Is Printful Worth It for Print-on-demand? An in-depth Review

Printful has served over one million merchants, but the question remains: "Is Printful worth it in 2024?" This article will give you a comprehensive perspective on this print-on-demand provider. Explore the 6 key features of Printful on both positive and limited sides to find your own answer. Let's jump right in!

Is Printful Worth It in 2024?

Yes, Printful remains a great worth in 2024 for print-on-demand sellers. Many people appriciate Printful as a great option for POD newcomers since it’s a completely free head start. It helps merchants:

• Minimize start-up costs without investment in product inventory, warehouse, or factory.
• Remove hassles of operating inventory and logistics.
• Reach more customers worldwide with global shipping services.
• Test ideas at minimum cost, reducing financial risks.
• Catch the latest trends with regular updates on products, colors, and styles.

Printful is still a reliable partner for print-on-demand in 2024

With over a decade of experience, Printful has showcased remarkable numbers. It successfully delivered over 77 million items to shoppers worldwide. Furthermore, it boasts an excellent 4.6 score on Trustpilot.com, solidifying its reputation as a profitable supplier.

However, there is controversy surrounding selling with Printful when businesses grow big. Discussions in some POD forums criticize it for inconsistent quality and lower profit. Some suggest that large stores could benefit more by purchasing wholesale locally and printing themselves instead of relying on Printful. This raises a question: Is Printful worth it for enterprises?"

Let's seek your answer by scrolling down this impartial analysis with Teeinblue!

Printful Reviews: All Key Services with Pros and Cons

To decide if Printful is worth selling or not, it’s essential to know what Printful is and get a multi-dimensional perspective. To gain a comprehensive understanding, this article will and review six key aspects of Printful: profit, products, branding services, fulfillment, tools, and customer support.

1. Profit Margin

In the realm of print-on-demand services, Printful may not be the most profit-friendly choice. Some reviews share that the profit margin is lower compared to some rivals and buying in bulk and self-printing.

Why is Printful so expensive? It provides an all-in-one solution, streamlining the operations for print-on-demand sellers. To bring this convenience, it has to cover many costs, including:

• Fulfillment process: picking, printing, packing, quality control, etc.
• Labor salary: marketing, quality management, customer services, etc.
• Facility: inventory, warehouse, machine, software, utilities, packaging materials, etc.

Their product costs are quite high

Let’s take a closer look at which cost you have to pay for Printful.

• Product cost: base cost of items, printing, and delivery fee. These costs may vary from the different items and print methods.
• Monthly fee: Printful is totally free to use. However, you can upgrade to Printful Grow with $24.99/month or Business Membership for more valuable benefits.
• Additional services: Custom packaging, premium Getty images, custom labels, and large embroidery designs.

There are chances to maximize earnings by making use of Printful’s policies and discounts. Its bulk order is the optimal approach for enterprises to boost profits. With orders from 25 items, you can save up to 55%. Moreover, when growing as enterprises, Printful customer success managers can give you invaluable advice for addressing challenges or capitalizing on profitable opportunities.

Tips: From your aspect, consider adding a high markup percentage to ensure a healthy profit margin, while offering discounts to attract a broader audience.

2. Printful Products

Printful acquired excellent reviews with predominantly positive feedback for products. Users consistently praise Printful for its high-quality materials and prints, as well as its diverse range of colors and sizes.

Product Range

At present, Printful offers a product catalog comprising 343 unique items, featuring new additions like hats, leggings, beanies, mugs, and posters. Especially, t-shirts and sweatshirts stand out as the worthiest print-on-demand items. However, when compared to competitors like Printify, which boasts over 850 items, or Zazzle with 500 goods, the Printful catalog is relatively narrow.

There are 343 items on the Printful product catalog

Printing Techniques

Printful provides 4 options for printing methods. Which includes Direct-to-Garment (DTG), All-Over, Sublimation, and Embroidery. In particular, DTG has emerged as the most popular technique for individual orders as it is cost-effective, vibrant, and sharp.

Product Quality

Printful has tight control over product quality with a meticulous 3-step process. Initially, automated software checks the design to optimize the best digital file for printing. During the production phase, specialists work to eliminate errors. Finally, before the packing and delivering stage, they conduct a third check to ensure customers receive impeccably crafted items.

In cases of damaged or mislabeled items, Printful has a reproduction and reship policy that comes at no cost to the sellers. The reshipment rate decreased from 0.31% (2020) to 0.26% (2023), showing Printful's ongoing efforts to enhance product quality over time.

Limitation:

• The product range is not as diverse as some other POD services like Printify or Zazzle. Specific items such as toys, phone grips, pop sockets, and pet accessories are not available.
• Printing quality is inconsistent with some negative feedback about incorrect size, color fading, and subpar quality.

Tips: It’s important to place a test product before selling new products from Printful to review yourself. It offers each user a 20% discount for 1 sample each month, with a maximum of 3 items per order.

💡 You may also like: Is It Possible to Sell Directly from Printful?

3. Branding Personalization Options

One feature that makes Printful worth is its robust and diverse offers for personalization. It not only produces tailor-made products but also enables sellers to add their branding touch to the products.

Here are its offers:

• For designs: Printful offers various options, including one-side, two-side, inside and outside labels, and all-over-print.
• For the products’ order tracking page: You can add your brand logo and information such as contact details, website, and social media channels.
• For product packages: There is a vast array of options for packing slips; branded packages like bags, boxes, and mailers; pack-ins such as flyers, business cards, stickers, thank you cards, and hand-written notes.

Branding packaging options help to enhance brand presence in the customer's mind

To help you conveniently manage these branding options, Printful builds the Branding Presets in its Dashboard. You just need to submit branding materials to the Printful warehouse and assign desired products for branding. Then it assists in packing and shipping items according to the preset branding configurations.

By enhancing brand presence in consumers’ minds, you easily build trust and loyalty. Furthermore, unique brand experiences serve to differentiate you from competitors and get your business noticed in the crowded market.

4. Printful Production and Fulfillment

Printful has received numerous commendations on fast shipping and efficient fulfillment from users. Currently, it can produce and ship over 1 million items each month.

Wondering what factors contribute to its successful delivery of this huge quantity?

• Production time ranges from 2-5 business days to create products and fulfill orders. It automatically prints items as orders are received, and then packs them.
• Printful operates a global network of 17 in-house printing facilities worldwide, such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Latvia, and Spain. Together with numerous partners, Printful can stay closer to customers globally, providing a better service.

A global network of 17 Printful fulfillment stations around the world

Depending on specific items and destinations, delivery time often ranges from 5 to 10 days. Through renowned partnerships such as FedEx, DHL, UPS, DPD, and Australia Post, Printful seamlessly delivers products to various destinations. Additionally, it enhances the user experience by providing live shipping rate features for Shopify, WooCommerce, and Ecwid integrations.

Limitation:

• The cost is quite expensive. For instance, the minimum transit cost on Printful is $3.99, while Printify offers a lower rate of around $3.24.
• There are complaints about delayed delivery in peak seasons such as holidays or special promotions.
• You cannot choose your preferred fulfillment station or delivery spot. Printful automatically assigns orders to the most efficient fulfillment center or the location nearest to the customer.

Printful shipping fees tend to be more expensive than its rivals

💡 You may also like: 20 Best Printful Alternatives in 2024 - A Comprehensive Comparison

5. Printful Tools and Apps

Printful is one of the most user-friendly print-on-demand tools. Even newbies who are not tech-savvy can easily navigate and use its app. Additionally, its large integrations bring great flexibility to sell POD in multiple places.

Here are some highlights of Printful apps and tools:

• Extensive integrations with 24 platforms, from e-commerce platforms to marketplaces like Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, TikTokshop, and more.
• Intuitive web dashboard interface with clear navigation and easy-to-use tools. Users can browse product catalogs, create designs, manage orders, and access analytics with ease.
• Convenient mobile apps to manage everything at your fingertips. From checking your store and orders, managing products, and contacting the support team.

These excellent technology tools help you sell POD with less effort!

• Save time and cost: Intuitive features like bulk actions, or Automation features significantly reduce the time spent on manual tasks.
• Enhance your efficiency: A streamlined workflow helps you focus on core aspects of your business rather than getting bogged down by technical complexities.
• Reduce errors: The simplicity of intuitive apps can help minimize errors in product creation and order fulfillment.

Smart and intuitive Printful apps are worth using with simple navigation

Earn more with Printful & Teeinblue integration

Using Teeinblue, you can easily add personalized options to Printful products and send orders to fulfill within one place. The workflow is fast and simple:

• Auto import products with all essential information like variants, printarea, mockup, and details from Printful’s product catalog.
• Create unique artwork with unlimited personalization for text, photos, clipart, and maps.
• Publish products by combining your product base with artwork.
• Manage and send orders to Printful for fulfillment and shipping right in the app.

Note: The integration of Printful and Teeinblue is now only available on Shopify.

6. Printful Customer Support

Printful offers multiple channels to support customers in resolving issues promptly. A lot of reviews compliment that the support team is responsive and helpful.

This supplier also has clear and concise policies to benefit both Printful, print-on-demand sellers and buyers.

• Support method: 24/7 customer assistance via email or live chat in six languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German, and French). The wait time is typically within 2 hours or less.
• Return: Customers must submit a claim within 30 days of receiving a product that is damaged or mislabeled due to Printful's fault or during shipment for a free replacement.
• Reproduce: For misprinted, damaged, or defective items, shoppers need to submit claims within 30 days of getting a product to get a reproduction.
• Reshipping: If a package is lost in transit, customers need to submit claims within 30 days of the estimated delivery date. Printful will pay for the reshipping fee if the fault lies with the company.
• Refund: Printful covers refunds for errors on its part within 30 days of item delivery. This includes damaged or mislabeled products but not for cases related to buyer’s remorse.

Limitation

• Lack of phone support in cases where users prefer immediate assistance. Replying to back-and-forth emails may take longer to resolve problems.
• Inconsistent support since some users had long wait times for responses. They also received unhelpful replies that failed to address their specific problems.
• Complicated and costly return policy making users unhappy after waiting for an extended period for a solution. This may result in potential negative reviews.

In conclusion, the answer to the question 'Is Printful worth it?' ultimately depends on your preferences. However, it is undeniable that Printful continues to be a reliable choice for print-on-demand sellers. Hope this article provides an impartial review of the pros and cons of Printful and helps you make an informed decision. For more insights, consider exploring Printful reviews on Shopify or other trustworthy sources, and join the Teeinblue Global Community for valuable support.

RELEVANT ARTICLES

Printful Essentials: What It Is, Services, and How It Works

Can You Sell Directly From Printful and How Do You Use It to Sell POD?

Top 20 Printful Alternatives for Your Print-on-demand Store