you could decide you want to start a
print-on-demand business by monday
get your website up and running by
tuesday and start making sales by the
end of the week
welcome back to learn with shopify i'm
your host michelle and in today's video
we're going to learn how you can start a
print-on-demand business
print on demand is a low-risk simple way
to start a hugely profitable business
with no inventory
[Music]
whether you're an artist writer designer
or entrepreneur
physical products can be a great way to
monetize your creativity you can put
your own
original span on everyday products like
t-shirts posters backpacks books
and sell them online however if you do
go the traditional route of buying and
holding your own inventory
you may be left with a pile of products
that just aren't selling print on demand
services are a good way to avoid this
problem you won't have to invest a ton
of money in holding inventory
and it'll save you time in dealing with
logistics print on demand also allows
you to start selling really quickly
and at a fraction of the cost here are
the things that we'll be covering in
this video
we're going to define what print on
demand is we'll discuss the pros and
cons
i'll give you a list of services to
choose from and what they offer
we'll also talk about how to get your
designs into the real world even if you
have no design experience
and then we'll finish off with some
expert tips for making your business
profitable
print on demand is a process where you
work with a supplier to customize
white label products white labeling is
when a purchaser or a marketer
uses its own branding rather than the
manufacturer's branding
but what makes print on demand so
enticing is that you can sell the
products on a pre-order basis under your
own brand that means that you don't have
to pay for the product until after
you've actually
sold it so there's no need to buy in
bulk or hold any inventory
and the nice thing about print on demand
services is that everything after the
sale is handled by your supplier
that includes everything from printing
to shipping we're going to go over how
to get all of this set up in detail but
once you do make a sale it'll only take
a few clicks to fulfill an order
depending on your purpose you can use
print-on-demand services in a few
different ways you can use it to test a
business idea without fronting money for
inventory
you can test a new product line for an
existing business again without holding
any inventory at all
and you can use it to monetize an
audience you've already built
printing on demand is also a great
option if you're an artist or an
influencer
but you'd rather focus on doing what you
love rather than fulfilling orders
it's also a great business model to
create original products for a niche of
customers
so for example you can create apparel
for people who are passionate about
gaming
there are some pros and cons when it
comes to print on demand print-on-demand
sites can be used to build a business
based off of a drop shipping model where
the products and shipping
are all handled by a third party it's
one of the most accessible ways to
source products or start an online
business
but you should know that there are perks
and limitations before you dive in
print on demand is great for creating
products quickly once you have the
design
you can create the product and put it up
for sale in minutes this helps you be
nimble
and it helps you capitalize on trends
another plus is shipping
shipping is fully taken care of shipping
and fulfillment is basically out of your
hands
and it's up to the supplier to take care
of that after the sale you're just
responsible for customer service and
marketing
additionally since you're not physically
carrying products your cost to run your
business
will be lower and finally there's less
risk involved
it's easier to add or remove products
test ideas and pivot your approach
now let's take a peek at the cons so
naturally your cost per item is going to
be higher than if you were to buy in
bulk
on-demand products are known to have
thinner profits so depending on how you
price them and how you acquire customers
making real money is going to require
volume with print on demand
another con is that you'll have less
control over your shipping costs
and your options may also be limited if
you want to create a standout unboxing
experience
there are also limitations to
customization your ability to customize
products is going to depend on the
vendor and the product
you'll have to see what base costs are
what customization options are available
as well as printing techniques and size
options when deciding on which products
to customize
okay so by now you should have a better
idea of whether print on demand will
work for you
now we're going to hop into the services
that i recommend it might seem like all
print-on-demand services are similar at
first glance
but that's actually not the case you're
going to want to carefully consider who
you go with based on the products you
want to create
where you'll be shipping to the retail
prices you're going to offer among other
factors so for example
you might be tempted to go with a
company that has a low base cost for
their products but then you might
realize that it takes 21 days for
customers to get their orders
do your research and make sure that
you're weighing out all the factors here
are some of the most popular services
that all meet
different needs by the way all of these
services are free to set up and you only
pay
when someone places an order for one of
your products and i should mention that
they do all integrate with shopify
printful is a popular shopify app
because of its wide selection of
products and brands to choose from
it allows you to mock up your designs
easily you can add your own logos
stickers custom notes and inserts for a
more customized unboxing experience
for apparel products in particular
printable offers a number of printing
techniques one of the more common
techniques that they offer is direct to
garment which prints ink directly onto
the material
this is good for simpler designs like
slogan teeth you can do a
cut and sew also known as the all over
print the article of clothing is printed
on in
many pieces and then it's sewn together
for a seamless print across the entire
piece
the base cost will be higher for this
technique but it also lets you create a
more premium product at a higher price
point
embroidery is perhaps the most complex
printing technique because the final
product is actually a threaded design
with a 3d effect
this is best for simple designs that
involve only a handful of colors
and for products like hats that
traditionally featured embroidered
designs you should also be mindful of
how additional customizations will
affect the price
printing on the sleeve for example will
usually mean paying on top of the base
cost
besides apparel printable also offers
mugs pillows
framed posters beach towels aprons and
more lulu is a self-publishing print on
demand service
for books with the lulu express shopify
app you can choose from a wide selection
of book sizes
binding types and page quality for your
books you can't design your book within
lulu express but they do
offer downloadable templates to get you
started it even has a transparent
pricing calculator to help you cost out
your project
including various shipping options there
are also discounts if you'd like to
order in bulk
like printful guten is a shopify app
that offers a wide range of products
that you can customize
they have unique products like calendars
mugs and dog beds
however since guten uses an
international network of vendors to
print their products
there's also a lot more variance between
their items in terms of quality and
shipping
but that also means that your product
prices and shipping prices are lower as
well
guten has an intuitive image editor that
gives you a good sense of what your
final product will look like
printfy is another print-on-demand
shopify app that features the usual
selection of t-shirts and hoodies
but what's notable about prinify is that
it has an international vendor network
with a number of unique
white label products that you're not
likely to find anywhere else
they have items like jewelry clocks and
shoes and the platform actually has over
200 products that you can print on
while printify is free to use you can
pay 29 a month for a premium
subscription that gives you 20
off all of their products and this is a
pretty solid option if you're looking to
scale up later and improve your profit
margins
this list is by no means exhaustive so
for more print on demand options
check out the shopify app store you
don't need to be a full-time designer to
have a successful print-on-demand
business
in the best case scenario you have a
designer friend that you can work well
with
but if you don't that's what outsourcing
is for you can find designers to work
with on behance
99designs or other freelance sites who
can produce designs as long as you
provide clear instructions
here's how you can add clarity and
context for a design project
you'll want to begin by sharing insight
into your audience tell your designer
what it's for
and who your audience is showing them
your website will help give
more context and make sure that you're
clearly explaining what it is that you
want
you'll have time to explain this in your
initial introduction and through
revisions
by the way you're going to want to
include one or two revisions in the
scope of the project
and be clear by over communicating what
it is that you're looking for and
provide
guidelines and finally give examples of
inspiration
it helps to show them a reference to
base the design on or point to other
works
that you like when working with
designers you should specify that your
design is for printing
this tells them that it should ideally
be 300 digital pixels per inch
and have a transparent background the
designer will know how to properly
prepare these artwork files for print so
you won't have to worry about that
note that the print file specifications
will change depending on the printer
and the printing technique used so when
in doubt send the designer the print
specs for the specific product
and any printing guidelines so that they
understand the context
the designs you upload should be large
enough for the printing area of the
actual product
keep in mind that resizing a smaller
image to make it bigger will result in a
loss of quality so you want to avoid
doing that and if you want to take a
crack at designing and you don't have
access to photoshop
try using pixlr for free i'll also drop
a link in the description box for
another
16 free photo editing tools if you're
not interested in paying for photoshop
alright so we've got you covered with a
couple of expert tips
firstly always order samples the best
way to ensure quality is to be your own
customer so that you can experience
firsthand
what it's like to receive your products
that said you're going to want to always
order samples before sending product out
to customers
it's always possible that something gets
lost in translation from the design you
see on your screen
to your printed product and by ordering
samples you can double check the overall
quality of how it looks and
feels if you do find any discrepancies
just reach out to your vendors customer
service
support for advice on how to fix any
issues
and beyond ensuring product quality
samples are also good to have on hand
for taking your own product photos for
your website and social media
even when you're not shipping products
yourself you're going to want to make
sure that you're setting the right
expectations with your customers
about costs and shipping time make sure
that you're accounting for how long it
takes for something to print
first of all and then adding that to
shipping time rule of thumb is to add
anywhere from two to four days for
production
it can sometimes be more depending on
the product always be upfront about your
shipping times or you're going to get
customers with questions and complaints
and outline what to expect on your faq
page or you can consider creating a
separate shipping page to explain
lead times to customers if you can try
to partially or
fully absorb your shipping costs into
your retail price
year after year studies show that
surprise shipping costs added at
checkout deters customers from buying
on the flip side you can use shipping
deals as a tool to entice customers to
make a purchase
free shipping is a great sales sweetener
so try using conditional
free shipping to encourage customers to
add more to their cart to reach a
certain threshold
you can use free shipping to justify
longer wait times at that point you can
go for less expensive slower shipping
services as many consumers will wait a
little bit longer for an order that they
know
will save the money on shipping model
pictures help drive sales
but mock-ups are also an effective
alternative for your product photography
many print-on-demand services can help
you create your own mock-ups by showing
your products on a person
or as a flatlay but there are other
services and plenty of free mock-up
templates
that can help show your product clearly
these mockups are what will sell your
products to customers
so it can literally pay to go the extra
mile placeit is an easy to use mockup
generator that lets you create photo and
video mockups for eight dollars each
check out mockupworld or behance for
photoshop templates if you're
comfortable in photoshop
marketing is what ultimately determines
the success of your business
but if you're targeting everyone you're
not really marketing to anyone
that's why niching in is so important
having a clearly defined audience like
specifically targeting
dog owners for example can actually help
you create products that are in demand
it lowers the cost to acquire customers
and maximizes your potential profits
often people think that if they niche in
they're going to lose potential
customers
but the opposite is actually true if
your audience is too broad you'll appeal
to no one and lose potential customers
in that regard
there are countless possibilities for
acquiring a niche audience with
marketing but here are some ideas to get
you started
first start an instagram account and
create or curate content for your target
audience
get followers and build relationships
among your prospective customers
next try running facebook ads targeting
the interests
of your target customers you can also
use facebook ads to test out your
designs for as little as 10
to see which ones resonate with your
audience one of my favorite tactics is
collecting emails from visitors once you
start to pick up some steam
so that you can continue to market to
them for free
and finally get your products into the
hands of influencers who can introduce
your products to their audience and help
you make sales
print-on-demand services offer an
accessible source of inventory for
new entrepreneurs or for anyone who just
wants to test out an idea before they
invest in it
if one of your online business ideas
pans out and you start to generate a
meaningful number of sales
you can always graduate from using a
print-on-demand site to holding your own
inventory so that should give you a
pretty good head start and some
insight into print on demand in today's
video we covered what print on demand
is some services you could use how to
work with a designer
and some strategies to keep your
business running smooth and profitable
i'm curious to know why you clicked on
this video let me know in the comments
what you plan to use print on demand for
i'm excited to see all of your creative
ideas and if you've already launched
drop me a link to your store so i can
check it out
hit that subscribe button so you don't
miss out on any future videos and
remember
we're a channel for small business
owners with big plans
i'm your host michelle thank you so much
for watching and i will see you in the
next one
you