What is print on demand drop shipping and what are the real pros and cons of this business
model?
Let’s find out!
Hi, Wes from Printful here!
Today - let’s take it back to basics.
We’ve seen a lot of people who are just starting out in the ecommerce world or are
thinking about it, asking questions like: “ok, but what is this print-on-demand you’re
talking about and why should I do it?”
“ Why is it better than just printing my own stuff and sending it out manually?”
If you stay until the end of this video you’ll learn - how the print-on-demand drop shipping
business works and why it’s great for starting an online business.
We’ll look at the most important pros and cons of print-on-demand to help you take advantage
of the benefits this business model has and most importantly - how to avoid some potential
downsides!
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So - WHAT IS PRINT-ON-DEMAND DROP SHIPPING?
To answer that question, we first need to look at what drop shipping is in general.
Drop shipping is a business model in which a store doesn’t keep an inventory of the
products it sells, but purchases them from a third-party supplier who then ships the
products directly to end-customers.
It can be selling a variety of ready-made products from different suppliers or your
own custom products.
With the print-on-demand model - or POD in short -, your own custom designs are printed
on products only as orders come in, and only in the quantity the order asks for.
This means, you sign up to a print-on-demand service and connect it to your ecommerce store
- it can be a website you’ve created on platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce, Squarespace,
or a marketplace you’ve chosen to sell on, for example, Etsy, Ebay, or Amazon.
You choose the products you want to sell from the catalog of your Print on demand service,
create and upload your designs, set your profit margins, and wait for the orders to roll in.
Your print-on-demand service takes care of printing, packaging, and shipping out your
products to your customers.
This way, you can start your own brand online without having to buy large quantities of
products or investing in production equipment and staff when you get started.
So you don’t have to pay for your products upfront, stock them yourself and manage shipping
them - you can run your business from the comfort of your home!
WHO IS PRINT ON DEMAND FOR?
POD is ideal for stores starting out.
As any business, it’s not completely free to start-up - for example, Printful itself
doesn’t have a sign up fee, but you might have to pay for your ecommerce platform, hosting
for your site, or marketing to get your products out there to your customers.
However, it is very cost-effective in comparison to classic business models, so - relatively
cheap.
It’s a low risk business model that doesn’t ask for large investments in maintenance or
expansion.
To learn more about how much money you really need to start a Print on demand business,
we’ve created a video that shows you what expenses to factor in when creating a starting
budget.
There’s a link in the description, so make sure to check it out after watching this video!
Print on demand is also great if you want to grow your business and test new products
- it gives you freedom to experiment with new ideas with ease.
Since POD is all about selling your own custom designs, it’s a great business model for
designers and artists who want to sell their artwork on different products - be it posters
and canvas for art prints, illustrations or word art for t-shirts or mugs.
If you already have a running business or an established brand, POD is also a great
way to generate some extra income by selling merch.
Custom merch has become a trend in extending profit not only among YouTube celebrities
and influencers, but also businesses that have gathered a community around them.
And so as our brand grew, we started the Kettlebell Kings community, which is kind of a self-sustaining
community of kettlebell enthusiasts who like to participate in events, they like to share
communication about new techniques, new ideas, new kettlebells, the best products out there.
And so at that point we realized that we needed to start branching out, having apparel, having
things that people could use and take with them, and purchase for their friends and family.
So working with print-on-demand can be a great way for you to start a side hustle and get
some extra income as well as if you’re looking to go all in and work on building a brand
and running it full time.
Now - the fun part.
Let’s weigh out the pros and cons this business model has to offer.
One - You don’t need to print anything in bulk.
In print on demand, the emphasis is on the “on demand” part – the printer will
only print the product once it’s ordered.
This means you don’t have to gamble with your money – you won’t end up with a huge
stock of t-shirts with a design that doesn’t sell as well as you’d hoped.
Two - You don’t need to buy equipment.
Your POD partner takes care of the technical side of the printing process – you don’t
need to buy any expensive printing machines, And you don’t need to learn how to print
a product either.
Three - You can save time on the technical side of running a business.
Since your POD partner takes care of the whole technical side of your business, including
fulfilling and shipping out your orders, you can concentrate more on the fun side.
Invest more time in creating your designs and marketing your store!
Four - You can experiment with designs easily.
POD also lets you take more risks with the designs you offer – you can easily add new
designs to your store and test if your customers love them or not.
Since products are printed on demand, you’re not making a huge investment in something
that might not sell in the end.
If a design isn’t as popular as you might like, you can easily remove it from your store.
Five - You can experiment with different products.
You can experiment not only with designs, but also with products.
More and more print on demand services are expanding beyond the scope of just ‘printing’.for
example, with Printful, you can sell embroidery products like hats and apparel, engraved jewelry,
cut and sew products like leggings, dresses, athletic wear, backpacks, fanny packs that
are individually printed and sewn with your designs, and more.
Print on demand is not about only selling graphic tees anymore—now you can create
your own apparel lines for a variety of niche audiences.
For example, you can create a line with athletic shirts, shorts, yoga leggings, and sports
bras for fitness lovers.
Or a beach line with custom print swimsuits, towels, and beach bags.
Or take advantage of the growing demand for kids products with custom print baby apparel
like bodysuits, leggings, or baby bibs.
Six - It’s easy to customize your designs.
You can offer more customization options for your customers – for example, your customers
can incorporate something unique of theirs, like their name.
Print on demand services are responding to the ever growing need of personalization in
people’s shopping experiences.
For example, we’ve created a product personalization tool for some of our integrations This means
you can sell products you customers can directly personalize right on your store, without you
having to manually edit them each time.
To learn more about product personalization, make sure to check out this page, I’ve left
a link to it in the description below.
Seven - It’s easy to establish your brand.
A common thing for print on demand services is that they’re white label.
This means you can customize your products and packaging with your branding, so that
when your customers receive their orders,there’s no sign of it coming from a third party service.
For example, with Printful, you have a range of different branding options - you can create
inside or outside labels on your apparel with your logo, customize your packing slips, or
add pack ins like stickers or thank you notes to give your packages that special, personal
touch.
Eight - Take advantage of services and resources.
Working with a POD service is a partnership.
Your success as a seller is also a success for them.
Your print-on-demand partner can help you not only with the technical side of fulfilling
your orders, but it can also be a valuable hub of resources to help you start-up or grow
your business.
From free product mockup images you can use on your store as product photos, to professional
photography, design, or even store set-up services - print on demand companies are growing
their offering to make your journey to success easier.
And let’s not forget about the information resources - there are blogs, ebooks, webinars
and even this very video - here to help you navigate the world of online business.
But like with anything, there are also some cons to the Print on demand model:
One - You lose control over the fulfillment process and quality of the products.
Just like with any drop shipping service, POD means that you don’t see each product
yourself, so you have to trust the printer to do their job properly.
This is why it’s important to test your products before you start selling to see how
they look.
With Printful, it’s quite easy to do that - you have the option to order product samples
that come at a discount.
It’s possible that you or your customer might receive a damaged item.
It could be a manufacturer’s error, fulfillment error, or damaged during shipping.
There’s no denying that these things happen for any product manufacturing business.
As you already know, we have quality control that the fulfilled products go through.
However, as with everything, we might accidentally let through a defective item.
If your customer receives a damaged or defective item because of our mistake, we take full
responsibility and cover the error at our expense.
Two - You depend on your printing partner for products and their availability.
POD companies work with different suppliers to source products or product materials, for
example, fabric.
This means there are a lot of moving parts, and sometimes products may go out of stock
or become unavailable.
If you’re using Printful, you can check availability of all our products on our products
& pricing page.
You can choose the product you want to check, and here under the ‘availability’ tab
you can see which size and color variants are stocked, and in which of our fulfillment
centers.
So this way you can see which products are always available and which we stock on demand.
Three - Order fulfillment takes longer.
Since every product is printed on demand, it takes longer to fulfill orders than it
would if you already had available stock.
Our average order fulfillment time is 3 days, and shipping times go on top of that.
As a store owner, you have to manage your customers’ expectations – let them know
that each product is printed on demand and that this takes a bit longer than sending
out an already made product.
We have a video on how our fulfillment times work and what happens to your order until
it’s shipped out.
So you can check that out after this video, there will be a link in the description below.
Four - Returns management may require more attention.
Since you’re working with a third party service, there’s more to consider when it
comes to dealing with situations where your customers might want to return a product.
So make sure you set up a return policy that goes hand-in-hand with your POD partner’s
policy.
There are commonly two types of returns - returns by the shipping carrier and returns by customers.
In the first case, when your package gets returned to us by a carrier, it’s usually
an error referred to as ‘wrong address’.
It happens if you or your end customer provide an address that is considered insufficient
by the carrier.
So ask your customers to be extra careful with zip codes and apartment numbers to avoid
a delay in your order reaching your customer.
The other reason - when the end customer wants to return their ordered items - most commonly
occurs because they’ve ordered the wrong size.
To avoid this kind of situation, we highly suggest you add a size guide to your products.
We have a great blog article on store policies you should apply to your store to make it
easier to deal with returns or other issues you might run into.
So check that out, I’ll put a link to it in the description.
So these are the pros and cons of print-on-demand drop shipping.
What are the conclusions?
Print-on-demand is great for starting an online business because of the low cost and minimal
risk factors.
It saves you time, since you don’t have to take care of production or shipping.
The POD industry is constantly growing in the variety of products you can customize
and sell, and it’s advancing in ways that make it easier for you to run a business.
But there are some downsides, like trusting a third party to deliver your products in
the best quality and being dependent on the product selection they offer.
With print on demand, you also have to remember that since your orders are handled on demand,
you have to factor in the fulfillment time when giving estimates to your customers.
More and more people are getting used to shopping online, so it makes sense that ecommerce is
one of the largest growing industries.
And starting up with print on demand is a great way to jump on ship with the world of
online business.
Comment down below if there are other print on demand pros or cons you can think of!
And let us know what other topics you would want us to talk about!
See you in the next video!