11 Nov The Advantages of Print on Demand Services
The Advantages of Print on Demand Services
The rise of print on demand services, offered by companies such as www.printful.com, is allowing more and more people to unlock their true potential and begin a thriving online business.
Traditionally many have been put off starting their own online business selling customised items because they think it’s either going to be too time-consuming, or they need money to get starting.
Printing on demand, however, eliminates those necessities – all you need is a brilliant creative spark and some unique ideas. That’s it!
It’s time to unlock your creativity and start thinking about how you’re going establish and develop your brand.
This is your chance to be whatever you want to be and spread whatever message you want to spread.
You could even try taking some inspiration from the 2020’s all-new graphic design trends, to help give you that head start.
How can print on demand help?
It’s completely affordable.
One of the most impressive things about print on demand services is that they all but eliminate the necessity for you to get start-up capital before starting your business.
For example, let’s take selling printed t-shirts as the business model.
Traditionally you would need to source a supplier, pay to have mockups printed until you were happy with the designs, then you would need to pay to have physical stock printed and shipped to you.
This isn’t much fun when you’re first starting your business, because how do you know how many t-shirts you need? What if you don’t sell them? Where are you going to get the money to pay for the printing?
These are all questions, not even asked with print on demand.
The process couldn’t be more straightforward – your eCommerce platform is connected to your drop-shipping partner’s system.
When an order is made through your website, it’s passed instantly to them for processing.
They’ll have the item printed up on demand, before packing it and shipping it to the customer.
It is as simple as that – you don’t have to do anything!
The mechanics of the sale are handled on your behalf – everything from the payment processing, to packing the order and arranging the shipping.
It’s taken care of for you by your drop-shipping partner, who will take a cut of each sale you make in compensation.
This means that you don’t need money upfront, because you don’t have to buy the stock before you can sell it and you don’t need to pay your drop-shipping partner upfront.
They take their cut from sales you make, so you’re only re-investing part of the profit you have already made.
No sale, no fee – simple!
It’s highly versatile.
The joy of drop-shipping is that you can build the kind of business that you want, there are very few limitations, other than what you’ll find from your creativity.
There are countless white-label products out there ready for you to customise.
A ‘white label’ product is simply the name given to a blank product that is customised before being sold to customers. Think t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, phone cases, and even jewellery.
You begin by choosing the items you want to put up for sale via your eCommerce platform – such as t-shirts, for example, or bracelets, or even a mix of everything.
The next step is to unleash your creativity and come up with your designs.
You can design anything you want, to get your message out to the world.
Be bold, be different, be individual, and capture the attention of the marketplace.
With that done, it’s time to apply your designs to your chosen products.
This couldn’t be easier thanks to the online configurator. It’ll allow you to see what your finished products will look like, and you can either accept or go back to the drawing board.
If you can dream it, imagine it, or design it, you can have it printed and sold under your unique branding to customers around the world.
It’s entirely up to you how you do it; it can be a side-hustle or the first steps you take to launching your unique brand.
It saves money.
Didn’t we already say that? No!
We’ve already mentioned how printing on demand is highly affordable, but another clear benefit of it is that it saves you money. What’s the difference?
Being affordable means that you don’t need to put any money down before getting started, and it’s one of the most significant benefits to print on demand services.
Saving you money, on the other hand, relates to all of the associated costs of running a business being cheaper too.
Take, for example, shipping. Shipping a mug around the world can cost you a packet in postage if you’re just one person operating your small business out of your home.
Items sent in the post quickly get heavy and bulky, which means complications and further expense.
When you work with a sizeable drop-shipping specialist, however, you’ll be making the most of their shipping contracts.
As your drop-shipping specialist will be working with lots of other sellers, it means that their business involves shipping a high volume of parcels daily.
As such, you’ll be able to take advantage of their lower shipping rates. This makes shipping all over the world much more affordable, and therefore makes it easier to build a global brand.
The same is valid with printing costs. Your drop-shipping specialist already has access to professional printing equipment capable of printing at high volume.
This means it’ll be much cheaper than it would to get each item printed at a smaller scale printing specialist.
So too the base price of all the white goods will be lower as the drop-shipping specialist will have bought them in high volumes.
This makes the final selling price of your customised items lower in kind, which again makes it easier to get customers to give your new brand a chance.
A helping hand.
One of the most daunting prospects for any new small business owner is the idea of dealing with customers.
Particularly those who may be irate because an item has arrived damaged, or it has been lost in the post, or because they ordered by mistake and want to return it.
As a small business owner fielding this kind of thing can be an absolute nightmare.
You have enough to do merely picking and packing orders for shipping, let alone trying to market and build your business. Dealing with customer issues becomes a non-starter.
The joy of working with a drop-shipping specialist is that your interaction with customers, as regards their orders, is precisely nil.
You don’t deal with the shipping, which means you don’t have to deal with the queries and complaints – that’s a part of the drop-shipper’s service.
Similarly, potentially complex issues like understanding how to ship overseas cease to become a concern for you either, because your drop-shipping partner will handle it.
Forget about border disputes or import tariffs or delays – they’re your drop-shipping partner’s concern.
All of this allows you to free up your focus on the essential things – namely continuing to build your brand, establishing your community, and focusing your creativity on developing exciting new ideas for your customers to enjoy. Forget about staffing the help desk.
This puts more control back into your hands and allows you to focus more on other things.
Whether this is something you do for money on the side, or it’s something you want to make a career, you can leave the heavy lifting to your drop-shipping partner and enjoy the sales.
Get started today.
There’s absolutely no reason not to take your first step to selling your customised goods around the world today.
All you need to do is sign up with a drop-shipping partner to get the ball rolling on what could be a whole new career for you – it is that easy.
You don’t need money, you don’t need industry connections, and you don’t need experience, all you need is a creative spark and a few ideas for what can take the world by storm.
This is your opportunity to make it all about you – your creativity will drive your business, and is unique.
Taking the first step to building your global fan base couldn’t be easier – design, customise, sell, profit, that’s all you need to think about!
Drop-shipping is growing into one of the most popular methods of selling online because it offers so many benefits. It’s easy, it’s affordable, and it allows you to learn the critical skills required to build your brand further.
With no money down required, how could you not?
Ignite that creative spark, establish your unique designs and insight, and then offer them for the world to see.
With global shipping options and a range of white-label goods at your fingertips ready to customise, it has never been easier to start selling products online.
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