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Start Selling Print-on-Demand Products In 3 Easy Steps
Okay, so you decided to get into dropshipping, and are searching for products to sell, but it seems that whatever you come up with, someone else is selling it already...
This is not an easy problem to solve. You see, if you keep browsing AliExpress in hopes of stumbling on a great product idea, you won’t get anywhere. After all, this is what thousands upon thousands of ecommerce entrepreneurs all over the world are doing already, and they are your competition!
I’d recommend you to start selling your own unique print-on-demand products. How? It’s actually pretty simple…
What is print-on-demand?
Print-on-demand is a business model that lies at the intersection between graphic design and dropshipping:
- You create a unique design (if you don’t have any artistic talent, don’t worry, you can hire someone to do that for you!).
- You put that unique design on a product, display it on your store, and market it.
- Once the sale is made, a fulfillment company prints the product, and sends it to the buyer.
Print-on-demand opens a whole world of opportunities for you because you can put your designs on anything from apparel to stationery to homeware.
However, make sure that the fulfillment company you choose is reliable, and that they produce high quality products (I recommend going with a print on demand company called Printify.com).
Print-on-demand in 3 easy steps
Okay, so now that we know what print-on-demand is, and why it’s such a great idea, let’s take a look at how you can start selling print-on-demand products…
#1 Research design concepts that sell well
You might be lost as to what designs you should sell. Luckily, there’s no need for reinventing the wheel, you can simply research what already works, and do the same. So find out what are the most popular stores in your niche and analyze their inventory. What are their best-selling designs?
Really pay attention to what works. Are the concepts serious or humorous? What are the predominant colours? What about the fonts? Take notes on everything!
Then, once you have a good idea about what sells well, brainstorm 15 design concepts based on that.
#2 Produce your designs
If you are an artistically inclined person who can draw well, you are lucky, because that means that you can create your designs yourself.
However, if you couldn’t draw even if your life depended on it, you can always go to a website like UpWork, and hire a freelancer.
Just keep in mind that you get what you pay for. It might be tempting to go with someone who offers the lowest price, but I’d strongly advise against it, because it’s better to pay a bit more but get higher quality work. It’s all up to you, though.
#3 Pick the winning design
Now that you have all 15 designs produced, you should get mock images of them on a product, and then run Facebook ads to see what people are interested in the most.
Once you have determined which design is most popular, you should feature it prominently in your store, and use Facebook ads to drive traffic to it.
You might be tempted to skip this step and simply pick the best design yourself. Don’t. Let the market decide!
What’s next?
You have researched design concepts, created the designs, and picked out the best one using Facebook ads. What should you do next? You should, of course, add more products to your store!
Yes, that means going through the whole process again, although now that you have already done it once, it will be much easier!
Conclusion
This whole process might seem tedious, but it is necessary, and it will help you save a lot of time in the long run.
So don’t skip steps. Do your research, get the designs done, and run Facebook ads. Only pick the winning design once you have the relevant data. You will be tempted to trust your gut, but in business, it’s better to trust the cold hard numbers!
Add print-on-demand products to your store one by one, carefully vetting them, and you will soon have a thriving print-on-demand business. And the best part? Unique designs mean that you’ll be the only one selling products like that!
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