Before we get into the nitty gritty, I’ve got just two questions for you. One, are you planning to launch your e-commerce store? Two, do you already have an e-commerce store but want to introduce new products? If your answer to one or both of my questions is yes, then keep reading, my friend.
See, when I was planning to launch my dropshipping business, I researched 3 things particularly. The first was my niche, the second was providers offering reliable and high-speed internet near me, and the third and most important one was print-on-demand (POD) services.
Print-on-demand services are online services that can help you seamlessly create or expand your product line and tap into newer audiences without having to ship and manage inventory.
In this article, I’ll explore all you should know about print-on-demand services, briefly touching on what they are, how they work, and the benefits they provide, then diving into which ones you can use.
Let’s start printing, shall we?
What Are Print-On-Demand Services?
If the name hasn’t given them away already, let me break it down. Print-on-demand services are services that connect you with print providers who fulfill orders on demand, which means that the products you offer are printed and delivered only after a customer orders them. You can use them to create a lot of different products, some examples being:
- Shirts, hoodies, caps, or any other clothing products
- Bags, wallets, phone cases, and other accessories
- Books, wall art, posters, or other paper-based products
- Mugs, towels, and other household items
But don’t let these examples trick you into thinking that’s it, they’re all just the tip of the iceberg. The possibilities are literally endless based on the level of innovation and creativity you bring to the table.
Now, let’s take a look at how they work.
How Print-on-Demand Services Work
Don’t worry, the process is fairly simple, nothing too fancy or tough to understand. Let me break it down for you.
- Payment: You pay for any of the packages offered by a service. (Might want to consider your order volume before choosing.)
- Integration: Once you choose your plan, you connect the service to your e-commerce store.
- Designing: You create custom designs for the products you offer or choose from the service’s catalog. If you create your own, you’ll have to upload them to the platform.
- Product Selection & Listing: Once your designs are done, you go through the product catalog that the service offers, choose your products, add your designs to them, and list them on your store.
- Order Placement and Forwarding: A customer chooses a product they like, and once they check out, the order is passed on to the service you’ve chosen.
- Printing and Fulfillment: The print-on-demand service then prints your design on the product, packages it, and ships it directly to your customer.
- Payment and Profit: You receive payment from the customer, and based on your agreement with your POD service, you pay them their share, and the rest is your profit. Make it rain!
Was any part of that hard? I doubt it. This simple process translates to a lot of benefits for your business. Let’s take a look at them in the next section.
The Benefits of Using a POD Service
You already know what’s coming, but just in case you don’t, here’s how you can benefit from a POD service.
- Lower Costs: It’s kind of the whole point, right? You’ve got to save costs wherever you can, and by hiring a print-on-demand service, you can do that by steering clear of huge upfront investment costs, stock storage costs, and delivery costs.
- Creative Freedom: They say the sky’s the limit, but not here. You’re free to bring any type of designs that your creative mind cooks up to life.
- Room for Experimenting: Once you choose a plan, you can experiment with designs on both your current products or even test the waters by introducing a new line of products.
Now to the crème de la crème, 5 POD services out there.
5 POD Services You Can Use
This list includes both all-in-one and niche solutions. Let’s take a look:
1. Printful – Best All-In-One Solution
The tool offers a lot of different product categories in its catalog, and handles packaging and shipping once an order is placed. You can also use it to create a logo or add branding to your packaging for an additional charge. That’s not all, you can also use it for graphic design, marketing videos, and enjoy bulk discounts of up to 30%.
2. Printify – Best Printer Network
If you’re looking to explore potential printing partners from all around the world, this one might be what you need. They have the largest printer network and customizable products. You can partner up with locals near you or global services that can make it easier for you to become Mr. Worldwide!
3. Gooten – Best for Custom Home Products
Focusing on a niche is also a safe way to play it, especially if you’re a small business. If that niche happens to be home products, you might want to consider this one. You can choose from over 280 products, such as accessories, apparel, art, home décor, and drinkware, to name a few. You can also choose from 50 printers in over 70 regions, making it easy to sell in those regions, if you ever consider scaling.
4. Apliiq – Best for Custom Clothing
Clothing is a great industry to target, and your creativity, along with Apliiq’s design range and in-house quality assurance manager, can help you make your mark in it. The tool also allows you to brand your products with custom labels and tags. If you’re a dropshipping business, you can use the tool to handle packaging and shipping, but if you’re a traditional business, you can buy in bulk to ship when ordered.
5. Gelato – Best for Custom Stationery
A growing market, predicted to reach up to $178.63 billion by 2029, so you might want to start now. Gelato (now I’m hungry) can help you tap into the industry, with more than 100 providers in 200 countries. What makes it stand out is that it allows you to use personalized cards as thank-you notes or discounts, adding a warm touch to your customer’s order. You can also become well-reputed for fast delivery because they assess and assign the order to the printing service that’s closest to where your customer ordered from.
Print on Demand Services – The Perfect Partner to Launch or Scale Your Business
Whether you’re just starting up or have been in the game for a while, print-on-demand services can help you channel your creativity into creating standout products, growing your product line, and keeping your customers happy.
As a low-cost solution for each of the aspects I just mentioned, they can make it easier for new businesses to launch and even for current ones to scale their operations.
