How to Start a Print-on-demand Business Successfully in 2024?

how to start a print on demand business successfully

Many steps when learning how to start a print-on-demand business may confuse starters. The most critical steps to enter the print-on-demand industry are choosing a niche with profitable products, designing converting artwork, and choosing the best-fit POD companies. It would be best to have an excellent online store and a practical marketing plan.

Remember to wrap the print-on-demand definition and basics. You will find it easier to understand the following steps.

Step 1: Choose a Niche with High-profit Products

A good niche should have high profits, low competition, and sufficient demand. This will make it easier for start a print-on-demand business.

You can begin with your favorite products, then analyze their practicability to avoid reckless spending.

Reviewing the market research about print-on-demand industry for best-selling products and the forecast for upcoming years.
Utilizing Google Trends and Trendhunter to discover the print-on-demand trends in recent months and years.
Analyzing some keyword tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Keywordtool.io, etc., to estimate the size of the niche.

how to start a print on demand business with a niche

Type a seed keyword on Google Trends and find related trending topics

Following the Global Print on Demand Market 2023 - 2032, here are the best ideas for you to start:

Best-selling niches: Personalized print-on-demand for clothing, accessories, and home decor items; Eco-friendly products for sustainability and healthier earth.
High-profit products: mugs (30%-60%), tote bags (20%-70%), posters (25% in minimum), t-shirts (30%-50%), and phone cases (40%-85%).
Top region: North America (40% market share) and Asia Pacific (the highest CAGR at 27.9%).

Step 2: Create Print-on-demand Designs

Multiple standards exist for a winning print-on-demand design, including creative ideas, well-organized details, proper printing size and file format, etc. Don’t rush to get all of them! Keeping in mind the basics from the start to succeed with print-on-demand.

Focus on your niche and target audience to find their interest so that you can get great inspiration.
Make it simple but remarkable to capture your customer’s attention at first sight.
Include niche symbols but still involve design uniqueness by following trends and adding your brand identity.
Keep every artwork consistent in style to help your brand stay strong in customers’ minds.

Tips: You can walk through online resources, such as Pinterest, Freepik, Vecteezy, Shutterstock, or Etsy, to learn and update the latest design trends.

Step 3: Pick the Best Fulfillment Suppliers

To make a successful print-on-demand business, choosing a suitable POD company is one of the keys. A good fulfillment supplier helps reduce a lot of hassles, including processing orders to production, delivery, and return management.

Here are the criteria for you to consider:

Their catalog
Product quality and segment
Printing technologies
Production and delivery time
Warehouse locations
Reprint, returns, and refund policy
Customer services
Scalability (industry experience, size, and customer reviews)
Product personalization support

start a print on demand business with a supplier

Dropship print-on-demand product with a global fulfillment supplier

Nowadays, thanks to the innovation in production technology, more suppliers can offer you high-quality products at a lower cost. Here are the top print-on-demand companies to sell with!

Company	Outstanding products	Printing technologies
merchOne (Picanova)	High-quality canvas prints, mugs, and doormats	Sustainable manufacturing
Dreamship	Support the sustainable business with clothing, drinkware, home & living, and accessories	DTFx and cutting-edge technologies
Printful	High-quality apparel & accessories, home & living, eco-friendly products	DTG, embroidery, AOP, engraving.
CustomCat	Fashion with its accessories, and housewares	DTG, embroidery, and dye sublimation technology
ShineOn	Jewelry with message cards, dog tags, and personalized watch	Engraving, 3D cast, and graphic printing
Gelato	Custom sustainable t-shirts, posters, cards, etc	DTG and sustainable methods
Printify	Eco-friendly accessories, clothing, home & living	DTG, AOP, DTF, sublimation, and UV printing
Shirtee.Cloud	Basic apparel, tech accessories, drinkware, posters, etc	Textile printing, embroidery, direct digital printing
Printway	Accessories, apparel, garment, and home decor	DTG, 3D digital print, dye sublimation

Bonus: All of these above print-on-demand companies can fulfill customized products. Remember to request a sample before selecting one.

Step 4: Decide Where to Sell Your Product

A lot of e-commerce sites enable you to set up a print-on-demand business. You can choose the best suit to do print-on-demand business.

Sell on an eCommerce Market Place

By creating stores on Etsy, Amazon, Shein, eBay, etc., you can easily upload your products to sell worldwide. You can make use of its free traffic sources and marketing tools to reach more audiences.

However, you must note that you CANNOT create a store with your own website domain. It may limit you from launching branding and advertising activities.

Pick an eCommerce Platform

There are dozens of eCommerce platforms specialized for print-on-demand, such as Shopify, Woocommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, etc. They offer various tools, apps, and plugins to help you set up a print-on-demand website. So, even if you are not a developer, you can make it yourself.

Among platforms, Shopify stands out as it has the largest print-on-demand network and a lot of apps for personalizing POD products. Moreover, the cost of getting a custom store is more affordable than outsourcing or hiring a professional developer, just from $25 per month.

how to create a print on demand business

Shopify pricing plan

Code and Launch Your Own Online Store

Domain, web hosting, theme, SSL certificate, customized tools, etc., are things you must care about to launch a print-on-demand store. While they are available on eCommerce platforms, you have to manually code, buy, and run yourself. It is very time-consuming and costly at the beginning.

A custom-built online store with many features can cost as much as $30,000 or more. To avoid budget draining, consider the above marketplaces and e-commerce platforms to start your own print-on-demand business.

Step 5: Set a Price for Your Product

Keep in mind the following factors when calculating retail price for your print-on-demand products:

Cover all the production costs, including design, eCommerce platform charges, payment gateway charges, taxes, management costs, marketing investment, etc.
Estimate your desired profit margin for each type of product.
Take a look at your competitors' prices then adjust yours.
Decide a pricing strategy, follow it, and conduct necessary adjustments.

Tips: Start with affordable prices and ensure that you offer high-quality products, satisfied customer services, and profits. This can help you get to know the market better and make it easy to adjust the price later.

Step 6: Set up Your Online Store with Products

You’ve chosen the best sites to start a print-on-demand business. Now, the creating online store process is coming to an end. This step requires more industrious than meditating.

Set up all necessary information: the menu, homepage, about your company, contact information, shipping policy, payment instructions, customer services, help/support, blog categories, etc.
Design product pages with images, descriptions (price, features, benefits, dimensions, and unique selling points), add-to-cart buttons, testimonials, etc.
Prepare products to sell: You should have your white-label product’s print area, mockup images, and variants ready to add to your store.

Tips: For merchants who sell personalized print-on-demand products, a custom product builder will help you easily add multiple product options for customers to choose on your stores.

how to set up a print on demand business online

An engaging product page increase sales

Step 7: Place a Test Order

Before officially running a print-on-demand business, testing the buying process can ensure the flow is smooth and straightforward. Then, you can offer the best customer experience.

You need to test the ability to approach the product page and the response speed of choosing personalization options, adding to the card, proceeding to checkout, reviewing the order, and completing payment.

If you start a print-on-demand Shopify store or other platforms, using a bogus gateway or placing a real order can help you run a test order. It is easy to find detailed instructions in each platform’s support center.

Step 8: Promote Your Print-on-demand Business

Now, everything is ready! Let’s promote your products to generate first sales. Gradually start from the simplest things to make money with print-on-demand, for example:

Ask friends and family for the first orders and reviews.
Share your products and join many groups on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, etc.
Run a giveaway or offer special promotions to attract customers.
Spend the budget on running advertisements or working with a KOC (Key Opinion Consumer).
Conduct long-term marketing activities like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and email marketing.

💡 You may also like: Learn How Giftymize Start Selling Print-on-demand from Zero

Always try to improve your product quality and customer services

Tips to Start a Print-on-demand Business Successfully

As a new seller, embracing the steps above will give you a solid mindset. Besides, don’t skip helpful tips from Teeinblue Product Personalizer’s users to practice how to start a print-on-demand business successfully.

Grasp Pros & Cons of Print-on-demand

You don’t have to spend money on the inventory when you have a print-on-demand business. However, if your targeted customers live in the USA, it’s not good to source products from a factory in China. This can cause longer shipping times.

So, how do you handle the long delivery times?

Be transparent about the shipping time: inform the time in 2-3 weeks
Choose fulfillment providers from your customer's country to shorten the production and shipping time.
Check your print-on-demand provider’s third-party partners for pricing, fulfillment time, and customer services.

Create Engaging Mockups

Usually, some print-on-demand companies will provide you with mockups from their website. However, they typically come with plain white background and, to be honest, look pretty boring and terrible for advertising. That’s why having realistic lifestyle mockups is the key.

Here is a list of some fantastic sources where you can find free mockup images for your online store:

Placeit.net
Freepik
Pixeden
Graphic Burger
Rawpixel
Canva

Realistic lifestyle mockup images from Rawpixel

Be Consistent in Customer Services

Besides product quality and hyper-personalized experiences, consistency in your commitments to customers is one of the most important fundamentals of a successful print-on-demand business. It helps you to:

Set positive expectations and build a reputation for fairness, reliability, and dependability.
Maintain customer loyalty.
Control the narrative easily.

Don't Just Opt for Selling T-shirts

Of course, T-shirts are highest demand at present and in the near future. Still, they are not the only type of print-on-demand product to start POD business. Besides apparel, here are some best-selling print-on-demand products that you can sell to take your e-commerce brand to the next level.

Utilize a Design for Many Products

You can use one design for multiple products to be worth the design effort. Remember to follow the provider’s guidelines to make that design fit the print areas of each product. For example, you can have a design for a T-shirt and a tote bag like the image below.

Cross-selling products with the same design for your shop

Learn from Customer Feedback

Requesting customer feedback shows that you appreciate their opinions and care about their experience. Involving them in the business and seeking their input can lead to stronger relationships with your customers. But don’t stop at listening, you should improve your products to make them satisfied.

💡 Other tips to create a print-on-demand business

Add a maximum of 5 color variants: giving them so many options causes decision anxiety, and it will take longer times to choose. And finally, customers end up not choosing anything at all (Analysis Paralysis)
Take notice of trademark when designing: Using a design, clipart, or quote with a trademark is illegal. Remember to check it on each country’s trademark search engine.

FAQs: Starting Print-on-demand Business

Starting new things always comes with a lot of questions. This part is for you if you are wondering about startup costs for print-on-demand.

1-How Much is Print-on-demand Startup Cost?

The startup cost for a print-on-demand store may vary from $50 to $400, even thousands of dollars. It depends on which platform you create your stores, and how you design artwork as well as manage your business. But can you start with no money? Let’s get the answer in the next question!

Try to reduce costs if you have a low budget by utilizing your ability

2-How to Start a Print-on-demand Business for Free?

Starting print-on-demand with no money is rarely possible, but you can minimize expenses easily.

At first, it is possible to cut down the design cost. Finding selling ideas on Freepik, Pinterest, Open Clipart, and other free online resources and designing on Canva are great and efficient ways.
Then, you should choose a print-on-demand company that does not charge you any fee until the first order is delivered. Most global suppliers, such as Printful, Printify, etc., apply this policy.
Finally, you must find a platform offering a long free trial or low-cost pricing. For example, Shopify offers you free for three days and extends the trial at only 1$ per month for the first 3 months.

3-How to Succeed with Print-on-demand Businesses?

Here are the most effective strategies for you to succeed with print-on-demand:

Target a niche, especially personalized mugs, tech accessories, t-shirts, and jewelry.
Source high-quality but low-cost products to ensure customer satisfaction.
Design converting artwork to truly resonate with the target customer preferences.
Strategize shipping by selecting a global fulfillment with many factories in many countries to improve shipping speed.
Sell personalized products with a product personalizer like Teeinblue to earn a higher margin.

You’ve passed all the essentials about how to start a print-on-demand business. Each step requires great meticulousness and patience, from choosing products, fulfillment partners, eCommerce platforms, and designing artwork to promoting. Hope you can succeed in selling print-on-demand with the above steps. Join the Teeinblue global community on Facebook to get more helpful tips!