How to Start a Sticker Business

This is an article on how to make stickers to sell, what are the best selling stickers, and where to sell stickers online.

Adults use stickers, kids love stickers, everyone loves stickers. Selling stickers can be a very lucrative business to start that can also be lots of fun for the craft-loving entrepreneur.

I write a lot of but handmade businesses and e-commerce in general for crafty people looking to sell their projects. While I love artsy digital products, one of the best categories of things to sell that is a physical good is stickers.

The reason I say this is because stickers can be highly customizable, it can be a reoccurring purchase, and best of all, it is easy to ship with low inventory costs. All of these pieces make for great business potential.

Now, you can’t just go selling any generic sticker in 100+ packs on Amazon that parents buy as party favors for their kid’s birthdays. There are many categories of stickers that are much more profitable with decent demand.

Best selling stickers

Now, it’s hard to decipher an all-time best seller because there are so many types of stickers. But for a general sense of the business, you can check out the best sellers list from Redbubble, a major online sticker seller.

According to Etsy, the most in-demand searches for stickers are sticker packs, stickers for laptops, and stickers for hydroflasks. I know those are kind of random categories but it does give us some clues as to what people are looking for.

Selling vinyl stickers

I mentioned earlier there are many different types of stickers out there. For example, the stickers for hydroflasks that are so popular on Etsy are actually vinyl stickers.

Vinyl stickers are plastic stickers with permanant adhesive that are meant for mugs, bottles and sometimes clothing.

It is meant to enduring some washing and wear and tear. This is not your average sticker for party favors. You will need specialized materials and a cutting machine to make vinyl stickers.

How to make vinyl stickers with the Cricut

Even within the category of vinyl stickers, there are a few different types. The first is the image or text cutout vinyl used for customizing things like the hydroflasks mentioned earlier. Vinyl decals are also popular for other smooth surfaces like windows or mugs.

You will need a cutting machine to make these vinyl decals. I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.

You will also need a way to turn bitmap-based images (.jpeg, .bmp., .png, etc.) into vector images (most common format is .svg). I have a more thorough tutorial on how to turn images into SVG files here.

There are many graphics editing tools you can use to create vector files. If you are more graphically inclined, the industry standard is Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately, the learning curve is steep and will take some time and effort to grasp.

There is also a free graphics editor called Inkscape. It is not as full-featured as Illustrator but it can get the job done. It also takes some time and effort to learn in the beginning. I have an introductory tutorial on how to use Inkscape to make SVG files here.

My personal favorite tool is Vector Magic. It is a fully automated vectorization tool that requires no graphics editing skills to use. All you need to do is upload your image (or even just copy and paste it in) and in a few seconds, get the SVG version of the image.

How to make stickers to sell on Etsy

Another great place to sell stickers online is on Etsy. However, not all stickers sell well on Etsy. While vinyl decals sell on Etsy, the majority of the demand is for more custom printed stickers.

Selling stickers on Etsy

Custom printed stickers can take on many different forms. A popular sticker type is custom logo stickers for small businesses.

Custom printed stickers for parties and events are also popular and in demand on Etsy. Custom printed stickers can be done with normal sticker printer or specialized printable vinyl sticker sheets.

Specialized printable vinyl sticker sheets are necessary for things like clothing labels and other washable items like water bottles. Not all printable vinyl is made equally. This is my favorite brand of printable vinyl. It works for both inkjet and laser printers.

You will need to seal any printable sticker that needs to be washed. You can either use a spray sealant or cover it in a clear vinyl sheet.

How to start a planner sticker business

The category that is the most in-demand on Etsy is planner stickers. Planner stickers are semi-customer as in some customers just want a generic planner pack of stickers in which you will have to customize with your own enticing designs. Other customers are going to want a specialized name or graphics specific planner stickers.

I have a separate tutorial on how to make these planner stickers here if you are interested.

These semi-custom planner stickers are also going to require some additional graphics skills. While the vinyl decals required vectorizing the full image or text, the custom printed sticker requires a transparent background and a cutout silhouette around the main graphic or text.

I use Clipping Magic to automatically remove the background from my graphics. It is the only tool that is fully automatic that also has an editor where you can make more subjective changes after it’s automated background removal. They also have a bulk editor if you are doing any volume background removal as a business.

It is so easy to use, all you have to do is upload (or copy and paste) your image. It doesn’t even need to be on a white background, it can be a business background and the Clipping Magic algorithm will figure it out.

How to make stickers to sell online

If you’re not equipped to physically make your own stickers, there are a number of different places where you can upload just the graphics and outsource the whole sticker making process.

Redbubble is the most popular marketplace online for selling stickers. They all sorts of obscure and interesting stickers for purchase uploaded by both professional and amateur graphic designers.

Interested in some free templates and printables to get your creative juices going on what to make and sell?