How to start a Shopify print on demand business

One of the simplest businesses you can start right now is a Shopify print on demand business.

What is print on demand business? A print on demand business allows you to create designs and apply it to products online.

A different partner company takes care of printing and shipping your products to your customers once an order comes in.

To start a Shopify print on demand business is so simple that you can literally get your store running in a week.

Shopify is an online platform that allows you to set up an online store .

With the online store you can display your goods, make sales, collect payment and also market your goods.

Shopify is one of the easiest platforms to set up an online store

Their interface is quite easy to use and very intuitive.

Steps to starting a Shopify print on demand business

1. Niche

The very first decision you will make before you start a Shopify print on demand business is to decide what niche will you play in.

There are various products that are available in the print on demand niche

Choosing what works for your business is the first step to building a brand.

For example, you can decide that you will only sell T-shirts. This means your designs are for T-shirts alone.

This is a niche that is worth exploring as you can do alot with t-shirts. Millions of people wear t-shirts every day.

Creating a t-shirt brand that appeals to people’s sense of fashion can be a great way to build an online business.

There are hundreds of niches that you can explore, here are some of them

• Stay at home parent
• Mom’s club
• Kids
• Christian quotes
• Quirky quotes
• Green living
• Technology

These and many more niches can be used to create designs that can be place on objects like

• T-shirts
• Mugs
• Leggings
• Skirts
• Hoodies
• Notebooks
• Face caps
• Phone cases

To learn more about choosing the perfect niche, read this comprehensive post by Printful.

2.Plan

Before you start any business, no matter how small you require a solid plan that can help you to hash out your ideas and create a solid business plan to guide you as you go.

When I started my blogging business I struggled with creating a plan for my business.

I lost out on a lot of business ideas and could not create a solid strategy for my business.

This made my first year of business rough and I did not gain much.

Because of this experience, I created a home business planner & checklist to help anyone who wants to start a home business.

The home business planner checklist is designed to help you make a plan from business idea to product delivery.

It makes creating your business plan very easy, none of those excel sheets and long drama when creating one.

Just a simple guide with clearly marked outlines for planning your business

I have included my planner in an e-commerce start-up pack that I designed to help you start your print on demand shop.

3.Choose a Print Partner Company

A print partner is the game changer when it comes to the print on demand business.

A printing partner is the one responsible for printing out your design on different products that you use.

They are also responsible for shipping your prodcuts to your customers.

You may not see or touch any product but your printing partner ensures that you are in business.

What are the key things you need to consider before choosing a printing partner

A-Product Durability

A printing partner should have quality products that are durable and good to use. When your products are shipped, it is only your customers that will see it.

If your printing partner does not provide durable materials for your products it could be the death of your print on demand business.

It is important that you choose a print partner company that has quality products.

The best way to test the quality of the products is to order a sample of your designs.

That way you are sure of what is been sent out to your customer.

B-Efficiency

How efficient are they in printing and packaging and delivering your products to your customers?

When choosing a print company, ensure that their services deliver as at when due

You don’t want to have a shipping duration that is exceeded by your print partner company because their operations are not efficient.

Remember the customer does not know who you are partnering with, it’s you the product owner that they know.

C-Product Creation Interface

Your designs can only be created with the interface on the Printing partner’s company.

If the interface is not user friendly you may get frustrated with creating your products.

Another important aspect is how easy is it for the print partner company to integrate with your selling platform?

Ability to easily integrate with popular selling platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce, Etsy is a major winning factor in your choice of printing partner.

The most valuable printing partner company that I have found is Printify

Printify’s product creation platform is easy to use even if you have never created any product before.

It is so intuitive that you can sign up, create your products, and integrate your shop in minutes.

Sign up with Printify

How to set up on Printify.

A-Sign up with Printify

The first step to creating your first product is to set up your profile on Printify.

This is very easy to do, just click go to Pritinfy.com and click the sign-up button.

The sign-up button will open to a window where you get to fill out some simple details like your name, and email and you answer a few questions about yourself before you create your first product.

B-Create a design

To create a product, first create your design with design software.

Canva is a simple software that you can use to create designs even if you don’t know anything about design.

It has thousands of fonts and pre-made icons that you can use without attribution.

Sign up on Canva

C-Choose your product type

Choose the type of product you would like to create, it could be a t-shirt or face cap, a tote bag or a coffee mug.

Upload your already created design to the product.

Chose product color and add in the product description to the already created product.

Most of the products come with pre-written descriptions, you can adjust it to suit your style or to reflect what you sell.

Adjust the product to your final retail price and then connect Printify to your store.

Picture slides- How to sign up to Printify

Sign up with Printify

Now that you have chosen your Printing partner, the next step is to buy a domain name.

4. Buy a domain name

A domain name enables you to stake a claim for a particular name on the internet for a period of time.

Your domain name should be a name that signifies what your brand represents.

Buying a domain name helps you to create a brand and gives people a sense of recognition when they see your products.

Domain names are cheap to purchase for less than 3 dollars a month you can buy a domain name.

Examples of domain name sellers are Namecheap, Hostgator etc.

Now lets get to your selling point, which is the next step in starting a Shopify print on demand business.

5.Purchase Shopify Subscription

Shopify is the selling platform that helps you to display your products, collect payment, and process shipment for your customers.

Shopify integrates with Printify seamlessly so that once your products are created they will be listed on your Shopify store.

Get a Shopify store

To make it easy for you to start your print-on-demand business I have put together a package that will make it a seamless effort.

What is this package? it is the

Print-On-Demand Starter Package.

This package contains the following

Homebusiness planner checklist

To help you brainstorm and create your business before you take off.

Shopify unbundled course-

This course will take you by the hand and show you step by step how to set up your Shopify store so that you don’t waste time trying to figure it out.

Cost of this package

Real Price

Home Business Planner Checklist: $38.9

Shopify course: $62.5

Total cost: $101.4

Special price for this post only: $45.30

Tap the button below to get it

The Shopify unbundled course is quite easy to follow, I have made it so easy to take that any newbie without any much tech knowledge can take and build a Shopify store within a week.

6. Market your shop

Once your products are all loaded up and you are ready to start selling, the next activity is to market your shop.

To market your products here are steps you need to take

1.Build your email list

No small business online now can afford not to build an email list, in fact, email list building is the first and most important asset for your small business.

This is because an email list is the congregation of people who truly believe in your business, they also represent the people that you launch your new business to.

Learning how to build your email list is the first job of a small business online, that is why I have made it easy for you to do by creating an email marketing strategy planner that will help you to create a solid email marketing plan for your new business.

The email marketing strategy planner contains steps, tips, and guides that will enable you to build a solid email marketing plan for your new business.

Tap the button below to get it.

2 Create social media profiles

This involves creating social media profiles for your brand on these 4 basic online platforms. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.

The use of social media for your marketing efforts will help you to attract your first-time customers who you will convert to loyal customers through excellent customer service.

3- Advertise

Social media has made advertising quite cheap, so you can use Facebook and Instagram to run Ads that are targeted at your target market in order to drive traffic to your online shop.

4- Invite friends and family

Let your friends and family know about your new online business, invite them to like your Facebook page, and follow you on other social media profiles.

When starting a Shopify print on demand business you have to understand that you need the support of your friends and family.

They may be the first buyers of the product and they can also spread the word about your new brand.

5-Launch your shop

This includes a series of activities that will lead to a build-up to the day you officially open your shop. Such activities include

• Product giveaways
• Quizzes about your brand identity
• Instagram competitions

All these are ways you can create awareness of your new business and market your products.

How much does it cost to start my shopify store?

1 month-Shopify subscription- $29.99

Print on demand starter pack- $45.3

Advert- $24.8

Total cost of starting Print on demand Shop- $100dollars

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