Print on demand Dropshipping: How to Launch Your First Store?
Have you ever dreamed of starting a business that lets you profit from your creativity, or design and sell your custom print designs on T-shirts, mugs, phone cases, pillows and other accessories? Prints on-demand, or POD is a business model that allows you to do this.
With print on demand, you provide your customers with their custom creations and designs. Printing on demand is a great way to start your own dropshipping business as you don’t need much experience in terms of investment. If you do this right, you can run a very successful print on demand drop shipping business at Shopify at any time.
The great thing about starting a print in a drop shipping business is that you don’t have to worry about the cost of inventing or stocking up on products that may be on your shelf. When someone visits your shop online, places an order and buys something, the order will be sent to your third-party dropshipping supplier, who will take care of all the printing, packaging and shipping for you.
Choose your niches
Choosing an industry is a crucial step that you should consider carefully. Having uniqueness will help you stand out from your competition and set your business and brand apart from the rest. There are many ways to find the right place to focus on your on demand print dropshipping business.
The first is to consider your hobbies, passions and interests. However, following your desires may not always lead you to success. It would help if you did a lot of research to find an excellent place to visit. The ideal option is to settle for a niche that already has a customer base. You want to choose a specific choice in which many people are enthusiastic, a niche that excites people.
You have unlimited options to choose from, and you can print one print on demand services for people with specific hobbies. For example, things related to your all-time favorite character from the movie on your T-shirt, or your favorite quote on your phone case. It’s all up to you.
There are many tools available to you to track the popularity of your design ideas. Tools like Google Trends will help you track the rise and fall of various product structures using the keyword search. This can help you track the level of activity of your potential customer base.
Choose your products and designs
When you choose your profitable niche, it’s time to look at the design! If you are already a graphic design artist, this step will be easy, but if you are not, you can always take the help of freelancers from reliable platforms.
If you’re the creative type and you want to move beyond your design, you can modify some royalty-free Premier designs from platforms like Creative Market. Just remember that your design must be unique and not duplicated by any other artist or work. It’s not legal, and you want to provide your customers with original designs and ideas.
Have a Shopify ready website
Go to Shopify and start your free trial and start setting up shop. Shopify offers you templates to set up the store and make the process of store design and development relatively easy and highly customizable. This is a very user-friendly and easy way to set up your shop, and no experience with coding is required. You do not need to withdraw any cash during this process as it is effortless and free to create your own Shopify store during the trial period.
Take some time to take some ideas into your Shopify store setup and design. You want a store that feels legitimate and trustworthy. Also, with this issue in mind, you may want to match your store’s theme to your niche.
Install a print on demand application on Shopify
POD applications are the ones that will automate the process for you. This application will process your order and automatically transfer it to your suppliers without doing any work on your part. You will never need to call your dropshipping partner or send an email whenever someone places an order as these details will be sent to them automatically.
This app also helps you create product mockups. Yes, you have your designs, but your customers want to see what your designs will look like in your T-shirt, bag or phone case. You’ll need an app that will allow you to choose from a variety of products and colours, an app that will allow you to add your artwork to the product, and then import it to your store for customer viewing. This will help you create a list of items to sell.
Also Read: Dropshipping: The Zero-Inventory Supply Chain
Integrate payment gateways
To be a functional payment processor, you need to be able to sell anything on your site. This is the function that will allow you to earn your income. Most website building platforms will support the integration of payment processors into your site. However, you will need to sign up separately for each payment processor (PayPal, Braintree for credit cards, and any other processors you want to support in your online store) before you can integrate it into your store.
These are third-party services, which operate on their policy and will demand the highest for transaction fees. Here is a list of third-party payment systems you can consider. The most common payment methods you should find when offerings are PayPal and credit cards.
Display your products on the website
To be able to sell something online, people will want to see it. This means you can put a picture of a T-shirt sold with that logo, or what the poster will look like. There are two ways you can display a T-shirt with your design on your website:
1. You can put your design on a fake image of your product. We’ve made it easy for you with our mockup generator. Just upload your design to a blank product, and it will produce a mockup. Note that not all products are available yet, but we are working on it!
2. Alternatively, if you want commercial photos of your products, you must need to appoint photo sessions for your products. For a fee, our in-house photographers will shoot professional-level shots of your products and, ready for use, email you. If you are interested, request a quote!
Market your website and products
When you set up your shop, and you have a vibrant list of ready print designs, you need to market and promote your POD online store. Spread the word about your store and showcase your brand and your products by creating a business profile on social media. You can hire an influential person on social media to increase brand awareness or use paid ads on Google, Facebook and Instagram.
Conclusion
Now that you know the basics of printing on-demand business, you have to rely on yourself to get started on a very successful print on demand business. This is the best way for you to get into the on-demand print dropshipping business with very little investment, and if done right, you can run a very profitable, life-changing business.
