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More than 80% of the population use the internet to purchase goods and services online. Ecommerce is an ever-demanding industry and it's a high time that you stepped in if you ever dreamt of doing so. Print on demand is one part of Ecommerce and you could easily start this business if you are someone who loves designing and selling things online. But is Print on demand profitable? Yes, Print on demand is profitable and is a great way to start your ecommerce journey. However, The profitability depends on many factors like your design skills, your marketing strategy, the platform you select, etc. It's surely isn't for everyone but it's perfect for those who love designing and selling things online. Now let's have a look at some of these factors and see how you can start a profitable print on demand business in 2021. What is a Print On Demand Business? Print on Demand is an online business model where you create and sell your own custom designs printed on various things like T-shirts, caps, mugs, hoodies etc. It's almost like dropshipping because you don't need to create, store nor ship your own products. All of this will be done for you by a company. There are a lot of such companies out there. Some of them are Printful, SPOD, Printify, Teespring etc. It's also one of few business which requires a very low amount of budget to start with. Related Article - How To Start a Dropshipping Business With No Money? Factors that Influence the Profitability of Print on Demand Print on demand might seem so simple. But, there's actually a lot of things to look out for if you want it to be profitable. Some of them are:- Researching for Winning Designs The designs that you research and create directly impacts your sales and revenue. It's the most important thing about this business. Unique designs that aren't available on Amazon or any other clothing store would do quite good. If you can find a viral meme, or something that has gone viral and then turn it into a design which can be printed on T-shirts, mugs, caps etc, can go crazy in no time. For example: Among us became so viral in 2020 that it was played by almost all people on earth. What you didn't realise is that a lot of people took this as an opportunity to make money by selling merchandise related to it. Now, this is just one example. There will be opportunities like these in the future and do not hesitate to hop into it when it happens. Related Article - Does Print on Demand Really Work? Your Creativity/Design Skills Once you identify a viral thing online, you need to brainstorm and use your creative skills to develop some kind of design from it. Simple designs tends to do best rather than those complex ones. So, make sure you don't mess it up. When a design is done, ping some of your friends/family who might actually be interested in the design (or knows about it). Just ask them if they liked it. If almost everyone liked it, it might be a great design to sell but that by itself is not a guarantee. Marketing Skills For a Print On Demand (POD) company, it's important to build a brand as you market your store. There are a lot of ways by which you could market your store. Some of them are:- Facebook adsInfluencer marketing with Instagram or YoutubeGoogle adsetc. When you are starting out, I would recommend you start with Influencer marketing. Find influencers on Instagram or Youtube who are related to what you are selling. Send him a message for a possible collaboration. If you can get the correct type of influencer, then you will probably make a lot of sales. (considering that you have a unique design/product to offer). Related Article - How To Scale Your eCommerce Business Using Fiverr? Your Fame Have you ever wondered why most of the famous people on the internet try to start their own clothing company? People like Mr.Beast, MKBHD, etc all have their own clothing line-up. Why? Because it's an additional form of income for them and any influencer with a couple of followers could do it. So, if you are someone like that, then it's pretty easy to start this business. Platform There are a lot of platforms or services that help you in starting this POD business. The user experience, rates for each product etc varies from one to another. The one POD company that I recommend is Printful. It is surely one of the best POD companies. They help you in printing your design on to the apparels or merch, packs the product and even ships it to your customers. Sign up On Printful for Free All you have to do is create a store using Shopify and then connect it to Printful. After that, market your store and when your customer places an order, it will be printed and shipped to your customer automatically. The best part is that Printful is completely free to use. They just charge for the product on to which the design is printed and also the shipping fee. That's it. How to Start a Profitable Print on Demand Business? Starting your own Print on demand business is pretty much affordable and easy to start. These are the steps involved:- Niche Store vs General Store The first thing to do is to choose whether you want to start a niche store or a general store. If you are new to this business, it's better if you start a general store so that you can test out a large number of products and know what's working and what's not. Creating and Designing Your Store The next step is to sign up on Shopify. Shopify is a platform that helps you build your online store with its drag and drop builder. Shopify offers a 14-day free trial after which you will be charged $29/month. This is literally the only investment that you need to make excluding the advertisement costs. You should also sign up for one of the POD company. I recommend you sign up on Printful. If you are struggling to create and design your store using Shopify, you could hire any freelancers on Fiverr to do it for you. Creating your Designs As I have said, look for viral memes or content and then try to come with different designs. You can create them using Adobe Photoshop or any other tools. If you are a beginner, I highly recommend that you use Canva or PlaceIt to design. If you don't know anything about designing, then it would be better if you hire someone to do it for you. Here are some freelancers that you might look into. Once you have a design ready just upload and create your own apparel/merch from your Printful dashboard. Once uploaded and created, the product will appear on your Shopify store and you will be ready to sell it. Marketing Marketing strategies can be different. If you are a complete beginner, it would be better if you start with Influencer marketing. Once you get successful with influencer marketing, you could start looking into Facebook Ads and Google Ads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNilC_6pd8E Conclusion Every business has their own ups and downs. Print on Demand is no exception. It will surely take a bit of time and testing to actually know what works and what doesn't. Don't hop into it thinking that you would make money within the first 24 hours or so. It will take time and you just have to keep up with it without quiting. Hope I have helped you with this article. Please do comment doen below if you have questions. Peace!