Branded merchandise can be a creative way to generate hype about new products and encourage larger orders. Your business can also use it to create brand awareness. When customers use your merch in public, they draw new eyes to your brand.
The key is creating high-quality branded products. “If you create great merch, people will wear it more,” Sahra Nguyen, founder of Vietnamese coffee company Nguyen Coffee Supply, says in a Shopify interview. Nguyen Coffee Supply’s lineup of branded merchandise includes thoughtfully designed sweatshirts and T-shirts alongside practical items like coffee filters and mugs. “We've always gone really wild with our merch and created with that intention in mind,” says Sahra.
Ahead, read about how branded merchandise can benefit your business, and learn how to create high-quality branded merchandise of your own.
What is branded merchandise?
Branded merchandise is any product featuring a company’s logo, brand name, or other promotional or identifying assets. Sometimes called “promotional merchandise” or “branded merch,” it can include items like apparel, cookware, stationary and writing tools, and tech accessories.
Why make branded merchandise?
- Increase brand awareness
- Launcha new revenue stream
- Generate hype for new products
- Encourage larger purchases
Whether you sell custom branded merchandise or give it away, here are some different ways it can benefit your business:
Increase brand awareness
Customers who wear apparel (or carry around items like tote bags) with your brand name or brand logo act as brand ambassadors, advertising your company wherever they go. This helps cultivate word-of-mouth advertising.
This can build trust in your brand, and act as powerful social proof. Studies show that 80% of US shoppers rely on recommendations when making a purchase.
Launch a new revenue stream
Branded merchandise can generate a whole new area of revenue. For example, the beauty brand Rhode launched a branded phone case customized to hold their popular lip tint. The phone case went viral and sold out instantly.
Tech accessories and beauty products might not be an obvious combination, but Rhode’s innovative product jumpstarted a new product category while promoting their lip tint. The viral phone cases also inspired user-generated content (UGC), as customers snapped and shared mirror selfies with the phone case and lip tint on full display.
Generate hype for new products
Well-designed branded merchandise can get shoppers excited about new products. It can even drum up excitement for your brand launch.
Take the ecommerce pickle company Good Girl Snacks. Before selling a single pickle, Good Girl Snacks developed an online following by posting product photos on Instagram and selling “Hot girls eat pickles” hats. By the time they launched, Good Girl Snacks had already built a community hungry for their products.
Those hats, initially released in 2023, proved so popular that Good Girl Snacks brought them back. The brand created a new batch of acid-washed “Hot girls eat pickles” hats in November 2025.
Encourage larger purchases
Selling branded merchandise products can increase your average order value (AOV).
“In our category of coffee, it's hard to get people to spend more than $30 or $40 at a time because the behavior isn't there to buy six bags of coffee,” says Sahra. Nguyen Coffee Supply increases purchase totals by supplementing their assortment of ground and whole bean coffee with branded merchandise products. Those include filters, glass coffee mugs, and pitchers.
“They’re all part of our strategy to grow our AOV and upsell at the cart,” Sahra says.
You can also use merch to upsell by giving it away when customers hit a purchase threshold. For example, makeup brand Merit Beauty offers shoppers a free hat when they spend $100 or more.
Branded merchandise products
Here are some of popular product types to consider for your branded merchandise:
Apparel
When customers wear branded apparel items, they market your brand wherever they go.
Custom T-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags might be an especially good fit if you have a strong visual brand identity. That’s because they provide ample space to show off branding elements like logos and unique illustrations.
Look at Canyon Coffee, for example, a café and ecommerce shop that sells organic coffee beans, brew equipment, and artistic mugs. The company communicates its minimalistic brand identity through designs on T-shirts and tote bags.
Cookware
Unlike apparel items, cookware and drinkware products like coffee mugs and reusable water bottles come in single sizes. This takes the guesswork out of ordering products up front.
If you sell edible goods, consider selling branded merchandise products to complement them. For example, tinned fish brand Fishwife sells tongs and knives. Those products come in classic Fishwife packaging, in colorful boxes with playful illustrations.
Office supplies and tech accessories
Office supplies and tech accessories like pens, branded headphones, and phone grips are one-size-fits-all and useful to a wide demographic base. This makes them good gifts for trade shows, conferences, and job fairs.
You can also sell these products. For example, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Design Store offers branded tech accessories including touchscreen cleaners.
Bags
Branded backpacks, tote bags, and duffel bags are practical for customers, and can act as moving advertisements for your company.
Consider branded bags specifically designed for your products. Beauty brand Glossier, for example, sells makeup bags to store their cosmetic and skincare items.
How to create branded merchandise
Here are a few steps to follow as you start creating branded merchandise:
1. Design your branded merchandise
As you design your branded merchandise, keep your company’s visual identity top of mind to ensure branding consistency across touchpoints.
“It builds trust in your consumers and customers if they feel like you have a clear, consistent point of view,” says Ky Allport, creative director at branding agency Outline.
Outline worked on brand design for the canned goods company Heyday Canning Co. The result is a colorful, nostalgic visual brand identity that’s reflected in Heyday’s branded merchandise, including hats and bandanas.
2. Find a manufacturer
There are a few ways to make your own branded merchandise. One is to find a manufacturer and buy your products wholesale. This requires ordering items upfront and storing your inventory.
Another option is to use a print-on-demand (POD) model to make custom products. You send your designs to your POD partner, and they produce and ship your customized product only when a customer places an order. This lets you avoid ordering in bulk, warehousing products, and shipping items to customers.
If you’re on Shopify, you can add a POD app to your online store to automate the order process. Once a customer places an order, your POD partner will automatically start working on their product. This eliminates the step of manually notifying your partner about new orders.
Since you won’t be on the hook for up-front costs, POD also lets you pivot at a moment’s notice. “If an artist creates a new graphic on Monday, we can be selling that graphic online on Wednesday afternoon,” says Tom Hassell, president of apparel brand Life is Good, on Shopify Masters. Life is Good uses virtual mockups to display new items without having physical products on hand.
3. Distribute your products
The final step is getting your branded merchandise out into the world. Here are a few options:
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Sell online or in person. List and sell your merch online, at your physical store, or at events like pop-ups.
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Employee giveaways. Distribute branded merchandise to employees as part of a company event or to celebrate company milestones.
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Trade shows. Help potential customers remember your brand by giving out branded products at trade shows and conferences.
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Influencer gifts. If influencer gifting is part of your marketing strategy, consider including branded merchandise in your packages. If you’re lucky, the merch may end up in influencer content, too.
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Loyalty programs. Incentivize rewards sign-ups or commemorate birthdays and membership milestones by distributing exclusive merch to members.
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Contests and giveaways. Try distributing branded products via online giveaways or user engagement campaigns on social media.
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Customer gifts. Consider gifting branded merchandise alongside purchases, or using it to incentivize bigger orders.
How to create branded merchandise FAQ
What are the bestselling branded merchandise items?
Popular branded merch ideas include t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, tote bags, and tech accessories like Rhode’s viral lip-tint-holding phone case.
How do I start making my own branded merchandise?
You can start making your own branded merch by partnering with a print-on-demand (POD) company. Once a customer places an order, your POD partner will produce and ship the product directly to the buyer.
Is making branded merchandise a marketing strategy?
Yes, creating and distributing branded merchandise is a marketing strategy that can complement other strategies, such as social media and event marketing. You can sell merchandise online or in-person, or give it away for free at events such as trade shows and conferences.
