How to Grow Your Print-on-Demand Business With Bulk Ordering

Did you know 70% of B2B buyers now prefer online marketplaces for bulk orders? Plus, automating your bulk order processes can increase efficiency by up to 40%.

As a POD seller, you’ve probably encountered bulk ordering but may still be unsure how it can help scale your store.

In today’s article, we’ll walk through actionable steps on how to grow your POD business with bulk ordering.

Let’s get started!

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What Is Bulk Ordering and How Does It Benefit Your POD Business?

Bulk ordering is placing a large order for a specific product or multiple product categories with a POD supplier.

It allows suppliers to produce more products simultaneously rather than fulfilling smaller, recurring orders.

This can significantly cut down production time and costs for both your supplier and you as the seller.

Here are some of the benefits of bulk ordering:

✅ Cost Saving

Depending on the POD supplier, you can save between 10% and 50% with bulk ordering on product costs and shipping.

✅ Faster Fullfilment

It depends on the model of inventory holding you choose, but either way if the inventory is stocked in your warehouse or POD supplier, the shipping is faster due to the inventory being available on hand.

✅ Brand Control

Bulk allows for custom packaging, swag boxes, and consistent branding across products.

✅ Readiness for Seasonal or Event Campaigns

Stock up ahead of busy seasons or in-person events to maximize sales and avoid fulfillment delays.

How To Grow Your Store With Bulk Ordering: Actionable Guide

Let’s get through detailed steps on how to include bulk ordering to efficiently grow your POD business.

1. Identify High-Demand Products

The POD industry is growing rapidly, and you should know that it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25.8% from 2023 to 2030.

Additionally, shoppers actively seek out custom apparel, home decor, accessories, and drinkware, which makes this the right space to be in.

You chose an industry that already runs on solid foundations, and it keeps growing through trends, popular designs, and rising categories.

Here are a few ways to spot high-demand products:

🎯 Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, PodCs, and Flying Research help you track which print-on-demand products people consistently search for each month.

With Google Keyword Planner, you can enter your product idea or niche term and instantly view average monthly search volumes, competition levels, and related keyword suggestions. This helps you identify products with consistent demand throughout the year.

Google Keyword Planner also provides a list of practical tips for discovering new keywords directly in its Help Center, making it easier to refine your product research process.

On the other hand, PodCs focuses purely on the print-on-demand market.

It pulls real buyer searches from platforms like Merch by Amazon, Etsy, and Redbubble, letting you spot what’s trending, see how keywords perform, and check for trademarks so you don’t waste time on risky ideas.

For example, it gives you live data on Etsy’s most popular products, including useful metrics like total impressions and review counts.

🎯 Validate Product Ideas

Focus on products that show steady, repeat sales in your own store data. Go for items that sell consistently each month, not just during random spikes.

To validate a product idea, compare the market by browsing competitor stores, checking best-seller lists, or getting direct feedback through polls, surveys, and customer reviews.

📌 Note

Check out our complete guide on how to validate an eCommerce product idea and understand both the process and its importance.

2. Choose a Reliable POD Supplier

Selecting the right print-on-demand supplier for bulk orders directly affects your pricing, fulfillment speed, product quality, and overall customer satisfaction.

That’s why you need to evaluate each segment carefully and make this decision with full attention.

Key criteria to focus on:

✅ Pricing – Compare base costs, see if there are bulk discounts, and check for any extra fees. Tiered pricing can help you get better margins.

✅ Minimum Order Quantities – Check if the supplier requires a minimum number of units for bulk discounts, or if you can mix sizes, colors, and designs within a single order.

✅ Turnaround Time – Look into production and fulfillment timelines, especially how they handle volume during peak seasons.

✅ Shipping Options – Assess delivery speed, cost, and international reach. Some suppliers provide express options for bulk orders that can speed up your logistics.

✅ Product Quality – Always test samples, review customer feedback, and make sure the supplier has solid quality control in place to maintain consistency across large batches.

Let’s compare Printful and Printify for a 100-unit T-shirt order, since both are popular go-to platforms when it comes to bulk orders.

Printful offers a free bulk price calculator right on their site.

Just keep in mind that the product cost you see is the base price – it can go up depending on your design, print method, color options, and other extras.

Printify, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a bulk calculator on site. You need to contact them directly with your order details to get a quote.

They claim you can save up to 46% on products and up to 50% on shipping.

Below are a few of their example discounts for bulk orders:

To make an informed decision, do your own research, reach out to other POD suppliers, and ask each of them for a quote.

3. Design & Customize in Bulk

Designing and customizing in bulk directly supports bulk ordering in the POD business.

It allows you to efficiently prepare large quantities for a single order, maximizing both workflow and profit margins.

When you expect high demand for seasonal promotions, event merchandise, or top-selling products, the best idea is to create all necessary design variations at once.

Include different colors, sizes, or product types to keep your process fast and consistent.

However, to have bulk creations but keep up with the high-quality designs and polished mockups you need a powerful tool like Dynamic Mockups.

Its bulk generation feature lets you create up to 100 mockup variations in just 10 seconds. Let’s see how it works.

You can start with either the artwork or the mockups themselves:

Let’s say you start with mockups and select these three lifestyle settings:

Next, you select your artworks to test them out, and you’re ready to generate the batch:

Click on “Create Batch” and within seconds, all variations are ready. You can then further customize them with blending modes and experiment with color combinations.

Once you’re satisfied with the batch you created, simply export the mockups in your desired format and size.

They’re then ready to upload to your eCommerce store or send directly to your POD supplier for bulk printing.

4. Place and Manage Your Bulk Order

Placing a bulk order on POD supplier platforms is usually straightforward, but you need to stay alert because mistakes with 1,000 units are much harder to fix than with just one.

To prepare your order details, follow these steps:

Double-check your product picks, including sizes, colors, and design variants.
Make sure your artwork is high-resolution and formatted correctly for each product type.
Decide on the number of units per variant based on expected demand and your storage capacity.

Once you place the bulk order, it’s time to monitor production and shipping:

Use your supplier’s dashboard to track your order status, whether it is in production, ready to ship, or already shipped.
Set up email or SMS alerts to stay on top of important updates such as shipping confirmations or delays.
Plan ahead for delivery, whether the order is going to your home, a warehouse, or a third-party fulfillment center.

The final and possibly most important part comes after delivery.

Inspect a random sample of items yourself. Check the print clarity, verify the colors, and confirm the product quality.

Then update your store and mark those items as “in stock” or “ready to ship” and highlight fast shipping or limited stock as part of your promotion.

Wrapping Up

In this guide, we covered bulk ordering and how to make it a standard practice for scaling your POD store.

Bulk ordering helps you save time on shipping and printing while also cutting costs.

However, more important than finding the right POD supplier or securing the best bulk pricing is the quality and uniqueness of the mockups you use to showcase your designs.

Dynamic Mockups can take your design and customization to the next level, enabling you to bulk-generate hundreds of variations and grow your business.

How Dynamic Mockups Can Help You

Dynamic Mockups is an automated tool for generating mockups in print-on-demand businesses, designed to help streamline POD operations.

It integrates seamlessly with popular eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Etsy, and soon Shopify.

In addition to our top-tier bulk creation feature, we offer a range of other features to further enhance your business:

✨ Advanced Editing Options

Take your designs to the next level with easy-to-use features that spark creativity. The editing tools allow you to:

Explore a wide range of color options, including expert-curated palettes from Printful and Printify.
Add depth, style, and personality with just a few clicks.
Effortlessly adjust, resize, and reposition your elements with smart tools that handle the heavy lifting for you.

✨ Growing Mockup Library

Our customizable template library offers over 1,000 mockup templates for high-demand product categories like t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, sweatshirts, and more.

✨ Embeddable iFrame Mockup Editor

By embedding our online Mockup Editor on your website, you enable customers to create their designs directly on your platform.

This gives you full control over print quality, streamlines the design process, reduces the risk of errors, and ensures high-quality prints – one of the most common challenges in POD.

✨ AI Generator

Create eye-catching, personalized mockups in seconds with the help of smart AI features. Use text prompts to design custom scenes and backgrounds that perfectly align with your products.