Introduction
Print on demand (POD) is an eCommerce model that has been growing in reach and popularity in recent years. You might be familiar with the term as used in categories from book publishing to t-shirts but are not clear on exactly what it means or how it works.
POD is a system where you sell a product but can get it from a supplier only as you receive orders. Your customer places an order with you, and you in turn place an order with your provider. That POD supplier creates the item and ships it to your customer.
This system is basically a variation on drop shipping but one that supports even faster rollout of new designs and products for a retailer since each item is customizable to some degree on a per order basis.
How It Works
A print on demand supplier offers a range of products that you can customize at some level. You create your designs within the specifications of your supplier and list the final product on your selling platform.
While you can choose to handle orders manually, most of the time you will use tools to automate the process. You provide a formatted design file to your supplier and then connect your selling platform to the supplier for automated order fulfillment.
Some companies have tools for creating simple text-based designs without having to work with a graphic file. But I’ll be creating more posts about how to get designs even if you’re not an artist!
This approach allows you to focus on design and marketing. A specialist handles the production and delivery side.
Platforms & Integrations
Selling Platforms
For book publishers, by far the most common POD platform is Amazon. Unlike with other product categories, it’s essentially an all-in-one selling and production platform with the integration of CreateSpace into Kindle Direct Publishing.
But in other product categories you are more likely to be setting up a shop on a dedicated selling platform and then connecting that shop to one or more POD suppliers. Some common options are
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Etsy
- Squarespace
- eBay
- BigCommerce
- Wish
Some selling platforms, such as Shopify, are tools you use on your own website, giving you maximum control over the experience. Options such as Etsy and eBay use a marketplace model which offer greater traffic potential up-front but place some limitations on what and how you can sell.
Provider Integrations
You must select one or more POD vendors (start with just one to get the hang of the process). Set up an account, connect it to your selling platform, and create your designs.
All of the big players in POD have APIs (Application Programming Interface) designed for the major selling platforms. These tools make it easy to connect your shop with the supplier. You select how you’re selling, and they will step you through the process of setting up the link.
A few of the options for a business-to-business POD model are
- Printful
- Printify
- Gooten
- Teespring (also falls into next category)
There’s some other approaches where you sell directly on the supplier’s platform. You still create your own designs and may have some control over pricing. Examples include
- Teespring
- Redbubble
- TeePublic
- Zazzle
With this category, you have less control over the customer experience but correspondingly less overhead in terms of handling transactions and managing your shop.
Types of Products
The range of products is growing all the time. The basic limitation is whether something can be printed and produced individually within a short time frame. The advent of digital printing technologies has greatly expanded what is available.
Printed books are a huge category as evidenced by Amazon and their Kindle Direct Publishing service. Don’t let the “Kindle” part of the name fool you: they also offer paperback book and are rolling out hardback options.
It used to be that self-publishers had to order hundreds, if not thousands, of copies upfront. With digital printing, a book can be ordered, printed, and received by the customer within a matter of days. My sister just self-published a book using Amazon, and I was impressed with both the speed and the quality of the end product.
A lot of product types start as blanks that are designed for digital printing. Others use a print-cut-sew approach, meaning the fabric is printed digitally and then cut out and sewn. Some products allow for a design on only a portion of the surface – such as a traditional t-shirt – while other support all-over, edge-to-edge printing (for example, fleece blankets).
T-shirts and mugs are probably two of the most popular items, but don’t limit yourself. Here’s just a small selection of what else you can offer:
- Hoodies and sweatshirts
- Jackets
- Sweatpants
- Leggings
- Skirts
- Swimwear
- Baby bibs & onesies
- Hats of all kinds (baseball, snapbacks, beanies)
- Tote bags
- Fanny packs
- Backpacks
- Phone cases
- Jewelry
- Socks
- Flip flops
- Throw pillows
- Wall art (posters, framed prints)
- Aprons
- Stickers
- Blankets
Advantages
The biggest advantage of using a POD model is that you can quickly start an eCommerce store with almost no up-front costs for inventory. Since you don’t pay for the item until your customer orders it, there’s a much smaller gap between the cash expenditure and the cash receipt.
Related to the above is the fact you don’t have to manage inventory or shipping. No dealing with warehousing issues or the logistics of packaging and shipping. You main focus can be on marketing, design, and customer relations.
You can also roll out new designs – and take advantage of new trends – almost immediately. It really only takes as long as you need to put together the design file.
Disadvantages
But POD definitely has some downsides.
A biggie is the cost. Making item one at a time is more expensive than bulk ordering, so it’s harder to get good profit margins.
This is an area where I’m paying more attention this year. It’s easy to get caught up in how much in gross sales I’ve made without focusing enough on the cost side. You’ll need to evaluate the market for whatever you want to sell and run all the numbers to make sure your bottom line is where you want it to be.
Another downside is you are limited to whatever the suppliers offer. Yes, there’s a big – and growing – range of products. But you’re still constrained in what you can have in your store if you choose this model.
You are also essentially at the mercy of the speed and quality control of your vendors. This became very apparent early in the 2020 lockdowns. Between the suppliers having to shut down facilities completely or significantly reduce staffing and the fact that everybody was on an online shopping binge, production and delivery were crawling. Clearly, 2020 has been an anomaly in many ways, but the convergence of factors really pointed out some limitations of the POD model.
Additionally, you need to know what you are sending your customers. If they get a poorly made or printed item, they won’t be back. This is why I am a strong advocate of GETTING SAMPLES. Yes, it’s an upfront cost, but it can save you so much grief down the road.
Conclusion
Overall, I am a fan of the print on demand eCommerce model. It takes experimentation and study, but it’s satisfying when one of your designs takes off, even a little bit. Pay attention to the market and the numbers but also have some fun with your offerings.
I’ll be posting more about different topics in POD selling, including reviews of different products and tutorials for setting up your shop and putting together designs. Hope you found this helpful!
