How Does Print on Demand Work in 2024

Is It Really Profitable?

What is Print on Demand (POD)?

Back in 2013 when I first found Printful, the concept of print on demand blew my mind.

At the time, I had already been in the ecommerce industry for more than five years. I specialized in helping local brick and mortar businesses move their products online. This meant taking pictures of their physical items and posting product listings on ecommerce marketplaces like eBay. Oh, this was a time that predates Etsy. And Amazon was still a crappy website that sold books.

When a product was sold online, whether it was through a self hosted online store or through a marketplace, the business owner had to handle the order fulfillment. The process involved taking the inventory that was already in his possession, packaging it so that it would ship and arrive safely at its destination, and sending it through the post office. I chuckle now because, looking back, my goodness…how we all dreaded actually driving to the post office or local FedEx to drop off packages.

“Print on Demand,” also known as POD, changed all of that.

I was laughed at by my family members, who have been in the B2B industry for longer than I have been alive. My brother, with his MBA and all that business knowledge, said, “It just cannot work. You can’t just assume people will help you sell, then do the printing and shipping for you, and you collect the money.”

And that, actually, is what print on demand is, in a nutshell.

As a business owner who wants to sell physical products and designs, you’re not required to hold any inventory or need any skills, really. Sounds too good to be true, right? You just research what’s popular, make some designs, send them over to Printful, and boom, if it sells, hellooooo money!

It really was like that ten years ago… I sold print on demand products through a Printful integration on Woocommerce, built on Wordpress.

Ah, yes, elephant in the room…Shopify didn’t even exist yet.

If you’re still reading, thank you. I guess you can tell by now this probably isn’t written by AI and I had to tell you a long winded life story just to make you feel you might not be sure what you think print on demand really is.

It is…what you think it is.

“It’s kind of like dropshipping.”

The difference between dropshipping and print on demand is that you do the research on what type of designs and phrases would steal hearts and resonate with passionate audiences. They might impulsively spend money on buying t-shirts and mugs that bring tears to their eyes. Yes, it’s definitely possible to laugh so hard that you cry. While dropshipping also sells products on demand, it’s more like catering to an attention economy.

Also, most dropshipping businesses require substantial ad budgets to bring traffic and exposure to their products.

“You can spend just $1 per day on ads” is great for Youtube views, but the reality is that’s $1 per day per item per ad set, and you should test different items and multiple ad sets.

Hmmmmm…you mathing?

So, okay, I probably owe you an obligatory definition.

I’m going to break Printful’s heart and steal a line from Printify on their definition of “what is print on demand?”

“Print on Demand or POD is an ecommerce business model that involves working with a print provider to customize white-label products.”

The definition is great, isn’t it? It was probably written by a very well paid AI assistant, I mean a copywriter. I even linked it so that you can read the full blog post if formal business writing is more your thing.

But if you prefer to hear from someone who’s seen more failures than success in the print on demand space, read on.

Youtubers Tell Me Print on Demand Will Make Me Rich

You know how gurus get views? They tell just enough truth and refresh their screens a few times to show you sales data, and you fall right into the dream of “I’m gonna be a digital nomad millionaire sipping SunnyD with my virtual perfect girlfriend on a private island while money just rolls right into my bank.”

Passive income, I believe that’s the buzzword.

The truth is that you only get passive income after you find a winning product. And the road to that winning product in 2024 is filled with an entire planet of money-hungry zombies. Can you still make money with print-on-demand in 2024? Why yes, of course you can. Just run faster, work harder, if you know, you know.

Also, buy more $5000 courses.

So yes, the downside of print on demand is that it’s pretty damn saturated.

But.

A quick analysis on Etsy and Amazon shows that the sales history within the last 90 days (it’s currently February of 2024) is still breaking a couple hundred thousand dollars. There really are print on demand sellers on marketplaces and their own sites, making hundreds and thousands of dollars in revenue.

How? How can you or I replicate that success?

Print on Demand Works When You Understand the Audience

Before you start digging into how to find a designer, or commission an artist, or hell, you might be an artist yourself, understand this, the design itself has very little to do with the success of the product.

You’re far more likely to succeed if you know the target audience and understand their passions and pain points.

How do you find the right target audience? Ask yourself what you know.

What are your own fantasies?

I know that sounds weird, but seriously, print on demand gives you an opportunity to test and sell your products to very specific and sometimes very peculiar niche audiences.

If there are things you like and subreddits you joined but won’t share with your friends and family, it might just be the niche you’re looking for. Reddit has a funny way of proving that we’re not all alone in our thoughts.

“But I’m an expert in nothing. I’m like Barbie. I love my dog. My cat is a douche.”

Enter the next phase of finding a profitable niche and passionate audience, a metric crap ton of research.

Did you know that there are over 12,000 occupations?

I know. I watched a YouTube video by Greg Gottfried, and he walked me through how to find a niche.

I went with occupations because, you know, I figured, hey, that’s people with jobs. People who have jobs have money. People who have money have the luxury of being passionate about things and buy mugs and t-shirts to showcase their love for Starbucks baristas.

Once I went down that rabbit hole, I found a career known as an “Activity Assistant,” and I wanted to change my job.

Even more than that, I was curious enough to see if it was a worthy niche.

It gets about 1600 searches per month on Google. On Merch by Amazon, the average BSR for an “activity assistant shirt” is around 700,000, which means it’s definitely making sales. Going over to Etsy, there are about 1000 product results, and the sales history data from Everbee shows that there are shirts being sold by print on demand sellers.

In fact, there are even digital designers who are selling commercially licensed designs in the activity assistant niche. You can buy the design for under $10, find a POD service you vibe with, and sell that product.

Remember how I said the design itself doesn’t dictate the success of the product? It’s because the minute one design becomes popular on a marketplace like Etsy, everyone and their mothers rush to create near carbon copies and scale across hundreds of niches.

The print on demand business model in 2024 is no longer just about being able to create products you want to sell without worrying about inventory management.

If you think you’ve exhausted your brain with all the research and you just cannot dig any deeper into niche research, take a break and talk to your pets. Whatever niche there is, there’s going to be a sub niche. There might even be sub niches for sub niches.

Designs for Your Products

Once you have done all the research and you’re ready to dip your toes in the water, this is where the designs start to matter.

A lot of times, it’s the phrase that resonates with the audience.

Sure, pretty flowers and retro designs sell really well, too. So combine them together.

How would you know what messages would resonate with the audience?

More. Research.

Go on Reddit and look for subreddits, and learn their lingos. Seek out online forums.

The passionate audiences hang out where they can find compassionate souls.

Once you learn the ins and outs of your chosen niches, and you’ve pinned all the pretty design inspirations and weird one-word shirts that sell like hotcakes to your Pinterest boards, you’re ready to design and bring your products to life.

Or you can commission a designer on Etsy or buy commercially licensed designs on Creative Fabrica or Creative Market. You get the idea.

How to Choose Print on Demand Companies

Whatever pays the most, or whichever has the lowest priced products, duh!

Just kidding. Please don’t make your decisions strictly based on the bottom line.

Personally, I like to ask myself where my target audience is located. If I’m selling on an ecommerce platform like Shopify, then it means I am already thinking about expanding to international markets. In that case, I would not choose Printify, one of the most highly recommended and popular print on demand service providers.

Printify is not a print on demand supplier, it’s a network of print on demand partners.

The way that Printify works is that you have the option to choose the print provider you want to work with, meaning you don’t need to figure out for yourself which POD companies are legit and reputable. The print on demand service providers in Printify’s network must maintain a certain standard to keep their business relationship. Since they’re also competing against other sellers, the pricing is pretty competitive.

But the problem with choosing your print provider is that they’re generally operating in one country, and shipping for international orders is expensive and painfully slow. Printify has a solution by becoming an agent of sorts, evaluating where your order is going, stock availability, and cost of products, and deciding on your behalf which print provider to choose for order fulfillment.

They’re basically doing what Printful has been doing for more than a decade, and other print on demand sites like Gelato are able to do. Printful and Gelato have had their systems established for a longer period of time. If I were to choose a POD platform based on the ability to fulfill international orders, I’d go with Printful for the wide range of products.

Also, Gelato is similar to Printify in that they are a network of providers. Since the providers don’t have their business names listed on the Gelato site, there’s no way to research their existence or quality of work.

So far, the options I’ve mentioned are for if you are setting up your online store or selling directly to the customer via a marketplace like Etsy or Amazon.

There are print on demand items and products you can sell without having your own storefront or an account on a marketplace.

Print on Demand Marketplaces

You can start a print on demand online business with zero upfront costs, by signing up for platforms like Zazzle, Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, and Society 6. In fact, I’ve written another post about the true costs of print on demand and went on a surface level exploration of how to choose the right POD platform for you. A much deeper dive will follow soon enough.

With print on demand marketplaces, it’s less of a headache for you in terms of day to day operations, but the profit margins are significantly lower. The funds that the customers pay aren’t directly deposited into your account. Instead, the platforms pay you a royalty for the sales you bring in.

This business model works if you want something that is stupid easy and basically has zero risks involved. You can start selling POD products in minutes. Just sign up for an account, upload your designs, and add titles, product descriptions, and tags that are relevant to your design, and you’re off to the races.

See how it ties back into your foundation of researching your niche. Your understanding of your target audience will allow you to write SEO optimized listings to help you get found and a much higher chance of actually selling your product.

Of all the print on demand models, I think the most lucrative business idea is selling custom products. Zazzle would be my choice in this case. Their business model, where products that you can customize are purchased, and the customization is handled by their software, is absolutely brilliant.

I speak from experience. I’ve developed customizable products for the Not Zero Yet merch store, and the process was something of a nightmare.

Final Thoughts

Is print on demand profitable and worth it in 2024? It is if you can stomach the grueling hours of research and provide a product line that speaks to human souls. Even better if you can offer customized products.

Customers expect to pay more for the ability to create custom products with a seller. It’s almost like an adventure for them. Custom designs take even more work, which obviously is the opposite of passive income, but in 2024, if you want to survive in the print-on-demand industry, you have to set realistic expectations.

This post is a bit different from my usual writings about ecommerce and print on demand. I specialize in teaching complete beginners how to start from zero in ecommerce. POD business model works because of the extremely low barrier to entry.

With so many experts in the industry sharing their expertise through beautifully written and well structured SEO optimized posts, I wanted to deliver in a different format.

If you start an online business following cookie cutter guidelines, it’s like a business without an actual plan.

When I built Not Zero Yet, I was a broke kid.

Print on demand changed my life and I want to share my story to let others know that this space has grown and evolved into something of a monster.

It’s unlike any other business model where you find products to sell. It’s not like when you crunch numbers and learn the business side of things by thinking about base costs and profit margins.

It’s messy, it’s time consuming, and more than likely, you will fall a few thousand times before you make your first dollar.

But if you’ve set out to start a business with zero dollars in your pocket, I sincerely believe that it’s still worth trying in 2024.

The best print on demand business that you can build is one that you can tell tales about in the future when you’re going through an existential crisis.

Invest the time to do proper research and find your community. From there, the design ideas will just come to you.

Then you test and fail till something pops.

You can do it, I believe in you. Believe in 0.001.