Print on Demand is an exciting business model with lots of opportunities nowadays. With Print on Demand (POD), you can create the designs or hire a designer and choose from a list of products available for printing.
Print-on-Demand is a practice of offering your audience various custom-made products. T-shirts, mugs, rugs and household items are an example of print-on-demand products.
From this article, you’ll learn the rules of printing on demand, what items are selling the most, and which websites can help you to create Print on Demand store.
What is “Print on Demand” and How Does it Work?
Print on demand is a process where you can work with a supplier to customize white-label products with your designs to sell them on a per-order basis under your brand.
You don’t need to pay for the product until after you’ve sold it, so there’s no need to buy in bulk or hold any inventory yourself.
With print-on-demand services, everything after the sale, from printing to shipping, is handled by your supplier. Once you’ve set everything up, it takes only a few clicks to fulfill an order.
Let’s see how print-on-demand service work.
Give a new business idea: This business gives you a new product line for an existing business without the risks that come with buying inventory.
Build a new audience: It is a great option if you’re a cartoonist or social media influencer who wants to spend your time creating content instead of fulfilling orders.
Branding: This service will let you hold the exclusive rights to the item’s branding.
Templates: You can easily see how your images will look on the item you want to print. Here’s a design generator that you can try, to see how your prints look on different kinds of products.
Pros and Cons of Print on Demand
Print on demand stores can be used to create a business based on a dropshipping model—where the products and shipping are all handled by a third party. It’s one of the easiest ways to source products or start an online business, but you should know the advantage and limitations before you dive in.
Pros
- Create products quickly: Once you have the design, you can create a new product and put it up for sale in minutes.
- Shipping is taken care of by supplier: Shipping and fulfillment is taken care of by your suppliers. After the sale, you’re only responsible for customer service.
- Low investment and risk: Since you’re not physically maintaining any inventory, it’s easier to add or remove products, test ideas, or pivot your approach.
Cons
- Lower profits: Naturally, your costs per item will be higher if you buy in bulk. On-demand products may yield low profits, depending on how you price them and manage customers.
- Less control over shipping cost: Shipping costs can often vary for different products.
- Limited customization options: The ability to customize products depends on the vendor and the product. You’ll have to calculate base costs, customization options, printing techniques, and available sizes when deciding on which products to customize.
Best Print On Demand Companies
There are many print on demand companies for you to research and work with. These include:
Print-on-demand clothing services from companies include printing, designing, editing, and shipping.
Top-Selling Print On Demand Products
Print-on-demand products are popular for many different reasons. Customers may buy one product from a store for his personal use.
Mugs
Mugs are always popular products among sellers and customers alike. There are endless possibilities for design and customers to love a mug. No matter what your niche is, including mugs in your store is a great idea!
Don’t be afraid to get creative with your mug designs. Many people keep mugs at home and at the office as showpiece. Think about your audience and niche and create a design your customers would like to take to work.
T-shirts
Many people only think of print on demand t-shirts. While it is still a popular product and many online stores have created a successful business by only selling T-shirts, there is even more opportunity for businesses offering designs on multiple products. Be creative when you create T-shirt designs and make sure you are using royalty-free resources.
Phone Cases
The opportunity for selling phone cases is huge. With more than 4 billion people in the world owning mobile phones and 79% of them purchasing a protective cover, eCommerce business stands to make money by offering fun designs on phone cases. It’s a hot cake with a lot of opportunity for success.
Wall Art
Wall art is one of the top-selling products. It’s a popular product among Millennials who love finding art designs online and specifically on Instagram. If your online store is growing, or you just love creating new art designs, selling wall art in your store is a promising venture.
Jewelry
Jewelry is a hot new product available for print-on-demand sellers. It’s a precious product to include for certain holidays and special occasions. If jewelry is a good fit for your niche, it might be a great way to increase your sales for your eCommerce store.
Tips for Starting a Print-on-Demand Business
Using a print-on-demand service is easier than managing your inventory. Here are a few tips for starting a POD business.
1. Always order samples
Quality assurance is essential when you’re using print-on-demand products to sell online. It’s always possible that something gets lost during printing.
You want to ensure your physical product looks and feels as you ordered, and the best way to do that is to take the sample.
2. Be strategic about shipping
Though you’re not shipping products yourself but it still needs to keep in consideration.
You’ll have to be sure that you’re accounting for printing times when it comes to shipping. Whatever the shipping times are, be sure to add some extra days for production.
3. Create mockups that show off your products
Mockups are an effective alternative and will be a prominent part of your product pages.
Many print-on-demand services can help you to create your mockups, showing your products on a person. But there are other services and plenty of free mockup templates that can also bring your products to daily life.
These mockups are what will sell your products to customers. PlaceIt is an easy-to-use mockup generator that lets you create photo and video mockups. Or, if you know the basics of Photoshop or other photo editing tools, you can browse Mockup World for templates.
4. Focus on a niche to make marketing easier
Marketing ultimately determines the success of your business. But if you’re targeting everybody, you’re not marketing to anyone. That’s why focus is so important.
Having a clearly defined audience can help you create products that are in demand, lower the costs to acquire customers, and maximize your potential profits.
Better yet, if you can build an audience of your own through marketing, you can create a permanent asset for your business even if your products change.
Tips For Selling Print-on-Demand Products
Finding A Designer
To start a print-on-demand business, it isn’t necessary to be a professional and creative designer. Just you need an artist to do it for you.
You can hire a designer for your business through websites like 99designs and Dribbble. These are the platforms where you’ll find the most talented designers.
There are also some websites where you can find designs, and offer to buy them.
Conclusion
Conventional eCommerce business models generally require large monetary investment and a lot of time to get up and running. You also often have to deal with inventory, product packaging, shipping, and many more complicated tasks. For less responsibility and lower risk, Print-on-Demand business is an ideal option that still has the potential for success.
