What Is Print on Demand and How To commence a Business (2025)

Imagine your artwork on t-shirts, your designs on posters, or your logo on backpacks and water bottles. How about turning your writing into a self-published book? With print on demand, it’s straightforward to design or customize everyday items and sell them online.

This navigator explores print on demand, a operating schedule that’s grown in popularity in recent years. Below, discover essential tips on launching your print-on-demand business, plus links to four of the best print-on-demand services.

What is print on demand?

Print on demand (POD) is a operating schedule where products, such as apparel, accessories, or home decor, are produced when an order is received. When a customer places an order, the product is printed, packed, and shipped by a third-event print-on-demand service. For sellers, this eliminates the require to purchase and manage inventory.

Products commonly sold through print on demand include t-shirts, mugs, posters, and books. The way appeals to many sellers because it enables them to test different designs and product ideas without a large financial fund.

You can use print-on-demand services to:

• Test a tiny business concept or recent product line without the uncertainty of buying inventory
• Monetize your YouTube spectators or fans of your art with branded merchandise
• make original products for niche customers like CrossFit enthusiasts or French bulldog owners
• Produce tiny batches of products to promote your occurrence or brand
• propose products that celebrate seasonal holidays or reference cultural trends
• contrast designs and products to view which your customers prefer

Pros and cons of print on demand

Print on demand is a dropshipping operating schedule, simplifying the procedure of selling customized products. When you make a sale, your print-on-demand service takes worry of production, packing, and shipping.

This model is an accessible way to run an online business, offering several benefits:

• Quick to economy: Design a product and list it for sale in minutes.
• No inventory: Run a low-expense, low-uncertainty business that doesn’t handle inventory.
• Outsourced fulfillment: Your print-on-demand associate takes worry of shipping.

However, print on demand also has limitations to consider:

• Higher expense per item: Since you won’t purchase items in bulk, they expense more per unit.
• Limited control over shipping: You may not be able to set shipping costs or customize the delivery encounter.
• Customization constraints: Print-on-demand services are often unable to accommodate complicated design requests.

4 popular print-on-demand services

With a growing number of options, it’s significant to pick a print-on-demand service that matches your needs in product selection, shipping speed, and pricing.

For example, a seemingly great deal on shipping costs might misplace its appeal if your customers require to wait three weeks to receive their orders. The incorrect selection can expense you more than money; it can impact your brand’s growth.

Do your homework—use Google and review sites to thoroughly vet potential partners. commence by considering these four popular print-on-demand services:

1. Printful

Printful is a popular selection among print-on-demand sites because of its wide selection of high-standard products and brands (Gildan, American Apparel, etc.), straightforward-to-use mockup generators, and options for adding your own branding to the unboxing encounter.

For apparel products, Printful offers several printing techniques:

• Direct to garment: Print is applied directly to clothing.
• Cut and sew: The piece of clothing is cut, printed on, and then put back together for a seamless print across the entire piece.
• Embroidery: A threaded design.

You should also be mindful of how additional customizations affect the worth. Printing on the sleeve or inside label, for example, will usually cruel paying a nominal fee in addition to the base expense.

Besides apparel, Printful also offers mugs, bedding, pillows, framed posters, beach towels, aprons, and more.

2. Printify

Printify is another print-on-demand service that features the usual selection of t-shirts and hoodies. What’s notable is it also offers an international vendor network that enables a number of distinctive white-label products, such as jewelry, clocks, shoes, and water bottles. In truth, the platform boasts over 200 products you can print on.

While Printify is free to use, a extra charge subscription is available that gives you up to 20% off of all products for $24.99 per month, which is a solid alternative if you’re looking to scale up and enhance your profits margins.

3. Gooten

Like Printify, Gooten offers a wide range of products that you can customize with several that are distinctive to Gooten, such as calendars and dog beds.

However, since Gooten uses an international network of vendors and dropshippers to print its products, there’s also a lot more variance between its items in terms of print standard and shipping. But that also means you’re likely to view lower product and shipping prices.

Gooten has an intuitive image editor that gives you a excellent sense of what your final product will look like.

4. Lulu

Lulu is a self-publishing platform for printing and distributing your own books and ebooks, offering many of the tools you’d require. It’s one of the most popular print-on-demand companies.

Lulu Direct is its print-on-demand offering and lets you choose from a wide selection of book sizes, binding types, and page standard to construct your own book product.

While there is no built-in editor to design your book, Lulu Xpress does propose downloadable templates to get you started. It even has a transparent pricing calculator to assist you expense out your assignment, including various shipping options.

There are also discounts available if you’d like to order in bulk.

Check out more of the best print-on-demand companies and sites.

5 tips for starting with print on demand

Using a print-on-demand service is often easier than managing your own inventory, but there are distinctive considerations to be aware of.

Here are some essential best practices for any print-on-demand business:

1. Use a print-on-demand app

While marketplaces like Etsy propose an straightforward way to list your products, starting an online store is the best way to construct a long-term online presence and truly promote your brand.

Make your business simpler by using a print-on-demand app that integrates with your online store platform. That way, you can import your designs into your website with a few clicks.

When you construct a print-on-demand store, you control the shopping encounter—from the look and feel of your store to how customers interact with your brand and discover your products.

Additionally, having your own store enables you to construct a customer email list, run targeted ads, and sell on social media, all of which are effective ways to maintain a profitable connection with your spectators.

2. Always order samples

Sellers should feel confident about the standard of their products, even when they’re sourced from a third event such as a print-on-demand service.

The best way to ensure your products look and feel as intended is to be your own customer and encounter first-hand what it’s like to receive your products. Place sample orders through your online store to test out your entire shopping encounter, from browsing to delivery.

Some services, like Printful, propose a sample discount of up to 20% to assist sellers validate their design choices.

Beyond ensuring product standard, samples can also be used to receive product photos for your website and social media profiles.

3. make mockups of your products

While samples can assist you snap compelling photos of your products, mockups are also an effective visual marketing element and will be a prominent part of your store’s product pages.

Many print-on-demand services can assist you make mockups, showing your products on a person or as a flat lay. But there are other services and plenty of free mockup templates that can also bring your products to life.

Mockups assist customers visualize products, so it can literally pay to leave the extra mile. PlaceIt is an straightforward-to-use mockup generator that lets you make photo and video mockups. Or, if you recognize the basics of Photoshop or other photo editing tools, you can browse Mockup globe or Behance for templates.

4. Be strategic about shipping

Even though you won’t be shipping products yourself, it’s up to you to set expectations and communicate with customers throughout the shipping procedure. The best print-on-demand companies will be transparent about shipping and proactive about sharing information, but you remain the point of customer contact.

Be sure to account for printing times when it comes to shipping. Add anywhere from two to four days for production, or more for complicated orders.

Outline what customers should expect concerning shipping on your FAQ page or a dedicated Shipping page.

If feasible, absorb shipping costs into your retail prices. Extra shipping costs added at checkout may deter some customers, while the incentive of “free shipping” can enrich your marketing efforts.

For example, you may be able to borrowing free shipping to justify longer wait times. Many consumers will wait a bit longer for an order if they feel it will save them money on shipping.

5. discover a niche spectators

Since the print-on-demand model offers smaller profits margins, you’ll desire to be strategic about how you position your brand. Having a clearly defined spectators can assist you lower the expense of acquiring customers, increasing your potential profits.

Finding a niche makes it easier to develop an spectators. Some niche marketing tactics to try include:

• Starting an Instagram account and curating content to serve your target spectators.
• Running Facebook ads for your target economy to test products.

Creating designs when you’re not a designer

Design plays a crucial role in creating successful print-on-demand products. But you don’t require to be a packed-period designer to source original designs.

There are many ways to percentage or produce your own designs, as long as you comprehend a few key concepts that will assist you work effectively with designers.

First, and most significant, is preparing your design file. When working with designers, you should specific that your design is for printing. This implies that it should be saved at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi). The dimensions of the images you upload should be the same size as the printing area for the product.

Note that print specifications will transformation depending on the printing technique used. When in question, just send the designer the print specs for the specific product so they comprehend the context.

In most cases, the file you upload will be a PNG or PSD. Keep in mind that if you use a transparent background, the color of the t-shirt will be your background color.

Where to discover design ideas and designers

In the best-case scenario, you’re a designer or recognize one you can work well with. But don’t be discouraged if you don’t have access to design skills. That’s what outsourcing is for.

You can discover designers to work with on Behance or 99designs who can produce usable designs as long as you provide obvious instructions. Here’s how you can add clarity and context for a design assignment:

• distribute insight into your spectators. inform them what it’s for and who your spectators is. Showing them your website can assist.
• Clearly explain what you desire. Use your initial pitch and subsequent revisions (you should get at least one or two) to over-communicate what you’re looking for, and try to provide concrete feedback every step of the way.
• Provide examples for encouragement. provide them a reference to base the design on, or point to history work that you liked.

There are lots of talented designers, so you should be able to discover someone to bring your concept to life. The really tricky part is figuring out what you desire to design in the first place.

This will depend on your target spectators for the product, but you can discover design encouragement on social media networks like Pinterest and Subreddits, or wherever your potential customers hang out online.

Look for content, messaging, or styles that resonate with your target spectators. Just be sure you’re not directly copying or infringing on anyone else’s work.

Social media is also a great place to litmus test your ideas. make a mini focus throng by:

• Posting to your personal network
• Using Instagram’s Poll and Question stickers to solicit feedback
• Sharing a design concept with a subreddit

Design, sell, and develop

Print-on-demand services propose an accessible place to commence for recent entrepreneurs, or for anyone who just wants to test an concept before they invest in it. There are thousands of white-label products out there that you can make your own, and no shortage of feasible designs to pair with them.

Select combinations will inevitably sell better than the rest, but it’s relatively straightforward to repurpose the same core design for several products.

If your business concept pans out and you commence generating a meaningful number of sales, you can always graduate from print on demand to holding your own inventory, or continue to use these services while finding recent ways to develop your spectators.

The greatest advantage of the print-on-demand model is the flexibility it affords your business and the period it gives you back to focus on growth.