How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business in 2024?
The concept of print-on-demand sounds great and super easy – anyone can start their own business risk-free. How? All you need is an idea and some spare time. You don’t even need a product – finding one is part of starting a print-on-demand business.
You’ll be safe from worrying about keeping inventory or fulfilling and shipping orders. Print-on-demand sites will take care of all of that, leaving you free to focus on growing your brand and revenue.
This simple step-by-step guide will help you launch your own store in 2024.
What Exactly Is a Print-on-Demand Business?
Print on Demand is a system that prints individual copies of items to order. A lot of print-on-demand services offer additional features like no order minimum and shipping. What this means for you, in simple terms, is that you only need to pay for an order after it is placed and your customer has paid.
We’ll explore the benefits and disadvantages, and learn how to start an online business with no upfront investment.
Make It Happen Today!
How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business in 2024?
If you want to sell custom products online, print on demand is one of the most powerful ways to do so. It’s easy to start, costs hardly anything, and you can personalize the products you sell, gaining an edge over your competition.
Although print on demand can seem tricky at first, anyone can achieve success as long as they are driven to work hard.
If you want to learn how to start a print-on-demand business, follow these simple steps, and you’ll be well on your way.
1. Pick a Niche
A niche is a specialized market segment for particular products. Defining a niche has many benefits – higher profits, reduced competition, and less money spent on advertising.
If you’re not sure what niche you’d like to pursue for your own brand, start with something you’re passionate about. It can be anything – fitness, camping, grumpy cats, or true crime.
Choosing a profitable niche is one of the most important challenges you will face in your eCommerce journey.
Where should you look for that profitable niche idea? You can start by:
- Examining the best-selling products of 2024. Start with a simple Google search and check out other print-on-demand sites. If you take time to deep-dive into their details, you might also discover trends that are teetering on mass popularity.
- Using Google Trends and comparing products. It is a very useful tool to quickly assess the popularity of any topic as it visualizes search queries across different regions and languages.
- Analyzing Search Engine Results. Use Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, or other similar tools to find out what people are searching for.
If you are trying to sell to everyone, you most likely won’t succeed. This is why identifying your target audience and picking a niche is so important.
Our in-depth article explains how to find the right niche market for your business, what niche marketing strategies are, and gives a few examples of niche print-on-demand business ideas.
2. Decide What to Sell
There’s a seemingly endless number of products you can customize and sell with print on demand. It’s not limited only to custom t-shirts, hoodies, or custom coffee mugs. Check out some of the most popular items to customize and sell:
Take a look at our Product Catalog to see even more relevant items. We add a batch of new ones every week!
Whatever you decide to sell, keep your customers in mind so your items don’t get lost in an overcrowded market. Always stick to your market needs. The products you choose need to make sense for your niche.
These are some of the best places to kick off your research and see what sells:
- Amazon – you can check every department individually for additional ideas.
- eBay – a good place to see what’s trending.
- Etsy – easily find gift and product ideas.
Don’t forget to take a tour on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or any other social media platform and other print-on-demand sites to see what people are saying about certain products and niches.
If a certain niche-based community is quiet, then it’s wise to pick one that’s more lively.
3. Create Designs
Although print on demand relies heavily on unique designs, you don’t need artistic skills to start an online store. You also don’t have to be an experienced designer to come up with design ideas.
Doing your own research and extracting the best ideas from the internet and your social network is a key step in creating profitable designs for print-on-demand products.
You can draw inspiration from sites like:
A word to the wise – you should only use your research as a starting point to create your own original designs. Never plagiarize a design you find somewhere or claim the work as your own.
If you don’t want to spend your time creating designs, you can always hire a professional designer. However, before you start scouting for talent, make sure that you’ve properly identified your needs.
You can use sites such as:
- Fiverr – a well-known site that allows you to hire a freelancer to create your designs.
- 99designs – a marketplace for graphic design services.
- Upwork – the largest freelance marketplace in the United States.
Don’t forget to check your designs – what may seem like an awesome idea in your head might be completely misunderstood by your customers. The most common way to test-run ideas is by sharing designs on social media, online forums, or within your personal network.
If you’re interested in creating a best-selling design from scratch or sites that offer ready-made designs, this in-depth article offers a wide variety of information, resources, and advice so you can easily create – or simply buy – your first design.
4. Decide Where to Sell
Printify easily integrates your online store with some of the world’s most popular eCommerce marketplaces and platforms:
When using print on demand, you can either sell your custom products on a marketplace or create your own store on an eCommerce platform.
What’s the difference? Let’s find out.
eCommerce Marketplace
Many print-on-demand companies get their start by selling custom products on an eCommerce marketplace. These function like an online market, where merchants gather to sell their goods. You list products and add the right keywords to ensure that your customers easily find you.
eCommerce Platform
Alternatively, you can use an eCommerce platform to build a more personalized website for your products that looks exactly the way you want it to.
This is a separate online store hosted on an eCommerce platform. Your customers will be able to access it only through a direct link, which is why you’ll need to share it through other public accounts.
A good example of an eCommerce platform is Shopify and WooCommerce.
5. Set Up a Store
After you’ve done your due diligence exploring sales channels and picking the one that’s right for you, it’s time to set up your store.
Although the setup differs for each platform, it’s often a pretty straightforward process that only requires a bit of your time. Most commonly, you’ll have access to a finished platform or pre-built and customizable templates.
All of this can take a while, but make sure to do it properly – it’s essential for the success of your print-on-demand business.
6. Pick Your Supplier
When it comes to starting a print-on-demand business, you can’t do without a reliable supplier that will fulfill all of your incoming orders. The importance of this can’t be overstated – your reputation as an entrepreneur depends on it.
This is where Printify comes in. Whatever you aim to achieve, Printify’s mission stays the same – to help merchants make more money with less effort.
Our easy-to-use print-on-demand and dropshipping platform lets people from all walks of life design and sell custom products without worries. Once you make a sale, our print providers do all the heavy lifting – printing and shipping.
Our team works diligently to make sure that you’re getting the highest quality products, best prices, and lowest shipping costs.
- 100% Free
You don’t need any upfront investment. Anyone can sign up and use our platform for free. You pay for a product only after you’ve sold it.
- Seamless Integrations
You can integrate Printify with some of the world’s most popular eCommerce marketplaces and platforms.
- Wide Range of Products
Our catalog has more than 900 high-quality products, and we’re constantly adding more.
- No Minimum Order Quantity
You can thrive without any limitations – order as few or as many products as you like.
- 24/7 Merchant Support
Our merchant support team is always on standby, and they’ll gladly answer any questions you may have.
With Printify, you’re in the right hands – our service is trusted by over two million merchants worldwide, with more signing up every day.
7. Set a Price
The amount of profit that you make depends on how high you set your product retail prices.
Whenever you price your products, here are some things to consider:
- What’s the average price of similar products on the market? Try to research current market trends and compare product costs for similar items.
- Where are your customers located? If you choose a local print provider, you can cut down on both delivery time and shipping costs.
- Will you offer free shipping? If so, it’s a good sales trigger, but make sure to add that amount to the product’s retail price to absorb the actual shipping cost.
With proper product pricing, you’re setting yourself up for success. If you’re curious to have an in-depth look at how it’s done, our handy guide will teach you everything you need to know about setting prices.
8. Check the Quality of Your Products
When you plan on starting a print-on-demand business, checking the quality of your products is essential. Unless your products serve their intended purpose well, you’ll have a hard time getting more sales than one. Your customers need to have confidence in your products.
As a rule of thumb, the primary step to maintaining the value that customers see in your products is by choosing reliable print providers.
If you want your eCommerce store to have a good reputation, it’s highly recommended to order samples so you can check the print quality, style, colors, and the whole end product.
9. Market Your Products
To get your business off the ground quickly, incorporating some basic print-on-demand marketing strategies can make it or break it.
Your goal is to get noticed, drive traffic to your site, provide people with reasons to buy from you and convert visitors into customers.
Here are a few ways you can market your business:
- Social media – You can easily find and engage with your target audience by maintaining a social media presence. Don’t forget to consistently create new content, engage with users, and leave positive comments on other accounts. Social media is a smart way to grow your business.
- Influencer marketing – a universal tool that can be effectively applied to gain broader exposure. By collaborating with influencers who endorse your products, you can gain your audience’s trust more quickly.
- Content marketing – a common strategy used by entrepreneurs. If you consistently publish relevant content – blogs, articles, product reviews – you’ll build trust and have authority in your niche.
10. Monitor Your Digital Store’s Performance
If you want to be – and remain – a successful entrepreneur, you should include in your print-on-demand business plan ways to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
Analyzing your digital store’s performance is important – our handy guide explores a wide variety of eCommerce analytic tools that you can use to better understand how your website is performing so that you can make better decisions and improve your sales.
Make It Happen Today!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a print-on-demand business?
It’s a business model in which products get printed only after an order is placed. Print-on-demand services like Printify allow you to save both time and money running your business because you won’t need to deal with keeping inventory, order fulfillment, or shipping.
2. Is print-on-demand easy?
Yes. The only thing you’ll need to worry about is increasing your store revenue and being competitive in a crowded market. Finding your niche and targeting potential customers with relevant content significantly improves your chances of success.
4. Is a print-on-demand business profitable?
It is if you set the right profit margins on the products you sell. When pricing products, keep all associated tax and service fees in mind.
Check out our blog on how to price your products for ultimate success.
Pros and Cons of a Print-on-Demand Business
As a tried-and-true way of printing for profit, using print-on-demand services has many benefits for a budding eCommerce company. That said, it also has its downsides.
Let’s take a look at some of its advantages first.
Easy to Start
You don’t need extensive entrepreneurial, marketing, or artistic experience. Print-on-demand services are interested in having you as their customers – they often offer simple guides and instructions.
No Risk
With print on demand, no advance investment is required. You don’t have to rent premises, keep stock, hire staff, or worry about logistics.
No Inventory
Whenever you make a sale, a third-party supplier ships products directly to your customer’s doorstep. You don’t need to keep stock of merchandise or spend money on storage space.
Global Reach
Print on demand allows you to effortlessly sell both locally and internationally. The right designs will attract customers from all over the world.
While the advantages might seem great, you should also consider the downsides of using print-on-demand.
You Can't Control Quality
You will have limited control over print and product quality. The best way to counter this is to order samples. If you’re not happy with the result, you can switch your supplier.
Longer Production Time
Since orders are printed only after a sale goes through, they can’t be packaged and shipped immediately. This is the downside of having no stock.
Lower Profit
Due to the nature of the print-on-demand business model, costs per product will be higher than if you purchase products in bulk, which directly affects your profit.
Split Responsibility
While suppliers handle order fulfillment, customers will turn to the merchant whenever there is an issue. The supplier is invisible to customers – it’s your responsibility to right any issues your customer experiences.
When you start your business, pay attention to details and choose your print-on-demand platform wisely.
Closing Thoughts
When done right, print on demand can be a very profitable endeavor. Due to its many perks, it’s a go-to eCommerce business model for entrepreneurs, artists, and content creators all across the world.
Whether you’d like to start a new business or scale your existing one, print on demand has something to offer everyone.
Start Your Own Print-on-Demand Business Today!
Written by
Vita Stevens
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64 comments
Hello there!, I’m from India. I’m planning to set up a store on printify, I want to know about the tax implications regading it. Do I have to register for anything ?
Hi Ravos,
Please contact our Support team, and they will be more than happy to help you with tax implications.
Hi there – I would like to sell tote bags but the supplier for the bag I am interested in is based in Poland. How would that work with shipping to different countries eg UK, US, Australia etc? I’m struggling to get my head round that bit. Don’t you find suppliers local to the buyer to fulfil the order? Otherwise it might takes weeks to ship? Thanks.
Hi Clare,
Certainly! Printify works by automatically routing orders to the nearest print provider to your customer’s location if you choose the order routing feature. This ensures quicker and more efficient order fulfillment, no matter where your customers are located. If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to our support team.
Hi there … do I need to be part of the e marketplace or plataforms to use printfy? Or can I connect to my own website ?? I use hostinger… thanks ☺️
Hi Danielle,
You don’t have to have a sales channel as you can connect your own website with Printify API. Please check the help center article “How can I generate an API token?” (https://shorturl.at/BEJQV) for more information. If you need futher help, please reach out to Printify support.
Once a sale is made, is the amount automatically deleted from my bank account for the transaction or do I have to go to my account and transfer the funds before the transaction goes ahead
Hi Fred,
The way Printify payment process works, is the payment received by your store for an order includes the product retail price (production price + profit) and the shipping fee.
Once the order is received on your sales channel, it is automatically imported into Printify and sent to production based on your order approval settings. However, as Printify can’t directly withdraw funds from your sales channel, the production price of the product and its shipping fee are charged to your linked credit/debit card or your Printify balance.
To sum it up: your customers buy from you, and you buy from us.
Can you integrate an Etsy store that is only part POD and stocks other stuff too?
Hi Marie,
Yes, you can do that. 🙂
Hello. I’m thinking of creating a POD business, but my company is in Portugal. I want to enter US niches and use distributors from that country and not from Europe. I have some questions:
1) Is it possible?
2) How does it work in terms of billing, do I need to create my company in the US to declare sales?
3) Who/where generates the invoice to que customers?
Thank you very much
Hi there Sandro,
Yes, it is possible and you can sell worldwide. For more detailed information, please reach out to our Support team via 24/7 live chat on your Printify account or here and our team will gladly answer any questions you might have. 🙂
Is there a company that will set it up for you for a fee? I’m finding it difficult to do with my limited abilities. Thanks! jb
Hi Jeffrey,
You can probably search on Fiverr, but please know that Printify doesn’t have official partners that would offer this.
Hello,
I hope all is well with everyone at the office. Can I sell products without having a LLC or Sole Proprietorship license?
Hi there!
Yes, you can.
what if there is something wrong with the product and the customer wants to return?
what would the process be?
Hi Tammy,
Printify is a print-on-demand company, which means that all products are unique and produced only once ordered. This also means that returns and exchanges are not supported if your customer ordered the wrong size, color, or simply changed their mind.
However, in case of a damaged product or a manufacturing error, we offer a free replacement or a refund if you contact us within 30 days of product delivery. Please see more information here.
Hi there, thanks for the info! How does getting paid work? How do i get paid once my products are being sold?
Hi there,
When a customer submits an order in your connected store, your store receives the payment consisting of the product retail price (production price + profit) and the shipping fee.
Then the order is automatically imported into Printify and sent to production according to your order approval settings. However, since Printify can’t pull funds directly from your sales channel, Printify charges your linked credit card or your Printify balance with the production price of the product and its shipping fee.
To sum it up: your customers buy from you, and you buy from us.
Just wondering if there is an option to order product myself in bulk to sell at an in person vendor show?
Hi there!
Yes, you can place a manual order and read more about bulk order options here.
Thanks for the information
Where do I find UK pricing please?
Hi there!
All prices can be found on our catalog, please see here.
Hi thank you for this information!
I am writer looking to collect some information to write an article to publish at my “Medium” account. I am really surprised to read this article. I learned here how say your words in a few word. Thank you!
Hi there,
Happy to hear that!
How are concepts ideas protected?
Hi there!
Perhaps a lot of useful information can be found here in our webinars, where some POD experts are sharing their experience, different tips and tricks.
I like the tote bags inspirational words on them like (always look up to the sky ) something like this. When can I star my platform.
Hi there Bernice,
You can open a store any time. Here are some useful articles about it and if any other questions arise, feel free to get in touch with our Merchant Support team via email [email protected] or live chat on your Printify account.
I remember once in time when buying a personalised t-shirt would be expensive unless you purchased it in bulk. As technology has become more readily available, services have become widespread and circulated our lives also. I’ve never used Printify myself, but now I’m curious. Do you guys sell business cards curiously?
Hi James!
We are continuously adding new products to our Catalog, however we don’t offer business cards yet. Our team will definitely consider adding this product, thank you!
Is it possible when using the printify plugin with shopify, to give the power to my customers to customize their own brand, vs me selling a specific brand? Example My store niche is say sports teams and I select a few specific products/colors/etc, but my clients still have the ability to add their own custom logo and text to the T-shirt or Ball cap. Is this possible?
Hello Jarret!
Currently, we do not offer end-customer customization, however you can process custom orders manually by editing items before sending them to production. Here is our guide.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Hello, does Printify work with the Webflow platform?
Hello! I was wondering if I needed to set up a corporation or LLC in order to sell shirts using prinitfy?
Hi dear. Must I have a website to sell the POD products or can I list them on other online marketplace? If yes , like which ones ? Thanks
Do I need to register my business with the state first?
Hello Elina, Hope you’re doing well..
i have a query… Do i need to register trademark for my brand if i’m selling pod products online..??
Hi,
If Printify is free why do you need to buy a premium subscription and how much is it? If you charge the user for T-shirts is that an extra charge?
Hi Bobbie! Printify is 100% free and we charge only when you have a sale. With Printify premium you will have a discount for blank products, so it means you can earn more with bigger profits. – Elina
hi there, is there a way to edit the inside pages of a book ?
Hi! I am starting a custom designed tote bag business and I wanted to know if I am able to view all available bag options prior to choosing a POD printing and fulfillment service. Am I able to choose any product on the market? I’m looking for high quality bags that come in various colors and sizes.
Heather, thanks for the question! Yes, you can see all the bags on our catalog – https://printify.com/app/products/accessories/bags
You can see available base colors, print providers when you click on each product.
Thanks,
Elina
I am wondering if you have integration with Amazon? I am not seeing it anywhere as an option. Is this something you are planning on doing in the future? Thanks.
Maya, thank you for your questions. We are working on multiple new integrations. We can’t mention names yet, but we will keep you updated and notified. 😉
No Gumroad integration?
how much will it cost me to start
I don’t see it as an option and wonder if I’m missing it or if maybe a product you might add in the future would be a good quality yoga mat. I have designs of my own and yoga mats available at Society6 but would love to be able to have my shirts and mats available in the same place.
Hey, I JUST need help in shipping setting. I have built a shopify store and offered free shipping to USA. When I connected printify it has been set for free shipping too. Which I don’t want. How can I fix it?
I have a Character with lots of colors.
Is there a limit on the amount of colors going on a t-shirt.
Hi, Tony! Unless you use embroidery, there is no specific limitation of colors on a design. But keep in mind – each print provider will have slightly different colors. You can read about it here – https://help.printify.com/hc/en-us/articles/4483617515793 .
I noticed there are not any real design platform, so you should have your designs ready for upload correct?
Yes, you should have designs ready. But we will publish a new article soon ( next week) – where to get free print designs.
Best wishes,
Elina
I would like to know if you are paid by the buyer before you execute and deliver the order. What happens if the customer who ordered has a change of mind and does not receive the order? My question is if the customer pays you or us directly?
Hi there,
Some great Info thankyou!
Any tips on how to actually market the products once the store is up and running?
It’s hard to find info on that. I don’t have any followings on social media etc and wondering if there’s other ways.
Appreciate further tips!
How much money do I have to spend once I’ve designed my T-Shirt? In otherwords, do I have to buy the T-Shirts first, then sell them?
Hi James! No, Printify is free, so you don’t have to pay anything before a real customer purchases a product. You can read more here – https://help.printify.com/hc/en-us/articles/4483638151569
I need help setting up
Hi Ayanna, maybe this is helpful to you – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2d3o13tnxI
Or you can contact our customer care agents and they will help you – [email protected]
Where can I find part 2?
Hey, TJ! We are currently working on Part 2. Is there something specific you want to know? I can suggest some other useful resources.
KR,
Phil
I wasn’t looking for clothing concepts. I was and am looking for print on demand for board games or card games. I design those. Can you do that?