What is the Best Print-On-Demand Marketplace?

If you want to do a print-on-demand business, you have a lot of options, but the main question is which platform you should use. In other words, on which print-on-demand marketplace you can generate a lot of sales.

On Etsy, you can sell print-on-demand items but Etsy does not offer print-on-demand services, therefore, you will have to connect to third-party print-on-demand marketplaces. You will also have to pay in order to list a product

Printify and Redbubble do not have any listing fees. You can connect Printify with your Etsy store and sell printify products through Etsy.

Teespring is also a popular platform, however, you will have to earn a trust score before your product will publicly appear on its marketplace.

Printful does not have monthly or start-up fees. However, you might have to pay for additional services, such as ads, clipart, integration with other commerce marketplaces, etc.

Before you start using any platform you will have to see its traffic status, number of sellers, number of buyers, etc. You will also have to check how much fees or commission they charge.

Etsy Vs. Redbubble

If you check the traffic, revenue, and market size, you will fund out that Etsy is better than Redbubble. On Etsy, there are more buyers than sellers, these buyers are registered users of Etsy who come to the platform to buy frequently. On Etsy, you can sell in multiple ways and multiple products. However, you must realize that Etsy is a competitive market and if you are just starting out you might find it very difficult to sell on Etsy. You might have to spend a lot of money on ads before you actually generate sales. Redbubble on the other hand is not as big as Etsy, but it has no upfront cost, therefore, there is no harm in listing products. You might create and list 100 products and you pay nothing. Do you actually generate sales? The answer is yes? How much do you make? The answer depends on what you are selling and how much you are selling for.

Teespring (Spring)

Teespring was launched in 2011 as a platform to produce T-shirts in bulk for various campaigns for businesses and charity organizations. They would print T-shirts only when a specified number of items was ordered. Teespring allowed social media influencers to display their products on their account, including the youtube channel. The business was thriving until they introduced something called Trust Score for what they say “to stop low-quality designs and racist designs”. Sellers had to sell products on their own before their products appeared on the marketplace. The sellers' Trust score improved only when they were able to sell products on their own. Unlike other platforms, products did not automatically appear on their marketplace. Likewise, the company was seller-focused, therefore, it ended up having more sellers than buyers. The sales decreased, therefore, the eCommerce marketplace lost its market share. What happened to Teespring is quite an interesting phenomenon.

Selling on Print on Demand Markets

On Print on Demand marketplaces, it is easier to sell trending products compared to completely new products because that's how these websites actually work.

I am selling on various eCommerce marketplaces. If you are a business, you should try to use every occasion to sell and make profits. In 2020, China attacked India. People in India began a campaign called Boycott Chinese Products. China then began manufacturing products with the "Boycott Chinese Products" slogan, and these products sold like hot cakes in India. This incident teaches an interesting marketing and sales lesson. China, a communist nation and an atheist nation manufactures religious paraphernalia related to various religions and makes a huge profit. They even manufacture Hindu deities figurines and sell them in India. There is nothing that cannot be sold if you market well. An American marketer called Gary Dahl sold simple stones as pet rocks and he became a millionaire by selling stones, thank's to his interesting marketing strategies. Marketing is all about selling you an idea, a dream, a hope. Marketing no longer sells products.