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In this post, I’m going to show you how to start a print on demand business. Read on to discover how this popular method of selling products online works, how to get started with it, and what to do to make a success of it.
Print on demand: an overview
Print on demand (commonly known as POD) is an online business model where a product is only made — or ‘printed’ — after a customer has placed an order for an item.
It typically works like this: you upload a design to a POD service and then choose what items you’d like your design to appear on (clothing, homeware, prints etc.). You then sell these on your own online store; and whenever somebody orders one of your products, your POD service then handles the rest, taking care of all the product manufacturing, packaging and shipping.
You pay the print on demand service for all this — but only when somebody orders a product. This makes it a much lower-risk way to start a business than using traditional retail models.
There are several advantages to using the print on demand business model when setting up an online business:
- It eliminates the need for manufacturing, buying or storing your own products.
- It reduces the risk of you losing money from unsold goods.
- It’s a great option for businesses that want to offer a really wide range of products without any upfront costs.
- It’s relatively easy to do.
But how do you actually go about selling POD products? Let’s find out.
How to sell POD products
1. Find your niche
To make a success of a print on demand business, you’ve got to ensure that you’re building it in a profitable niche. This means selling products that there is a strong interest in — but not so many merchants selling them that you’ll struggle to make any sales yourself.
Keyword research is your friend here — you can use SEO tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to find out how many people are searching for particular products every month, and how hard it’s going to be to get visibility in search results for queries relating to those items.
You can also use data provided by advertising platforms like Google, Facebook and Tiktok to help you identify products that you could realistically make a profit selling.
Once you’re happy with your business idea and your target market, it’s time to get your hands on the tools you need to start selling.
2. Get the right tools
To make print-on-demand products and sell them online, you need two things:
- a print-on-demand app (for designing and shipping products)
- an online store builder (for selling them)
Let’s start with the print-on-demand app. There are lots of print on demand companies out there, but in this tutorial, I’m going to demonstrate the process of setting up a POD store using Printful.
This is one of the best-known and most reliable apps you can use for print-on-demand — and significantly, it’s free to use. I’ve used it in the past to create a lot of items, including framed prints, canvas prints, mugs and hoodies (and I’ve generally been pleased with the results).
As for the online store part, to create one of these you’re going to need an ecommerce platform. I’m going to suggest using Shopify here, because it’s powerful but still easy for new merchants to use, and it integrates really well with Printful.
In the rest of this guide, I’m going to show you how to connect Printful and Shopify and get your new POD business off the ground. And then I’m going to give you some tips on how to grow it.
So if you’d like to follow along, the first thing to do is to sign up for Printful and Shopify accounts — you can do this for free using the links below.
Once you’ve signed up for both, it’s time to connect them. Let’s do that now.
3. Install the Printful app in Shopify
Once you’ve got signed up to both Printful and Shopify, log into Shopify and then click the “Apps” link, which you’ll find at the bottom-left hand side of the dashboard.
This opens up a search box at the top of the screen. Enter ‘Printful’ into the box provided and hit return on your keyboard.
This will take you to the Printful app in the Shopify app store — click ‘Install’ to add it to your Shopify store.
4. Connect your Printful and Shopify accounts
Once the Printful app has installed successfully on your Shopify store, you’ll be asked if you already have a Printful account. Simply click the ‘Yes, sign in’ button, and then authorize the connection between your Shopify and Printful accounts.
Once that’s done, it’s time for the fun, creative part — creating some products.
5. Design your products
To start creating products in Printful, log into the platform and click the ‘Add Product’ option.
Select the product you want to create by using the search box and filters provided, and when you’ve found the one you want to customize, click on it to start the customization process.
This takes you to Printful’s product designer tool — you use this to create custom products. With this tool you can:
- define the print process for your product
- upload any artwork files
- make use of clip art
- apply effects to text
Once you’re happy with how your product looks, Printful will lead you through some key steps that need to be completed before you add it to your Shopify store.
These involve:
- adding mock-ups to your product
- adding a product description
- deciding on shipping options
- setting product prices.
At the end of this process, you’ll see a ‘Submit to store’ button at the bottom of the Product Designer. Click on this button to instantly add your product — along with its images, product description and pricing information — to your Shopify store.
If you want to change anything, you can just return to the product information in Printful from where you have two options — you can either edit your product details further in the Printful backend or over in your Shopify store’s admin dashboard.
6. Set up your Printful wallet
Before you start accepting payments for goods, you should set up your Printful wallet. This is a prepaid balance that Printful uses to charge you for fulfilling orders — it covers the cost of producing, packing and shipping any products ordered via your store.
When someone buys from your Shopify store, the money goes to you. Then, Printful handles the order — and deducts its fulfillment cost from your wallet.
To set your wallet up:
- Log into Printful.
- Go to the ‘Billing’ section.
- Click on ‘Printful Wallet.’
Once this is done, you can add funds to your wallet using a credit card, PayPal or Apple Pay, and enable automatic top-ups.
(I strongly recommend enabling automatic top-ups — doing so ensures that you’re never in a position where Printful doesn’t have enough funds available to fulfill your orders.)
OK, so now you’ve set up a print on demand Shopify store! Below you’ll find my cheatsheet on how to make a success of it.
How to ensure your POD business is a success — cheatsheet
- Sell the right products
As I mentioned earlier, with the print on demand model, finding the right niche is crucial. It’s essential to choose products that align with your brand and resonate with your target audience. Research your market, see what’s trending and always consider your potential customers’ needs and preferences when deciding what to sell. - Choose the right tools
There are lots of POD and ecommerce solutions available, but not all are created equal. We generally recommend using Printful or Printify as your POD solution; to build your own ecommerce store, we’d suggest going with Shopify. These are all easy-to-use, market-leading solutions. - Create high quality designs
With POD, your designs are ultimately what will set you apart from the competition, and are key to the creation of a profitable business. Invest time in creating a product line with creations that are unique, attractive and high-quality in nature. If you’re not a designer yourself, consider hiring a professional graphic designer to work on them. - Order sample products before selling them
Always order samples of a product before you start selling it. This will allow you to check the product quality, print quality and overall look and feel. - Test the end-to-end sales process
It’s really important to test the whole end-to-end sales process. Run some test orders for your products through your store and check that you are 100% happy with the store’s look and feel, its checkout, the condition your products arrive in and the fulfillment process in general. - Understand your costs and profit margins
With a print-on-demand business, it’s vital to fully understand your costs and pricing structure — otherwise you won’t maximize profits (or even make one at all!). Factor in all costs, including the cost of goods, printing, shipping fees and taxes. If you end up dealing with very thin margins, or selling products at a ridiculously high price point, it might be time to think again about your product choices. - Learn how to promote your POD products
To build a successful POD business, you’re going to need to know how to promote it. Resources that might help you with your marketing efforts include our guide to keyword research, our SEO tips and our content marketing tutorial.
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