The most critical steps to enter the print-on-demand industry are choosing a niche with profitable products, creating an online store, and designing engaging artwork. It would be best to have an excellent fulfillment partner and a practical marketing plan. Many steps when learning how to start a print-on-demand business may confuse starters. However, you will feel it more simple with the straightforward process from Teeinblue Product Personalizer. Wrap it now!
Through many talks with merchants as a print-on-demand product personalizer, Teeinblue has gathered eight essential steps to starting a successful store for you. Check it out now!
A print-on-demand niche is less competitive, making it easier for you to enter the market. A good niche should have high profits and a specific audience in a determined region. Beginning with your favorite products, then analyzing their practicability can avoid reckless spending.
Type a seed keyword on Google Trends and find related trending topics
Following the Global Print on Demand Market 2023 - 2032, here are the best ideas for you to start:
💡 You may concern: A list of the Worthiest Print-on-demand Products and Designs to Sell
Design matters when selling print-on-demand as it is critical to generating sales and establishing your unique brand identity. You must choose a design style and create appealing, printable product designs.
Multiple standards exist for a winning print-on-demand design, including creative ideas, well-organized details, proper printing size and file format, etc. Don’t rush to get all of them! Keeping in mind the basics from the start will help you have winning artwork.
Tips: You can walk through online resources, such as Pinterest, Freepik, Vecteezy, Shutterstock, or Etsy, to learn and update the latest design trends.
💡 You may concern: Make Use of Product Personalization Benefits to Enter the Print-on-demand Market
Cooperating with fulfillment suppliers helps reduce a lot of work, including processing orders to production, delivery, and managing inventory. After determining your niche and design style, it’s time to select suppliers that match you most.
Dropship print-on-demand product with a global fulfillment supplier
Here are the criteria for you to consider:
Nowadays, thanks to the innovation in production technology, many fulfillment companies can offer you high-quality products at a lower cost. Save the top-of-the-world print-on-demand suppliers here!
Company Outstanding products Printing technologies merchOne (Picanova)High-quality canvas prints, mugs, and doormats
Sustainable manufacturing
DreamshipSupport the sustainable business with clothing, drinkware, home & living, and accessories
DTFx and cutting-edge technologies
PrintfulHigh-quality apparel & accessories, home & living, eco-friendly products
DTG, embroidery, AOP, engraving.
CustomCat
Fashion with its accessories, and housewares
DTG, embroidery, and dye sublimation technology ShineOnJewelry with message cards, dog tags, and personalized watch
Engraving, 3D cast, and graphic printing
Gelato Custom sustainable t-shirts, posters, cards, etcDTG and sustainable methods
PrintifyEco-friendly accessories, clothing, home & living
DTG, AOP, DTF, sublimation, and UV printing
Shirtee.CloudBasic apparel, tech accessories, drinkware, posters, etc
Textile printing, embroidery, direct digital printing
Printway Accessories, apparel, garment, and home decor DTG, 3D digital print, dye sublimationBonus: All of these above print-on-demand companies can fulfill customized products. Remember to request a sample before selecting one.
Multiple sales channels help you set up a store when selling print-on-demand online. You can choose the best suit with the three most popular suggestions below!
By creating stores on Etsy, Amazon, Shein, eBay, etc., you can easily upload your products to sell worldwide. You can make use of its free traffic sources and marketing tools to reach more audiences.
However, you must note that you cannot create a store with your own website domain. It may limit you from launching branding and advertising activities.
There are dozens of eCommerce platforms specialized for print-on-demand, such as Shopify, Woocommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, etc. They offer various tools, apps, and plugins to help you set up a print-on-demand website. So, even if you are not a developer, you can make it yourself.
Among platforms, Shopify stands out as it has the largest print-on-demand network and a lot of apps for personalizing POD products. Moreover, the cost of getting a custom store is more affordable than outsourcing or hiring a professional developer, just from $25 per month.
Shopify pricing plan
Coding your website is very time-consuming and costly at the beginning. Domain, web hosting, theme, SSL certificate, customized tools, etc., are available on eCommerce platforms. But when building manually, you must code, buy, and set them up yourself.
A custom-built online store with many features can cost as much as $30,000 or more. So, consider the best place to sell print-on-demand to avoid budget draining.
Pricing print-on-demand products is one of the most critical stages to differentiate your business from competitors right from the start. It is wise to offer an affordable price, not too cheap or expensive. And it should ensure to offer of high-quality products, satisfied customer services, and profits.
Even if you are new to starting a print-on-demand business or creating another one, this calculating the retail price method can work:
You’ve chosen the best sales channels to start a print-on-demand business. Now, the creating online store process is coming to an end. This step requires more industrious than meditating.
Tips: For merchants who sell personalized print-on-demand products, a custom product builder will help you easily add multiple options for customers to choose on your stores.
An engaging product page increase sales
Testing the buying process to ensure the flow is smooth and straightforward. Then, you can offer the best customer experience. You need to test the ability to approach the product page and the response speed of choosing personalization options, adding to the card, proceeding to checkout, reviewing the order, and completing payment.
If you start a print-on-demand Shopify store or other platforms, using a bogus gateway or placing a real order can help you run a test order. It is easy to find detailed instructions in each platform’s support center.
Now, everything is ready to launch your print-on-demand store. Let’s promote your products to generate first sales. Gradually start from the simplest things, for example:
💡 You may concern: Learn How Giftymize Start Selling Print-on-demand from Zero
Always try to improve your product quality and customer services
As a new seller, embracing the steps above will give you a solid mindset. Besides, don’t skip helpful tips from Teeinblue Product Personalizer’s users to practice how to start a print-on-demand business successfully.
You will not spend money on the inventory when you have a print-on-demand business. However, if your targeted customers live in the USA but use fulfillment service from a print-on-demand provider based in China, dealing with the long shipping time can cause you a headache.
So, how do you handle the long delivery times?
Usually, some print-on-demand companies will provide you with mockups from their website. However, they typically come with plain white background and, to be honest, look pretty boring and terrible for advertising. That’s why having realistic lifestyle mockups is the key.
Here is a list of some fantastic sources where you can find free mockup images for your online store:
Realistic lifestyle mockup images from Rawpixel
Besides product quality and hyper-personalized experiences, consistency is one of the most important fundamentals of customer service. It helps you to:
Of course, selling T-shirts is a great niche at present and in the near future. Still, they are not the only type of print-on-demand product out there. Besides apparel, here are some best-selling print-on-demand products that you can sell to take your e-commerce brand to the next level.
A T-shirt only has limited front and back print areasprovider’s guidelines to create a design that can be adjusted to fit the ratio of many print areas. For example, you can have a mockup image with the model wearing a T-shirt and holding a tote bag with the same design.
Cross-selling products with the same design for your shop
Note: Not all types of design work with all types of products. So, it would be great to remember that when you apply a design to many products, you should follow your provider’s guidelines to create a print-on-demand design that can be adjusted to fit the ratio of many print areas.
Requesting customer feedback shows that you appreciate their opinions and care about their experience. Involving them in the business and seeking their input can lead to stronger relationships with your customers. But don’t stop at listening, you should improve your products to make them satisfied.
Here are other small tips that work for you:
Starting new things always comes with a lot of questions. This part is for you if you are wondering about startup costs for print-on-demand.
The startup cost for a print-on-demand store may vary from $50 to $400, even thousands of dollars. It depends on which platform you create your stores, and how you design artwork as well as manage your business. But can you start with no money? Let’s get the detail in the next section!
Try to reduce costs if you have a low budget by utilizing your ability
Starting print-on-demand with no money is rarely possible, but you can minimize expenses easily.
You’ve passed all the essentials about how to start a print-on-demand business. Each step requires great meticulousness and patience, from choosing products, fulfillment partners, eCommerce platforms, and designing artwork to promoting. Hope you can succeed in selling print-on-demand with the above steps. Join Teeinblue Product Personalizer global community on Facebook to get more helpful tips!
Print-on-demand Trends 2024: Worthiest Products and Designs to Start
Tortli Success Story - How to Achieve Stable within Only Three Months
Everything about Product Customization and How to Utilize it with Teeinblue
Whether you’re an artist, writer, designer, or entrepreneur, physical products can be the perfect canvas for monetizing your creativity with print-on-demand.
From t-shirts to posters, backpacks to books, you can put your own original spin on everyday products and sell them online. However, if you go the traditional route of buying and holding your own inventory, you may be left with a pile of products that aren’t selling.
The print-on-demand (POD) industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.1% until 2030.
Print-on-demand services offer an easier way to bypass the time, investment, and risk associated with managing inventory, helping you create custom products at a fraction of the cost than manufacturing them on your own.
This guide will give you an overview of the print-on-demand world, with tips on how to start your print on demand business as well as how to most effectively start selling custom products.
Print-on-demand (POD) is a business model where products, such as apparel, accessories, or home decor, are produced only when an order is received. This eliminates the need for inventory management and upfront costs. With a POD business, designs are digitally printed on-demand, allowing for customization and flexibility.
Plus with print-on-demand services, everything after the sale, from digital printing to order fulfillment and shipping, is handled by your supplier.
A major additional benefit of print-on-demand is. that once you’ve set everything up, it takes only a few clicks to fulfill an order after you’ve made a sale.
You can use print-on-demand services to:
Print-on-demand can be used to build a business based on the dropshipping model—where the products and shipping are all handled by a third party. It’s one of the most accessible ways to source products or start an online business, but you should know the perks and limitations before you dive in.
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While many print-on-demand services might seem relatively similar at first glance, you’ll have to carefully consider the ones you choose based on the products you want to create, where you’ll be shipping them, and the retail prices you want to offer, among other factors. As print-on-demand has grown in popularity, so has the amount of print on demand companies in the market.
For example, a low base cost for one product might make it an obvious choice, until you realize that it would take 21 business days to reach customers with your most affordable shipping option.
It's incredibly important to exercise due diligence when evaluating print-on-demand companies. Google and other review sites are your friend. Choosing one of the wrong print-on-demand companies can set you back financially, and even hurt the growth of your brand.
To help you out, we put together a quick overview of some of the most print-on-demand sites that cover a variety of scenarios. All of these services are free to set up (you only pay when you order a product), plus they integrate with your Shopify store.
Let's look at some of the best print-on-demand sites.
Printful is a popular choice among print-on-demand sites because of its wide selection of high-quality products and brands (Gildan, American Apparel, etc.), easy-to-use mockup generators, and options for adding your own branding to the unboxing experience.
For apparel products in particular, Printful offers a number of printing techniques you’ll want to be aware of:
You should also be mindful of how additional customizations affect the price. Printing on the sleeve or inside label, for example, will usually mean paying a nominal fee on top of base cost.
Besides apparel, Printful also offers mugs, bedding, pillows, framed posters, beach towels, aprons, and more.
Lulu is a self-publishing platform for printing and distributing your own books and ebooks, offering many of the tools you’d need. It's one of the most popular print-on-demand companies.
Lulu Direct is its print-on-demand offering and lets you choose from a wide selection of book sizes, binding types, and page/print quality to build your own book product.
While there is no built-in editor to design your book, Lulu Xpress does offer downloadable templates to get you started. It even has a transparent pricing calculator to help you cost out your project, including various shipping options.
There are also discounts available if you’d like to order in bulk.
Like Printful, Gooten offers a wide range of products that you can customize with several that are unique to Gooten, such as calendars and dog beds.
However, since Gooten uses an international network of vendors and dropshippers to print its products, there’s also a lot more variance between its items in terms of print quality and shipping. But that also means you’re likely to see lower product and shipping prices as well.
Gooten has an intuitive image editor that gives you a good sense of what your final product will look like.
Printify is another print-on-demand service that features the usual selection of t-shirts and hoodies. What’s notable about Printify is it also offers an international vendor network that enables a number of unique white-label products you’re not likely to find elsewhere, such as jewelry, clocks, shoes, and water bottles. In fact, the platform boasts over 200 products you can print on.
While Printify is free to use, a premium subscription is available that gives you 20% off of all products for $29 a month, which is a solid option if you’re looking to scale up later and improve your profit margins.
Explore more print-on-demand services by reading 11 Paid + Free Print-on-Demand Companies for Selling Custom Products.
Design plays a crucial role in creating successful print-on-demand products. But you don’t need to be a full-time designer to source original designs. In fact, recent surveys show that nearly 32% of shop owners outsource designs for their stores.
There are many ways to commission or produce your own designs, as long as you understand a few key concepts that will help you work effectively with designers.
First, and most important, is preparing your design file. When working with designers, you should specify that your design is for printing. This implies that it should be saved at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi). The dimensions of the images you upload should be the same size as the printing area for the product.
Note that print specifications will change depending on the printing technique used. When in doubt, just send the designer the print specs for the specific product so they understand the context.
In most cases, the file you upload will be a PNG or PSD. Keep in mind that if you use a transparent background, the color of the t-shirt will be your background color.
In the best case scenario, you’re a designer or know one you can work well with. But don’t be discouraged if you don’t have access to design skills. That’s what outsourcing is for.
You can find designers to work with on Behance or 99designs who can produce usable designs as long as you provide clear instructions. Here’s how you can add clarity and context for a design project:
There are lots of talented designers, so you should be able to find someone to bring your idea to life. The really tricky part is figuring out what you want to design in the first place.
This will depend on your target audience for the product, but you can find design inspiration on:
You can look for content, messaging, or styles that already resonate with your target audience to brainstorm ideas worth pursuing. Just be sure you’re not infringing on anyone else’s work.
Social media is also a great place to litmus test your ideas. If you’re looking to turn the web into your focus group, try the following:
Using a print-on-demand service might be easier than managing your own inventory, but there are some considerations unique to this approach that you should be aware of. Luckily, for most of these challenges you’ll face, there are creative solutions.
Here are some of the best print-on-demand tips to help you out.
Product quality assurance is essential when you’re using print-on-demand services to sell online.
You want to ensure your physical product looks and feels as you intended, and the best way to do that is to be your own customer, so you can experience first-hand what it’s like to receive your products. Some services, like Printful, even offer a sample discount of up to 20% off or free shipping, so be sure to take advantage of that if it’s available.
Beyond ensuring product quality, samples are also good to have on hand for taking your own product photos for your website and social media profiles.
Even when you’re not shipping products yourself, shipping still offers some complexity in the form of shipping times and costs, and how to set the right expectations with customers. The best print-on-demand companies will be transparent about shipping and be proactive about sharing information on any potential delays.
You’ll want to be sure that you’re accounting for printing times when it comes to shipping. Whatever the shipping times are, be sure to add anywhere from two to four days for production, or more depending on the product.
Always be upfront about shipping times or you’ll wind up with a support inbox full of shipping questions. Outline what to expect on your FAQ page or consider creating a separate Shipping page to explain shipping to customers.
If you can, try to partially or fully absorb your shipping costs into your retail price. Year after year, studies show that surprise shipping costs added at checkout can deter customers from buying. On top of that, free shipping bolsters a number of your other marketing efforts:
While models can help you snap compelling photos of your products, mockups are also an effective alternative and will be a prominent part of your product pages.
Many print-on-demand services can help you create your own mockups, showing your products on a person or as a flatlay. But there are other services and plenty of free mockup templates that can also bring your products to life.
These mockups are what will sell your products to customers, so it can literally pay to go the extra mile. PlaceIt is an easy-to-use mockup generator that lets you create photo and video mockups for $8 each. Or, if you know the basics of Photoshop or other photo editing tools, you can browse Mockup World or Behance for templates.
Since your margins will be a bit thinner with print-on-demand products, you’ll want to be strategic about how you position your brand. Having a clearly defined audience (e.g., dog owners) can actually help you lower the costs to acquire customers and maximize your potential profits because your targeting will be much more precise.
Having a niche makes it easier to grow an audience that becomes an asset. Some marketing tactics you can try right away include:
Growing an audience is a must for building a long-term business, print-on-demand or otherwise.
If you’re getting into print-on-demand, you’ll come across different marketplaces to sell your custom designs on. For example, RedBubble and Zazzle offer POD services when you create a store on their platforms. People also sell custom products through Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.
These marketplaces do come with some benefits: Amazon alone has 300 million active customer accounts worldwide, putting more eyeballs on your products. Etsy has over 80 million active buyers. Zazzle has a good reputation, listing hundreds of millions of products since its founding in 2005.
Marketplaces give shoppers choice and an easy way to find products. But what they don’t do is provide a shopping experience that you control. This gives you a unique startup opportunity.
When you build a branded storefront on top of an ecommerce platform like Shopify, you can control the experience: how your store looks and feels, how people interact with you, how they discover your brand. It also offers integrations with top POD services so everything happens from one dashboard. Not to mention the lower fees you’ll pay from owning your own store.
Shoppers who aren’t loyal to brands like Etsy or Amazon may enjoy getting to know your brand and browsing your site. Your email list, remarketing ads, and social media profiles make it easier to stay connected with them and build a relationship that extends beyond the marketplace. Having your own website can be incredibly helpful in establishing your brand further as well.
Print-on-demand services offer an accessible place to begin for new entrepreneurs or for anyone who just wants to test an idea before they invest in it. There are thousands of white label products out there that you can make your own, and no shortage of possible designs to pair with them.
Select combinations will inevitably sell better than the rest, but it’s relatively easy to repurpose the same core design for several products.
If your business idea pans out and you start generating a meaningful number of sales, you can always graduate from print-on-demand to holding your own inventory, or continue to use these services while finding new ways to grow your audience.
The greatest advantage of the print-on-demand model is the flexibility it affords your business and the time it gives you back to focus on growth.
If you’re planning to start a print-on-demand business, begin by choosing a niche and the products you want to sell. Then get your designs and website ready. After that, look for a print-on-demand service and add the products to your store so you can start to sell products. Once you start marketing your website, you’ll begin to receive orders, and your print provider will take care of the fulfilment. Get started!
How much you make with your print-on-demand business depends on the target market, their needs, product demand, and seasonality. When determining how much you can earn, you’ll have to consider the sale price, fees for your print provider, and volume of orders. Print-on-demand helps you sell products for relatively low risk.
There are a number of products you can sell with print-on-demand. Some of the popular print-on-demand products include \ t-shirts, caps, mugs, wall prints and posters, drawstring and cloth bags, hoodies, towels, phone covers, notebooks, cushion covers, sweatshirts, and leggings. You can technically do print-on-demand for free, but will likely need to spend some money on marketing and ads to start seeing results. Get started for free!
Your print-on-demand product prices will depend largely on how well you market your brand. When pricing your products, look at what the market is charging as a baseline. You can charge higher prices for print-on-demand products with customizations. Otherwise, you can price the products similarly to your competitors as a safer bet if you want to cover a larger target market and make a profit.
While there are many print-on-demand companies to choose from, here are some of the most popular:
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