(Updated 7/17/2024)

Back in 2020, I decided to start selling stickers in my Etsy shop. I had been selling printables and print-on-demand products on Etsy for several years, which has been a great source of income and has given me an idea of what designs my customers want to buy. Since printables and POD are both very hands-off in that I don’t have to make, package, or ship anything, I’d been wanting to connect with customers and try something new by selling products that I could ship from my own home. I decided on stickers because they’re a low-cost item to start selling, they’re a common impulse buy (especially for collectors), and the storage wouldn’t take up much space in my office. If you’ve been thinking about starting a sticker business, this is everything you need to know to get started.

(This post contains affiliate links, so I may receive a commission if you click a link and buy something. A girl’s gotta eat.)

How to Create Sticker Designs

It doesn’t take a master designer to create sticker designs that sell. All of my designs are created in either Canva or PhotoPea. 

If you’re not drawing your own stickers, you’ll probably want to download some fonts and graphics for your designs. If you’re selling stickers, make sure all the fonts and graphics you’re using are permitted for commercial use and not personal use only. I get most of my design elements from Creative Fabrica; everything on their website includes a commercial use license. I then upload them to Canva to add them to designs. Make sure to sign up for their email list for weekly freebies and discount bundles.

I’ve also created a few sticker designs on PlaceIt. They’re always adding new design templates that you can customize with your own colors and phrases. 

How to Print Vinyl Stickers 

Once you have some designs made, it’s time to print your stickers. There are a few ways to do this:

Vinyl Cutting Machine

The best way to have the most control over the outcome of your stickers is to print and cut them yourself. You can do this with a cutting machine such as the Cricut or Silhouette Cameo. These are two of the most common machines for vinyl crafters, so there are hundreds of tutorials on YouTube that will walk you through how to do everything that’s possible with a cutting machine.

Outsource Your Sticker Printing

When you’re first starting out, I actually recommend outsourcing your sticker printing instead of investing in all the tools to print yourself. It’s how I prefer to do it because I’d rather spend my time coming up with new designs instead of printing. This way you can also order sample packs of your designs and list them in small quantities to see what sells best. Here are some of my favorite vinyl sticker printers:

 Sticker Blitz (The fastest processing and shipping times. Use the code SBAA573 for a $10 credit)

Sticker App (I love them for glitter stickers)

Sticker Giant (Awesome for product labels)

Sticker Ninja (Great for sticker sheets, bumper stickers, and sticker business cards)

Vinyl Disorder (Lots of products beyond stickers such as wall decals and even custom cornhole games)

Print-On-Demand Sticker Printing

Another option that’s even MORE hands-off than outsourcing is print-on-demand (POD) stickers. With this option, there are no order minimums and the supplier (Printful is my preferred POD supplier that happens to sell stickers) also ships the products to your customer for you with your branding, so you don’t have to store the stickers or package and ship them. However, it does cost a bit more which is why I don’t use this method for stickers and only use it for things like apparel. 

Packaging and Shipping Your Stickers

The most costly part of this whole thing is shipping. I know a lot of sellers will just send stickers in a letter envelope with a regular postage stamp and hope for the best, but I didn’t want to take that risk and also wanted my packages to look a bit more professional.

I like to use a rigid paperboard mailer for my sticker orders. They’re not plastic, which I prefer, and they’re rigid so you don’t have to worry about the stickers folding or crinkling in the package. They’re also super cheap at less than 20 cents per piece. 

Since the paperboard is not waterproof I protect the stickers by putting them in a small plastic envelope like this, which cost about 5 cents each. I mostly sell 3×3” stickers, so the 4×6″ or 6×6” mailers and 4×5” envelopes are the perfect size. 

Packaging Inserts

Aside from stickers I also include a business card (VistaPrint has some of the cheapest) with a discount code on the back to encourage repeat business. You could print any sort of marketing material to add to your packages like a postcard or flyer advertising your latest products.

Shipping Your Stickers

I used to offer free shipping on all stickers and use the $1 Etsy flats shipping, but that option doesn’t provide actual USPS tracking and 10-20% of my packages ended up lost in the system. Now, I charge $3 for shipping (with free shipping on orders over $35) and use USPS ground advantage shipping. This has reduced my missing package problem to more like 1-2% of my orders, which is much more manageable. Some customers do like to bitch about the fact that they have to pay $3 shipping for a $4 sticker, but in most cases people understand and don’t care. It doesn’t cost me less money or time to ship 1 sticker than it does 10 stickers and honestly, if it reduces the number of one-sticker orders I get, I’m fine with that. 

I used to print the shipping labels on regular printer paper. Cutting and taping the labels to the envelope was by far the most time-consuming part of this whole process, so it didn’t take long before I ordered a thermal Rollo printer. This thing is AMAZING. It spits out dozens of labels in less than a minute and requires no cartridge – LIFE CHANGING. Can’t recommend this thing enough. The other popular label printer out there is the Dymo, which I’ve heard great things about but haven’t tried.

Organizing and Storing Your Stickers 

I store all my stickers and supplies in a parts tray. Make sure to get one with drawers wide enough to hold your stickers without bending them. Make it even easier on yourself with a handheld label maker so you can quickly find the drawer you need.

Boost Your Profit Margin With Sticker Packs

The biggest downside to selling stickers on Etsy is that the profit margins are low when each product is only a couple dollars. You’re paying the same for a shipping label and envelope whether there’s one sticker or 10 stickers in there, and the least profitable packages you’ll send out are those with only one sticker in them. 

The easiest way to do this on Etsy is by creating sticker pack listings. If your stickers are all a similar niche, you can offer a pack of 4-10 stickers for a lower price than what they’d all cost individually. You can even get rid of slow-moving inventory by offering “surprise packs” where they buy 5 stickers and you decide which ones go in there.

I hope this makes it easier for you to get started with your Etsy sticker shop! Ready to open your store? Use my seller referral link for 40 free listings.

Check out more of my online business posts to see what else you can sell in your store:

How to Make and Sell Printables on Etsy

How to Sell Your Designs on Apparel, Home Goods, and Other Types of Merch With Print-On-Demand

How to Make Creative Dictionary-Style Designs and Sell Them on Etsy

Everything You Need to Know About Etsy SEO (essential reading if you’re new to Etsy selling and want to make money at it)