The pros of POD far outweigh the cons. If you’re willing to put in the effort to marketing your business and designing your product, the path to success is a simple one. Below you’ll find all the advantages of a POD business but also its drawbacks and how to combat them.
Print on Demand - Advantages
✔ Minimal start up costs;
✔ The process it’s so easy that you can do it in your spare time or as a side business;
✔ No need to buy inventory upfront as your merchandise is created only after it has been ordered;
✔ You have control over product design. You can make it as unique as you want;
✔ Extensive product range. The low-risk nature of POD allows you to come up with as many designs as you like;
✔ You can easily experiment with different products and designs. If a design on a tshirt won’t sell, put it on other products. If that design won’t sell on any products, experiment with other designs!
✔ You can accept custom design orders from customers. You may create a design where you can list it as customizable and add the customer’s name, birthdate or anything that would go well with your specific design;
✔ Easy to establish your brand. All POD suppliers will offer you white label. This means that you can customize your products and packaging with your branding. Your customer won’t receive any sign that the item is coming from a third party service;
✔ Free mockup images. Most of the POD suppliers offer a mock-up generator that will get you an image that shows how a product looks with your design on it. You can further modify the image background into your Photo Editing software or get even more fancy photos for your listings from other mock-up apps;
✔ You can focus on creating designs for the products instead of logistics;
✔ You can automate the whole process if you integrate it with the platform you’re selling on. The POD supplier will take care of everything for you once you get the order. You eventually only need to contact the customer if it’s needed;
✔ Lots of competing print on demand companies to choose from (see here)
Overcome the Drawbacks
❌ Shipping costs can be high. Depending on where the printing company is based and where your customer lives the cost of shipping can add up.
✔ Choose a POD supplier that has the fulfillment center located in the country/region you’re having most of your customers from; domestic shipping is always cheaper and faster
❌Limited products to offer. Due to the intricacies of the printing process, most printing companies will offer a limited range.
✔ The upside of this is that it’s usually a limited range of high quality and you always can come up with a new and unique design
❌ It requires design skills.
✔ Simple text based designs won’t require much and can easily be made with friendly browser based apps. (see this)
❌ Stock shortages. You’re not the only one trying to give the people what they want. Items can sometimes suffer from sudden stock shortages.
✔ Most of the PODs will automatically notify you prior to getting out of stock for the products you have listed on your shop so that you can choose another supplier with a similar product until the one you’re using gets its stock back
❌ Lower margins.
✔ Depending on how you price them and how many you sell, profits gradually rise
❌ No real control over quality of the prints.
✔ You can always order samples before listing the product for sale and also read/watch tons of product reviews from other sellers.
❌Returns management may require more attention. Since you’re working with a third-party service, there’s more to consider when it comes to dealing with situations where your customers might want to return a product.
✔ Set up a return policy that goes hand-in-hand with your POD partner’s policy.
❌You’re trusting a third party. While it’s great that somebody processes and ships your orders, you’re still trusting a third party to act on your behalf. Any problems that might come up along the way will be your responsibility.
✔ 💯 Get yourself an Entrepreneurial Mindset! 😊 💯 ✔
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