How I Make Money By Selling Print on Demand Products (T-Shirts) on Amazon via Printful
Get that (Passive Income) Side Hustle Started!
Note that I put “passive income” between brackets. That’s because many people have a wrong expectation about passive income.
Passive income in (any) business is the result of months — sometimes years — of hard work and consistency. Let’s dive in.
Recently, Redbubble and Teepublic have increased their fees.
“I will be earning less.”
This was the first thought that went through my mind.
During these hard economic times, where all prices are going through the roof, this is not something I’m particularly happy with.
I mean, I’m writing because I love it — yes — but I also need to be able to pay my bills, just like all of us, no?
There are SO MANY Print on Demand Platforms!
Luckily, we are not dependent on just 2 platforms.
I’ve repeated it in other articles: there are tons of POD platforms out there. Let me name a few: Redbubble, Teepublic, Society6, Teelaunch, (Tee)Spring, Displate, DesignByHumans, Spreadshirt, Etsy, Printify, Awkward Styles, CustomCat, Cafepress… and many more.
Printful, I choose you!
Out of all these POD platforms, there are 2 that are my absolute favourites:
In this article, I’m only going to write about the first one: Printful
I’ll tell you why I like them, give you some pro’s, con’s, tips & help get started.
What is Printful?
Simply said, Printful is a POD production partner that you can link to an e-commerce platform.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say you want to start a T-Shirt business, but you don’t have any technical tools to create, print, ship… these t-shirts.
This is where Printful comes in.
You create your designs, and upload the designs to Printful.
Next, you connect Printful to any of the big e-commerce platforms (like Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Shopify, WooCommerce,…).
Got an order? NICE! Printful will automatically pick up the order and do everything for you!
That way, you can simply focus on the design creation, uploading and doing some marketing to increase your sales numbers. Sounds good, right?
Creating your Printful account
Get started by creating a Printful account.
I’m not going to cover the whole process here because it’s quite long, however Printful has awesome FAQ, tutorials, helping guidelines etc…
Check them here:
Linking Printful to Amazon (or any other marketplace)
As I’ve said above, Printful has many possible integrations, some of the most popular ones are Shopify, Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Gumroad etc…
You can get a list of ALL possible integrations here.
Some are hard, other are easier to set up, but luckily there are tutorials for all of them:
Linking Printful + Amazon
One of the platforms you should definitely configure, is Amazon.
However, simply said you just click on this button and follow the steps:
When everything is connected, you can start uploading your designs and pushing them to Amazon. All your designs will then be shown as follows:
Note that my Amazon’s store name is Generic. This is the best way to connect it, but you’ll find that out when you go through the setup process!
Some Pro’s of Printful
I’ve listed a few pro’s and con’s of Printful below.
- Wide Product Range: Printful offers a diverse range of products, including apparel, accessories, home decor, and more, giving you a wide selection to choose from when creating your custom merchandise.
- Integration and Automation: Printful seamlessly integrates with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Etsy, allowing for automated order fulfilment and shipping, saving you time and effort.
- Quality Printing and Embroidery: Printful uses high-quality printing and embroidery techniques, resulting in professional and durable products that meet customer expectations.
- Warehousing and Fulfilment: In addition to print-on-demand, Printful also provides warehousing and fulfilment services, enabling you to store and ship your own products alongside their print-on-demand items.
- Global Shipping: Printful offers worldwide shipping, allowing you to reach customers around the globe without the hassle of managing international logistics.
Con’s of Printful
- Pricing: Printful’s pricing is generally a little bit higher compared to other print-on-demand services, which can impact profit margins, especially for lower-priced items. However, I have found that customers are willing to pay a little bit more, if they really like your design. So is it that much of a disadvantage?
- Limited Customization Options: While Printful offers customization features, the level of customization may be more limited compared to specialized printing services, particularly for complex or unique product designs. To me, this is not really a problem because I create my designs using Kittl.com or Canva.com, then I export them and just upload them, without any customizations.
It’s important to evaluate these pros and cons in the context of your specific needs and priorities to determine if Printful is the right choice for your print-on-demand business.
There are a few other great POD partners out there, like my other favourite one: Awkward Styles — definitely worth checking out. For some items, they are cheaper than Printful!
What if I get a sale?
First of all: congrats!
Secondly: If you’ve linked your Amazon account to Printful, everything will be handled automatically.
For example, here are 2 orders I received some time ago:
Printful sees the Amazon, order, then takes care of it and updates it automatically, also in Amazon Seller Central. No work is required from your side!
Awesome recent pricing update!
Furthermore, while other platforms are raising their prices, Printful is LOWERING their prices!
Last week, I received the following mail:
Here’s what’s happening on May 11, 2023:
- We’re lowering product prices for most DTG t-shirt and hoodie bestsellers
- Free design and marketing tools that were previously only available to our subscription customers, are now available to everyone
- Shipping rates for t-shirts and hoodies are increasing to be more consistent with the market
Conclusion
Now that other POD platforms are increasing their fees and prices, it’s time to start looking for alternatives.
One of these amazing alternatives that I found is Printful.
Just open the account, link printful to your preferred market place like Amazon or Etsy, start uploading your designs and see the magic happen!
Any questions? Feel free to reach out in the comments!
FYI, more in-depth tutorials will follow about how exactly the linking process works, how an order handled and more.
Want to learn more?
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