Sex toys aren’t taboo anymore—they’re trending with 37% of Americans saying they own at least one. The global market now tops $38 billion, and a new wave of body-positive brands is helping pleasure go mainstream.
If you’ve ever wondered how to sell sex toys online, the answer starts with trust. Building a business in this space means crafting a bold brand identity, keeping privacy sacred, and delivering the kind of seamless shopping experience that turns first-time buyers into loyal fans.
From sourcing products to shipping them discreetly, every detail matters. In this guide, you’ll learn how to build, launch, and grow a sex toys business—from product sourcing and payment processing to marketing, packaging, and customer satisfaction.
The sex toy industry: current landscape
As late as the 1990s, buying and selling sex toys happened almost exclusively in strip-mall stores with obscured windows, purchases secreted in paper bags.
In the decades since, body and sex positivity have helped elevate adult brands from fringe to celebrated. This shift coincided with the rise of ecommerce—allowing niche communities to connect and anyone to sell sex toys online from the privacy of their homes. It’s now a booming industry. According to Grand View Research, the market is growing with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.69% from 2024 to 2030.
Still, challenges persist. The adult industry remains politicized, and founders must go the extra mile to protect customer privacy and comply with payment and advertising restrictions. And, while technology has made it easier to reach buyers, it’s also introduced new hurdles with financial institutions and social media platforms.
With the right tools, a unique product idea, and plenty of research, however, it’s possible—even for first-time entrepreneurs—to build a successful brand in adult ecommerce.
How to sell sex toys online
- Find an idea—and a market for it
- Build a brand
- Choose your business model: make, manufacture, or resell sex toys
- Create an online store to sell sex toys
- Invest in sex education
- Consider additional sales channels
- Get familiar with safety and privacy practices for adult stores
- Market your sex toys and adult products
- Prioritize customer satisfaction
Learn what it takes to go from an idea to a compliant, thriving adult brand. You’ll also get advice from the folks behind brands Emojibator, Strange Bedfellas, Clone-A-Willy, and Little Jane to help you start your own sex toy business.
1. Find an idea—and a market for it
To get started learning how to sell sex toys online, hone in on a specific niche or product that you want to sell. What corner of the sex toy market will you conquer? Maybe you’ll even carve out your own. Whatever you decide, do your research, says Kristin Fretz, co-founder of Emojibator, a brand that sells adult novelties: “Identify a strong product-market fit before investing capital and resources into an idea.” Consider ideas within the following buckets:
Target audience
- Products marketed to specific groups and communities (e.g., LGBTQ+)
- Kink-specific niches (e.g., BDSM)
Product type
- Vibrators, massagers, masturbation devices, dildos, and other adult sex toys
- Lingerie, apparel, and adult cosplay
- Complementary products and accessories (e.g., lubricants, condoms, merch)
Trends and themes
- Novelty and fantasy products (e.g., unicorn-themed dildo)
- Innovative sex technology (e.g., augmented reality (AR), smart or rechargeable sex toys)
- Emerging trends (e.g., long-distance sex toys)
- Sexual health, sexual wellness, and self-care
When you are offering a product or service that has strong differentiators compared to your competitors, it becomes easier to market your idea in compelling ways.
Emojibator found success at the intersection of a women’s sexual empowerment movement and the popularity of the eggplant emoji. “When you are offering a product or service that has strong differentiators compared to your competitors, it becomes easier to market your idea in compelling ways,” says Kristin.
Keep an eye on emerging trends in the industry, too, says Sarah Starkey, founder of Little Jane, a self-care and women’s sexual-health brand. “Brands that position themselves as part of the self-care and health and wellness industry are reaching new markets,” she says. “There is less shame now around this, less prudishness.”
Identifying your customer
When narrowing in on your sex toy product, focus on finding an audience for it and assessing market demand. “We were in luck,” says Meesh Oglesby-Cunningham, founder of Strange Bedfellas, “because there was already a robust community built around the collecting of fantasy sex toys.”
Meesh also knew that the fantasy sex toy community was built largely by LGBTQ+ people, and she’s taken guidance from that community since launching the brand. “We’re fortunate to have folks who are willing to tell us how to achieve wider appeal with our designs,” she says. “Since starting this company I’ve learned so much about inclusive language and product design.”
While Strange Bedfellas targets a narrow slice of the market, Emojibator launched its sex toys to more general appeal, with co-founder Joe Vela describing the brand’s wide customer base as “first-time sex toy buyers, parents, gift shoppers, avid sex-toy collectors, gender non-conforming people, emoji fanatics, and folks rediscovering pleasure after sexual trauma.”
2. Build a brand
Co-founders Kristin Fretz and Joe Vela launched Emojibator after Joe had the idea for an eggplant shaped vibrator. The duo set out to build a sex toy brand that felt approachable and relatable—two words not usually used to describe sex toy companies.
While Emojibator’s success can be credited to timing—at the height of emoji mania—the decisions the founders made in positioning the brand with humorous, shareable content played a large role. Their success illustrates a key point: in a sensitive industry, your brand’s tone is part of your trust strategy.
Aside from having an innovative product, your brand identity is what influences customers to buy from you. It should tell your story, connect with your target audience, and build credibility. When you sell sex toys, your brand isn’t just visual—it’s a tool used to build trust.
Developing your sex toy brand
Clone-A-Willy offers molding kits that allow customers to make safe sex toy replicas of genitalia. The parent company made its name in the medical and film industries, supplying prosthetics and later pivoted to direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales with a more approachable, consumer-friendly brand.
When building your own brand, define your target market and tell a story. Ask yourself:
- What does my brand stand for?
- What value does my brand or product bring to the market and customer? What’s my value proposition?
- What is my voice and tone—informative and professional, or daring and playful?
- What are my brand values?
- What are my business goals, both short and long term?
- Is my personal story critical to the brand story?
An effective set of brand guidelines will inform all aspects of the business, from who you partner with to what’s in your press kit. It will help you scale your sex toy business and maintain brand consistency as you hire or outsource.
Branding for your sex toy business
After you have completed the above brand exercise, it’s time to bring it to life. Here you’ll decide on your logo, color palette, and creative direction. You’ll choose a brand name, slogan, and domain name. Branding guidelines will then guide you—and any future staff—as you build your website, design products and packaging, and develop marketing content.
For a DIY approach, use a free tool like Canva, or Shopify’s logo maker and business name generator. Otherwise, hire a design pro who can bring your vision to life. Shopify Experts are vetted partners skilled in helping ecommerce business owners with their brands..
3. Choose your business model: make, manufacture, or resell sex toys
As with many businesses that sell consumer goods, you have multiple business model options, depending on how hands-on—or off—you’d like to be. Making your own sex toys to sell, outsourcing manufacturing, or reselling existing products are all viable options available to you, and each comes with its own challenges and benefits.
Learning how to sell sex toys online through dropshipping or manufacturing starts with choosing the model that fits your skills, goals, and budget.
Making sex toys and adult products
Meesh and her team at Strange Bedfellas design and produce silicone sex toys by hand in their own facility. As she transitioned from 2D illustrations to 3D sex products, Meesh found that much of the information about making and selling sex toys was readily available online, and that the category isn’t heavily regulated in the US. That meant she had to take extra care to ensure her processes and materials were safe.
“There are tutorials and information out there for people who put the time into searching for it,” Meesh says. “As well, there is a big community of collectors who discuss this sort of thing and were a great source of information when I first started down this road.”
Benefits
- Full creative control from design to fulfillment
- Personally rewarding for makers and creatives
- Unique product not available anywhere else
Challenges
- Learning curve
- Onus is on you to meet safety standards and conduct testing
- Harder to scale production
Manufacturing sex toys and adult products
Emojibator designs its products in Philadelphia and runs operations remotely across multiple cities. All of the manufacturing is outsourced to factories in the US and China. This model allows the founders and team to focus on other aspects of the business, like marketing and product development. It also lets the brand scale quickly and operate globally.
Finding and learning to work with manufacturers is the most challenging aspect of this business model. Since sex toys come into contact with the body, safety and quality assurance are critical.
Verify that any factory you work with has experience in the adult industry and understands and adheres to safety standards. If you’re sourcing internationally, use a third-party auditor or liaison to help ask the right questions—this is especially important if there is a language barrier.
Once you’ve started working with a reputable manufacturer, you can dedicate resources to growing your product line. As Emojibator adds new products to its collection, Joe and his team ask:
- Does it fit with our brand mission to deliver accessible, affordable, and fun pleasure for all genders?
- Is it exciting, astonishing, and newsworthy?
“These factors allow us to create niche products and unique experiences for our community,” says Joe. Use your own brand exercise to outline criteria for product development.
Benefits
- Ability to scale quickly
- Working with an experienced manufacturer brings peace of mind
- Outsourcing the production lets you run with a lean in-house team
Challenges
- Less control over the manufacturing and quality assurance processes
- Navigating manufacturing sourcing and relationships can be a learning curve
- Potential high order minimums for new and small businesses
Reselling in the sex toy industry
The most hands-off model is reselling or dropshipping existing products for your own store. If the product design and development processes don’t interest you, you can still create a brand through smart curation and strong storytelling. There are multiple ways to do this, including:
White labeling
Manufacturers create “blank” products known as white label items. They may create these for multiple brands, usually customizing labels and packaging for each brand. With a white label model, you can bring products to market quickly without starting from scratch.
Reselling
You can build a brand around a theme or audience by buying wholesale and curating products that fit into your concept. Selling sex toys in this way is a quick-start option for beginners.
Some businesses also become local resellers for international brands that don’t sell directly to customers in their region. You would purchase wholesale quantities of products to warehouse and ship to customers.
Dropshipping
The dropshipping model is the same as the above but it doesn’t involve handling any inventory. Customers shop from your online sex toy store and the adult toy dropship suppliers ship the products directly, skipping you as an intermediary.
Here are some sex toy dropshipping vendors to explore:
Shopify integrates with inventory and order-management tools that make working with multiple suppliers seamless, helping you track orders and automate fulfillment.
Benefits
- More hands-off (ideal as a business to launch initially as a side gig)
- Ability to work with established brands with good reputations
- With dropshipping, no need to carry inventory, and can start up on a lower budget
Challenges
- Same products may be sold elsewhere
- You are at the mercy of other businesses’ decisions (discontinued product) or manufacturing and shipping delays
4. Create an online store to sell sex toys
Selling sex toys online is possible through platforms like Shopify. Where you may run into challenges is through payment processors and payment gateways. While some sex toy brands are able to use Shopify Payments, certain products may be restricted (e.g., cannabis). Here are the steps to get started, a look at which apps to integrate, and advice on choosing a payment partner.
Setup, themes, and design
Once you’ve developed branding guidelines, you’re ready to build your online store and sell sex toys online. You can plug your logo, colors, and other assets into preset, customizable website themes, rather than building a site from scratch. This makes setup simple, even if you don’t have strong design or coding skills.
Essential pages for your website
There are a few critical pages to build when you are setting up an online sex toy store.
Collection pages
If you have a large collection of products, sort them into themes based on type, sexual preferences, kinks, or other categories that help your customers navigate your website and find what they’re looking for.
Product pages
Due to the nature of your business and product, product pages need to pull more weight than simply providing a description, photo, price, and Buy button. Use an app that lets you create tabbed information to avoid clutter on the page. Helpful information might include use instructions, safety warnings, cleaning and care tips, and warranty information. These help build trust and increase customer confidence.
FAQ page
This is an important page for those selling sex toys online. You likely will be selling products that cannot be returned for resale, due to hygiene and safety reasons. Your FAQ page is the place to clearly state your return and exchange policy. You can also answer questions here about materials, product use and care, privacy, and shipping.
About pages
Your About page is where your brand story shines. Whether or not you center your personal story, you can still remind customers that there are real people behind your brand. Your About page could contain your mission, brand values, company history, and press links.
Ecommerce photography for sex toy brands
Great visuals not only sell products—they reinforce your brand identity and professionalism. With most online businesses, customers can’t touch, feel, or demo your products before buying. Your product page should be as descriptive as possible to help replicate the in-person experience—both with copy and photography.
Shoot sex toy products at multiple angles and include images of any accessories (i.e., charging devices). While your product page should prioritize clear and uncluttered images to highlight the product, a lifestyle shoot can add personality for your website, social images, ads, and your press kit.
Emojibator leaned into the humorous side of the products, having fun with its lifestyle photography. “We were brilliantly practical in our decision to take a picture of our friend’s cat holding the Eggplant Emojibator for our press release,” says Kristin. “The internet, in response, laughed along with us.”
Also consider what video assets you need for customer education or marketing. Hire a professional to shoot core assets that you’ll use over and over, and consider DIY video content for platforms like TikTok.
Navigating high-risk payment processing
Adult product sellers often fall under a “high risk” category with banks and payment processors due to content sensitivity and chargeback risk. Understanding this designation—and preparing for it—helps you avoid account disruptions and build a stable foundation for your business.
Why adult stores are considered high-risk
When Meesh moved her brand to Shopify, her products fell under Shopify Payments’ acceptable use policy regarding products. But her peers have faced challenges. As a security measure, Strange Bedfellas secured a backup payment provider.
As industry reports show, the relationship between financial institutions and those running sex-related businesses can often be tenuous. “We face unjust financial discrimination as a sex toy company, and it prevents us from competing fairly in the marketplace,” says Kristin.
This high-risk label is why mainstream processors sometimes freeze funds, close accounts, or refuse applications when adult products are involved. Sex toy brands are often grouped into the same category as gambling, CBD, and firearms because of perceived reputational, regulatory, or chargeback risks.
Trusted payment processors
Despite these challenges, many brands successfully sell sex toys on Shopify using a variety of high-risk payment processors. “Read the terms of service and what is and isn’t allowed to be sold,” says Sarah. “This not only differs between payment providers, but also between the same provider based on country. Nudity in images, prostitution, weapons, bondage, and potential for injury could all be relevant.”
If you’re in the adult products space, you’ll often need to work with providers that specialize in high-risk industries. Here are some providers to consider:
These processors typically charge slightly higher transaction fees (2.9% to 7% plus a per-transaction fee) but offer stability and experience handling sex-related transactions.
Chargeback prevention strategies and fraud tools
Because sex toy businesses are classified as high risk, chargebacks are monitored more strictly. Too many chargebacks can trigger higher fees or account termination.
To reduce that risk, consider:
- Discreet billing descriptors. Use a neutral business name (e.g. “ABC Web LLC”) on customer bank statements instead of explicit. This reduces “friendly fraud” chargebacks from customers not recognizing the charge.
- 3D secure/Verified by Visa/Mastercard SecureCode. Adds an authentication step to transactions, helping prove legitimacy.
- Chargeback alerts and dispute management tools. Services like Ethoca and Verifi let you respond to disputes before they become chargebacks.
- Clear refund and return policies. Let customers know your refund and return policies upfront to reduce disputes. Quick refunds are often cheaper than chargeback fees.
- Fraud filters and velocity checks. Shopify’s built-in fraud analysis and tools like Kount and FraudLabs Pro can help flag suspicious orders before they’re processed.
Resources
- Shopify’s Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), including guidance on restricted items
- Shopify Payments FAQ
- PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy
- Stripe’s list of restricted businesses
Apps and tools for adult stores
Shopify integrates with multiple apps to enhance the customer experience and customize your site to your needs. For adult brands, the right tools can also simplify compliance and protect your business.
Here are a few suggestions for brands selling sex toys online:
- Age verification ecommerce apps should be your first line of defense. Tools like Hulk Age Verification or Real ID add a checkpoint to your storefront so visitors can confirm they’re of legal age before browsing.
- With more challenges in reaching new customers, sex brands should also focus on retention. A loyalty app like Rise.ai Gift Cards & Loyalty will help you reward and retain your biggest supporters.
- The Help Lab FAQ Page app helps you quickly set up a clear FAQ page for shipping, returns, and product use.
- You can also formalize your shop policies and ensure that customers understand them by adding a Terms and Conditions Box.
- A video maker like Vimeo Create can help you produce professional video ads and educational content for product demos or brand storytelling.
- Use Shopify’s free Privacy Policy Generator to publish a clear privacy statement.
- Consider creating personalized shopping experiences with apps that support quizzes, custom guides, or product match tools, helping customers choose items that suit their preferences.
5. Invest in sex education
Education is essential to sex toy companies—both to help customers make informed purchases and to protect yourself and customers from any harm. “The products we sell are very intimate by nature, and I want to help people make choices they will have good experiences with,” says Meesh.
Producing this content is a way for our brand to lean in on our educational mission.
Educational content also helps demystify products and builds credibility with first-time buyers. You can share information on product pages, in FAQs, and on product packaging. But it can also form part of your content strategy. Informative sexual health information can establish you as a trusted expert—and content can help drive purchases.
Emojibator took educational content to the next level, launching a month-long campaign each year. “During the month of May, our Masturbation Month site receives nearly twice as many visits as our shop’s site,” says Joe. “Producing this content is a way for our brand to lean in on our educational mission.”
6. Consider additional sales channels
Beyond your online store, expanding into other sales channels can grow visibility and revenue. With advertising challenges and restrictions on sex-related products, finding creative ways to connect with customers is key.
Explore the following channels:
- Sex shop founder Amy Unicorn says events like drag shows are a key part of her business. Music festivals, artisan markets, and other events let shoppers experience your products in person and help you build community ties.
- Formal trade shows or consumer shows are another type of event that can draw wholesale buyers and customers to your brand.
- Selling wholesale through other established retailers can expand your reach. Seventy percent of Emojibator’s business is wholesale, says Joe.
- The next stage of your online sex toy business might be a physical retail store, where you can benefit from passerby traffic and local listings. Test selling offline with a pop-up shop first.
- Consider selling through online marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy. Regularly check for updates on each platform’s terms of service to ensure that your products are allowed. For example, in summer 2024, Etsy updated their policies on sexual content, including heavy restrictions on the types of adult products that can be sold on Etsy.
“The biggest challenge has been raising awareness about our brand and products,” says Joe. “That’s why we’ve leaned in on our wholesale sales channel. We have been lucky to find reputable and certified partners around the world.”
7. Get familiar with safety and privacy practices for adult stores
Compliance and safety are core to running a sustainable sex toy business. Protecting your customers and your reputation go hand in hand.
The sex toy industry has unique challenges due to the intimate nature of the product. Spend time here to ensure your business meets safety standards, protects privacy, and stays compliant with regulations.
Product safety and testing
Safety is essential if you are planning to sell sex toys. Rules and restrictions may govern your business depending on where you live, so research what applies to your business
“I don’t personally give instructions on how to use our products because I’m not a sex educator,” says Meesh. “My best tool is to put disclaimers on our products and encourage folks to do their research before purchasing.”
The community looks out for its members, and identifying dangerous shops is part of that. You don’t want to be on the bad list.
Clear disclaimers, FAQs, instructional product demo videos, and proper labeling can all help to ensure your product is used safely. At the production phase, work carefully with your manufacturer to ensure they have stringent safety standards. Expect the same diligence of any other brand you work with, as well. “The community looks out for its members, and identifying dangerous shops is part of that,” says Meesh. “You don’t want to be on the bad list.”
As an extra precaution, consult with a lawyer to ensure you are meeting any legal requirements for safety and labeling. It's also a good idea to consider protecting your business with product liability insurance.
Customer privacy
While social attitudes toward sexuality have become more open, many shoppers want their purchases to remain private. “A lot of our customers live with family or friends who may not appreciate finding their purchases or may be quite hostile to them about it,” says Meesh.
Strange Bedfellas ships in plain boxes and uses its generic LLC name on the return label. Similarly, “due to societal realities,” Kristin says that the brand name doesn’t appear on shipping packaging or credit card statements.
Privacy also extends to the information you collect from your customer. There are already many laws that govern how you use this info, but sex toy businesses may want to be forthcoming about how they handle data. “We don’t share any personal data with third parties that don’t require it,” says Joe. “If anyone requests their data to be deleted, we ensure it’s wiped completely from all of our systems.”
Protecting privacy builds trust and helps prevent chargebacks by reducing surprises on billing statements and ensuring customers feel safe sharing their information.
Discreet packaging best practices
Because privacy is such a strong customer concern in this industry, many successful brands go beyond the basics of a plain box while still making discreet packaging for sex toys.
Consider the following best practices:
- Neutral outer packaging. Use plain cardboard boxes or mailers with no logos, suggestive imagery, or brand names.
- Generic sender labels. List a neutral business or LLC name (e.g., “ABC Web LLC”) rather than anything that hints at adult products.
- Customs and international shipping. For cross-border deliveries, declare goods under general terms like “personal massager” or “health products” when legally acceptable, rather than explicitly naming the item.
- Tamper-evident seals. Build trust by making sure packages can’t be accidentally opened or inspected without leaving evidence.
- Internal discretion. Wrap products in tissue, bubble wrap, or inner boxes so items aren’t visible even if the outer box is opened.
Statement descriptor masking
Beyond packaging, billing discretion is equally important. Chargebacks often happen when a customer sees a company name they don’t recognize.
To avoid this, work with your payment processor to display a generic or parent company name on bank statements rather than your explicit brand name. For example, “XYZ Retail” is far less likely to raise eyebrows—or disputes— than “SexyToysOnline.”
Communicate clearly with buyers. Let them know at checkout or in order confirmation emails what the descriptor will look like on their bank statement (e.g., “Charges will appear as ‘ABC Web LLC’”). This small step reduces confusion and prevents “friendly fraud.”
Finally, aim for consistency across all merchant accounts and backup processors so that customers aren’t caught off guard by differing names depending on how their order was routed. That consistency helps customers recognize legitimate charges and builds long-term trust in your brand.
Age verification and compliance
If you’re selling sex toys online, one of the first legal boxes you need to tick is making sure your customers are actually old enough to buy them. The exact rules vary by country—over 18 is the standard in most places, but some regions have stricter requirements. Either way, skipping age checks isn’t just risky, it can put your whole business in legal hot water.
At the most basic level, you can use a simple pop-up gate (“Are you 18 or older?”) when someone lands on your site. That’s a start, but depending on where you’re selling, regulators might expect stronger safeguards, such as verifying ID against a database or using third-party verification services. For example, the UK has explored stricter rules for the adult industry, and some US states have already passed similar laws requiring proof of age for online adult content.
On Shopify (and other ecommerce platforms), you’ll find apps designed to make this process seamless. Hulk Age Verification adds an instant gate to your storefront, while services like Real ID take it up a notch by verifying actual documents. If you’re selling internationally, it’s worth checking whether your provider supports region-specific compliance so you don’t have to manage different rules manually.
8. Market your sex toys and adult products
Once your business is safe and compliant, it’s time to focus on visibility and growth.
Sex sells, but selling sex toys is a little more complex. Navigating the marketing of sex-related products is one of the most common challenges business owners in the industry face. Selling sex toys to your target audience means finding them where they are. But sometimes those platforms can be restrictive for sex toy businesses.
“The most effective paid ad networks have either completely censored or heavily blocked any product related to adult toys,” says Joe. Often, Instagram's policies around nudity and sexual activity impact organic content posted by sex-related businesses.
“Censorship is a considerable hurdle we have to constantly navigate, and we’ve had to be very creative in marketing and promoting to the masses,” says Victoria Nelthropp, Clone-A-Willy’s marketing and brand coordinator.
On saturated and established platforms like Instagram, making any headway with organic marketing is challenging too—for any type of business. Yet, social media is still a valuable tool for sex toy brands. Meesh uses it as another channel for customer service, and Joe says that Emojibator has done some successful community building.
Censorship is a considerable hurdle we have to constantly navigate, and we’ve had to be very creative in marketing and promoting to the masses.
With paid and social advertising options limited for adult brands, creative founders can still find ways to grow their business:
- Influencer marketing. Reach out to sex-positive influencers that appeal to your ideal customer. Even new brands can work with emerging influencers who may have lower rates.
- Affiliate networks. Build a network of other websites, blogs, affiliate marketers, and advertisers who take a small cut of any sales they refer.
- PR and media pitches. “We have a publicist on our team that keeps our brand story in the news cycle, and we aim to create astonishing products worth talking about, which has been our strategy since day one,” says Joe.
- Email and SMS marketing. Start building your email list even before you launch any products. Grow buzz and community for your brand by pushing people to a simple Coming Soon page. Collect emails and offer perks or early access to those who sign up pre-launch.
- Content and SEO. Use on-site optimized content to not only build trust and help customers, but also to drive traffic to your site through relevant keyword searches.
Explore Shopify’s marketing automation tools to manage email campaigns, SEO, and influencer outreach from one dashboard.
9. Prioritize customer satisfaction
“I actually really enjoy when customers ask detailed questions before purchasing items,” says Meesh, who finds that the open communication helps her recommend the best products and reduce post-purchase issues.
Occasionally, she’ll even refer a customer to another brand if she thinks it’s a better fit. “I have a lot of peers in this industry whose work I trust, and I have no problem referring customers to them if I think they’ll be a better fit.”
Due to the nature of sex-related products, returns and exchanges are usually not possible. That’s why customer support at all stages is important to avoid unhappy customers.
“We have an extensive policies page and we link to it often throughout the site: on listings, on info pages, in all the emails we send,” says Meesh. “We can’t say it often enough!”
There may be cases when you will accept returns of open products, say in the event of a manufacturing flaw. If you’re a reseller, the product you’re selling may have a warranty, and you can refer those customer service issues to the manufacturer for replacements.
Emojibator, for example, offers a one-year warranty on all of its products. The company prioritizes customer support to ensure that any warranty claims are handled with care. “We know sex toy experiences are unique to each person,” says Kristin, “so we treat each customer with the utmost respect, patience, and kindness.”
Transparent policies and responsive support reduce chargebacks and build lasting trust. Treat every customer interaction as an opportunity to reinforce your reliability and respect for privacy.
What does it cost to start a sex toy business?
What’s a topic that’s almost as taboo as sex? Money. (Though neither should be.) The cost to start a business selling sex toys online varies wildly, depending on the model you choose.
If you decide to become a reseller, the bulk of your startup costs will come from buying inventory, renting storage space (if needed), and fees for your online store. Even if you handle much of the work yourself using free tools to design your branding, expect to spend a few thousand dollars to get started.
As a maker, your start-up costs may be lower, since you can produce items to order rather than keeping inventory on hand. But depending on your process, the equipment and supplies could still cost you hundreds—or thousands—of dollars. You also will need to invest in branded packaging, which likely will have upfront minimums.
For manufacturing sex toys, minimums are also a consideration. Manufacturing partners may require you to purchase hundreds of units to keep your costs sustainable. Even the product development process can be costly. “If you are designing a novel or new product,” says Joe, “you can expect that process to take a minimum of one year and $10,000 upfront.”
The most economical way to start a business is through dropshipping. There are downsides to this model, as you have zero control over the production or shipping of products, but you can start a business with a few hundred dollars for a basic website and other online tools.
Pricing your products
Pricing sex toys is a delicate balance between making your desired profit and a retail price that customers are willing to pay. Use a standard pricing strategy to calculate your fixed and variable costs and add your profit margin. Then compare your pricing to similar competitors in your industry: Are you relatively in line with the expected retail price ranges?
Get off on getting started
You’re now equipped with the tools to start selling sex toys online. For entrepreneurs passionate about sex education, empowerment, or supporting communities traditionally marginalized by the adult industry, this space offers a rewarding opportunity to build a business that makes a difference.
Despite the challenges, anyone with the desire to enter this space and the patience to navigate creative problems can sell sex toys and build a rewarding career. “I really enjoy this job!” says Meesh. “I wasn’t aware I could find so much fulfillment making dildos.”
Selling sex toys online takes creativity, responsibility, and courage—but for entrepreneurs who prioritize compliance, privacy, and inclusivity, it’s one of ecommerce’s most rewarding frontiers.
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Sell sex toys FAQ
What should I do to become a sex toy seller?
Learning how to sell sex toys takes a little research to ensure you have found an ideal market and a product that meets the needs of your audience. Start with identifying your brand and your sex toy business model, and brushing up on safety and privacy practices. You’ll need to source existing products or create your own—and there are plenty of businesses you can partner with to achieve this goal. Now you’re ready to market and sell adult toys.
Is it legal to sell sex toys online?
In most countries, yes, it’s legal to sell sex toys online as long as you comply with local laws around age restrictions, obscenity, product safety, and advertising. Some regions (like parts of the US, India, or the Middle East) have stricter regulations, so always double-check before shipping internationally.
How much can I make selling sex toys?
Earnings vary widely. Small online stores might make a few thousand dollars a month, while established brands or dropshippers can build six- or seven-figure businesses. Your income depends on your niche, marketing, and pricing, and whether you’re carrying stock, dropshipping, or building a brand.
What are the best platforms for selling sex toys online?
Shopify, WooCommerce (WordPress), and BigCommerce are the most popular because they allow customization, apps, and discreet payment setups. Marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon have restrictions or outright bans, so many adult brands prefer selling on their own branded store.
How do I handle age verification for my online sex toy store?
The simplest option is an age-gate pop-up (“Are you 18+?”), but depending on your region, you may need stricter checks like ID verification. Apps like Hulk Age Verification or Real ID plug into Shopify and other platforms to automate the process and keep you compliant without adding too much friction for customers.
