Starting A Print On Demand Business In 2025 (A How-To Guide)

What Is Print On Demand?

So, what is a print on demand business?

Similar to dropshipping, POD is an ecommerce business model that allows people to create and sell custom-made merchandise online (such as t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, etc) without having to deal with managing inventory or shipping costs. Some sellers might favor it because of the freedom to explore your creativity without focusing on the logistics side of things.

The products you customize are shipped through third party suppliers who manage the fulfillment for you. It works great for artists, designers, eCommerce entrepreneurs, content creators and authors as you don’t need to invest a large amount of money upfront. 

Print-on-demand services only create products when a customer places an order online, which means there won’t be any extra stuff lying around to be thrown away. The great thing about this business model is that you only pay the supplier that makes your custom-designed merchandise once someone buys something. That’s why it’s considered to be less risky upfront than, let’s say, Amazon FBA.

There are many techniques used for designs when creating your own custom-made products, such as:

1. Direct To Garment Printing where the prints apply the ink straight onto the fabric of the apparel.
2. The Heat Transfer Printing technique works by printing the design onto a transfer paper, using heat to transfer the ink.
3. Screen Printing uses a stencil for each color in the design with the ink pushed through the screen onto your apparel.
4. Sublimation Printing involves transferring a design onto a special paper and then using pressure to move the ink.

Process Of Starting A Print On Demand Business

Here’s a TLDR version of the POD selling process in case you’re in a hurry:

• Product Customization—You’ll work with a print-on-demand provider to create white-label products, such as t-shirts, accessories, and more. White-label products are basically products without a name that can be branded. 
• Store Setup —As soon as you have your designs ready, you’ll need to create a store online and there are many platforms you can choose from, such as Shopify or Squarespace.
• Listing Your Products And Marketing—Once you have your online store setup, you’ll need to list your products online and start marketing campaigns to get eyeballs to your products. You can use paid ads to gain traffic to your website or promote on social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok or Facebook.
• Order Fulfillment—The print provider manages the production and shipping process for you once a customer places an order.

Start A Print On Demand Business: Step By Step Guide

Alternatively, here’s a step-by-step print-on-demand business guide to get you up and running:

Research

Start by taking a look at popular stores like Printful, Printify, Shopify and see what the set up is like. You can take a look at the products offered, the descriptions, images, etc, to see how they operate their business and find sources of inspiration for your own store. Consider this:

• Look into the different range of products offered on each platform and see what aligns with your goals and vision. 
• Check the quality of the products on each platform to see what materials are used and if they are high.
• Compare the pricing by looking at the costs of making the products, delivery fees and what profit margins to expect.
• Find out how many integrations are available to see how well each platform will work with other tools you may want to use.

Design

Consider this for your design brainstorming list:

• Find ways to make your products as pretty as possible by focusing on quality rather than quantity. 
• Figure out what designs your target audience wants and tailor them to their liking. Of course add your creative elements to the designs. 
• There are many online tools you can use to enhance your marketing designs, such as Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud, so make the most of them.
• Collaborating with designers could be a good way to bring new perspectives to the table and bring their audience’s attention to your products.

Store Setup

There are many platforms you can choose to set up your store, like Shopify or Etsy. Here’s a guide for the Etsy platform:

• Visit Etsy.com and sign up for a seller account. 
• Click on “Open Your Etsy Shop” and answer a few questions that come up, such as shop language, currency and country.
• Once you have set up your store, you can add your custom products for sale.
• Design your store by adding a store logo and completing the About section.
• Set up your payment methods and shipping settings so there’s a smooth translation and delivery system in place.
• After all the steps are done, it’s time to market and promote your store. You can use email marketing, social media promotions or run ad campaigns online.

Marketing

Here are some print on demand marketing strategies you can use:

• Social media marketing can be done on platforms like Facebook and Instagram for free, or you can opt for influencer marketing, where you partner with popular accounts to shout out or market your products in return for a small fee.
• You can also opt to learn SEO to make sure your product listings are optimized and rank for the right keywords, making them highly visible on SERPs.
• You can also run paid ad campaigns using Google ads, which are generally good at driving traffic to your store quickly. Ads help get more eyes to your website, which means more potential earnings.

But if you don’t have access to a large amount of cash or simply don’t want to spend a significant amount of money on paid ads, you can learn how to rank organically and get free traffic to your website with the Digital Rental Method.

Legal and Administrative Setup

Before diving in, it’s important to understand the legal side of things. This means learning about copyrights (to make sure your designs are original) and setting up any necessary paperwork for your business. 

1. Business Structure – Choose the best way to organize your print on demand business, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation Each way has different rules about responsibility, taxes, and following the law.
2. Getting the Right Papers – Get all the official papers and permissions you need to run your business where you live. 
3. Respecting Other People’s Ideas – Don’t use other people’s designs, logos, or pictures on your products. Always ask for permission first and if something belongs to someone else. If you have ideas of your own, think about protecting them with a trademark.
4. Keeping Things Clear – Write down clear rules about how your store works. Tell people about how products can be customized, shipped and returned. This helps everyone know what to expect and protects your business and customers.
5. Paying Your Taxes – Learn about the rules for paying taxes when selling things online. Figure out if you need to collect and pay taxes depending on where your customers are, and set up a system to handle that.
6. Making Agreements – Make clear agreements with the companies that help you print and ship your products. Write down who does what, how much things cost, what quality is expected.
7. Keeping Info Safe – If you sell to people from different countries, make sure you follow rules about protecting their information, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 
8. Getting Insurance – Think about getting insurance that fits your print on demand business. This can include coverage for any accidents or product issues that can occur.
9. Keeping Records – Keep records of all the money coming in and going out. This will help you manage money well and report taxes correctly.
10. Ask for Help – If you’re not sure about the rules or what you need to do for your business, talk to legal experts who know about online businesses.

Potential Investment And Profit Overview

In order to make the most out of your print on demand investment, you could implement the following:

• Add More Listings –  Adding new types of products like different clothes or cool designs can bring in more customers and make more money.
• Getting The Word Out – Spending money on ads and promotions can help more people know about your business, buy your products, and grow your brand. Working with popular people or using social media can make more people interested in what you offer.
• Using Tech To Help – Using tools can make your work easier and better for your customers. 
• Making Things Just Right – Making sure your products are top quality and taking care of your customers can make your business stand out from others.
• Improving Your Website – Making your website easy to use and nice to look at can help people buy more from you and keep them interested. Investing in how your website looks, works on mobile phones, and makes shopping simple can make customers happy.
• Keeping Track of Inventory – Keeping track of how many products you have and what people want is really important to avoid having too much or too little stock. 
• Working Together With Others – Partnering with artists or other brands can bring fresh ideas, reach more people, and make customers excited. 
• Being Environmentally Friendly – Using eco-friendly materials, packaging, and ways of making products can attract customers who care about the environment and show that you’re a responsible business.

Factors That Influence Profit

There are many factors that influence both your return on investment and future profit potential. Here are just a few:

1. Sales Volume – The more products sold, the higher the potential profit.
2. Product Pricing – Setting the right price that covers costs and attracts customers is key for bigger profit margins.
3. Picking The Right Niche – This is where your product research game must come in handy.
4. Competition – How many people are selling the same custom product might affect your online visibility.
5. Marketing Effectiveness – Effective marketing campaigns can drive more sales and increase revenue.
6. Customer Retention – Keeping customers satisfied and coming back for more can lead to repeat sales and increased profits.
7. Controlling Costs – Finding ways to reduce production costs and negotiate better supplier deals can improve profits.

Platform And Tool Recommendations

You won’t find a full, comprehensive POD platform comparison below. But I will dive into the most popular platforms on the market.

Printful

Printful is a company that was launched all the way back in 2013 and offers a wide range of products for you to customize, such as clothing, accessories, and more. They have many facilities across the world, which makes shipping really quick. So, if you have international customers, Printful has you covered. 

With over 200,000 customers all over the world, you can see how much value they bring to the table. And, as far as integration goes, they have the most options available from any platform online, with the likes of Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, and more covered.

Printify

Printify is another popular company in the POD industry that is adored by customers and sellers worldwide. It was launched in 2015 and has many products to customize. There are a whopping 500,000 sellers who are using their services. 

It’s close to Printful in terms of integration as it does offer many, which include Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay and more. However, they don’t own printing facilities like Printful, but they do have shipping partners all over the world, which makes for swift delivery.

Redbubble

Redbubble is an O.G in the game as it was launched nearly two decades ago in 2006. The platform lets artists upload their own designs and add them to products like mugs, t-shirts, home decor and more. 

They have a massive 30 million monthly visitors, which means there will definitely be eyes on your products. Currently, over 700,000 artists contribute their work on this platform.

Here are some tools to help you with you with your print on demand business:

1. You can use Adobe Creative Cloud or Canva to help you create eye-catching designs.
2. Google Analytics can help you track website traffic to see how your business is doing.
3. Softwares like Quickbooks or Xero can assist you with managing finances.
4. Use SEMrush or Moz to optimize your website for search engines.

Conclusion: Print On Demand Business Guide

Starting a POD business is an easy process to get up and running but finding success and maintaining it could be challenging due to its competitive nature. It does offer creative individuals a way to earn income online through their passion and can be done without a large upfront investment, making it appealing to the majority of people. 

However, print on demand products typically have higher production costs per unit compared to bulk manufacturing, which means your profit margins are low.

You don’t have control over the product quality as you don’t deal with the logistics side of things and the range of products you can customize can be limited, but it does depend on what platform you decide to run your business on. 

It definitely isn’t going to make you rich overnight, as your products need to be unique to stand out in a sea of products where millions of other sellers have the same goal as you. Your products have to be something special in order to have a decent chance of success, which involves a great deal of creativity, not to mention top-notch marketing strategies.

What Is The #1 Alternative To Print On Demand?

Print on demand is a popular way to make money online as well as your creative skills to create something beautiful. If you’re no stranger to hard work, this business model can fit you well as it demands a lot from you.

But, that’s the issue with this business model, a huge time investment and effort is required but success isn’t guaranteed. So, you can work for months or even years without seeing anything and that’s a scary situation to be in.

However, if you rather spend your time in a business model where you are absolutely guaranteed an income in return, I recommend the Digital Rental Method.

This is the #1 alternative to print on demand as you’re kind of doing the same thing in return for some cash, which is that both entail creating a digital asset online and earning an income digitally. 

The difference is that the digital asset you create with the Digital Rental Method gets you recurring passive income each month and you’re not having to consistently pump out volume after volume like with print on demand to make money.

If this sounds more interesting, click here to find out more.