These companies take care of the printing and shipping of the products that the customers order from your store. As a result, there is no wastage of production and overstocking. Getting help from print-on-demand solutions will be useful if you started your online merchandise store. Let’s learn more about this service and some best companies that provide this service.
What is Print-on-Demand?
Print-on-demand (POD) is a technology that means manufacturing bespoke white-label products for your store. These products contain your design and are sold on a per-order basis. With it, you can skip the hassle and cost of inventory management and save valuable time. Also, each product is produced only when someone orders them. As a result, there is no wastage and unnecessary storage of products. Since it is about selling your designs, this business model is ideal for artists to sell their artwork on various products like posters magnets, t-shirts, mugs, and face masks.
Pros of Print-on-Demand
You do not need to invest in printing products in bulk as this business model means printing when there is a demand for the product. Thus, you save on money, time, and effort. There is no need to buy expensive printing machines or learn how to use them. Print-on-demand companies do this task for you. Due to easy setup and white-label marketing, you can effortlessly set up your store and increase brand awareness among your audience. The service provider takes care of most technical, production, and logistics segments. Hence, you can focus on your creativity and create more stunning designs for your products.
Cons of Print-on-Demand
You need to depend on third-party companies for product availability and delivery. There is nothing much you can do about these. Since one print-on-demand company handles product requests from various vendors, there might be a delay in order fulfillment. The quality of your products also depends on the service provider. For this reason, you need to go for a reliable company. In most cases, your profit margin will be lower as you have to give the POD company a large share for manufacturing and shipping.
Factors to Watch Out for While Choosing Print-on-Demand Sites
With so many print-on-demand companies, you might wonder how to pick the right one. Before choosing a print-on-demand service, let’s explore the crucial factors you should consider.
Good Quality Products
Even if you want to start your business with mugs only, it’s better to go for a company offering an extensive product collection. Then, you have the scope to scale up your business in the future.
Profitability
Find out which company will offer you the most profit margin after product and shipping costs. Unless you run a charity, you must confirm this before opting for any provider.
Quick Delivery
Shipping time is a vital criterion when customers notice while making an order. Companies with global shipping facilities and multiple manufacturing units across the world are capable of delivering on time to any address.
Integration Support
Make sure the print-on-demand company supports integration with major eCommerce platforms. Services with the option to manage multiple stores from one platform will offer an extra advantage to your business.
Transparent Communication
This company will be responsible for your brand and reputation as they are the ones who will produce the products and ship them. Hence, you should be able to communicate with them whenever necessary. Now, have a look at some popular and renowned print-on-demand companies that you can opt for based on your needs.
Printify
With Printify, creating and selling customized products to customers has become easy. Its free design tools let you add your custom designs to hundreds of products, including t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, notebooks, towels, ornaments, home decor, masks, bags, tank tops, hoodies, and sportswear. Printify has a network of partners for automatic routing functionality. Hence, managing peak holiday seasons without any headaches is possible. It lets you sell products on your terms while the company handles all the printing and delivery logistics. You can integrate it with major e-commerce platforms and marketplaces, including eBay, Presta Shop, Shopify, Etsy, BigCommerce, and Squarespace. Therefore, it is possible to make money in a risk-free way from this platform.
Gelato
Gelato is a platform for online stores that want to manufacture customized items locally and deliver them quickly. It is a fully integrated solution for print products as it offers everything you need to sell, produce and provide customized products to global customers. Besides empowering the creators and entrepreneurs with printed products, it also helps them with invoicing, tax, and VAT issues. Gelato produces products in 33 countries, resulting in faster delivery to customers. Also, there is less carbon emission as the shipping distances are reduced. Moreover, it delivers most of its products within 72 hours of ordering. Its end-to-end fulfillment feature ensures managing every step of your business, from production to shipment to taxation. There is no minimum purchase, so you pay for what you manufacture.
Printful
Do you want to leave a lasting impression in the minds of your customers with premium quality customized products? Printful helps you create and sell products online all over the world. As the company prints and ships orders on your behalf, you save time and can invest that in something else. Its built-in Design Maker allows you to create versatile designs such as intricate, patterned, simple, or minimalist — even if you do not have prior designing experience. The platform has no minimum order provision and consistently provides quality products.
SPRING
Are you looking for a reliable print-on-demand company that will let you effortlessly monetize your content and have a better engagement with your fans? In that case, SPRING, previously known as Teespring, can be your go-to option. It offers you a hassle-free solution that does not involve any risk. Using Teespring Launcher, you can customize and create a range of products, including apparel, phone cases, mugs, accessories, home decor, and many more. What’s more, after creating the design, you can utilize its other attributes like marketing tools, partnership integrations, and extended network to complete selling your products. With this platform, you can readily integrate Twitch’s merch shop, Instagram Checkout, and YouTube’s merch shelf. For bulk orders, it offers design support and competitive pricing.
Teemill
You might find many print-on-demand companies, but few offer to do it sustainably. Teemill is a popular company that makes online merch selling business easier for you, and that too in a sustainable way. All the Teemill factories get energy from renewable sources. It lets you design products for your free online shop. When someone orders from your store, Teemill send the design to their factory and print it on the product before shipping it to the customer directly. The company also deals with the returns without you having to deal with them. Anyone can quickly develop a professional brand using hundreds of ready-to-use designs, unique graphics, marketing assets, and mockup models. Additionally, each garment can be returned to the company for recycling once worn out, and the returns get store credit as a reward.
Zazzle
Artists and creators looking for passive income opportunities should go for Zazzle. This platform allows you to make money from your content or creative services. Here, you get the chance to connect and sell your products to thousands of people who want to make a memory of big events in their lives. Monetizing your designs is easy with this platform, as you can set up a free store on Zazzle and start selling. You can also connect with other creators to get inspiration from them. You can use the Adobe Photoshop Design to Print plugin for workflow streamlining.
Redbubble
Do you want to convert your creativity into cash? Redbubble is a platform where you can sell your artwork printed on any product to your global audience. People from all over the world visit this platform to find what they love. Thus, it offers you a platform where you can connect with people who love your work and want to own them. It lets you print on more than 70 products, including t-shirts, masks, mugs, and other merchandise. You can join thousands of artists on the platform and start earning money. Its flexible making feature puts you in control of what you earn. Moreover, you can include watermark features to protect your designs from duplicating.
Subliminator
Whether it is tank tops, joggers, sweatshirts, swim trunks, or cloaks, Subliminator is here to sell your on-demand apparel. This easy-to-use platform also performs hands-free fulfillment and shipping on your behalf. Its in-house manufacturing assures high-quality products for every customer. You also do not have to worry about an inventory for your products. Creating catchy products is easy from its wide range of collections. You can sell the designed products on your e-Commerce website using the automatic order syncing feature. Whenever there is an order, the company manufactures it and ships it under your brand name after quality checking. For enhanced customer experience, you can use various branding options like pack-ins, customized mailing bags, woven labels, and hang tags. Moreover, Subliminator uses premium shipping carriers for quick delivery globally.
Bonfire
Are you a social media influencer who wants to sell t-shirts to your followers? Bonfire lets you design customized premium-quality t-shirts and sell them. Here, you can also open a free online store to showcase all the shirts and apparel you designed. Also, you can easily tailor your products according to your brand. Another attractive feature of this platform is that you can create a campaign page here for selling custom products. As the campaign ends, Bonfire will directly ship the products to the customers as you get your profits. Its responsive customer support team is always here to save your back.
Sellfy
If you belong to a community of creators and online businesses who want to turn their passion into income without any complexity, Sellfy is here for you. From this single platform, you can sell your merchandise or digital products to your customers through your website or social media handles. It lets you launch a print-on-demand merchandise store in a few minutes where you can perform all the tasks — design, create and sell. You can use the same platform to host your digital products and deliver them. Its built-in marketing attributes and tool help you in growing your business. With its embedding feature, you can add features like a shopping cart and a “buy now” button to your website simply by copy-pasting. Furthermore, the company has a 24/7 support team available for your assistance.
SPOD
Creators looking for a platform to transform their ideas into printed products should go for SPOD. With its assistance, creating and selling print-on-demand products become seamless for anyone. This efficient dropshipping print-on-demand service offers all the features necessary to create, build and expand your product offerings. It processes 95% of its products within 48 hours, so the customer has to wait for less to get their hands on the products. Also, customers get products at fair prices without compromising the quality. SPOD supports Squarespace, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, OrderDesk, or SPOD API for integration. It supports sustainability by letting you avoid overproduction and wasteful overstock. Also, its business model works for a greener future by keeping its footprint smaller. The company has facilities in the USA and EU so that you can sell your products to the world.
Conclusion
Though it has its pros and cons, the print-on-demand solution is a great help for influencers and creators who want to make money from their creativity. Besides discussing some best print-on-demand companies, we also talked about how you can choose the right company. While opting for these services, you can also increase your sales with FOMO marketing strategies.
