Is Print-on-demand Still Profitable In 2025? Latest Update

As the final quarter of 2024 approaches, it becomes essential to evaluate "Is print-on-demand still profitable in 2025 and beyond?" This will help you make informed decisions and create a solid business plan. Let’s assess the future of POD with Teeinblue now!

Is Print-on-demand Still Profitable in 2025?

Yes. Print-on-demand is still definitely profitable in 2025, but competition has increased, making it a hard game, especially for beginners. You can earn money with a good niche (product), high-converting designs, the best print-on-demand partner, and effective marketing strategies.

Here are extra insights to help you determine whether a print-on-demand business is profitable and worth it:

• Profit margin: From Teeinblue’s statistics on thousands of print-on-demand merchants, the average profit margin falls between 15% and 60%, with the majority favoring the 25% to 50% range.
• Success rate: While there is no definitive rate for the entire market, Dropshipping.com indicates that around 24% of POD merchants remain operational after three years in business.

Is Print-on-demand Saturated Soon?

Print-on-demand is unlikely to be saturated soon, thanks to increasing demands and technological advancements that cater to customers' expectations. The market size keeps growing fast, creating more room to make money.

According to this Print On Demand Market report, in the 2024-2032 period, the market will witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7% and reach $48.4 billion. The increase in income, internet coverage, smartphone usage, and interest in fashion, especially personalized products will boost the growth of this industry.

⚠️ However, as more merchants enter the market, competition intensifies, making it more challenging to differentiate offerings and maintain higher profit margins.

The global print-on-demand market keeps growing fast (Source: imarc)

Is It Good to Start a Print-on-demand Business in 2025?

2025 is still good to start a print-on-demand business, despite the high competition. Here are several factors that contribute to its profitability:

• The rising of personalized gifts: Projections indicate a CAGR of 6.7% from 2024 to 2032. A report from Salesforce also shows that 62% of customers prefer customized items to normal products.
• Emerging trends: The number of niche ideas will continuously increase each year, along with the development of the economy. Besides, not every POD business sells the same products in the same niche. In 2025, consider starting with personalized acrylic plaques.
• Market’s natural elimination: People now have more concerns about quality. Shops that copy from competitors or have poor product quality and bad service will disappear quickly. It’s your turn to join with superior items and an excellent customer care policy.
• No perfect POD business: It is the truth that nothing is perfect in the world. When reading reviews, pricing, shipping, or return policies of a POD business, you will find the competitors' weaknesses. Then, you can find ways to improve and make them to your advantage.

💡 Insights: The United States, Canada, Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and Australia countries are the most profitable markets to sell print-on-demand products.

Find a new print-on-demand niche and become the first seller

💡 You may also like: Best-selling Niches and Designs for Print-on-demand Merchants

How to Make Money With Print-on-demand in 2025?

Making money in selling print-on-demand products depends on mastering the selection of four key factors: products, designs, print-on-demand (POD) providers, and marketing strategies. Here is how!

Research Market

Understanding the market is the cornerstone of a profitable print-on-demand business. By identifying customer preferences and emerging trends, you can strategically position your products to meet demand effectively. This knowledge leads to:

• Identify target demographics and their buying habits.
• Analyze competitors to find market gaps.
• Stay updated with industry trends and forecasts.

Choose Winning Products

Selecting products that resonate with your audience can significantly increase sales. It’s about offering what’s in demand and unique, which can set your brand apart. To achieve this, you should:

• Curate a list of popular items within your niche, which are more likely to sell.
• Determine products with high profit margins, to ensure financial viability.
• Select items that are feasible for print-on-demand, balancing creativity with practicality.

💡 You may also like: 8 Steps to Make Money with Print-on-demand from Scratch

Select the Best-fit Provider

The right provider ensures quality products, reliable fulfillment, and customer satisfaction. This step is crucial for building a reputable brand and fostering trust with your customers. In selecting a provider, aim to:

• Evaluate providers based on quality, cost, and delivery times, to maintain customer satisfaction.
• Choose a provider with positive reviews and a robust support system, to ensure a smooth operation.
• Ensure the provider’s capabilities align with your product needs, to avoid any service discrepancies.

Create Converting Design

Attractive and unique designs can be the difference between a browse and a purchase. Good design captures attention and communicates brand values, making it a key driver of sales. With design in mind, strive to:

• Develop designs that appeal to your target market.
• Create a diverse library of designs to cater to various tastes.
• Test designs for market response before full-scale printing.

An example of a simple but profitable design for print-on-demand

Sell on a Profitable Platform

Selling on the best print-on-demand sites can maximize visibility and profits. It’s best to focus on platforms favored by your audience to boost product traffic. Besides, remember to weigh each platform’s cost against its benefits for optimal profit, and fine-tune your listings for better search presence and conversion rates.

Shopify provides everything you need for an e-commerce website. It allows you to design, customize, manage, and advertise your store. It is easy to use and affordable for every merchant. Don’t worry if you are a beginner, their team will enthusiastically support you from the first step.

Conduct Effective Marketing Campaigns

Marketing drives traffic and converts interest into sales. It’s essential for brand growth and customer acquisition, acting as the voice that communicates your brand’s value to the world.

There are always free choices for marketing to maximize your margin. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can bring great organic traffic to your website. Or you can share your product on social media such as Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Start a print-on-demand business with a professional logo

Utilize POD Tools

Leveraging tools can streamline operations, reduce errors, and save time. Automation allows you to focus on scaling your business, rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day tasks. Design, management, and analytics tools are essential for print-on-demand.

Among these categories, product customization apps will help you catch the trends of product personalization. Now, Teeinblue is one of the best choices to help you sell POD with 50% effort:

• Design and add custom options for your customers to choose from.
• Add unlimited product bases (white label) from any POD provider.
• Combine the design with the product base to launch a campaign and sell on Shopify.
• Send orders automatically to fulfillment companies that integrate API with Teeinblue. 

Note: Every start is hard and challenging. Print-on-demand cannot make you a millionaire or bring you profits without creativity, meticulousness, and great patience. Don’t rush and don’t expect that the print-on-demand store will give you high income after a short time.

You may encounter troubles when setting up your store or launching the first campaign. But don’t worry, the second try will be better.

Most Profitable Print-on-demand Products for 2025

What ideas will bring you success in 2025? Offering eco-friendly items, basic apparel and athleisure, art, and home decor as gifts is the easiest way to tap into the print-on-demand market and earn first sales.

Eco-friendly Products

More and more people choose eco-friendly products for their lives. A PwC survey in 2024 says that 46% of consumers buy more sustainable items. And they are willing to pay 9.7% more.

You can catch the going sustainable trend with compostable phone cases, wooden tech accessories, hemp and cork-based vegan leather for pets, organic cotton t-shirts, etc.

Recycle phone case is a great idea

Basic Apparel

The need for clothes to wear from home to the street seems not to stop. Basic apparel is the favorite item of busy and simple people because it is not only tasteful but also comfortable. Top high-margin print-on-demand basic apparel are T-shirts, hoodies, polo shirts, and leggings.

Don’t forget to add athleisure to your print-on-demand store. With the growing trend of people embracing a fitness-oriented lifestyle, offering comfortable and stylish workout athleisure can be a lucrative addition to your product lineup.

Tips: The advice is to choose one product at the beginning and update seasonal trends.

Art & Printings

It is cheap and fast to buy an art print instead of drawing or taking a photo. Print-on-demand art is also beautiful, high-resolution, long-lasting, and easy to personalize. That’s why these products are becoming more and more popular.

It’s worth trying the below trends:

• Personalized wall art with photo upload and text personalization
• Black-and-white canvas art
• Custom street and star map wall decor
• Art with clipart customization

Personalized art for couples is a great niche

Home Decor

Home decor items are never outdated because people always want to keep their house new and worth living in. Therefore, selling print-on-demand these product will still be profitable in 2025.

Here are the hottest niches for home decoration in 2025: Christmas ornaments, mugs, posters, doormats, pillows, blankets, baskets, drinkware, acrylic decor gifts, etc.

Most Profitable Print-on-demand Sites to Learn From

You’ve got the answer to “Is Print-on-demand Still Profitable?” and a basic guide to making a profit. Walk around the successful stores below to get inspiration.

• GearBunch stands out with its custom leggings and activewear, targeting women who love sports. They make their mark with handcrafted, all-over-print leggings, made to order. Their success hinges on offering high-quality, limited-edition items and prioritizing customer satisfaction.
• iLikeMaps specializes in personalized maps, featuring cartographic designs of over 700 cities. They distinguish themselves with a custom map creator that allows customers to personalize any location. Their high-quality prints and top-notch customer service drive their success.
• Sharp Shirter captures attention with quirky designs on tees and wallpapers, known for their sharp all-over print tees and unusual designs. They connect with a wide audience through bold and humorous designs and contribute to environmental conservation by donating a portion of their profits.
• House Of Chingasos resonates with the Latino community by combining humor and cultural pride in their custom apparel and accessories. They engage their audience with Latino-centric designs and effectively use social media advertising to reach their market.

In conclusion, making a profit from a new print-on-demand store is absolutely possible. The keys to success are choosing the right niche, creating high-quality designs, choosing the best POD companies, and launching effective marketing strategies. Still wondering about “Is print-on-demand still profitable in 2025?”, don’t hesitate to join Teeinblue Global Community for POD Personalization to have further discussion.

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