lets you cut custom shapes, which significantly improves the finished look. If you use print-on-demand or a professional printer, you just need design software and the designs themselves.
Can I sell stickers on Shopify with no inventory?
Yes. Print-on-demand services like Printful, Printify, or Gelato integrate directly with Shopify. Customers order through your store, the print-on-demand service fulfils it, and you never hold stock. Margins are lower than bulk printing, but the zero-inventory model is a good way to test designs before committing to a print run.
How much does it cost to start a sticker shop on Shopify?
With print-on-demand, you can start with just Shopify's monthly plan fee (after the free trial) and design software. If you're self-printing, add a printer (£100-£200 for a good inkjet) and sticker paper. For a first bulk print run through a professional printer, budget around £50-£150 for a test run of two or three designs.
What size should stickers be?
Die-cut individual stickers typically range from 5cm to 10cm in their longest dimension. Sticker sheets are usually A5 or A6 and contain multiple smaller designs. Your printer's website will have size guides and templates to work from.
Do I need a licence to sell stickers with quotes or characters on them?
Selling stickers with copyrighted characters (from films, games, TV shows) or with direct quotes from copyrighted works without a licence is legally risky. Stick to original designs or properly licensed artwork. Fan art exists in a grey area and has led to legal issues for many small shops.
What's the best material for stickers?
Vinyl is the most durable and popular material for stickers meant to go on water bottles, laptops, and outdoor surfaces. Matte vinyl gives a premium feel, gloss vinyl is more vibrant, and holographic vinyl adds visual interest for a slightly higher cost. Paper stickers are cheaper and suit planner or journal communities where they won't face wear.
Can I sell both physical stickers and digital sticker files on Shopify?
Absolutely. Digital sticker files (PNG packs for use in apps like GoodNotes) are a growing category and have the advantage of instant delivery and zero fulfilment cost. You can list both physical and digital products in the same Shopify store. Just make sure digital products have shipping disabled and a delivery app installed.