RetroEsqueApparel was an online Etsy shop I opened in the beginning of 2019 selling t-shirts via drop shipping Printful. The t-shirt shop is inspired by the 80's vaporwave movement, art and culture. When I first opened up shop I found myself in different roles such as designer, digital marketer, and legal ramifications. After getting myself into the art Vaporwave community on Instagram and saw many t-shirt designs were based off of Anime or other people's work. I wanted to stand out by doing something original that wasn't based on Anime and took a nose dive directly from 80's culture instead of just Vaporwave.
Designing: As a graphic's t-shirt shop I am responsible for designing the shirts and coming up with designs from scratch. The designs are inspired by 80's culture, cyber punk art, vaporwave art and modern day culture.
Digital Marketing: Having no prior experience in any marketing, I had to learn how to promote my t-shirts online. The first two platforms I work with is Instagram and Pinterest by posting direct links to the shirts and my shop. I learned what drop shipping is and how it works since I don't have the means to produce my own t-shirts.
In order to get more publicity and engagement, I had to find out the insights, (a handy feature on Instagram after 100 followers) for when is the best time to post, and what kind of hashtags to use. Another interesting thing I learned was posting videos after 9pm, where they can get more views and traction.
Legal: I had to learn how tax is applied locally, state wise and internationally. When setting up shop for the US, I had to set sales tax for each individual state. Also, when I first opened I had to decide and learn what legal rights my shop will get between sole proprietorship or limited liability company.
When I gathered data on my demographics off of Instagram, I got data based on age, gender and location. In order to reach accounts I post between 7am-8am to gain the most engagement. Early in my launch I had a prediction that the majority of my followers were based in European countries before the 100 follow count because I talked with people who were from Australia to Austria. Once I was able to get a hold of the statistics it revealed that the majority of my followers are based in the United States, age range is predominately 18-24 and the majority of my fan base is men.
