How to Make Phone Cases and Start a Phone Case Business: An Easy 9-Step Guide for 2024

How to Make Phone Cases and Start a Phone Case Business: An Easy 9-Step Guide for 2024

If you’re wondering how to start a phone case business from home without any investment, welcome – you’re in the right place.

As eCommerce continues its meteoric rise and people increasingly turn to online shopping, starting your own business has never been easier. If you ever wanted to make money from home, selling phone cases online is a surefire way to go.

While it may seem exhausting, take heart – with Print on Demand, it’s way easier than you imagine. We’ll walk you through it, one step at a time.

In this article, we’re breaking down how to start a phone case business by covering everything you need to know: how to make phone cases, perform market research, write a business plan, and a wide variety of other topics essential for the success of any fledgling business.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you make a purchase through those links. This comes at no additional cost to you.

Why Start Your Own Custom Phone Case Business?

A person holds up a colorful, geometric phone case.

As the uptake of smartphones continues to grow worldwide, no wonder that the phone case market follows along. In the United States alone, 273.76 million people use smartphones. After all, they are one of the most life-changing pieces of technology ever made.

Today, for better or for worse, smartphones have become an intrinsic part of our lives and an extension of who we are. Without them, studies suggest, many of us feel lost, sad, and, quite literally, disconnected from the world.

All that said, the nagging fear of damaging our smartphones has grown into a big business. As soon as we order one, we’re already picking a phone case. Whether as a fashion statement or as a practical accessory, they’re an indispensable part of our devices.

In addition to that, selling phone cases is much easier than other products because they are: 

  • Lightweight. Say goodbye to expensive shipping.
  • Durable. They don’t break easily: fewer returns and less hassle.
  • Popular. A practical necessity and a fashionable accessory.
  • Profitable. With the right design, profit comes easily.

With new phone models introduced frequently, you’ll always have a new product to customize. Whether it’s for showcasing one’s personality or due to buying a new device, the demand for personalized phone cases is here to stay.

What’s more, on-demand manufacturing allows anyone to design, create, and sell custom phone cases without any investment, inventory, or logistical worries.

Start Your Phone Case Business Today!

Is a Personalized Phone Case Business Profitable?

With the global market for mobile phone accessories projected to continue growing and reach $413.2 billion by 2030, starting a custom phone case business is an excellent way to make money.

On top of that, the global market for protective cases alone is projected to reach $35.81 billion by 2028, signifying a rising demand for protecting smartphones from any damage, be it scratches, falls, or dust.

As everyday essentials, phone cases are no strangers to the best-selling product lists on eCommerce marketplaces – Etsy and eBay – taking a fair share of the smartphone accessories market.

As long as you don’t run out of design ideas and work on your digital marketing, you’re sure to win over your target audience’s hearts, minds, and dollars.

What to Consider Before Starting Your Own Phone Case Business

When you’re ready to start a custom phone case business, doing a little research first is vital. In this case, it needs to include information on the types of phone cases available for customization and the most popular smartphone models.

While some cell phone cases are more practical, others just look better. Whatever your needs are, you can easily customize every single one of these cases.

A few of your options:

As one of our best-sellers, these impact-resistant protective cases are a stylish way to protect a phone from small accidents.

Eco-friendly products made from PLA plant polymer and bamboo fibers. Naturally, it biodegrades 160 days after disposal.

In addition to absorbing shock from impacts, these cases offer a flawless fit and support wireless charging.

This soft iPhone case is specifically designed for iPhone 13 models, protecting them from dust, scratches, and minor bumps.

Crystal clear, flexible, and durable. A perfect fit for a wide variety of smartphones.

With the option to choose between a matte or glossy finish, you can create protective Android and iPhone cases for your customers that are both stylish and long-lasting.

On top of providing protection, these fully customizable phone cases have a little extra feature – a handy card slot.

Slim-fitting, flexible cell phone case that doesn’t overwhelm the phone’s design.

When you’re ready to start a custom phone case business, doing a little research first is vital. In this case, it needs to include information on the types of phone cases available for customization and the most popular smartphone models.

What Kind of Mobile Phones to Prioritize

While choosing the right type of phone case is important, it won’t mean much unless your customers own the phones they’re designed for. With that in mind, following market trends is a good idea.

As Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi continue to compete fiercely for a slice of the global smartphone market, the end result is great for the consumer. That said, here are just some of the most popular smartphone models:

  • iPhone: iPhone X, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14
  • Samsung Galaxy: Galaxy A, Galaxy F, Galaxy M
  • Xiaomi: Mi, Poco, Redmi

To find what specific phones are trending, you can do a little keyword research and use tools such as Google Trends, BuzzSumo, or Semrush, to name a few. In particular, Google Trends and Google Search are great free tools for your research. 

As a side note, picking a niche plays a major role, too. For example, if your customers enjoy the great outdoors, they’ll need a tough phone case to keep up with their pace. More on that later.

Don’t Forget Phone Accessories

In addition to selling phone cases, you can expand your product range to include wireless chargers. As with all of our products, these too can be customized to suit your particular needs.

A round wireless charger with a bright orange grapefruit print.

How to Start a Phone Case Business From Home?

As technology advances, anyone can start a business from the comfort of their home. The risk is low with the print-on-demand business model, and the startup costs are minimal.

In this section, we’ll focus on how to start a successful phone case business with this particular business model, providing you with all the information you need to join the ever-growing ranks of our successful entrepreneurs.

Step 1: Perform Custom Phone Case Market Research

How to Make Phone Cases and Start a Phone Case Business - Research

When performed right, it gives an in-depth understanding of a particular industry, consumer sentiment, and competition. 

  • Define your goal. Start with a clear idea of why you are doing the research. What do you want to accomplish? With vague motivation, you’ll stray from your objectives and become distracted by information of little relevance.
  • Identify phone case industry trends. You can use the tools mentioned previously – Google Trends, BuzzSumo, or Semrush – to find what people are searching for. You can use this data to tailor your products to suit the market’s needs.
  • Analyze your competition. Who is your competition? A great place to start is by browsing Amazon, Etsy, and eBay. Explore the bestsellers. What can you offer that others don’t? Is there a gap your business could fill?

By analyzing your competition’s websites, social media efforts, and communication in general, you can learn to outperform them, gaining a share of their customers.

Another invaluable part of market research is identifying your target audience, which we’ll cover in the next step.

Step 2: Find Your Niche and Target Audience

As we discovered previously, the phone case market is vast. You need to find a way to stand out. While it may seem overwhelming and disheartening, there’s a solution – finding a specific niche and identifying your perfect customer.

Doing so can create one-of-a-kind products that appeal to a particular target market, allowing you to earn more and spend less.

Finding Your Niche

In short, a niche, in our case, is a product that strongly appeals to a specific audience. As easy as it may seem, picking a niche is a must if you want to sell phone cases online successfully.

As a good rule of thumb, consider what you’re passionate about and go from there. You can begin your research by gathering information from social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online sources.

Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your audience is an all-important process you should try to get right. While there are online businesses that go for a more general approach, it’s better for a new business to define its audience in as much detail as possible.

All of this ties together with the market research we covered previously. If you do that bit right, it will be easier to identify your potential customers. 

That said, here are a few ways to go about it:

  • Segment your audience. By doing so, you can divide them into approachable groups.

As an example, you can segment them demographically (age, education, and nationality), behaviorally (lifestyle, tendencies, hobbies), or geographically (country, city, neighborhood).

  • Survey your network. With the arrival of social media, our networks have grown considerably. As a result, our reach is larger than ever. By surveying your connections, you can gain valuable insights.

Set your goals, choose a platform – Google Forms, SurveyPlanet, and Typeform, to name a few – and share it with your network.

  • Analyze customer feedback. While researching, you’ll invariably come to popular phone case businesses’ product review pages. Analyze their customer feedback: what they love, hate, or want to change.

Whoever is commenting – they’re your potential customer.

  • Build buyer personas. When you’ve gathered enough data, you can summarize your findings by building buyer personas.

With buyer personas, you can represent a segment of your audience – for example, YouTube Sally or Podcast Jack – personifying key traits of a group. This way, you can tailor your phone cases to their needs and liking.

With a better understanding of your audience, you can make better decisions and stay ahead of the game.

Step 3: Create a Business Plan

How to Make Phone Cases and Start a Phone Case Business - Business Plan

A good business plan clearly describes the company’s business, its goals, methods of reaching them, operating model, and a variety of other details essential to running a successful business. 

In short, writing a business plan is like building a solid foundation for a house. Without it, your business may not withstand the conditions it’ll inevitably face.

That said, before we move on to elements of a business plan, you need to choose a business structure first. Carefully examine the most common business structures and weigh their pros and cons before choosing the one that is right for you.

All business plans vary, but most contain four key elements:

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a brief outline of your idea and what the business plan will contain. Think of it as a highly-condensed version of the business plan. After writing other parts of the plan, you should create the executive summary to ensure it clearly represents all aspects of your business.

Business Overview

A comprehensive overview of your business. Three key areas to consider: what type of business you’re launching, what you plan to do, and how your business idea stands out.

Market Analysis

A section for market analysis. You should include data on the phone case industry – its size, trends, and projected growth. Effective market analysis includes forecasts of your company’s long-term goals, a description of your target audience, and an analysis of the competition.

Financial Plan

All businesses require a certain amount of capital to launch. Listing every cost is crucial – it’s important to be thorough and give a realistic idea of what you will need.

The majority of financial plans include the following: an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash-flow statement.

However, if you plan on selling phone cases using Print on Demand, no upfront investment is required – you only pay for a product after you make a sale.

If you’d like to learn more or download business plan examples, the U.S. Small Business Administration has everything you need.

Start a Phone Case Business Today!

Step 4: Come Up With a Phone Case Brand Name and Identity

If you want to start a profitable phone case business, you’ll need to think about branding. With a strong brand, sales come easy, and new customers aren’t hard to find. In short, it does wonders by instantly conveying the quality of the product you’re offering.

To establish a brand, think about the following:

  • Values. What does your brand stand for? Is it animal rights, environment, or social justice? Find a cause that aligns with your own heart’s truth. If you have stated your values, people – if they share the same beliefs – are much more apt to support your brand.
  • Vision. Think beyond financial targets. What’s your vision for the future? How can your brand contribute? People like to see a business that has the desire to contribute in some way locally or on a larger scale.
  • Voice. Your voice is your brand identity, the way you are perceived. As an example, is your brand involved in social causes? Is it fun, caring, or adventurous? Choose a few elements that best describe how you want to be perceived.

When you’re done soul-searching, this will be the foundation of your phone case brand’s identity. With this in mind, you can choose a brand name aligned with who you are.

To come up with a good brand name, consider the following:

  • Your values, vision, and voice. Stay consistent with your brand’s identity. Align your name with it, clearly conveying who you are and what you sell.
  • Clarity. Your brand’s name should be simple, clear, and direct. With that said, it should also be memorable, catchy, and easy to pronounce.
  • Originality. Stay true to your unique self, and make your brand name reflect it. Try to think of a name that sets you apart from the competition.
  • Scalability. As usually is the case, the Universe laughs when we make plans. Your brand name shouldn’t be restrictive, prepare for success; perhaps, you’ll expand to selling t-shirts or hoodies tomorrow.

If you need a little inspiration, you can try any of the wide variety of business name generators available online and modify the results to your liking, aligning them with your brand’s values, vision, and voice.

For example, Wix’s business name generator is a tool anyone can use to generate a business name effortlessly.

Step 5: Register Your Business

How to Make Phone Cases and Start a Phone Case Business - Register Your Business

Although establishing a business entity and registering it is a fairly easy process, each country, state, and city has different rules and regulations.

The documentation your phone case business requires will depend on your business structure and location, so make sure to get in touch with your local government authorities.

Important note. To avoid confusion and legal troubles, we strongly advise consulting a qualified legal professional who can provide guidance specifically tailored to your company’s needs.

With that in mind, usually, these are the things a soon-to-be business owner needs to do.

Choose the Structure of Your Business

There are several business structures: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, and limited liability partnership. Among other things, each has its own risks, costs, and tax implications.

As mentioned in Step 3, carefully examine the most common business structures to decide which works best for your custom phone case business. When you’ve decided, you’ll need to file the paperwork with your state.

Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN)

This number is just like a Social Security number, but for a business. With it, the government can identify your phone case business for tax purposes.

Applying for an EIN is a free service offered by the Internal Revenue Service.

Register for Taxes and Obtain the Necessary Permits

In most areas of the United States, businesses need to pay sales tax and other applicable taxes. However, it’s handled at the state level – each state has different regulations and procedures.

If you’d like to learn more about these taxes, our article about sales tax can clarify this – often very confusing – topic.

In addition to that, our video explains everything you need to know about taxes for your online store.

If you sign up and start a phone case business with Printify, you’ll find answers to all frequently asked questions about taxes and much more in our Help Center.

For more information, you can visit the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website and explore their guide on registering a business.

Start a Custom Phone Case Business Today!

Step 6: Select a Sales Channel and Create a Phone Case Store

A sales channel is an eCommerce platform or a marketplace that connects a business owner with their customers. They’re an easy way to offer your products to a wide audience, wherever they may be.

eCommerce platforms. With these, you can build your personalized online store in just a few hours. They include pre-built templates that make them easy to customize, allowing business owners to express the unique style of their phone case brand.

A few noteworthy examples:

eCommerce marketplaces. These are like large online shopping centers: all online stores are hosted on a single website. While you have less control over the appearance of your online store, eCommerce marketplaces come with a pre-existing customer base. A few noteworthy examples:

Whether you want to sell custom phone cases on an eCommerce marketplace or platform, it’s up to you. However, you should first evaluate your individual needs and examine the pros and cons of each sales channel.

Any of these seamlessly integrate with Printify, allowing you to launch your online store without hassle. If you need any help, our integration guides will walk you through the process.

A few bits of additional advice:

  • Consider operating on multiple sales channels. That way, you can extend your reach beyond the customer base of a single channel, reaching new customers who would not normally come across your custom phone cases.
  • Try a solution for custom-built websites. In case you need to connect your own website, try our Printify API, which provides the same advantages of automation our other integrations do.

Creating a Trustworthy Phone Case Store

After you’ve chosen your sales channel, it’s time to create a store that fits your brand, highlights your products, and drives sales. The steps will vary depending on what sales channel you choose.

As you create your store, include information that impacts the perception of your business. A few bits of advice:

  • Build credibility. To earn the trust of your customers, try to provide as much relevant information as possible.

For example, on an eCommerce platform, include About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, and other pages the majority of customers expect from a full-fledged business.

  • Focus on navigation. Create an online store that’s easy to navigate and fully responsive. Useful features to include: sticky headers, hamburger menus, and a floating shopping cart button, to name a few.

Additionally, explore the most successful Shopify stores. As a fountainhead of design ideas, these online stores offer a variety of valuable lessons.

  • Stay current. Savvy smartphone users expect multiple payment options: PayPal, Venmo, Meta Pay, and others.

You can figure out which ones you need through online surveys, email interactions, or monitoring your competition.

While anyone can easily create their own storefront, hiring a storefront-setup expert is an option, too.

Step 7: Make Your Own Phone Cases

A woman in a green shirt holds eight phone cases in different pastel colors.

If you’re wondering how to make customized phone cases, you’re in luck because we’re here to help. With our beginner-friendly Mockup Generator, anyone can design, create, and sell their cases without any upfront investment. 

Printify works with an extensive network of carefully-vetted print providers who offer high-quality phone cases that you can customize to your heart’s content.

Now, we still need to cover pricing and marketing, but if you like, feel free to skip these and start learning how to make phone cases with Printify right away.

Step 8: Price Your Phone Cases Right

Pricing optimization can be a key factor in determining a store’s profitability. When done effectively, it can increase your sales and net profit simultaneously.

If your price is too high, it will drive customers away, but a price that’s too low can indicate that you’re selling low-quality products.

While there are several effective pricing strategies, here are two very straightforward ones:

  • Cost-based pricing. With this method, you need to work out the overall unit cost for each product. Following this, you can set a target profit margin to be achieved by each sale, but without researching the market, you risk undervaluing or over-pricing your product.
  • Market-based pricing. Pricing strategically below the competition can increase sales and overall profit through sales volumes. However, constantly undercutting competitors can lead to a race to the bottom until everyone’s profit margins are paper-thin.

When all is said and done, the most effective pricing data an online store owner can get is by analyzing the results of their customer purchases.

If you’d like to learn more, our article – How to Price a Product for Ultimate Success – explores common pricing strategies. It covers what to keep in mind when pricing your products and everything else necessary for setting a price that’s just right.

Step 9: Develop a Marketing Strategy

Marketing comprises ideas, research, vision, strategy, branding, development, and promotion.

Digital marketing is the engine that drives the growth of your business. It can make or break your phone case brand – perception is everything. If you don’t do it right, you’re missing out on sales.

A few tried-and-tested ways to market a business:

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing helps prospective customers with high buying intent find your online store. This can be achieved organically through search engine optimization (SEO) or by paid advertising with Google Ads.

If you’d like to learn how to drive sales with SEO by performing keyword research, identifying the most relevant keywords for your store, structuring your store most effectively, and analyzing competition, our SEO Masterclass for Driving Sales explores all that in detail.

Facebook ads

As the most popular social media platform in the world, Facebook has more than 2.9 billion monthly active users. With Facebook ads, you can reach your target market easily.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is an easy way to get the word out about your business. In 2022, the global influencer marketing market was valued at $16.4 billion. By partnering with influencers, you can build awareness of your phone case brand, increasing trust – and sales – as a result.

Instagram ads

The visual content-based app is perfect for marketing custom phone cases. First impressions matter. With Instagram ads, phone case businesses can easily increase their reach and customer base through eye-catching imagery.

In addition, Instagram paid advertising offers the same audience-targeting benefits as Facebook.

TikTok

With over one billion monthly active users worldwide, TikTok is growing rapidly. TikTok paid advertising can be a great opportunity to expand in video marketing and reach TikTok’s main demographic of younger users. Close to half47.4% – of the social video app’s users in the United States are under 30.

Email marketing

Whether for sending welcome messages or promoting holiday sales, email marketing can be crucial to the success of your online store. With a return on investment of 4400%, roughly $44 for every $1 spent, it’s in no danger of falling out of favor anytime soon.

To learn more, we’ve prepared a step-by-step guide on creating a mailing list for your online store.

In addition to all of this, consider owning and maintaining several social media accounts. While they may be a handful to manage, it’s a great way to appeal to different audiences.

How to Make Phone Cases With Printify

With just a few clicks of a mouse and taps of a keyboard, anyone can design and create one-of-a-kind phone cases with ease: all it takes is a little patience and time.

Step 1: Create Your Own Designs

In the world of phone cases, design is everything. Your design can be the biggest differentiator from the competition in your specific niche.

When creating a design, you have several options:

To learn more about designing, we’ve prepared a handy guide on how to create your first design.

  • Work with freelancers. Skilled designers aren’t hard to find, whether it’s on Fiverr, 99designs, or Upwork.
  • Try ready-made designs. You can find a variety of print-ready designs on sites like Creative Fabrica or Designious. It’s a shortcut for those who want to save as much time as possible. However, make sure to read their licensing agreement to stay away from any trouble.

Step 2: Pick a Phone Case From Our Catalog

With a wide variety of phone cases to choose from, finding your favorite won’t take long. On the page of each phone case, you’ll find the product description, price, shipping costs, and other useful bits of information.

Pick your favorite case style and click Start designing to open the Mockup Generator.

Step 3: Upload Your Design

Whatever designs you have in mind, our easy-to-use Mockup Generator allows anyone to create beautiful products in no time. Add your art, illustrations, photos, text, patterns, or whatever else you wish.

Step 4: Edit the Variants and Product Details

As you design, don’t forget that each new phone model you add will require individual customization, so be mindful of all product details.

When your phone case is ready, you get a high-quality mockup of how it’ll look in real life.

Step 5: Publish and Start Selling

Final step – it’s time to add your brand-new phone cases to your online store for the whole world to see. As we covered in Step 6, Printify easily integrates with some of the world’s most popular eCommerce platforms and online marketplaces, allowing you to reach the global market and sell online easily.

Frequently Asked Questions

Starting a phone case business online can be very profitable if you approach it strategically. With the print-on-demand business model, you won’t need to worry about printing, packaging, or shipping.

Be that as it may, the average profit depends on the retail price you set, the popularity of your phone case brand, and on how much you sell.

With Printify, anyone can start their own business without any startup costs. What’s more, we do all the heavy lifting for you – printing, inventory, and shipping.

By signing up for a free account, you get instant access to our collection of phone cases that you can customize in any way you like and start selling online today.

As an easy way to make custom phone cases, our beginner-friendly Mockup Generator is the perfect tool. You can effortlessly customize a wide variety of phone cases to fit the style and needs of your phone case brand.

When your designs are ready, you get realistic mockups for your eCommerce website and digital marketing purposes. Anyone can sign up for a free account and make their own phone case with just a few clicks.

As a print-on-demand platform, Printify offers a wide variety of phone cases at the best prices on the market.

Simply by signing up for a free account, anyone can create, design, and start selling custom phone cases nobody else has.

How to Start Your Own Phone Case Business: A Few Closing Thoughts

How to Start Your Own Phone Case Business - Summary

As with everything in life, it starts with you. While starting a phone case business may not be the easiest thing in the world, it’s not that difficult either. With a bit of patience, planning, and persistence, anyone can do it.

Here is a brief recap of the nine steps you should take:

  • Research the market
  • Find your niche and target audience
  • Create a business plan
  • Come up with a phone case brand name and identity
  • Register your business
  • Select a sales channel and create a phone case store
  • Learn how to make phone cases
  • Price your products right
  • Market your phone cases

While there are plenty of phone case companies out there, don’t worry. If you pick a specific niche you’re passionate about, create great phone case designs for customer demand, focus on your target market, and build a devoted following, they won’t be a concern for you. 

With Printify, you can follow your passion, design to your heart’s content, and start a profitable phone case business without any investment.

Start Your Phone Case Business Today!

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7 comments

  1. Norm
    October 7

    Hello, how do you create a matte finish option along with a glossy finish for your listing?

    I am a Printify subscriber that is thinking of adding this my selection to offer.

    1. Ariel Summers
      October 27

      Hi there,
      For questions related to printing and design options for your products, our Print and Design team will be the best source of information. Please don’t hesitate to contact our support team, and they will be more than happy to assist you with your specific queries and provide you with the best guidance.

  2. jules
    July 7

    hey i was wondering if i needed to perhaps create my own phone case designs to sell them on etsy for example or can i use already made basic designs that are popular for cases?

    1. Martha Simmons
      July 8

      Hi Jules,
      As long as they are not subject to copyright infringement, you can use already made basic designs.

  3. b
    July 26

    how does one sell phone cases with two different model ( tough and slim) in one listing

    1. Naomi
      January 20

      Hi there!

      Please check this article for instructions on how to set up listing with 2 different items.

  4. Rocky Flintstone
    June 24

    Great insight…. Thank you Anita!

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