What is print on demand?
The simplest explanation of print on demand is printing a product directly after an order is placed so there is no inventory being held of said product until it is actually purchased. Say you go on to Etsy, Ebay, or Shopify and buy a t-shirt with a design on the front. Most of these from Etsy are actually print on demand shirts fulfilled by Printful or another supplier. Printful has print warehouses all over the world and if the order you make is to be shipped to Los Angeles, it is most likely that Printful has a print warehouse there and would automatically take in the order, print it, and ship it out all from there. If there is no print warehouse directly in the city of the shipping address it would come from the nearest warehouse.
How do you make money with print on demand?
In order for us to make money, Printful also has to make money. So the usual breakdown works something like this: $25 for the customer to buy the shirt from you on Etsy, Etsy then triggers an order with Printful through the integration charging your account about $12. Your profit on this would be $13, while Printful keeps about $6 of the $12 charged and used $6 of their own money for the cost of the shirt, print, and shipping. Everybody wins.
Why is Print on Demand such a good business model for you?
There are many reasons. My favorite reason is that there is no risk for you. Setting up an Etsy or Ebay account along with a Printful account is 100% FREE! You only get charged once a customer places an order. But, like we went over in the previous section, you make $25 and then use $12 of that to fulfill the order after the fact. The 2nd reason is that there is no storing of products such as a business like Amazon FBA or traditional Ebay selling where you go out and source products and keep them at your house until you ship them out. The 3rd reason that goes along with the 2nd is that you don’t have to deal with packaging and shipping which is a huge bonus. Lastly, this is a passive business! Setting up a store and adding products is the only work you will have to do upfront to get this business going and then after that it is all about you making as many designs as you want. If you stop designing for a month, the sales will keep rolling in. Obviously the more work you put into your store the more money you will make but it is not necessary after it is set up and getting consistent sales.
How do I integrate Printful with Etsy, Ebay, or Shopify?
It is easier than you think! Assuming you already have an account on one of the selling platforms above, all you have to do is make a free account with Printful and set up a new store. On the left hand panel there will be a ‘stores’ tab that will allow you to add new stores to your Printful account. Select the store you want and follow the set up instructions. It is usually just signing in to that store account. Then, from your store, add products through the designer on Printful. Once products are added go to Etsy, Ebay or Shopify and make sure the listings came through correctly and edit the details if needed. Now, once someone makes a purchase on your store, an order will automatically come through to Printful for you to track!
Watch this video for a step-by-step walk though of the Printful Integration with Etsy, Ebay, and Shopify: https://youtu.be/jQ907mGJ_gc
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