Boost Online Sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday
We’re coming up on the busiest shopping weekend of the year with Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
This isn’t just a busy time for box stores and online marketplaces. Small sellers and niche marketplaces always get an influx of traffic and sales.
Take advantage of buyer intent, seasonal urgency and social buzz by selling custom apparel and accessories with Spreadshop.
Sell 300+ print-on-demand products and cater to your niche this sales season. Once the sales rush is over, you don’t have to worry about processing orders or shipping out packages.
Spreadshop is a hands-off, automated solution - printing, shipping and order fulfillment are completely on us!
Here’s everything you need to know about selling apparel, accessories and more for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Selling Apparel is Free, Set-Up is Easy
Looking to sell t-shirts, beanies, mugs, etc. exclusively for the Black Friday shopping season? Spreadshop allows you to do so with no upfront investments or fees.
Completely FREE to open your online shop - all you need is a name, password and email address.
Add banners, tweak templates and choose which designs/products you want to feature on your homepage.
Sell 300+ merch products including Christmas decorations and gifts, comfy hoodies/sweatshirts and trendy accessories. We store all these products in-house and fulfill orders directly from our Las Vegas production facility.
The best part about Spreadshop: You earn from every sale. Anything you set beyond the base price of a product goes directly in your pocket. Link your credit card or PayPal account for easy payouts.
Why Sell Online, Especially This Time of Year
Print-on-demand is a profitable and passive side hustle. It pays off throughout the year with various design opportunities. These include festival season and Halloween. And different audiences to market to, like football fans and avid readers.
But there’s no better time to sell than the holidays.
Shoppers are actively looking for unique, personalized gifts. They’re typing in keywords like “Funny Christmas Sweater” and “Baby’s First Christmas Onesie” into Google on the daily.
And if you label your products correctly, they just might pop up in search!
Give your merch visibility with Spreadshop’s built-in tools and other extra, easy tricks. Tag your products with up to 30 keywords. This will help improve your SEO ranking.
Use long tail keywords in product titles. This will attract the right customers.
Here are 8 more organic, easy things you can do to optimize traffic and generate earnings on Black Friday weekend.
Making Your Custom Apparel Designs: A Streamlined Approach
Designing your print on demand products from scratch is overwhelming, especially during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. The biggest blocker for new sellers: Making quality merch designs.
You don’t have to be a designer to make merch people will buy (and love). A slew of design tools exists - free and subscription-based - that streamline the design process.
A lot of these tools have templates you can plug-and-play with so you’re not starting from ground zero.
When creating designs for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, think about the holiday gift-giving spirit. That includes thinking of motifs and graphics people reach for season after season.
Best-Selling Themes
Christmas sweater motifs
Holiday-themed puns
Timeless designs with a modern twist (neutral hues, minimalist)
Personalized: “Our 1st Christmas Together”
Check out Etsy’s Seller Trend Report: Fall/Winter 2025 for inspiration on what buyers are looking for this shopping season.
What Real Sellers are Promoting on Black Friday
We can discuss what you should do with your designs all day long - but it helps to see the real deal.
Every successful print on demand seller has one thing in common: They use their niche. Whether it’s sandwiches, dogs, gaming - using your niche in holiday merch feels authentic.
Making generic holiday-themed designs is ok. But there’s something extra you can bring to the table that you’re passionate about. If you love something enough to make apparel over it, there’s a good chance someone out there loves it enough to buy it.
Pittsburgh-based restaurant chain Primanti Brothers markets to their customer base with on-brand beer and sandwich-themed sweaters.
If you have a design in mind, think about how you can put a holiday twist on it? That’s what Mila the Chi, an internet famous chihuahua, did with her merch - adding a Santa hat and bow to a best-seller.
Want to know more about designing your merch and customizing products?
Download our FREE Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales Guide and learn how to correctly size designs, time-saving hacks and popular print-on-demand themes.
Free Black Friday, Cyber Monday Designs
If you just don’t have the time to mess around with making your own merch designs, you’re in luck.
We’ve created a pack of FREE designs just for you! Customize seasonal favorites and cozy classics with one click. Sizing and placement is completely up to you!
Download, upload and customize as many products as you like in your Spreadshop.
Organize Your Designs By Theme/Topic
Once your holiday designs are ready, you can organize them with topics in your Spreadshop.
Arrange designs by theme, niche or season using the Topics Tool.
Shoppers can easily find the most relevant designs without having to scroll beyond the home page of your shop.
Watch the video tutorial above to learn how to implement it in your Spreadshop.
Best-Selling Products For Your Shop
You can sell 300+ print-on-demand merch products with Spreadshop, but what are the best options? Especially for the holiday shopping season.
For Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, we have a few suggestions.
Having holiday gifting favorites like Santa hats, stockings, and plushes front and center is best. These are easy add-ons to bigger merch purchases, like hoodies and t-shirts.
For clothing, we strongly suggest the Oversized Hooded Sweatshirt and the Stanley/Stella Blaster Oversized T-Shirt.
Start with these suggestions and build out your shop with other products from categories like apparel, accessories and home.
When you price your products, you determine it based on the base price of your product. Any amount you set beyond that becomes your margin. You will receive payment after we process your order.
Factors to consider when pricing your products:
Fair pricing: Allow for profit, but consider the average price of similar products. For example, a t-shirt costs about $30, and a hoodie costs around $45.
Your Audience’s Budget: If you’re catering to a more mature crowd it makes sense to carry premium products and price them higher. If you’re catering to teens, keep items affordable.
Plan For Seasonal Sales: We have substantial promotions running for shop owners during Black Friday and Cyber Week. Price products accordingly to ensure earnings.
Another great marketing tactic to drive sales? Promote holiday bundles.
1. Increase Average Order Value (AOV)
Encourage the purchase of multiple items with gift-ready product pairings. Even low-cost items like mugs and water bottles can raise your AOV by 20–40%.
2. Reduce decision fatigue
Bundles eliminate guesswork by presenting them with products that go together. They don't have to search the internet for different gifts when presented with curated options!
3. Perfect for holiday promotions
Discounts are a great incentive to encourage purchases - and Spreadshop runs exclusive promotions every month. Feature bundles in social posts and mention promotions with eye-catching graphics and captions.
Get inspiration on curating gift-ready sets for different audience and niches in our holiday bundle gift guide.
Promote Print on Demand Products on Social
Adding keywords to descriptions and making quality products helps with search. However, it is still important to promote your products yourself.
User generated content (UGC) is key and has the potential to boost conversions 20-30% compared to stock visuals and screenshots. This typically involves content from consumers, but can have the same effect when curating content on your own.
Involve family and friends in the process and turn it into an event. This kind of content feels relatable to consumers and encourages purchases.
You’ll need to showcase products in your posts and the best way to do that is to order samples.
Login to Your Spreadshop: Go to your shop page and click the “Order Product Samples” button.
Add Items to Cart: Add whatever products you want to post (t-shirts, totes, stickers) to cart.
Place Your Order: Once in your cart, you can purchase samples at their base price.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Promotions
To increase visibility and sell more products, we have special promotions. These promotions are for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cyber Week for your shop.
Promos are a great tactic to encourage purchases and shoppers are expecting them this time of year.
You automatically turn on promos in your shop dashboard. You can turn them off if you don’t want to join a campaign.
Upcoming Seasonal Promotions:
Black Friday weekend (Nov. 28-30): 30% off orders $70+
Cyber Monday (Dec. 1): 30% off orders $70+
Cyber Week (Dec. 2-7): 20% off all orders
To learn how to maximize promotions and plan campaigns download our FREE Promo Guide.
See case studies from real shop owners to inspire your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns.
Sell more online this shopping season by making your own print-on-demand apparel and accessories with Spreadshop.