Print On Demand World | The Ecommerce Guide For Beginners

In recent years, the demand for printed items has soared, involving not only t-shirts but many other products like leggings, hats, pants, socks, pillows, and mugs. All the actors involved in the Print On Demand industry, compete every day against each other to conquer a consistent slice of the pie. To help narrow your list of potential provider, we will give you our selection of the best Print On Demand companies out there: PrintfulPrintifySPODTeespringRedbubbleZazzleApliiq Print On DemandT-PopTeelaunchAOP+ Easy Print on DemandCustomCatJetPrint: Print on ApplicationLulu xPress Printful Printful is the leader of the Print On Demand dropshipping industry (for more information about Print On Demand and Dropshipping, kindly refer to our article). Founded in 2013, it has established its presence in the USA, Europe, and worldwide with a dozen facilities. It's fully integrated with many e-commerce platforms of the caliber of Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, and BigCommerce. Once connected, all the orders are automatically sent to Printful, which will manufacture and ship the products to the customer. Considering production times (within two to five business days), standard shipping to the US or Europe takes a further three to four days and costs $3.99. Their printing options space between DTG (“Direct to Garment”), sublimation, cut and sew, and embroidery, according to the chosen provider and the original product. You can also add different tags to the package and supplement inserts for a more unique customer experience. Printful doesn’t require monthly fees or order minimums. Custom items could be more expensive compared to other solutions, but that’s a price you’re willing to pay for such quality and reliable service provided. However, for beginners, it could represent a problem. Printify Printify is a Print On Demand company founded in Riga, Latvia, in 2015 (for more European providers, we wrote a great overview here!). Specialized in the production of T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, bags, decor, stickers, and much more, it operates mainly as a B2B marketplace, connecting e-commerce stores and manufacturers' services. Their strength’s on their product catalog, which is among the broadest for variety and the cheapest for price. Regarding this point, Printify offers the lowest price for many products and that could be an important point especially for newcomers in Print On Demand. Like Printful, printing options are Direct to Garment, sublimation, cut and sew, and embroidery. They provide unlimited order fulfillment, billing, and shipping, but not marketing and branding which is totally on your shoulder. Their packages provide three solutions: Free: $0/month, up to 5 stores per account and unlimited designsPremium: $29/month, up to 10 stores per account and unlimited designsEnterprise: unlimited stores per account and unlimited designs The free version is for newcomers in the Print On Demand industry, who just want to test their product on the market. For navigated sellers, we would recommend subscribing to the premium version. Printify is currently used by thousands of suppliers due to its global network of services throughout Germany, the US, China, the UK, and Australia. SPOD SPOD is a Print On Demand company owned by Spreadshirt founded in Leipzig (Saxony) in 2002. Their trademark is the fast processing time: within 48 hours since the order is received until the final shipping. That has increased, over the years, the customer confidence in their services, allowing them to become a pillar in the print-on-demand industry. They may not provide a broad range of products, but their prices are cheaper than others and can shift along with the volume of sales. That could be extremely effective if you implement upselling and cross-selling strategies. Shipping generally costs $3,57 within 3 to 8 days for domestic orders. For more details, however, you could check their calculator on the website. The main printing options available are DTG, sublimation, and digital transfer. SPOD is recommended for beginners who are looking for fast, reliable service, a user-friendly interface, and low prices, especially for bulk orders. Teespring Teespring is a Print On Demand platform founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco. With over 35 million products sold across the globe, they’re one of the leading creator commerce platforms in the world. Their platform is user-friendly, it’s quite easy to upload designs and sell products no matter if you’re a professional or not. Their catalog isn’t limited at all: the range goes from apparel to artwork and home decor. Once you receive the order, Teespring will take care of the fulfillment, shipping, and customer service. Their distribution channels cover 180 countries, with delivery times varying from 2-5 business days for fast shipping up to 10-13 business days for standard one and international orders. A great feature of Teespring is their Boosted Network, which makes you integrate your storefront with Shopify and other e-commerce platforms. And that’s important if you’re willing to offer Print On Demand products next to dropshipping ones. Redbubble Redbubble is a Print On Demand company based in Australia and founded in 2006. Their marketplace hosts millions of artists every day, whose creative designs fascinate customers all around the world. It’s one of the main players in the Print On Demand industry and a well-used platform by independent artists. A huge pro of Redbubble is its user experience: the website is easy to navigate, the creation process just takes a few clicks, as the publishing one. Really useful is the feature that makes you duplicate the same settings used for another product. It can literally save your time. The learning curve it’s not steep at all, both buyers and sellers can benefit from a clear help center, and also their customer center is really supportive via chat or email. In Redbubble you multiple variants of multiple products: men/women/kids clothing, stickers, home décor, wall art (please check The Best Places Where to Buy Wall Art Online for Cheap), device cases, bags, and much more. Your order will be processed and shipped within 24-48 hours, and that’s a huge boost for your customer’s experience. Zazzle Launched in 2005 as a Silicon Valley startup, Zazzle has quickly become a leading marketplace with multiple offices and manufacturing facilities worldwide. Their platform is thought for designers, creators, associates, and every creative individual willing to compete in the Print On Demand business. Zazzle offers incredible customized solutions (especially related to home decors, as we discussed here), spanning over 1300 products, for the best shopping experience possible. Through their marketplace, you can get in touch with great designers who can sell you artworks and quality templates for your tastes. The exposure is guaranteed, as the website receives around 30 million visitors every single month. Furthermore, Zazzle lets you not only sell your products but also lets sellers reuse your designs as their own for a royalty fee, that you can set manually on the dashboard. Like the other marketplaces mentioned before, Zazzle will take care of manufacturing, shipping, and customer services. The only task upon you is the account opening and the store creation. Apliiq Print On Demand Based in Los Angeles, Apliiq is a Print On Demand company that offers a broad variety of customized products, combining high-quality designs and an easy interface. Their marketplace provides the best discounts if you’re planning to sell in bulk, almost the same prices you can find in wholesale shops (for an order of 10 items you can get a 20% discount). They offer a premium plan of $100 per year, which includes even the possibility to sew the custom woven fabric onto the texture of your items, making them really unique. The order takes usually 5-7 days to be processed and delivered; fees start from $3.99 for US countries, getting higher for international shipping. Printing options available are Direct to Garment, sublimation, cut and sew, and embroidery. A badge of Apliiq is the possibility to apply custom patches and tags to your products. You can even make further customization, like creating pockets and other embellishments for your clothing. We would recommend Apliiq to anyone willing to take their business to a higher level, in terms of quality and quantity, especially if you’re planning to order in bulk for getting lower prices. T-Pop T-Pop is a European Print On Demand service based in Nimes, France. Their main focus is on clothes and accessories, with the possibility to incorporate your brand design in the inside labels of the product processing. That’s a high-level feature that makes your item way more professional than others. That level of customization is only possible starting from an average sales volume of 100 items per month (plus a fee of €2,50). In T-Pop the main commitment is to take care of the environment. You won’t find in their packages any sign of plastic but only 100% recycled paper. All the supply chain has become extremely sustainable during the years and that’s a remarkable achievement worth to be noticed. Being based in Europe, shipping orders to USA countries may arrive in 5 to 10 working days, while local orders are shipped regularly in 2-3 days. Printing options provided are DTG for cotton materials and sublimation dye for other accessories. If you’re a European-based user, T-Pop is definitely a great option for you, due to the reliability of their service and the sustainability of their supply chain. Teelaunch Teelaunch is a Print On Demand provider founded in 2013 and based in Sioux Falls (SD). It excels for the quality of the mockup generator, which lets you create highly professional images that you can use to boost your brand awareness. Lifestyle photos are perfect for your marketing strategy, customers most likely prefer these to random pictures of t-shirts. Teelaunch provides everything you need at a competitive price, with reliable customer support that drives you through the creation of your catalog. Shipping usually takes from 3 to 6 business days, wherever in the US or European countries, with a fee calculated by the destination and the type of product delivered. Printing options vary from laser etching, Direct to garment, to cut and sew for clothing. We recommend Teelaunch to those seeking to create a premium fashion catalog at a competitive price, as you can easily advertise it through socials using their high-quality lifestyle photos. AOP+ Easy Print on Demand AOP+ bases its service on a user-friendly interface, that lets you upload fastly your design and customize the product you want to choose. So it’s perfect if you want to launch quickly your store and test your designs on different products. AOP+ is an easy and smart solution for newcomers, due to their free plan which includes all the necessary tools for your catalog. However, if you want to get further promotions (up to 10% discounts off) and advanced customization options, the premium plan is more recommended. Costs shift from $11.99 to $19.99, monthly payment, depending on the features you want to add. Processing the order takes usually 3 to 5 days plus others 3 days for delivery in US territory. Fees can vary from order to order; exact rates are published on their website. CustomCat CustomCat, a Detroit-based fulfillment, has a big role in the Print On Demand industry. Their catalog is one of the biggest available, with over 550 products on the list. The production time is on average and the prices are in line with other competitors. However, discounts on your chart can be applied if you subscribe to the premium plan at 30$ per month (estimated fees of $3.50 for mugs and $7 for tees, among the lowest in the market right now). Their design tool is quite basic, which is fine for beginners who are not looking for complex designs. Orders are usually shipped within 2-3 working days (inside the US) and within 7-15 days (overseas). Costs range from $4.99 for domestic orders to $7.50 for international ones, with supplements for additional items ($1.5-$5.95). Sublimation, embroidery, DTG, and 3D dye diffusion are the main printing options provided. CustomCat is recommended for broad catalog stores, due to the wide range of choices of customized products available in their marketplace. JetPrint: Print on Application JetPrint is based in San Francisco and it’s specialized in print-on-demand technology applied to a specific category: watches. That’s right! If you want to customize your ideal watch with various designs, sleeves, and colors JetPrint is the right service for you. A great plus is offered by the free shipping costs, for both domestic and overseas orders, which is awesome if you want to implement a marketing strategy more appealing to international customers. Mockup photos of the watch are provided in bulk once you finish generating your design; moreover, it’s possible to add other products to your catalogs such as accessories and home decor features. Watches are provided in several models, and all of them can be customized with different colors and straps. Shipping times take from 3 to 5 business days for domestic orders and a couple of weeks for overseas ones. Being completely free, shouldn’t be a problem but, in case, fast shipping solutions are provided for an extra fee. If your idea is to run a dropshipping store based on personalized watches, JetPrint should be the right supplier for you. Lulu xPress Lulu xPress is a branch of Lulu, a UK self-publishing website, and it’s specialized in Print On Demand. They offer a broad catalog of customized products, specific for self-publishing (from calendars to books), which is great for content creators like authors, artists, and photographers, who have an established audience, and want to promote themselves. Apart from the custom products, Lulu helps you to convert digital content into a physical object without necessarily pass through traditional publishing systems or bigger distribution channels, such as Amazon and book shops. They ship to over 150 countries worldwide within 3 to 5 business days. Fees usually start from $3.99 for domestic orders. Hower on their website a pricing calculator is provided. For books and similar items, it’s possible to choose different types of materials, sizes, and colors according to the printing options available. Lulu xPress is integrated into Amazon and other providers (Lulu itself) which is great if you want to reach their marketplace and increase your visibility. Conclusion What makes Print On Demand so appealing is the possibility to run a business with low risks and limited investments. But it’s important to choose a reliable fulfillment that takes care of all aspects concerning the supply chain and provides the best quality materials possible. As your main task is to create a valid brand, your supplier has its responsibility in this process and in your future success. Now it’s time to choose the right one for you and to start creating your catalog. Let the journey begins!

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