This article will teach you how to start a print-on-demand business and what you need to do to succeed.
What is Print on Demand
Print-on-demand or POD is an e-commerce business where you work with suppliers to sell customized products with your design and brand. Most POD businesses sell customized t-shirts, uniforms. bags, mugs, phone cases, and hats.
Like Dropshipping, there is no need to keep an inventory of the items. All you need to do is choose a set of products to sell, focus on creating great designs, and marketing your store to the target audience.
For order fulfillment, POD service providers such as Amazon, Printful, and Zazzle can take care of that. With Printful, you pick products that you want to sell to your Shopify store, insert a customized design, and Printful fulfills and ships the order for you.
Some of their products include clothing, embroidered shirts, kids' clothing, masks, tote bags, accessories, etc.There are no upfront costs for connecting your Shopify store to Printful. Simply create a Printful free account, install their app on Shopify, connect your store and add your products. t's a similar process with Zazzle, except that they don't have a mobile app. Zazzles does have an online marketplace that allows you to sell directly from their site.
Is Print on Demand Profitable?
According to Shopify, print-on-demand businesses can make about $500 per month and more depending on how much time you're willing to spend managing your business.
If you want to generate more revenue, it's not enough to just put up a store. You need to get the word out and market your store to the right audience. You need to create more awareness for your brand to make a profit running a print-on-demand business. No matter how good your design is, you may not be able to sell if you don't reach out to your target audience. Additionally, it would help to have attractive designs and functional tools to make it easier for your customers to order and customize products they want to purchase.
Is the print on demand profitable? Business owners who take this business seriously can make more money. You can succeed and possibly make a fortune so long as you are goal-oriented and maximize the available resources that can help you generate more revenue. One such resource is our LiveArt HTML5 Product Designer that you can integrate with your Shopify Store.
How to Choose Your Niche
Picking a niche is essential to running a print-on-demand business as that can help you position yourself as an expert. When choosing one, ensure that you take into consideration the profit you'll make and following your passion. Research the market first to see what type of products are selling well, and then make a shortlist of products you think will be more profitable. It would also help to sell products you actually believe would sell more. For startups, we recommend narrowing your niche so you can penetrate the market. You can always expand afterward.
Google Trends, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are great resources to help you look for profitable POD products. You can also try making a list of your hobbies, interests, passion, and experience in the retail world. Professional experience can significantly help too. As much as possible, find at least one or two niches to establish loyal customers. A solid niche ensures a particular market would want to buy from your business instead of the competitor.
How to Start a Shopify Store
Before building a Shopify store, take time to think about what your goals are first. What are you trying to achieve? How much do you intend to make per month? What will be your marketing strategies to help you achieve sales targets? Your goals and targets serve as your guide to generating more revenue and growing your POD business.
To get started, you only need to sign up for Shopify. Ensure you have the basics covered, such as the store name, business logo, or a brand one-liner. The step is to add the products you want to sell. Upload high-quality photos to attract more customers. Compelling product descriptions can also help. Set the price, work on the payments, checkout, and shipping.
Make selling easier for yourself and your customers by integrating our online product design tool into your Shopify Store. Whether you're selling bags to shirts and stickers, our product designer can help. It's also suitable for screen printing, DTG, engraving, sublimation, and vinyl cut. Your customers can easily personalize the products they want with premade templates, designs, colors, fonts, and artwork. They can also preview it before placing an order. Once they completed their orders, you receive a high-resolution print-ready vector PDF output which you can use for production. It's so simple, easy, quick, and automated.
Start Selling With LiveArt HTML5 Product Designer
Our LiveArt HTML5 product designer tool is an indispensable tool for your Shopify store. It can help you automate your workflow and avoid incorrect files or not being suitable for printing. We have the best solution to help you effectively and efficiently run your print-on-demand Shopify Store. It's simple to use and developers-friendly, so you can quickly integrate it with other tools. We're also happy to provide free support to all of our clients for three months until you run your Shopify store like a pro. Try our demo today!