starting print on demand business

Tips for Starting a Print-On-Demand Business on Shopify from Scratch

Interested in successively owning and starting a business of Print-on-Demand business on Shopify? There are several success stories of Print on Demand businesses and the number of people succeeding every day keeps on growing! Want to join in and have your very own success story? Stay Tuned!

This Print-on-Demand article will provide you with a step-by-step guide on starting your own Print on Demand Business on Shopify. The guide includes all the significant points you need to keep in mind before starting your business, from selecting a print-on-demand service to designing your products and the shipping strategy, including some tips! 

Following this article, you can easily make a living out of your business and have your very own Print-on-Demand success story.

What is Print on Demand?

starting print on demand business

In a Print on Demand (or POD) business, the product is created after the customers place an order. A Print on Demand service provides businesses with the financial liberty to discover new revenue-generating opportunities without the risk of purchasing merchandise. A Print on Demand business typically has no significant upfront costs and no stock gathering dust in a warehouse with a skyrocketing rental. Print on demand is very popular in the dropshipping business.

Print on Demand on Shopify business is not just a business model for books; it is also an excellent notion for traders who have brilliant T-shirts, phone cases, stickers, apparel, towels, or mugs-related ideas and want to sell them to customers online. As a seller, you only have to be concerned about the designing and selling of the product. Once a sale is made, your POD provider will take over for you, print your idea, ship it to the customer, and you get to enjoy the profit!

A Print on Demand business, without any difficulty, integrates with successful e-commerce platforms like Shopify to form a stress-free workflow. With the help of Shopify, entrepreneurs can own and run a profitable business and earn a high income. They can also easily grow their business, marketing, and sales.

Step-by-Step Guide for Starting a Print-On-Demand Business on Shopify from Scratch

Step 1: Sign Up On Shopify

starting print on demand business

Setting up a Shopify store is quite simple as the site is user-friendly!

  •  Enter the required details (name, contact number, address, city, country) and then click on the “start free trial” button. Make sure the name of your store is unique! 
  • After signing up, you will now be required to customize your store! You can upload your products and set up the payment methods.
  • After that, you will now be required to pick a theme for your store. You can also change the colors according to your preference.
  • While adding your products, make sure you add as many details as possible about your product, including the name, description, and URL. Make sure you click on “Save Product” after making any changes.
  • After adding the products, you now have to set up payment gateways, which allow you to receive payment from your store’s customers.
  • Your store is now ready to go live. Congratulations! After the first step, you are now one step closer to having your very own successful business.

Step 2: Select a Print-On-Demand Service

After setting up your Shopify account, you now need to select a Print on Demand service provider. Make sure the provider you pick provides quick service to your customers!

Following are some POD providers that you can pick from:

  • Printful: It provides various products to be customized, including T-shirts, apparel, hoodies, phone cases, mugs, jewellery, and more! They provide worldwide shipping with great value for the price. 
  • Lulu Xpress: It is effortless to use. Lulu has a variety of options to pick from; whether you want a hardcover or spiral, they’ve got you covered! Their service is speedy, and your books can be delivered to 150+ countries
  • Gooten: Gooten offers built-in integration for Shopify. They provide more than 140 products that can be customized, including T-shirts, umbrellas, travel bags, dog beds, accessory pouches, and more. 
  • Printify: Printify has integration for Shopify. It has a massive variety of products that can be customized, with more than 250 products! Including T-shirts, apparel, swimwear, and footwear. They also offer custom accessories, including jewellery, socks, hats, handbags, and more.

Step 3: Find Design Ideas and Designers

You can find creative design ideas and designers anywhere, especially freelance platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and other social media platforms like Instagram. Make sure to hire a designer who has done similar projects before. 

If you’re using a Freelance website, post the job there, and within a few hours, you will find many proposals. Choose the right candidate with relevant expertise. 

Tip: Make sure you order samples before placing a big order! You have to make sure that the actual products look and feel as you intended.

Step 4: Designing Your Products

Designing your products is perhaps one of the most essential characteristics of having your Print on Demand on Shopify business. To create your products, you have three options: 

  • Option 1: Design your products! If you have a design idea, make it come true using Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, PicsArt, Canva, and other editing software/websites. This option can be time-taking.
  • Option 2: If you’re not creative enough, you can pay someone to design! This option can be quite expensive as good designs require good designers. 
  • Option 3: Buy ready-made designs! This is the best option amongst the three. Make sure you know your target market and buy the designs according to what they would prefer.

Designhill.com and buytshirtdesigns.net are a couple of places you could begin your design hunt!

Tip: Create mockups for your products! A mockup is a realistic representation of what your product will look like. Many mockup tools are available online, including, Adobe XD, Mockplus, Moqups, Free Device Mockups, Fluid UI, and more!

Step 5: Step Up Social Media Accounts

According to Statista, approximately 3.1 billion people will start using social media in 2021 worldwide. Thus, setting up a social media account for your business is vital as it helps to reach more clients, which then helps your store grow!

You can market your Print on Demand on Shopify business efficiently on social media as it is cheaper than traditional marketing.  Ensure that you set up an account for your business on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Tip: To make marketing easier, find your niche! To find your niche, identify the products you will be dealing in, conduct research regarding the potential target market, determine your niche’s profitability, and test marketing!

Step 6: Promote Your Business

Facebook and Instagram are a fantastic platform for advertising and can help you reach your potential customers easily! Make sure you use the right keyword and hashtags in your content. Also, make sure that your content is unique and continually advertise your best content!

Other than that, set up a budget for advertising. You have total control over your advertisement, and you can pause or stop your campaign if you feel that your budget is not being allocated accurately.

Step 7: Scale Your Business

Scaling your business means growing your business. Once you find a formula that works for your Print on Demand on Shopify business, the idea is to scale it up to work on a bigger scale; thus, gaining more profit using the same formula.

For example, if you have designed a creative shirt with a quote on it and it sells well. If you are selling 10 T-shirts a week; you should be able to sell 50+ shirts in the future. You can also sell the quote on other products (e.g. mugs, backpacks, etc.).

Tip: To grow your business further, make sure you have a shipping strategy! First of all, choose the best shipping service provider and evaluate the options available. Also, assess whether you will be shipping internationally and keep tracking your current demand and analytics.

How to Scale Your Print on Demand Shopify Business

To scale your business of Print on Demand on Shopify, following the following scaling tactics:

Enable Various Features

Business owners enable various social media features via Shopify, including a “buy” button to further their social media marketing.  Nowadays, store owners add a buy option for their Print on Demand Shopify business on different platforms. Thus, when customers come across your posts, they’ll get an option to purchase the product.

Have a Multilingual Store

If you want to attract international customers along with local customers, have a multilingual store! Having a multilingual store can attract customers as they will easily understand the product descriptions and blog posts. After translating, use applications like Langify to implement multiple languages on your Shopify store.

Currency and pricing

Although Shopify does not permit customers to check out and pay in their local currency, you can still display prices in other currencies. If you’re showing prices in your local currency, the customers will likely leave the website to check the currency’s price manually.

Conclusion

In a Print on Demand (or POD) business, the product is created after the customers place an order. To start your business of Print on Demand on Shopify, set up a Shopify account, select a print-on-demand service, design your products or find design ideas/designers, step up social media accounts, promote your business, and scale it. To scale your print on demand business on Shopify, enable various features, have a multilingual store, and display prices in different currencies.

Let us know if you have any queries or questions regarding starting a Shopify store from scratch! We always appreciate your concerns and ready to help you set up your store.

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