We all know how dropshipping is so popular among millennial entrepreneurs, as it let them sell every kind of product worldwide just from home and can be fully-integrated with Print On Demand services, like Printful.
In this article, we will talk about some Printful alternatives that you can use for your Shopify store. Here are our recommended ones:
What About Printful?
Printful is a Print On Demand service fully-integrated to Shopify, that processes and ships custom products for you, as you receive the order from your store.
It’s one of the biggest fulfillment in the market right now and it’s completely free, no monthly payment is charged.
Printful takes care of the whole supply chain for you, until the final delivery.
This is why is the best choice for many dropshipping users, but today they are some really good alternatives to it.
Printify
Printify has worked a lot to boost its range of high-quality products at convenient prices, and today covers definitely a big role in the Print On Demand industry.
It is estimated that the current number of products offered is 235, which is insane!
The platform shows the result of the customization process and how the product looks like with your design printed on it.
Then, you need to connect your Shopify store to Prinitfy for it to appear in your catalog.
And that’s it! Your product will be automatically processed as the customer purchases it.
Printify distributes in different areas worldwide, including China, the United States, and Europe.
It offers three pricing options:
- Free = unlimited themes, mockup generator, and 24/7 assistance;
- Standard = for $29 per month, extra 20% discount on all custom products;
- Business = flexible fee according to the chosen features (like custom API and a personal account manager).
In addition, Printify can be used along with eBay, Etsy, and Woocommerce, so wherever you start, it’s still a great solution.
SPOD
SPOD claims to be the best partner for Shopify users as it offers amazing customized products and various printing solutions.
They will do everything for you; just send them your design and they will choose the most fitting product for you.
It’s incredible their efficiency as they have printed over 35 million products since their foundation (in 2002), and currently have 45 printing machines in their establishments, full-time working.
The production is centered on three key points: high-quality, short labor times (shipping within 48 hours), and low fees (0,5% of return rate).
If you are going to sell in bulk, you can get even higher margins on your sales.
SPOD has a transparent cost policy, which means you can see clearly from the website a list of all the commissions applied to your products.
You can ship your products in three ways (delivery time):
- Standard = 3-9 days
- Premium = 3-5 days
- Express = 2-3 days
Of course, the price can vary considering these options, the total order value, and the type of product sold.
However, every detail is shown clearly before, so you won’t have surprises!
With Order-Desk integration, SPOD can import the orders you receive to its fulfillment, so they can be processed and finally shipped to the customer.
Maybe this extra integration is a little bit tricky for newcomers compared to other Print On Demand services, but it works perfectly with Shopify and it’s efficient as well.
Society6
Society6 it’s the place where emerging artists can showcase their artworks and be in touch with other colleagues.
The platform put together both beginner and professional designers and their unique creations, from wall arts to clothes, from home decors to accessories.
Once you have subscribed, you can upload manually artworks to your storefront.
Society6 will take care of everything else including manufacturing and shipping to the final customer.
As a plus, it actually pays attention to support all the artists involved, lowering the fees, and dealing with all administrative procedures behind.
The role of the community is emphasized in Society6, as the users can interact between them, sharing ideas and thoughts with each other.
If you’re looking for this type of environment to develop your artworks, this is the place for you.
Teespring
Teespring offers everything you need to customize your products and integrate your e-commerce business with Print On Demand services.
In a few steps, you can easily accede to your account and upload your designs. Once the storefront is created we suggest using their marketing tools for the online advertisement.
In particular, Teespring provides the so-called “boosted network”, a system that lets each seller get more visibility from the first moments of their activity.
We all know how difficult is to start selling products, this is why this system works for you and gives the visibility you need for a short period of time until you won’t come up with the first sales.
Furthermore, Teespring will take care of the order processing, from the production to the final shipping, while you just keep uploading design after design.
Full-time customer service is available for every problem that may incur.
We truly recommend this platform for t-shirts centered stores, as it provides a wide range of customized options.
Teespring is integrated with Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Twitter, Google, Etsy, and other marketplaces in the world.
Redbubble
Redbubble is a worldwide famous marketplace where creators can upload their artworks and reach millions of customers everywhere.
The customization options are unlimited. They provide an incredible variety of products, way more than the average offered by other providers.
We truly suggest using it, if your goal is to create different product categories for each design, clothing, accessories, home decors, and so on.
Like many other Print On Demand services, Redbubble does everything else but creating your designs and promote them.
However, the creation process is much quicker thanks to the “Copy an existing work” function, which makes you duplicate an existing product settings to a new one, and then you just have to switch design and publish it.
Margins start at 20%, but you can modify them manually through the setting page.
Redbubble sets a basic fee for its services (up to 17% of your sales) and leaves you complete control of the rest.
If you want to get more than a 20% margin, you could set higher prices. But we recommend doing that once you have established a consistent flow of sales at normal prices.
Spreadshirt
Spreadshirt provides a user-friendly interface to facilitate the design creation, without incurring third-party tools.
In their marketplace are shown a ton of designs posted by the creators’ community, which you can use as your own simply by paying a fee to the artist.
Another feature provided is Personalization, which lets you optimize existing products with extra clip arts and custom quotes, and get your own version.
Alternatively, you could even create your design from scratch, through their user-friendly interface.
Spreadshirt does everything left for you, from fulfillment to the shipping and the customer service, and it’s incorporated with a bunch of different marketplaces, like Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, and much more.
Teefury
Teefury bases its printing service on photographs applied to custom T-shirts.
If you are an artist or you aim to become one, it’s tailor-made for you.
TeeFury pays its creators $1 for each tee purchased. The underlying concept behind is to provide a new platform for emerging creators, which can share designs and earn royalties for every sale received.
TeeFury it’s quite different from common Print On Demand marketplaces, and it’s made for those who stand out for creativity.
If you want to join them, you have to accept their fair use guidelines, as your images must not break copyright rules and have to present a minimum size.
Spreadshop
Spreadshop provides the maximum support to sellers during their store building.
They provide great features that make you customize your store settings according to your brand identity and your tastes.
Once created your catalog, they will run the whole supply chain for you: payments, production, shipping, and fulfillment.
Spreadshop incentives sellers with the highest margin possible, up to 20% for each sale, plus further bonuses if you sell in bulk.
Their prices are among the best in the market right now.
There is no monthly subscription to pay upfront, all the costs are included in a percentage fee of your sales, up to 40%, which is reasonable considering what they offer.
Payments happen once a month and include all the sales made during the period of time.
Spreadshop also allows you to advertise your products through their promotional campaigns, and that’s beneficial if you want to grow your customer base.
Summary
In this article, we have discovered the main alternatives to Printful, the biggest player in the market right now.
So it’s upon you if you prefer to rely on the solid service offered by Printful or discover new features from its competitors.
Maybe if you are an artist you have already figured out which options best fit your needs.
However, no platforms will substitute your effort in creating great designs, which is the main task on your shoulder.
But of course, it can help.
Are you ready to create your Print On Demand products?
