Should I Use Print on Demand for my Product Shop?

Our first taste of entrepreneurship was when we launched our own greeting card shops. We spent hours packing orders, printing, & shipping and it felt like we were wasting our time that should’ve been spent creating.

That’s why we wanted to talk to you about Print on Demand sites and if they’d work for your own product line!

When we had our product lines, we were printing most of our products ourselves using our at-home printers and made products we were capable of fulfilling ourselves. It required more work upfront, but it kept our costs low as we grew our businesses.

At the time, Print on Demand shops & drop-shipping websites weren’t as prevalent as they are today.

Now that it’s super accessible, let’s dive into the pros & cons of using this model for your own product shop!

Print on Demand

Print on Demand is pretty self-explanatory. Typically, you’ll upload your design(s) to whatever POD platform you’re using (sites like Society 6, Redbubble, or Spoonflower), and the product is only produced in physical form when a customer purchases it.

AKA- you’ll no longer have to produce these products in-house and hold all of the inventory.

Print on Demand sites are exciting because they have a ton of product options that you can add your work to. Think coffee mugs to bedding, wallpaper, and all sorts of clothing items that can have your design printed with a click of a button.

Another advantage is that POD sites take care of the packaging and shipping for you as well. However, you do lose the capability of adding those personal touches when shipping off the order!

If you go the route of using a POD site, you’ll find your profit margins are pretty low than when you were buying your own inventory.

POD sites require two parties to profit, and. they’re doing a ton of the work (so you don’t have to), so they typically take a large majority of the money made.

Another disadvantage of print-on-demand sites is that you lose control of your customer experience, and you don’t have access to them for future sales or future email marketing. Which makes it hard to build a strong relationship with your customers.

Is it possible to have a successful print-on-demand shop?

100% definitely! But it still requires a lot of hard work. If this model doesn’t sound like the right fit for you, then let’s talk about another option! DROP SHIPPING!

We go over drop shipping in detail over on the video linked below!