Print-on-demand is a practice of offering your audience various custom-made items like t-shirts, mugs, rugs, and household items in order to get customers and sales. This is a subtle yet powerful way to turn the attention of visitors within your niche to your business.

However, this method of product sourcing must use effective marketing strategies and be created on a high-performing eCommerce platform that supports it in order to yield good results.

Nevertheless, getting down to the practical aspects of starting this type of business is not as easy as it sounds; substantial work is required. Let’s get into the details.

• What is Print on Demand?
• What Are The Best Print on Demand Products to Sell?
• How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business in 5 Steps
• How do You Price Print on Demand Products?
• What Are The Pros And Cons of Print on Demand?
• How Much Does it Cost to Start a Print on Demand Business?
• Are Print on Demand Shops Profitable?
• Who Are the Most Popular Print-on-Demand Businesses?
• How to Increase Your Earnings on Print on Demand
• How do I Start a Print on Demand Dropshipping Business?
• Do You Need Business License For Print On Demand?
• How do I Start a Print on Demand Business on Etsy?
• How Can I Start Print on Demand Business in India?
• What is Print on Demand Business Model?
• How To Choose a Print on Demand Supplier
• What is The Difference Between Print on Demand And Dropshipping?
• How Can I Promote my Print on Demand Business?
• How do I Run a Successful Print on Demand Business?

What is Print on Demand?

Print on demand (POD) is an eCommerce business model whereby you team up with a supplier to sell customized products such as shirts, hats, mugs, calendars, and more. The print on demand sector is nothing to shrug your shoulders at, particularly when you consider the growth brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Read Also: 10 Laser Engraving Ideas and Tips to Start Your Laser Engraving Business

If you’re considering starting a print on demand business, you should be prepared to create the designs and take the orders. Aside from that, the supplier will basically handle the rest of the fulfillment process from printing to packing and delivery. Sounds like a good deal!

Similarly to other dropshipping businesses, running a print on demand business means you don’t need to buy or store any inventory, keeping your overhead costs nice and low.

What Are The Best Print on Demand Products to Sell?

This can be a bit of a tricky question to give a one-size-fits-all answer for. We mentioned earlier that the products you’ll have the best of luck selling successfully will depend largely on the niche you’re selling in.

Even so, we can look across all the different niches and all the different POD suppliers and see which types of products are most popular in general.

Here are the top 10 best print on demand products to sell:

• T-Shirts
• Hoodies
• Socks
• Hats
• Pillows
• Mugs
• Posters
• Stickers
• Phone cases
• Tote bags

Take your time to find a supplier that offers a wide variety of products. A new idea can come to mind and you’ll want to try selling a different item to spark your customers’ interest. When that day comes, you don’t want to be left looking for a new supplier since that can take a fair bit of time. Feel free to bookmark the list of best POD products above for your future reference when you’re shopping for suppliers.

How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business in 5 Steps

Step 1: Choose Your Niche & Products

Before you do anything, you need to first pick a niche where you’re most likely to succeed. Only go with what you like, and if you don’t have an idea, then create a list of all the things you like. Some of the possible ideas include equestrian sports, comics, ecotourism, football, healthy living, etc. Your niche must be specific enough to hone in on core customers but also capable of attracting a wide audience.

Once you have selected a niche (or narrowed your options down to a few), it’s time to visit search engines and social media platforms to validate your ideas. Google Trends can help you know what people are saying regarding your niche and so can Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit.

If there is very little conversation in a certain niche-based community, then it likely has no potential for a print-on-demand business to be built around it; you need one that is active with many discussion threads. Where possible, follow or keep tabs on these threads as the people that interact with them are likely to turn into your customers in the future.

Once you’ve selected a niche, it’s time to find print-on-demand product ideas within that niche. Some popular print-on-demand product ideas include mugs, t-shirts, posters, phone cases, hoodies, stickers, hats, and pillows. Even though there is a wide variety of choices, stick to your market needs and make sure that your designs will be printed products that make sense for your niche.

Lastly, take a tour on Amazon, eBay, or any other common marketplaces to find out if your print-on-demand product idea is already being sold on the market. Don’t fret if someone is already selling it; it could be a sign that it’s a lucrative product to sell!

Step 2: Get Your Designs & Website Ready

Once you have a product idea and a niche, it’s time for the real work to begin. If you’re a skilled designer, then you’ll likely have an advantage over those who aren’t, as print-on-demand relies heavily on creating designs to be printed onto products.

To create your products, you’ll have to craft your own designs or modify copyright-free design assets like ones from Creative Market. Remember to never copy and paste someone else’s work; it’s both unprofessional and illegal.

If you don’t have the time to make your own product designs or you don’t have the expertise, you can purchase nice designs at a reasonable price from places like Upwork, Fiverr, Design Pickle, and many more.

Once you have your product designs decided on, it’s time to get your website up and running. This can take a couple of days to do it right, but it’s essential to the future success of your print-on-demand business.

First, you need to select a platform to host your website. The most preferred ecommerce platforms are Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce/WordPress. These platforms provide you with easily customizable store themes so you can get your print-on-demand business up and running as quickly as possible.

You will need to set up all the essential business pages like a homepage, shipping details page, contact page, and payment details page before accepting the first order, so don’t underestimate the time it will take to launch your website.

Step 3: Choose Your Print Provider & Add Products to Your Store

To create your print-on-demand products, you need to work with a print-on-demand supplier to actually bring your visions to life. Many print-on-demand suppliers have plugins that integrate directly with most major ecommerce platforms so you can connect your store directly to your supplier which makes order-handling easier and a more seamless experience.

The major print-on-demand suppliers that integrate directly with most major eCommerce platforms, like Shopify specifically, include Printful, Gooten, Printify, Print Aura, and Inkthreadable.

Step 4: Promote Your Store

Every business will remain unknown unless it’s promoted. As much as print-on-demand is the real deal, your store will simply be just another website in a huge online ecosystem unless you create a pathway for your customers to know it exists. You must get the word out about your print-on-demand business in order to make sales. Here are some of the marketing techniques you can rely on:

Set Up Several Major Social Media Accounts:
Social media platforms have become the best spots to hunt for leads and, most importantly, you can use them for free. Set up a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube account and use them to spread the word about your business.

You don’t have to spread your efforts thin trying to manage too many accounts, however, just use the platform that is most relevant to your business model or one that you’re most familiar with.

Here are some tips to help you use social media effectively:

• Join groups and post frequently to remain at the top of the feeds
• Create a relevant hashtag for your store and request that your clients to use it when posting images of your products online
• Use the 80/20 rule: In this case, 80% of your content should be entertaining and informative while the remaining 20% can be sales-driven
• Reach out to influencers to help spread the word about your brand. Note that most of them can only endorse a product that aligns with their niche and values.
• Leverage paid social to balloon your sales numbers: With everyone using social media you need to climb a step up and create compelling ads and campaigns

Optimize Your Site Through SEO:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is and will always remain to be a powerful tool to take your brand to the first pages of search engines. SEO is mostly about quality content and optimizing pages for high-ranking keywords. You must find the appropriate keywords that many people are searching for and then craft top-notch content using those.

There are many different SEO techniques that you can adapt to your business. Take advantage of the countless guides online to learn how to optimize your website for traffic and sales.

Use Customer Reviews & Comments as Testimonials:
Sometimes, no one wants to listen to you if it seems like the sole intention is to promote your business. However, reviews from independent customers provide a powerful and credible way to market your brand and increase sales.

Make sure they’re easily visible to website visitors on your homepage and make it clear that the reviews and testimonials come from real customers who’ve purchased your products.

Write Top-Quality Blog Posts:
Most ecommerce platforms rely heavily on content marketing as a way to spread the word about their products and services. Create roundup posts, reviews, and other content to post regularly on your print-on-demand website’s blog. Don’t forget to share the published content on your social platforms to interest your audience and direct more traffic to your site.

By being helpful to your audience, you will establish a positive rapport with them and you’ll build their trust as they learn from and engage with your content which will make them more likely to purchase from you in the future.

Step 5: Check Performance, Experiment & Make Improvements

It’s only once your business is up and running when you can tell what’s working and what’s not. During this time, you may be forced to redesign your store, adjust prices, change collection pages, or even add new products. Take bold steps to find a unique working product that will make your business a key player in your niche.

How do You Price Print on Demand Products?

There are plenty of pricing strategies you can use, and the strategy you choose can change over time as your business grows and the industry changes – that’s perfectly normal. To get you started, here are three basic steps you can take to determine how you should price your print on demand products:

1. Identify your production costs

The question is simple: how much will your business be spending on the products being sold? The answer can be a bit more complicated. You’ll need to consider a number of different factors including:

• The value of the design-making process
• The costs for different products as well as printing
• Shipping costs
• Taxes
• Any other per-order fees

2. Factor in your profit margin

After defining how much it costs to have a product produced, you need to decide how much you want to earn from each sale. This is the core principle of the profit motive. Regardless of what other reasons you have for launching your POD business, if you’re not earning a profit you won’t be able to keep the business running for long.

Setting a realistic ‘target’ profit margin takes careful thought. Make it too high and you’ll probably have a hard time keeping your repeat purchase rate strong. Make it too low and you’ll find it slow and difficult to grow your business. Don’t stress too much about it though, you can (and should) reevaluate your profit margins on a regular basis and make adjustments as needed.

3. Adjust for additional costs

You know how much it’ll cost you to produce your goods and how much money you want to earn per sale. Now all you need to do is zoom in on the additional eCommerce expenses to consider when running your POD business.

Here’s a brief look at some of the costs you can expect to encounter when running your print on demand business:

• Platform subscription(s)
• Apps and other services
• Marketing
• Internet and other utilities

What Are The Pros And Cons of Print on Demand?

Pros

• Establish a unique brand – standing out from the crowd can be hard with an online business. Starting a POD business means you’ll have full control over what your product designs look like and how you brand your small business. That means you can be, well, you! Customers love one-of-a-kind products, give them what they want.

• Personalize your designs – along with making your designs unique to your own taste, you can give your customers the option to personalize the purchases they make through your POD business. Consider offering customers the ability to add a name or message to their product. Find a supplier that offers products in different colors to give customers even more possibilities for personalizing their purchase.

• Easy to test new designs & products – other more ‘traditional’ business models make it difficult and/or risky to try selling new designs or products, but not print on demand businesses! As a POD business owner, all you would need to do is create (or find) the new design you’d like to test out and place an order with your supplier to see how it looks in real life. Of course, you can put it up on your website for a limited time to see how customers like it as well.
  
  Some suppliers even have the ability to show you and your customers a mock-up of how your design will look on the product(s) they have in stock before the order is placed. There’s nothing like getting a free sneak-preview!

• Reduce your overhead costs – if you’re searching for a business model that you can use to keep overhead costs down to a bare minimum, print on demand could be the way to go. There’s no office space to rent (and no utilities to pay in that would-be office), there’s no warehouse you need to pay to store your inventory in, there are no product costs, no equipment you need to purchase or maintain, and no logistics for you to handle. Can it get any better than that?

• It’s a low investment business idea with high-profit potential – enough said on this one!

Cons

• It takes longer to POD than to deliver ready products – compared to other business models where the product units are ready to be shipped out at a moment’s notice, running a print on demand business means each order is (you guessed it) printed on demand. That means the time it takes from payment to delivery will be longer than it would be if you were selling shirts or mugs that already had the designs on them prior to the order being placed.

• You lack control over product quality – it’s inevitable that the design on a graphic t-shirt will fade over time, but how many runs through the wash it survives is the real question. Will it be 5 times? 10 times? 100 times? If the designs on your products fade quickly, chances are you’ll have a difficult time developing a high repeat purchase rate at your POD business.
  
  The same is true if the clothes have loose threads, if the hats don’t fit right, and so on. Fortunately, there are plenty of suppliers you can choose from. If you’re not happy with the quality of products you’re seeing from your supplier, just switch!

• Fulfillment is out of your hands – while on the one hand you don’t need to worry about the actual fulfillment of orders (thank you suppliers!), the downside is that if there are any problems within the fulfillment process there won’t be a whole lot you can do.
  
  If certain products are out of stock or if order volumes see a boom, it’s up to the supplier to correct for those changes. If they’re unable to meet the demand your customers make, you could be stuck in a bit of a sticky situation to explain to your customers.
  
  This is another one of those cases where, if you notice issues frequently happening, you can choose a different supplier to work with.

• Handling returns can be tricky – since POD businesses put the fulfillment in the hands of the supplier, the return process can get a bit complicated. Of course, it depends on the e-commerce platform you’re selling on, as well as your supplier’s return policy, and other factors.
  
  Be sure to get a clear assessment of the rules, regulations, and limitations that are set by all third-parties involved in the return process – and have your own return policy be shaped to fit within all of those boundaries. Handling returns is a little annoying in the first place. Don’t let it become more of a nuisance by having a customer surprised or left waiting for too long.

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Print on Demand Business?

When building a Print on Demand store, there are two methods that you can take.

The first method is to open a Print on Demand store using a third party marketplace.

The biggest benefit about this is that it requires absolutely no money to start this way. You can open a store and start generating money, without investing a penny. This is the free way.

And there are a number of online marketplaces that allow you to do this. Here are four that we highly recommend.

TeeSpring. This is a website that lets you set up a free store where you sell your own custom products using their built in Print On Demand app.

Merch by Amazon. This marketplace allows you to come in and use their product creator to create your own products. And just like with Teespring, it’s absolutely FREE. When somebody purchases your item, they’ll take the money the customer paid, remove their fees, and pay out the profit to you in the form of a commission.

eBay. While eBay doesn’t have any built in Print On Demand functionality, you can integrate Print On Demand services like Printify and Printful directly into your eBay store.

Etsy. Similar to eBay, Etsy doesn’t have any built in Print On Demand functionality, but you can integrate free Print On Demand services like Printify and Printful directly into your Etsy store.

If you don’t have money at hand to invest, then this method is a great option to get the ball rolling. And once you start to generate sales, then you can reinvest your earnings back into your business, and graduate to building your own store.

The second method is open a Print on Demand store on your own website. This will cost you money, but it has several advantages over the free method.

Here are just a few of the benefits:

• You control the customer journey
• You decide how you want to market your products
• You don’t need to adhere to any rules or regulations
• You aren’t competing with other sellers

To build your own store, we recommend that you use Shopify. This is the fastest, easiest way to build a professional looking eCommerce store, without any prior experience.

There are three plans that Shopify offer you. A basic plan ($29/month), standard plan ($79/month) and advanced planned ($299/month). As a beginner, a basic plan of $29 a month is more than enough to get you going, and will provide you with everything you need to start.

But in addition to this, you also need a domain for your website. 

You can purchase this directly from Shopify for $14. Or if you’d prefer to save money on cost, you can purchase a domain from Namecheap instead for a $8.28. 

However, purchasing a domain from Namecheap and connecting this to your store can be quite a hassle if you have no technical knowledge with nameservers. 

And so, as a beginner, you’re better off saving the hassle by purchasing a domain through Shopify, which is already connected to your store.

So this means that in total it’ll cost you $43 to open a Print on Demand store. 

Are Print on Demand Shops Profitable?

Several factors will dictate how much money you can make. How many designs you have, which products you sell on your store, and how much you promote yourself are all big ones.

The more designs you offer, the more versatility you give your customers. If someone wants art of flowers but all you sell are dragons, then you’re severely limiting your audience. The same is true of selling only t-shirts or hoodies. When a customer finds your store and wants a print-on-demand baby onesie but can’t find it, they’ll search the millions of other online stores to track one down. You then lose out on that money.

One of the biggest determining factors for making money through print on demand is which platform you choose.

The basics of a print-on-demand online store are this: you sign up, register your store, and order goods to be printed. Then your item gets printed and appears in your store (some platforms only print the item if the item is already ordered). When someone buys the item, you make money.

Of course, you don’t get a straight cut of the profits. Your print-on-demand platform also has to make some money. Plus, some platforms don’t follow a model where you get money deposited to an account or sent to the platform for you to do what you want.

Who Are the Most Popular Print-on-Demand Businesses?

Before you proceed with your own print-on-demand business, it helps to know who else is out there. You may sign up for one of these platforms to create your online store, or you may scope them out to get a closer glimpse at the competition.

This isn’t an exhaustive list by far, but only the biggest names in printing. New players are cropping up all the time, although whether they’ll survive long-term is anyone’s guess.

Shopify

The first of these big players is Shopify. Founded in 2004 in Canada by Scott Lake, Daniel Weinand, and Tobias Lutke, today, Shopify says it has more than one million businesses operating on its platform.

Not all are print-on-demand necessarily, but rather, any type of online store you want to run. Shopify gives you the blueprint for a successful business, helping you with setting up your store, creating an online presence, and branding yourself. They also have marketing resources for spreading the word about your business.

Printful

If you’d rather focus on online platforms that specialize in print on demand, Printful is another big name that isn’t going anywhere. The company has 800 staff members per most recent data, with offices and fulfillment centers in Latvia, Barcelona, Mexico, California, and North Carolina.

What do you want to print and sell? Printful probably has it. You can shop their platform for clothing like tank tops, hoodies, long-sleeved shirts, t-shirts, shorts, leggings, sweatpants, and embroidered shirts. You can also find aprons, bean bags, towels, wall art, pillows, coffee mugs, hats, socks, jewelry, phone cases, and bags to customize.

Once you buy what you need, you can then open your online store. When a customer orders something from your store, Printful takes care of fulfillment and shipping the order for you.

Redbubble

You might also start your print-on-demand business on Redbubble. You can get your own customized designs printed and sold on items like clothing, stationery, wall art, phone cases, stickers, pillows, tapestries, shower curtains, mugs, comforters, bathmats, clocks, and coasters on this platform.

Zazzle

Zazzle was founded in 2005, but it hasn’t slowed down at all in 15 years. Jeffrey Beaver, Bobby Beaver, and Robert Beaver, three brothers, started the company in a Redwood City, California garage. Today, Zazzle is one of the best-known print-on-demand platforms.

Your printing options are nearly endless, with items available such as stationery, gift cards, business cards, notebooks, and binders. You can even print on sports goods like ping pong equipment, dartboards, cornhole sets, playing cards, footballs, skateboards, golf equipment, and baseballs.

All the clothing you’d expect to be able to print on is here too, such as shoes, socks, leggings, sweatshirts and hoodies, baby clothes, kids’ clothing, t-shirts, tanks, and more.

Last year, Zazzle unveiled Zazzle Create, a design tool for creating digital and physical products for free.

Threadless

Another print-on-demand business that’s big is Threadless. This Chicago-based platform is also one of the oldest, as Jacob DeHart and Jack Nickell founded it in 2000.

Threadless works a bit differently than some of the other platforms we’ve discussed. Users will submit their designs, then the Threadless community will determine which ones get sold on the website via a vote. This voting period goes on for a week.

Then, from an average of 1,000 designs, only 10 will get picked and printed on all sorts of goods. Also, the designers get $250 in gift cards (worth about $200 in real money) and 20 percent in royalties, but no cash upfront.

TeePublic

Known for their inexpensive shirts (prices start at $14) featuring all your favorite pop culture, film, movie, music, and other franchises, TeePublic is another print-on-demand business we have to talk about. They accept new designers and let you choose from more than 70 items to print on.

Fun fact: TeePublic is owned by Redbubble. TeePublic got its start in 2013 when Josh Abraham and Adam Schwartz started it. You may recognize Abraham’s name as one founder of CollegeHumor and Vimeo.

Society6

Another long-standing print-on-demand business is Society6, which is part of the Leaf Group with Livestrong and eHow. The company started in 2009 by an aspiring artist who wanted to share her designs without spending a fortune to do so.

You get a range of products to print your art on, such as wall art, clothing, murals, pillows, blankets, shower curtains, bathmats, comforters, and bags. You can even get your design on a serving tray or cutting board as well as a laptop via a skin.

Teespring

The last print-on-demand platform we want to cover is Teepsring. Founded in 2011 by Evan Stites-Clayton and Walker Williams in Rhode Island, Teespring calls itself a “no risk turn-key solution” for e-commerce businesses.

They will help you with all parts of growing your business outside of designing your products for you. Once you have your design ready, Teespring has Partnership Integrations, Marketing Tools, and the Teespring Boosted Network for enhanced marketing. They also offer order fulfillment services. 

How to Increase Your Earnings on Print on Demand

here are some tips to keep in mind as you launch your printing business and strive to earn as much as you can.

Make Sure You’re Not Making More Than You’re Spending

With print on demand, it’s easy to fall into a trap. You have to buy the items you want to print. Depending on the cost of these items, you can easily end up spending more than you make when selling your printed goods. Sometimes, your earnings are only dollars or pennies higher.

Don’t skimp on quality for your goods, because if you buy cheap-o products to print on, your customers will catch on and not want to do business with you. That said, shop around on the platforms we’ve discussed. The print-on-demand business has lots and lots of platforms, so if one doesn’t suit you, you can easily find another that will.

Diversify What You Sell

If you go on a site like Printful or Society6 and see a dozen or more categories of goods you can buy, print, and sell, you want to print and sell almost every single item you can. The more, the better.

Diversification ensures that you always have what someone is looking for. It’s like that example we discussed earlier. If a customer wants a baby onesie, you should sell printed baby onesies. If they want wall art for their mother’s birthday or a kids’ t-shirt for a nephew’s Christmas gift, you should have all these items available and ready to print.

It’s also good if the print-on-demand platform you choose has a variety of items that’s always been updated. This keeps your stock current so you can continually impress your customers.

Get in on Popular Items

From time to time, your print-on-demand platform will introduce a product that grows in popularity. Sometimes that’s genuine, and in other cases, it’s due to necessity. Take, for instance, face masks, one of the most popular accessories of 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis. These are a necessity, but they also sell like hotcakes, as everyone wants reusable masks.

By capitalizing on trends when they emerge, you can ensure your store is at the forefront of your print-on-demand platform. This can earn you new customers and build loyalty with those customers you already have.

Learn Your Audience and What They Want

Speaking of your customers, they’re everything. Rather than just assume you know what they want, ask them! You can send a customer satisfaction survey after the customer receives their order. Include an open-ended response where the customer can tell you what they’d like to see from your store in the future.

Then, compile all this feedback and make sense of it. Some customers may have ideas that aren’t feasible, such as violent imagery or using trademarked intellectual properties on your printed goods. For the doable suggestions, begin incorporating your customer feedback into your printed designs going forward.

Don’t necessarily sell out, so to speak, and betray your original style entirely. There’s a reason your store has grown to the point it has, after all. Find a way to give customers what they want without changing your style too much in the process. 

Choose Your Platform Carefully

You can really cut yourself off at the knees if you sign up for the wrong print-on-demand platform. Above, we talked about how Printful is expensive. If you wanted to buy a unisex printed t-shirt to print and sell on Printful, you’d spend $12.95. To then turn around and sell it for $22.95 means your earnings are $10.

It’s the same case with a lot of items on Printful, where you earn about $10 for your item after Printful takes its cut and you factor in what you spent on the item.

If you only make $10 for every item you sell, that means you’d have to sell 10 t-shirts a month to even earn $100. If you wanted to make $500, customers would have to buy 50 of your shirts. For some sellers, that’s very likely to happen, but for newer ones, it’s not that easy.

That’s why you must do your homework. Research your print-on-demand platform of choice inside and out. Watch YouTube videos and read reviews. Understand your earnings potential clearly before you sign up.

How do I Start a Print on Demand Dropshipping Business?

Once you decide on your winning product or subject niche, it’s time to set up your online store. Spend some time researching successful eCommerce businesses to steal and borrow some design ideas – your website will serve as the face of your brand, so it must inspire trust and entice your target audience to browse around.

Step 1: register a domain name.

Keep in mind that you’re building a brand, so choose a name that’s catchy, easy to remember and easy to type. Then head to a site like GoDaddy and register your domain.

Step 2: choose an eCommerce platform.

Now that your domain is official, you can put it to work. The fastest way to do it is to use Shopify, WordPress + WooCommerce plugin or Etsy.  

Step 3: design your shop and create custom products.

With pre-built, customizable templates at your disposal, it’s much easier to do than it might seem. Use them as a starting point and add and customize new pages that are relevant to your store (homepage, about, contact, payment, shipping information, inspiration, etc.).

Consider buying a premium template to ensure a seamless shopping experience and beautiful aesthetics. For instance, you will want to have a top-level email marketing plugin to be able to send out cart abandonment emails as well as the functionality to generate discounts or coupon codes. While it costs you today, great design will certainly pay off in the future.

Step 4: Select a print provider.

The POD plugin you decide to integrate will be your printing partner that fulfills all incoming POD orders. The importance of choosing a reliable partner cannot be overstated – this is what your reputation depends on.

Printify can easily integrate with Shopify, WordPress, and Etsy, so it’s a straightforward process. The app lets you choose from 15 suppliers, meaning you can choose the one that best suits your brand. With more than 250 blank products to choose from and the ability to create mockups within the app, you are set for a smooth start.

Do You Need Business License For Print On Demand?

This is all dependent on what kind of products you’re looking to sell or where you are selling from. If the local laws in your area require you to have a business licence for selling online, then you may need to have a business number.

This is typically required if you’re located in Australia or New Zealand to set up with your payment gateway, but it’s best to consult with the local experts in your area. You can consult with your local bank on where you can go to get this information, or they may be able to help you there as many banks help with small businesses as well!

If you’re selling branded items from larger companies, you would need to have an authorized resellers licence to ensure that you are selling their items legally. In that case, you would need to contact the brand that carries the items you’re selling directly for getting a resellers licence with them.

All that said, generally you don’t need to have a business number or licence to sell items on your store. If you’re dropshipping items through an app on your store such as Oberlo, or a print-on-demand app such as Printful, a business number isn’t required of you to start up and operate your business with them.

How do I Start a Print on Demand Business on Etsy?

The very first thing you need to do is register an Etsy account, once you’re set up, you’ll be able to sell pretty much straight away! Visit etsy.com and click to sign up.

To create your profile, you’ll be asked for your personal details, and to setup your email and password.

You’ll then be given the option to upload a profile picture, add your location and an ‘about me’ blurb.

Voila! Your profile is created!

So you’ve created your Etsy account, now you just need to get your shop up and running.

Firstly, you need to name your store. Then upload your first product! You can either do this manually, or you can connect to an existing Shopify store if you’re running your business with Shopify too.

Firstly, you need to name your store. It’s best to keep it on brand with your Shopify store to stay recognisable.

Then to get going you’ll need to upload one product. (You can delete this later, you just need at least one item in your store to be able to connect your Shopify account).

You’ll need to add details about the product, shipping and pricing.

Then add your billing information, so you can accept payments.

Once this is set up — your shop is open and ready to start accepting orders!

How Can I Start Print on Demand Business in India?

Step 1: Find Your Niche

The first thing you need to do is to find your niche. Finding a niche implies identifying the audience you want to target and likewise, the products you will be customized for optimum sales.

In case you lack a bright idea, you can make a list and write all the things you have in mind. Be it selling designer mugs or creating good-looking t-shirts for school or college students; you can make a list of the products you want to sell. 

You need to ensure that your products have a broad reach. If your prints only resonate with your primary audience, there is less chance of your business expanding in the future.

Select and design the products which fulfill the needs of your target audience but also have the potential to attract a secondary audience. You can stay active on social channels such as Facebook, or Reddit to keep up with the trends and recognize the need of your audience.

Step 2: Get Your Store Ready

Upon deciding your audience and the products, you can start designing them as per the trends. In case you are not a skilled designer, you can use copyright-free designs, to begin with. Or you can share the specifications with a professional designer and get the product designing done.

Once you are done with the designs, you will need an eCommerce store to put the product catalog online.

Step 3: Find a Reliable Supplier

After getting your store up and running, you will need to team up with a Print-on-Demand supplier to get your designs printed and your products shipped!

While there are plenty of such suppliers who work directly with eCommerce platform providers Shopify, BigCommerce, etc. 

Step 4: Promote Your Store

The final step in getting your business on the wheel is promotion. Since your target audience is active online, you need to promote your business for attaining visibility.

Nevertheless, there are some indispensable steps you must take to promote your store online:

Be Active on Social Channels

The best way to find and engage your target audience is to be active on all the major social channels. People on Facebook and Instagram are perpetually looking for white-label products. You need to have your business accounts on all primary channels to grow visibility and devote your time and efforts to promoting your business at the right place. 

Do SEO Optimization

SEO remains a robust tool to acquire customers via good-page rankings. You must adhere to the best SEO Practices (keyword research, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, etc.) for optimizing your eCommerce store and gain desired traffic. 

Hire Influencers

An ultra-modish job for social media junkies, you can reach out to influencers to get strong word-of-mouth for your store and endorse your products. Influencers have a considerable following which can help your business get instant recognition.

Join Forum Groups

Though part of SEO, groups, and discussion forums have their separate importance, you can join business-related groups on popular sites such as Quora or Reddit to interact with your target audience and cleverly advertise your products.

Use Customer Reviews

While it will take time to get authentic reviews and reactions from your customers, it is a great way to solidify your business reputation. Genuinely positive feedback from your customers will increase your business reliability and enable customers to buy more from your store.

What is Print on Demand Business Model?

The print on demand is an model to understand. With this type of fulfillment service, your store takes orders for specific products. Once the order is placed with your store, such as a custom t-shirt, the job is handed over to a third-party provider that prints each product to order, packages the product, and then it goes into shipping mode and into the hands of the customer.

In this type of fulfillment services setup selling print on demand, the eCommerce company handles the beginning of the transaction. Once the initial sale is complete, the print on demand business takes care of the rest. 

When you start a business, you always want to consider the base cost, inventory needed, target audience, and profit margins. In addition, you should always consider the pros and cons of a business model when figuring out what will work best for your store. 

How To Choose a Print on Demand Supplier

When you decide to pursue a print provider for your eCommerce store, the next step is to pick a print on demand supplier to fulfill the t-shirt order or customized phone case order. Choosing the right supplier is essential. There are many factors that go into picking the right demand print business to help your business succeed. 

Here are some factors to consider when choosing the best print on demand supplier:

• Products able to be printed on, such as books, t-shirts, mugs, etc. 
• Print on demand services offered
• Order quantities required 
• Quality of products
• Self publishing options
• Customization options
• Customer experience reviews
• Total cost
• Retail price
• Shipping cost
• Shipping requirements
• Free shipping potential
• Order fulfillment timeframe for product designs
• Locations able to be shipped to
• Order samples available
• Profit margins per item 
• Experience level of the company

All of the previously mentioned factors should be considered when you choose a quality demand print provider and start a print based business. You can ask about these features, such as shipping rates, provided by the various print on demand businesses and pick the one that meets your multifaceted needs best.

What is The Difference Between Print on Demand And Dropshipping?

Print on demand is a type of dropshipping model. However, print on demand and outright drop shipping differ in that with print on demand, items are only printed up and shipped once each individual order comes in.

Print on demand can be described as white label dropshipping. It provides a way to put your logo and custom design on apparel, accessories, and other products when each customer places an order.

Dropshipping models are a bit different. Dropshipping businesses and their dropshipping models have products stocked and ready to go as soon as it’s time for them to be shipped out the door. Once your dropshipping company is contacted with an order, the dropshipping entity will find it in the warehouse, package it up, and ship it out to the customer. 

When you compare dropshipping to print on demand, you’ll find dropshipping is often a quicker process than outright print on demand because in the dropshipping model the items are already in finished form and ready to go. Print on demand items have to be printed with custom designs prior to shipping. 

With both print on demand and the straightforward drop shipping model, the eCommerce owner doesn’t store or hold the inventory. This is the responsibility of a third party who fulfills the order. Dropshipping businesses make it possible for ecommerce business owners to handle the initial sale but hand over the rest of the duties to the dropshipping company. 

It’s important to know the difference between a drop shipper and POD service before you sign up with either of these companies. Knowing the difference between dropshipping and print on demand makes it easier for you to choose the right dropshipping company. 

How Can I Promote my Print on Demand Business?

Marketing is the final aspect of getting your print-on-demand eCommerce business off the ground. The objective is to get noticed, drive traffic to your Shopify site, give them a reason to buy, and convert them into customers.

Here are a few ways to market your new print-on-demand Shopify store:

1. Social Media

Maintaining a social media presence is ideal for finding and engaging your target audience. Customers are continually finding brands on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more and you want to ensure you’re getting in front of them.

Don’t want to spread yourself too thin by trying to maintain accounts on every single social media channel – you can always optimize others later. However, at the very least, create accounts and secure your @ handle on all relevant platforms so when you’re ready to start expanding, you’ll have consistent branding across all touch points.

Post consistently, reply to other account’s photos, and engage with users as much as you can.

2. SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a strategy to increase your organic ranking on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) such as Google or Bing. This means putting out quality content, researching target keywords, getting backlinks, and more. It’s a long-term strategy so remain patient if you don’t see results immediately.

3. Influencer Marketing

Influencers have a substantial audience that can help your business gain instant and broader exposure. You can collaborate with influencers willing to support and endorse your product that suits their style and values. They will help you gain trust with your prospective audience very quickly.

4. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a common strategy deployed by big eCommerce players to assist their SEO efforts. Publish relevant content consistently and share on social media to generate more traffic to your Shopify site.

Blogs and articles keep your community updated and informed about your latest products, designs, and values. This will help show your expertise and gain your audience’s trust as they learn from and engage with your content, which will make them more likely to buy from you in the future.

5.Testimonials for Trustworthiness

Although it will take time to get your customer’s honest feedback and have them leave reviews, it is a perfect way to solidify your business’s credibility and trustworthiness.

How do I Run a Successful Print on Demand Business?

Although it is easy to start, print on demand can be extremely tricky.

There are several designers doing the exact same thing and therefore understanding what works and what doesn’t is crucial.

Find the Right Niche

Finding the right niche is a balance between finding what you are interested in and what is selling.

As much as you may want to sell your favorite designs, you need to find out if there is an existing market especially if you’re starting a print on demand business to make money.

Choosing the right niche needs a lot of prior research.

You need to spend time finding out what designs have the highest sales volume.

Once you have shortlisted these niches, pick one that isn’t too saturated.

When starting out, you don’t want to get into the higher volume niches since it will be harder for you to get noticed, but that doesn’t mean you should pick a niche that has low sales volume.

Choose the Right Products

T-shirts are some of the most favored products for designers.

This is because more people buy t-shirt designs than any other products.

Therefore, it would make sense for you to have your designs placed on t-shirts.

When choosing other products to place your designs, choose products that people will want to buy and products that will display your designs well.

You can check popular eCommerce sites like Amazon and eBay and see if those products are selling.

Get Your Designs Ready

If you’re already a designer, then this part won’t be as difficult. 

Once again, before choosing what designs to create, look at what your competition is doing and see if you can create better. 

If you’re short on ideas then look at what designs are selling the most and see if you can create unique designs within the same theme.

When designing, it is important that you remain unique and avoid copying what is already being done.

Platforms like Merch by Amazon ban sellers who copy existing designs.

Apart from the probability of getting banned, achieving success with copied designs is unlikely since these sellers have already created their own unique community.

 If you can’t create your own designs, you might want to hire a professional freelance designer to create them for you.

This is much cheaper than an in-house designer.

You could also source from trusted websites like Threadbasket where they provide print on demand designs for different platforms.

Create Your Website/Store

After creating your designs you need to have your website or store ready.

One of the best platforms to create a store or website is Shopify.

Shopify is a great platform and is easy to use, you don’t need to learn how to code to get your website or store ready.

It’s important that you spend enough time making sure that your website looks good and is appealing to a customer.

You want them to stay longer in your store so they can see what you have to offer.

After creating your store, you’ll need to pick a print on demand supplier.

There is a wide range of platforms to choose from and they are only growing.

Merch by Amazon, Printful, Spreadshirt, RedBubble, Zazzle, Bonfire, and more are just a few of the options to choose from.

Make sure that you understand each platform before making a decision.

Understand how much royalty you’ll earn, their different policies, their guidelines, their shipping and delivery details, and more.

Marketing

Apart from research, marketing is perhaps the most important factor that will see your business break out from the rest.

The right marketing will get your designs in the eyes of the right audience and will help them make favorable buying decisions.

Read Also: Top 10 Startup Inspirations

Marketing for your print on demand business is similar to many other businesses.

The first thing you need to understand is who your audience is, what they want to see, and which networks they spend their time on.

Social media, in particular Facebook, is an amazing platform for you to market your designs.

Apart from creating a page for your designs, you can create targeted ads that will show up on people’s home feeds.

You can also decide to join Facebook groups that are involved in the niche you’re designing for.

For example, if you decide to sell designs targeting dog lovers, find Facebook groups for dog lovers.

Spend time finding out what they want to see, create rapport by commenting on these groups.

Show that you are also interested in the niche and slowly start promoting your design.

With this kind of promotional marketing, you don’t want to come off as too salesy, so avoid promoting your products immediately when you join a group.

Finally

Print-on-demand is a popular business model, and it’s a touch saturated. You have plenty of platforms to choose if you want to start your own online store, but how much money you make can vary depending on what you sell and how popular your store becomes.

With the tips we presented in this article, you’re in good shape to begin bringing in more money from your print-on-demand business.