To think that the print-on-demand market could reach a staggering $10.17 billion in 2024 leaves little room to doubt the popularity of this business format.
Without upfront inventory costs, the POD seems promising and appealing. But can you really start your POD business without cash?
It may seem daunting, but with the right strategies, it’s feasible.
Read on to find out how to start a print-on-demand business with our 7 actionable tips.
Let’s dive in!
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What Makes a POD Business So Appealing?
One of the primary reasons why POD businesses are so attractive is the low “barrier” to enter them.
💎 Unlike traditional manufacturing models that require a significant upfront investment in inventory, equipment, and storage, POD allows you to start with minimal financial risk.
Thus, you don’t need to buy large quantities of products in advance, as items get produced only when a customer orders.
💎 This flexibility allows you to:
- Test the market,
- Experiment with different product designs, and
- Quickly adapt to changing consumer preferences without the burden of excess inventory.
As a result, you can handle the increased demand by manufacturing and shipping products on an as-needed basis as your business grows.
💎 Another key aspect besides scalability and flexibility is product diversity and customization.
You can quickly and easily create a wide range of products, from apparel and accessories to home decor and promotional items, without the risk of overstocking or unsold inventory.
Thus, not only can you cater better to your target audience, but you can offer unique and personalized products.
How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business with No Money With These 7 Tips?
1. Choose the Right Niche
Selecting a profitable niche is essential for your POD business’s success. You should consider your interests, trends, and market demand.
Naturally, if you opt for more popular niches, it would be harder to break through since that market would be already saturated.
However, there are tools that can help you find the gaps in your niche and find low-competition subniches.
🔥 Tools to Get You Started:
1. Merch Informer — A handy tool that helps you get info about gaps in your niche. For example, if you want to start with T-shirts with pets, you can expect stiff competition.
With Merch Informer, you can get the list of all related entries showing current competition and gaps.
This way, you can more easily find profitable niche opportunities.
2. Sale Samurai — Conducts deep-dive research into what is currently trending, niches to get into, and how to track your competition.
It specifically aims at Etsy, so it is a valuable tool if you want to run your store on Etsy.
You can also use it as a search volume tool and analytics tool.
3. Pinterest Trends — Although Pinterest Trends doesn’t show you niche popularity based on Google algorithms, you can still get useful info about what people search and save on the platform.
4. Alura — This is yet another tool to help you if you want to start on Etsy.
It provides insights into product and keyword research to find high-demand but low-competition niches.
* All the tools we will cover are free or have Free Trials, so you can test them and see if they fit your needs.
2. Create Product Mockups
Creating eye-catching designs is a cornerstone of any print-on-demand business. Although you can use graphic design tools like Canva or Adobe to make your visuals, opting for mockup generators is more efficient.
Traditional graphic design tools either require a steeper learning curve or lack more customization options.
In addition, you have to upload all designs to your new online store manually. Furthermore, you have to manually create all color and design combos. How time-consuming is that?
Therefore, mockup generators can automate mockup creation and provide a larger number and more versatile templates you can customize further and achieve a more realistic touch.
💡ProTip:
Imagine you want to sell 50 designs on T-shirts, hoodies and caps in 4 different colors. That’s 600 mockup variations. And now imagine doing all of that manually.
🔥 Luckily, with Dynamic Mockups, an automated mockup generator tool, you can
- create mockups in bulk in only a few clicks by uploading multiple designs and color combinations and automatically turning them into mockup variations.
🔥 Furthermore, Dynamic Mockups allows for greater customization possibilities thanks to the Mockup API.
Thus, you can create mockups from your custom Photoshop Templates or by using Dynamic Mockup’s Free Mockup Library.
3. Choose a POD Supplier
Choosing the right print-on-demand supplier is critical, and for starters, you should look for suppliers that offer no upfront costs and handle production, storage, and shipping.
When choosing a supplier, pay attention to:
- Production times,
- Customer service,
- Shipping options, and
- Quality.
Most POD suppliers allow for pricing flexibility, enabling you to set your own profit margins.
Another tip is to look at suppliers that provide a wide range of products to choose from, so you can also produce more versatile products.
🔥 Tools to Get You Started:
1. Printify — One of the most popular POD suppliers that prints and delivers more than 950 products.
You can also choose from a global network of partner printers.
2. Printful — Also a top-rated supplier offering a wide range of products. It integrates with eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Etsy.
3. Teelaunch — A smaller player compared to the 2 above options, but a good choice if you cater to more unique products or jewelry.
The platform is easy to navigate and provides order-tracking options.
4. Opt for A Platform to Sell Your Products
Launching your online store doesn’t have to cost a fortune or at all.
Nonetheless, even if you start for free, you need to be on the right platform that hosts your niche and target audience.
This is why it is essential to check their capabilities, integrations with your POD supplier, fees, audience reach, intuitiveness, etc.
For starters, you may want to start on only one platform so you can better focus and gradually build your audience.
When it comes to selling platforms, you need to distinguish 2 major types: eCommerce platforms and Marketplaces.
Naturally, both groups have their unique advantages and drawbacks.
💎 eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce allow more customization than marketplaces.
💎 Marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, and eBay, cater to a large customer base and offer a great variety of products.
Where’s the catch?
💡 ProTip:
Did you know that with Dynamic Mockups you can sync mockups directly to Etsy and WooCommerce?
This way, you save time by cutting the manual download and upload process.
5. Promote Your Products
Even the most outstanding products don’t stand a chance if your target audience doesn’t know about them.
Luckily, you can leverage social media to boost your online presence. Similar to selling platforms, don’t overstretch to multiple social media channels at once.
Check where your audience is most active and engaged, and start from there.
Additional promoting strategies you can benefit from range from collaborating with influencers, email and content marketing, website optimization, etc.
🔥 Tools to Get You Started:
1. Modash — An influencer search tool for Instagram, TikTok & YouTube that has a 200M+ influencer database that you can filter by:
- Keywords in bio,
- Growth rate,
- Audience interests, etc.
2. Mailchimp — A robust email marketing tool that gives you access to Custom-coded email templates, advanced segmentation & reporting, automated messages, etc.
4. ChatGPT — A super popular AI text-generating tool that can help you write catchy slogans, product descriptions, etc., and design ideas in seconds.
Just make sure to check if your generated slogan has trademarks or copyrights. The last thing you want is to get flagged and have your account taken down.
6. Test Your POD Designs and Products
Before fully committing to a design or product, it’s crucial to thoroughly test them. Unfortunately, this step is often overlooked, but it can make all the difference in the success of your POD business.
- Use social media polls to check customer interest in your designs and avoid wasting time and resources on products your audience might not want.
- Ensure your designs are visually appealing and of high quality, and review your artwork, fonts, and overall layout to make sure they look polished.
- Test the physical product itself and order samples of your products, such as T-shirts, mugs, or tote bags, and evaluate the item’s quality, fit, and overall feel.
Also, pay close attention to details like the print quality, the durability of the materials, and how the product holds up to regular use.
If you’re worried about the cost, many POD suppliers also offer sample products at a discount
7. Monitor Performance and Adjust Strategies
Once your POD business is up and running, continuously monitor its performance. Leverage analytics tools to track sales, customer behavior, and website traffic.
Thus, pay attention to which products are performing well and which are not.
Afterward, leverage this data to adjust your marketing strategies, product offerings, or designs to align better with customer preferences.
🔥 Tools to Get You Started:
1. Google Analytics — Provides tools that analyze your customers’ interactions across devices and platforms so you can improve marketing ROI.
2. Woopra — Focuses on real-time customer analytics, mapping their journey across multiple channels at every stage in the sales funnel.
3. Triple Whale — Helps you track your return on ad spend across marketing channels, offering a free basic dashboard with data summaries, benchmarks, etc.
🎁 Bonus: 7 Additional Tips to Build Sustainable POD Business
Wrapping It Up
Starting any business is a daunting endeavor, especially since it can create a big dent in your probably already small budget.
The above tips and free tools should provide risk-free options to help you gradually build your brand, business, and audience.
Each step in your POD journey is of utmost importance, but one of the very first steps is creating high-quality product mockups.
They represent the first “touch-point” with your brand that can get you closer to your audience.
But how to create them easily and quickly and leverage their benefits to the max?
Enter, Dynamic Mockups!
How Can Dynamic Mockups Help You Start Your Print-on-Demand Business?
Dynamic Mockups provides tools to automate mockup creations and increase efficiency as you scale while reducing operational costs.
Thus, with our compact tool, you can:
✨ Create multiple high-quality mockup variations with different colors, designs, patterns, etc., without manually uploading them.
✨ Automate the creation of mockups using Photoshop Templates via our platform and create your own, find free or premium Photoshop mockups.
You can customize them to resonate with your target audience and upload them to our platform.
✨ Browse through our free and ever-growing Mockup Library and select one of the mockups within Apparel, Tote Bags, Phone Cases, and other categories.
✨ Leverage advanced customization options and do color changes with the color picker and integrated Printful and Printify color combinations.
In addition, create more realistic designs thanks to multiple Photoshop blending modes, and perfectly place your design assets with placement options and make post-adjustments.
✨ Integrate the API key within your web or Mobile app.
✨ Create multiple mockups of a single product and test them to get audience feedback.
And so much more.
Ready to take Dynamic Mockups for a spin?
Start with Dynamic Mockups for Free and launch your POD venture while keeping your expenses low.
Start creating for Free!
Showcase your E-commerce products like big brands, without costing a fortune
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