1 – What is POD?
Print-on-demand (POD) is a form of dropshipping that allows you to sell customised products. You are responsible for designing, selecting the products to be printed, and placing them in the sales listing.
A third-party vendor prints and ships the products directly to your customers as orders come in.
POD has evolved beyond T-shirts, however. There is now a wide range of products, such as caps, phone cases, housewares, shoes and more.
One of the main advantages of POD is the low cost of entry. Most of POD ‘s services are free to join, and you only have to pay your suppliers when a customer places an order.
2 – How do I get started?
To make the POD process easy to understand, here are the steps involved:
- Create and set up your online store.
- Connect your online store to a POD supplier.
- List the products you want to sell in your online store.
- Orders placed in your on store, will be automatically routed to your POD supplier.
- Your POD supplier then prints the specified design on the selected product.
- The order is packaged by your POD supplier and shipped directly to the customer.
TIP: Create an outstanding but easy to navigate online store.
3 – Products you can sell with POD
When it comes to POD products, there are literally hundreds of options available. Some of the options are:
– Apparel: men’s and women’s clothing, including tops, hoodies, dresses, and shorts.
– Accessories: such as hats, bags, aprons, scarves, and socks.
– Miscellaneous items: including printed canvas, posters, framed prints, and tapestries.
– Homeware: pillows, mugs, and towels.
– Tech accessories: such as phone cases, speakers and pop sockets.
4 – Small guide to find the optimal POD supplier
One of the biggest advantages of print-on-demand is the speed of fulfilment it offers. If fulfilment takes minutes but shipping takes weeks, customers will still be disappointed with the service.
Therefore, keeping your customers happy is critical. It’s easier to keep a customer than to find a new one.
If you choose a POD supplier with good reviews and reliable customer service, you reduce stress and ensure satisfied customers who are likely to buy again. Additionally, POD’s business model relies heavily on technology that is still being fine-tuned. Therefore, the right technology must be in place to fulfil jobs as quickly as if they were already printed and ready available.
Consequently, it is important to look for a POD supplier that has state-of-the-art technology. Moreover, its service should be fast, high-quality, and sustainable.
Furthermore, talking about sustainability, it is a growing concern for customers. When done correctly, POD has the potential to be more sustainable than traditional printing methods. However, the sustainability of the products also depends on the materials used. Thus, by finding the right balance, you can meet market demands for quality products while keeping your customers satisfied.
TIP: Consider ordering some samples from time to time from your POD supplier. These samples will allow you to take promotional photos for your online stores while checking the overall quality of the product.
5 – More suggestions that can help
Achieving long-term success in the POD industry requires more than just awesome designs printed on different products. Take a look at these extra recommendations:
– First, choose a niche, such as soccer fans, coffee drinkers, or retro designs.
– Second, order samples – from time to time – to make sure your suppliers meet your quality standards.
– Third, consider the following tips for designing POD:
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- Use PNG or JPEG file formats.
- Consider the size of your design for each product you sell.
- Export design files with a resolution of 300 DPI to get high quality images.
- Write unique product descriptions that will help close sales and boost your store’s SEO strategy.
- Be original and avoid copyright and trademark infringement.
- Run advertising campaigns on social media platforms that are targeted to your audience’s interests.
6 – Final toughs
POD can be a great option for both e-commerce newbies and expert users who want to test a product before committing to large quantities.
The suggestions provided in this blogpost should simplify your job. However, your success will largely rely on the quality of your products and efficiency of your work.
7 – Wanna learn more?
By the way, have a look at our DTG printing online course for more info on DTG printing business and t-shirt design.
Also, you will find lots of useful information, for free, in our YouTube channel
8 – Even more learning with these DTGMerch online courses:
Check out this online course that might help you: How to Put Your Art on a t-shirt.
In this online course, we will talk about which file formats are suitable for the different t-shirt printing methods.
Also interesting are these other courses from us: Vectorise Procreate Art – Complete Guide to DTG – Free E-book Beginners Guide to DTG
And that’s about it!
Again, I hope you find the information useful.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me at hello@dtgmerch.com
Thank you for taking the time to read this blogpost, and we wish you all the best!
The DTGMerch Team