Print on demand opportunities
In a previous blog, Dazzled by Zazzle, I wrote about using print-on-demand (POD) companies to build new income streams. Several of these outfits now exist and they offer some distinct advantages to the small operator. First of all, the stores are free to set up. You don’t need to buy a job lot of shirts or get them printed. Your money isn’t tied up in inventory, waiting for somebody to buy one of them.
All you need to do is design the products and promote them online, or with flyers or both. The print-on-demand company will take care of your orders, do the customer service and product despatch. Of course, for doing all this, the POD company takes their own cut. This is reflected in the base price given for each product. You then add your design and decide what mark-up to add, which is your profit on the item.
Think very carefully about the mark-up you add though. It is very easy to add, say, a 25% profit margin to a tee shirt and realise you are then actually trying to sell it for £25. Overpriced unless the design and quality are at the premium end. This is especially true for US-based POD companies when you yourself are UK-based. After the POD company’s profit and VAT – which are included in the base price – there isn’t huge scope for giant mark-ups. So think about developing a niche, selling in volume, and perhaps designing products for the US market.
One of the newer POD companies is based in Europe, so the VAT is added onto a cheaper base price. The production model is different to the US model however, and so the overall pricing tends to be similar.
These are four of the main POD companies you can get involved with:
Zazzle – one of the big international POD outfits, headquartered in the US. Your shop can be advertised worldwide, and products are priced according to the domain name. So if you use the dotcom, your products are priced in US dollars; use the co.uk domain name and prices are in pounds sterling. Delivery is free worldwide (Edit: At the time of writing, this was true, but was a special offer for a limited period. Delivery outside the USA is fairly expensive. See the site for details.) However, apparel sold to UK and other European customers are subject to VAT which is added onto the base price, making them fairly expensive. Remember if you are based in the UK to consider selling to the US market for this reason, or keep the mark-ups low (10-15%).
CafePress – similar to Zazzle in the way it works. CafePress has two types of shop though: the basic one-page shop, which is free to set up; and the ‘premium’ shop which costs a monthly fee. This one works out more expensive perhaps, as customers have to add on delivery costs and import duties to Europe.
Printfection – a smaller and newer POD company based in the US. This one is geared up for the American market, and although able to deliver to Europe and other regions, can cost a lot more, and import duties will have to be paid to Customs separately.
Spreadshirt – this one is European, headquartered in Germany, but with available sites internationally including the US. Although the base prices are cheaper, inclusive of VAT, in the UK, delivery is not inclusive.
Since the designs you create are your own, there is nothing stopping you from signing up with all the POD companies you can find, so that customers in different countries can find the products that are cheaper overall for themselves. But if you are serious and do have the capital and a stable customer base, you would be better to cut out the middle man and actually print shirts in bulk yourself rather than going down the POD route. What the POD route is extremely useful for however, is multiple designs sold in relatively low volumes. So this is good for the purposes of residual income.
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