Want to start a Printon Demand business? Here are 10 steps that you need to take before you startselling.
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The idea of startinga Print on Demand (POD) business can sound pretty enticing.
There is no need tocarry inventory and there are low start-up costs and fast shipping times.What’s not to like?
But as ‘sexy’ as itmay sound, it’s important to remember that POD is a real business.
If you do not treatit like one, the chances of you succeeding at POD are slim because it’s likelythat you will make a lot of mistakes along the way.
That is why, beforeyou start attracting customers to your store, there are certain steps that youneed to take to ensure that your POD business is properly set up and ready tosell.
This article explains10 important steps you need to take before you start a POD store.
If you follow these10 steps, not only will you be prepared to start selling, but you’ll also avoidthe common mistakes that beginners make when starting a POD business.
Step #1: Only Add a Maximum of 5 Colour Variants to Your Product
Offering customersvariations of your product, such as different colours or sizes, is always apowerful method that encourages customers to spend more money and that increasesyour profit margin on each order.
But there comes a point where you cross a line and give customers too many options to choose from.
This is never a goodidea. With too many options to choose from, customers easily start toexperience something called analysis paralysis.
Analysis paralysis isthat feeling you get when struggling to make a decision, or take action, becausethere are too many options or too much information in front of you.
We’ve all experiencedthis before, whether when trying to decide what to order from a restaurant menuor what movie to watch at the cinema.
Similarly, too manycolours or designs to choose from can leave customers feeling overwhelmed. Thisoverwhelmed feeling could even lead to them leaving your site and not buyinganything at all.
So, never gooverboard with your colour variants. We recommend that you pick five variantsfor each product you sell.
Also keep in mind that not every design looks good on every colour, especially when it comes to t-shirts. Through extensive research and testing, Merch by Amazon found that darker shades, like grey or black, typically perform better in sales than lighter shades.
Step #2: Check Your Print Provider Options Before SellingInternationally
A big misconception people have, when working with POD fulfilment services like Printful or Printify, is that, when you order a product through their service, they manufacture and fulfil your orders.
This is not true. Theway it usually works is that these POD fulfilment services work with severalthird-party suppliers. These third-party suppliers are the ones that fulfilyour orders.
All suppliers are based in different countries and have different pricing, available colours, and production times. Print on Demand fulfilment services usually assign your orders to the supplier closest to your customer’s physical location.
But some Print onDemand fulfilment services, such as Printify, don’t automatically choose asupplier to fulfil your customers’ orders — you have to do it manually.
In cases like this,it is crucial that you pick a third-party supplier that is best suited tofulfil your orders.
You don’t want topick a supplier based in the US when your customer lives in Germany. Likewise,you don’t want to pick a supplier with the longest production time, since you wantto get your order to your customers in the shortest time possible.
Step #3: Make Sure That You Have a Credit Card or Money Set Aside
When starting a PODbusiness, it’s easy to get confused about how to handle the money received froma customer when they order a product from your store.
Who orders theproduct?How do you receive money from your orders?
When you break itdown, the process is pretty straightforward. Here is an example of how it workswhen using Printify as your primary Print on Demand fulfilment service.
- When a customer places an order for a pillow in your store, you receive money via Stripe or PayPal (two of Shopify’s payment gateways).
- Then, Printify will, by default, scan your store once a day for any customer orders that need to be fulfilled.
- When Printify finds the customer’s order, they will automatically start the fulfilment process for the pillow.
- At the same time, Printify will charge the credit or debit card you have on file in your Printify account.
This is the basicfulfilment process for every order placed in your store. But, when you’restarting out, the money you receive from a customer could take several days toarrive in your bank account. With PayPal, it can even take up to 21 days toreceive your money when you are first starting out. This time period also variesdepending on what country you live in.
So, it’s important tomake sure that you either have a credit card or money set aside so that you canpurchase items in the meantime.
Credit cards areusually the best option for this, because you normally have 4-5 weeks to payoff the balance before any interest is added. You will receive your payment waybefore that happens!
Step #4: Avoid Copyrights and Check if Your Written Phrase isTrademarked
You may have spotteda design that you want to sell or test in your own store, but you aren’t surewhether to take the risk because you don’t know if the design is copyrighted.
Well, according tothe law, any piece of artwork is subject to copyright the moment it is created.This means that you can’t duplicate the same design and sell it in yourstore.
BUT… what you can do is use a design for inspiration and create your own version of it. This is 100% legal, because, while the content may feature the same words, it visually looks different — and it is the VISUAL appearance of the artwork that is copyrighted (not the content).
For example, here isa design of a ‘World’s Best Rabbit Dad’ t-shirt being sold on Amazon. Next toit, we show a similar, but different, design we created using a tool calledCanva.
As long as youredesign something using your own style, then it is absolutely legal to sell itin your store.
But what about trademarks?How can you avoid selling words and phrases that are trademarked?
Surprisingly, findinga trademark can be done in a simple search. Each country has its own trademarksearch engine, so all you need to do is type in the phrase you have in mind.
Something to keep inmind though, is that, unlike copyrights that most countries have agreed toprotect by default, a trademark must be filed in every country.
So, just because atrademark is filed in the US, doesn’t mean that the trademark applies in theUK.
Step #5: Have Lifestyle Images for Your Products, Not Just General Mock-ups
Using lifestylephotos, rather than general mock-ups on a white background, is a powerful wayto attract more customers, increase engagement, and boost your sales.
But, you might bethinking, “Does this mean that I have to take photos of myself in t-shirts andupload them before I can sell the t-shirts in my store?”
Well, thanks to an amazing service called Placeit, you don’t need to go through the stress of doing it on your own!
This incredibleservice allows you to take artwork designs and place them onto lifestyle imagesthat feature real-life models. They have lifestyle photos for a variety ofproducts such as t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, tote bags, and even pillows.
Using it is reallysimple. All you have to do is upload your design onto any model of your choice!
Bonus tip: If possible, always choose lifestylephotos that feature something related to your design. For example, if you areadvertising a t-shirt for dog lovers, include a dog in your main image. Thesetypes of images perform extremely well on ads and are highly effective andengaging.
Step #6: Don’t Just Opt for Selling T-Shirts
While designs on t-shirts can be incredibly profitable, it’s always worth expanding your product line by selling other types of products.
Other accessories like leggings sell just as well as t-shirts. And can besold for a lot more than you bought them from your supplier for because theirvalue is ambiguous.
You see, it would be easy to determine the price for a normal pair ofleggings, because you’ve probably seen them several times at a clothing store.Right?
But these unique leggings? Chances are that you’ve never seen thesebefore, so won’t be able to come up with a reasonable price point for them.
So if you were to sell these unique leggings in your store, you wouldhave a lot more flexibility when setting your price, because customers would beunlikely to ‘price check’ your design against similar ones. And the end result isa bigger profit margin per sale!
So don’t just limit your store to only selling t-shirts. Other productscan be just as profitable, and with more variety you can also appeal to alarger audience who would maybe want leggings or a mug.
Step #7: Check to See if Your DesignCan Be Printed onto Another Product
Another way to maximise your profits is by printing your designs ontoother types of products.
Chances are, a profitable t-shirt design could also work just as well ona mug or a tote bag. If your design is already making money, why not try it outon different products?
But keep in mind that not all types of designs work on all types ofproducts. For example, this simple image design works great on a t-shirt butless so if you put it on a pair of leggings.
As a general rule of thumb, use small design patterns on accessorieslike pillows, blankets, leggings and tote bags. Use single-image designs forproducts like t-shirts, hoodies and mugs.
Step #8: Add Scarcity — But Not to Every Product
Scarcity is one of the most powerful psychological ‘triggers’ that can be used to get people to act on a sale that you are offering or a product that you are selling with more urgency.
But, if you overdo itand claim that every product in your store has ‘limited stock’ available,customers will sense that something ‘fishy’ is going on.
Understand thatscarcity is already a powerful sales tactic as it is, so there’s no need toapply too much of it in your store.
Instead, find theright balance so that the scarcity seems realistic.
Limit the number ofproducts that have countdown timers or ‘limited’ stock to four or less. Forexample, if your store has a total of twenty products, have three of them onsale with a countdown timer.
Step #9: Check to See if Your Niche is Banned on Facebook
When promoting a product on Facebook, you’ll want to make sure that what you are selling is acceptable under Facebook’s advertising policy.
You don’t want to gothrough the hassle of building a POD store, only to find out that your productsdo not meet Facebook’s standards.
Go through Facebook’sadvertising policies and be sure to take a look at what type of niches andproducts are either prohibited or restricted.
Step #10: Get Honest Feedback from Your Friend or Family Member
It’s very difficultto step back and be objective about things that we create.
This is because of somethingcalled illusory superiority: the normal tendency for people to overestimatetheir abilities.
This is also why itis never wise to rely on your own opinion, as you are naturally likely to seethings from a biased point of view.
Seek other people’sopinions to get different perspectives on how your store or product designslook.
Do you know a friendor family member who doesn’t like to beat around the bush? Get them to offertheir honest opinion on how your store or the product you are selling looks.
Whether you have a POD store, or are looking to start one, it’s critical that you follow the 10 steps outlined in this article.
