Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the market today. It supports print-on-demand (POD), which means that you can leverage its ease of use, customizability, and accessibility to hit the ground running as quickly as possible and start your print-on-demand businesses.
A print-on-demand business is a business model in which a person teams up with a supplier of white-label products by customizing these products with designs. These products are then sold on a per-order basis.
If you utilize such a business model, you do not need to buy in bulk or hold inventory at a specific location–everything occurs after a sale goes through. T-shirts, cups, digital paintings, and many other items can be created with POD; everything, including the shipping, is handled by the supplier. You just supply the design and storefront.
In order to begin your print-on-demand business, you will need to follow a few steps:
Your design will play the most important role when it comes to your products. You do not need to be a full-time designer—all you need is a creative mind and access to basic design software. There are numerous tools out there that are available with pre-built templates, such as Canva, which will aid you in easily creating designs that are worthwhile for people to purchase.
Now, you will need to set up your store—simply sign up for Shopify and select a plan. You can start with a trial and extend it over time or begin with a subscription model.
Make sure that you customize your theme, add an eye-catching logo, and set up the essential product pages. Don’t forget the ‘About’ and ‘Contact’ pages—make your brand stand out and let customers know you’re happy to communicate about any questions or concerns.
One of the key advantages Shopify offers as such a large platform is access to tons of great plugins and apps that will make your POD journey easier. The right Shopify app can take care of all the back-end processes for you and all you need to do is make a few basic decisions about the products you want to sell and how you want to sell them.
You will need to pick a partner through which you will conduct business and who will handle all your business’ printing and shipping. Whether you make your own designs, hire a designer, or buy pre-made designs, you’ll need a reliable POD partner to make sure your products are of high quality and reach customers on time.
If you want to sell products efficiently, make sure to pay attention to the search engine optimization (SEO) of your store–this means using effective and trending keywords in your listings. By using tools like Google Trends, you can easily find what keywords are currently popular and what online shoppers are looking for.
Then, use that information to design a strategy that will take advantage of these trends. There’s an art and a science to this, though, and as you become more experienced with POD, you’ll get good at recognizing patterns that lead to profit in the data.
With the right designs and marketing, you will start making sales; probably only a few to start with but every sale counts. This is where your POD partner comes in–they should be able to get your shipments out quickly and efficiently. Once you start seeing solid shop growth, you will have the flexibility to offer discounts, fulfill orders globally, and create a larger reputation for yourself.
With passion and dedication, anyone can use this business model and begin monetizing their creativity easily on Shopify. If you need assistance when it comes to e-commerce growth tools, Skup is ready to help with the best software, training, and growth strategies available.Looking for information on how to conduct proper print-on-demand returns or how to use Amazon print-on-demand? We’ve got you covered–check out our recent articles!