What can be better than starting global a business with minimal cost, and zero inventory worries?
It’s this kind of logic that’s pushing Print-on-Demand businesses up in popularity. You can start your business today but there are a few important things you should about the business.
Follow this 3 minutes guide to learn about print-on-demand business models, e-commerce implications and the true cost of doing business.
What is Print-on-Demand?
Print-on-Demand (or POD) is an order fulfillment service where items are personalized as per your requirements and designs and shipped to the client by the service provider.
It’s basically streamlined, personalized dropshipping.
It is important to understand what parties are involved in a POD business so we can correctly analyze each of them.
1. The eCommerce Business (i.e. you, the business owner). Your job is to create an eCommerce platform on which you can showcase your products, drive traffic to the website, and handle marketing, and support.
2. The POD service providers. They are tasked with providing and personalizing the products and fulfilling the orders.
3. The customers. Customers will want to be able to easily buy interesting products and receive great service throughout the entire process.
What businesses typically find a POD service useful?
This service addresses, first and foremost, content creators, designers, artists, and influencers.
Of course, any eCommerce business owner or entrepreneur will love the idea of a no-inventory business but successful POD sites have unique content that usually is provided by content creators.
How can I start a Print-on-Demand Store Today?
Step 1. Create your website
Don’t rush it just yet. Building a print-on-demand website on Shopify is not difficult but it’s very easy to get wrong. The website needs to have the look, feel, and usability of an e-commerce store.
Related Article
We’ve compiled a 3-minute read guide to get you through the basics of a Shopify Store build correctly.
Step 2. Pick your print-on-demand provider.
While there are plenty of options out there, you should start with one of the most popular ones as they will have good fulfillment capabilities, a large product mix, and an easy setup.
The top Shopify Print-on-Demand service providers today are Printify and Printful
When picking your pod provider take into account pricing, print facilities locations, and support offerings.
| Printify.com | Printful.com | |
| Free Pricing Plan | Yes | Yes |
| Upgraded Plan | $29 monthly or $24.99 yearly | $49/month |
| Choose print provider or location | Yes | No |
| Print Facilities Countries | USA, Canada, Australia, UK, EU, China | USA, Mexico, Latvia, Spain, Japan, Australia, Canada |
| Number of Facilities | 90 | 10 |
| Realtime 24/7 Support | Yes | Yes |
| FAQ / Help Page | Yes | Yes |
| Most Affordable T-Shirt | 5.25 | 7.95 |
| Claimed average shipping time to the US | 2-7 days | 2-7 days |
| Product Diversity | 311 | 262 |
| View on Model | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Branding Options | Neck Labels | Neck Labels, Pack-ins, Logo on Package and others |
For this guide, we have chosen Printify to help us build a small Shopify Print-on-Demand store where we’re going to sell eCommerce-Today branded goods.
The setup process takes 1 minute to complete. All you need to do is go to your Shopify admin in the Apps section, search Printify, and Add the App to your store.
Next up, you need to start working on your catalog. Browse the Printify products catalog, upload your own graphics, and publish your products to your Shopify store.
If you are a content creator and you have some eCommerce skills starting a Print-on-Demand Business with Shopify will be a walk in the park. Don’t waste any time, start today!
If you are not a content creator and you don’t have eCommerce skills don’t be discouraged, read this article again, go through the information and the steps and start your business.
Do reach out and we can talk about design ideas and business development.
Good luck!