GearLaunch Review, Pricing, Cost & Shopify Integration

In this post, we will look at what GearLaunch is all about, how it works, its features, the cost of use, Shopify integration, and more.

Print on Demand is one of the buzzing businesses in the eCommerce industry. It allows online merchants to sell products without the need to store inventory.

While there are several POD platforms, GearLaunch is notable for its durable products and fast order fulfillment. As a platform for eCommerce beginners and experts, anyone interested in the POD business can use GearLaunch.

Without further ado, let’s get started with the GearLaunch review.

About GearLaunch

GearLaunch is a platform that allows users to launch and manage their print-on-demand store online. Thatcher Spring founded the platform in 2013 and the GearLaunch Inc. company is based in San Francisco, USA.

Interestingly, GearLaunch incorporates all the essential print on demand tools, thereby allowing merchants to sell and grow their business on the internet.

Apart from the absence of inventory risks, GearLaunch offers top-notch customer service, which your buyers will benefit from.

Unlike other POD platforms out there, GearLaunch has an ever-expanding catalog of print on demand products.

There is a product for every passion in several categories including:

• Apparel
• Home Decor
• Drinkware
• Wall Art
• Accessories and others

POD merchants can easily add their designs to any product of their choice in these categories and sell on their store.

With GearLaunch, orders are processed fast within 24 hours. Likewise, they have several print locations in various regions in the US, which ensures that products are shipped fast as well.

Explore: Best Print On Demand Sites Like Printful

Who Is GearLaunch For? Who Can Benefit?

Anyone interested in the POD business can benefit from GearLaunch. The platform is ideal for:

• Small business owners
• Photographers
• Artists
• ECommerce specialists
• Non-profit organizations
• Influencers

Generally, if you’re a creator who wants to sell your designs or you who wants to connect with an audience using customized products, GearLaunch is the ideal platform you should consider.

How GearLaunch Works?

GearLaunch works in a simple manner, you design and they supply. As the store owner, all you need to do is to create the designs and select your ideal products. GearLaunch takes care of the production and shipping process. You pay the base price for products for production to begin only when an order is received.

How To Get Started With GearLaunch

Follow these steps to get started on the GearLaunch platform:

Step 1: Registration

The first step is to register an account on the platform. GearLaunch simplified this process as you can quickly register using your Google account.

Step 2: Create Designs

With a registered account, the next thing to do is to create your designs. GearLaunch features a design suite where you can design your merchandise and publish them on products. You can upload artworks from your computer to the design suite as well. After designing your merchandise, you can then list them to appear in your store.

Step 3: Store Customization

As you register, an online store is automatically created for your brand, so you can start selling immediately. But, it might be best that you customize and personalize your store.

GearLaunch provides several branding options available, such as logo upload, color settings, etc. If your store is already launched on Shopify and you just want to integrate with GearLaunch, this step can be skipped.

Interesting Post: Printful Vs Printify

Step 4: Payment Setup

GearLaunch offers several payment methods that can be accessed via the Payouts section from the dashboard. Supported payment methods include card payments with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards. Also, PayPal is supported. Simply set up your preferred payment methods for receiving payment from your customers and for paying GearLaunch.

Step 4: Orders and Fulfillment

This step involves the store owner but has more to do with GearLaunch. You should monitor your store when customers place orders. Also, ensure that your orders are forwarded to GearLaunch for immediate production and shipping.

Popular GearLaunch Products

There are over 600 POD products from different categories available on GearLaunch. The platform offers products with different base prices.

Here are some of their popular products and their base prices:

• Unisex Basic Premium Crewneck Tee: Starting from $16.95
• Unisex Premium Ringspun Tank: Starting from $12.15
• Unisex Heavyweight Zip Hoodie: Starting from $21.95
• Women’s Relaxed Fit Tee: Starting from $11.15
• Kid’s Heavyweight Pullover Hoodie: Starting from $22.85
• Women’s Flowy Tank: Starting from $14.95
• Indoor Pillow 16×16: Starting from $15.35
• Duvet Cover – King Starting from $95.95
• Window Curtains – sheer: Starting from $45.95
• Poster Prints: Starting from $3.75

Note: GearLaunch product base prices can change from time to time. Nevertheless, you are allowed to set any price you want for the products in your store and you can as well make changes at any time.

Worth Reading: Is Printful Worth It?

GearLaunch Product Design

On GearLaunch, you can create product designs by using the built-in design suite. This suite allows you to create a design from scratch or you can upload a ready-made design and then customize it.

GearLaunch issues several design guidelines for different product categories. Generally, designs are not to be in PNG formats as the printers reject transparent artworks. The printers also reject poor quality artwork.

There are specified DPI, inches/pixels width and height, and store owners are advised to follow these recommendations to ensure that their designs are of the best quality.

To ensure that the recommendations are followed, a warning message will be displayed at the top of the design suite if the design doesn’t meet the correct DPI and inches/pixels measurement.

GearLaunch Production Process

Fast fulfillment is one of the key attributes of GearLaunch and to keep up with that, the platform follows a very fast production process.

Once orders are received, they are sent for printing within 24 hours and in less than 3 days, production would have been completed and the products ready for shipping.

Products are printed either through a screen printing process or a direct to garment (DTG) process. The printing process to use depends on the number of colors a design has and the total amount of orders in a campaign.

Campaigns with large amounts of orders are printed via screen printing while those with low amounts of orders and with large amounts of colors are printed via direct to garment printing.

Explore: CustomCat Vs Printful

GearLaunch Print Providers

GearLaunch has print locations and production partners located in various regions within the United States. With this, all of GearLaunch’s print providers are based locally.

However, some of the POD products are gotten from international sources especially products in the Drinkware category. They are sent to the US to be imprinted with the designs and then ship.

Although all GearLaunch’s print providers are based in the US; however, the company ships goods internationally to most European countries.

GearLaunch Product Quality

The GearLaunch platform doesn’t explicitly state their product suppliers, but their products are of good quality.

For the sweatshirts and hoodies, they are made with 50% cotton and 50% polyester materials.

The pillowcases are made with 100% polyester. Plus, they are wrinkle-free and resistant to mildew.

Their tote bags are also made with 100% polyester, while wall art is made with sturdy coated canvas material with a matte finish.

All of GearLaunch’s drinkware products have been tested by the US FDA and certified to be safe for use in food consumption. For the tumblers, they feature double insulated stainless steel for maintaining temperature and they also have spill-proof caps.

GearLaunch Warehousing & Order Fulfillment

As a POD platform, GearLaunch eliminates the need for warehousing products. Products are printed and shipped directly from the print location to your customers’ destination.

GearLaunch offers no support for warehousing, so if you want to warehouse items, you have to order them like a regular customer.

Customer orders on your store are automatically received by GearLaunch to initiate the fulfillment process. From the Orders page on your dashboard, you can monitor the fulfillment process.

For local orders, items are fulfilled within 3 to 5 days after the purchase is made. International orders might take up to 21 days depending on the destination.

Also Read: Zazzle Vs Printful

GearLaunch Order Tracking

Every order placed on your store comes with tracking information. Likewise, GearLaunch auto-generates tracking numbers based on the shipping carrier.

Your buyers will receive emails containing their order tracking information once purchase is made. Also, they will receive emails with every shipping update.

It takes a few days (1 to 2 days) for the order tracking number and information to appear in the shipping carrier database after purchase. So, customers may not find any tracking information within the first few days if they enter their order tracking number.

Tracking via the shipping carrier database is limited to local orders alone. For international orders to be delivered in Europe a semi-tracked tracking via mail methods is applied.

GearLaunch Refunds

Order refunds are supported and can be processed on GearLaunch, but only on specific cases.

Refunds will be processed if a customer cancels orders before it is sent to production. Orders are usually sent for production within 24 hours, so, if there must be a cancellation, it has to be done quickly.

For already-processed orders, GearLaunch will only issue a refund (or replacement in most cases) if the end-product does not meet the material description of the order or it has any production flaw.

In such cases, the matter should be relayed to the customer service team, which will then inform the billing team to process a refund.

Note: The return shipping cost will be paid by the customer.

GearLaunch Shipping Rates

Shipping rates on GearLaunch depends on the products involved, shipping destination, and the shipping carrier. It also differs for local and international shipping. As orders are placed, the shipping rate is automatically generated.

For apparel products, it costs $4.95 for local shipping and $5.99 for international shipping for the first item. Additional items cost $0.75 each.

Sweatshirts and hoodies are shipped locally for $6.45 and internationally for $7.49 for the first item. Additional items cost $2.25 each.

For drinkware products, the rate is $5.20 and $6.24 for local and international shipping respectively. Additional items cost $1.00 and $1.75 respectively as well. Bigger items like 30 oz tumblers are charged $8.95 for the first item and $7.95 for additional ones locally and internationally.

The local shipping rate for canvas prints ranges from $6.99 to $21.99 for the first item and $3.50 to $11.50 for additional items. International rates are more expensive ranging from $8.99 to $111.53.

Explore: Gooten Vs Printful

GearLaunch Resources & Customer Support

GearLaunch customer service team can be reached via email. Both the store owner and their customers can contact the customer service team by email. Only users of the paid version get access to phone support.

However, customers can get help from tons of support articles available on the GearLaunch Hub, a Zendesk help portal. There are helpful articles on getting started, products, marketing, shipping, order management, and more. On the GearLaunch Hub, a live chat is also featured

GearLaunch also provides several eCommerce and POD resources to educate users. This includes eBooks, product guides, information hubs, an FAQ, and a blog.

GearLaunch Shopify Integration

GearLaunch seamlessly integrates with Shopify. In fact, the GearLaunch application is featured on the Shopify App Store.

All you have to do is to install the GearLaunch app from your Shopify account and log in or create a new account. As you publish products from your GearLaunch account, they’ll be auto-synchronized with your Shopify store.

Integration with Shopify extends the functionality of the GearLaunch platform. That way, you can do more than POD as Shopify can handle any type of eCommerce business.

However, GearLaunch does not integrate with any third-party eCommerce tools or platforms apart from Shopify. It does integrate with Google Tag Manager, which you can set up Google Analytics.

GearLaunch Pricing

The GearLaunch platform is free to use as no subscription plan or service fee is charged. You only have to pay for the base price for products that you sell and their shipping rates.

GearLaunch Free Version

Here are its free version features:

• Hundreds of Print on Demand products
• Fast fulfillment
• No minimum for orders
• Zero upfront costs
• Email support for buyers

Also Read: Printful Vs Society6

GearLaunch Premium Version (Shopify)

GearLaunch has a premium version for Shopify users with additional features. To access this upgraded version, you only need to pay a one-time fee of $4.99.

Here are the features to expect:

• All features of the Free Lite version
• 11% discount on all POD products
• Dedicated seller support
• Phone and email support for buyers

Ratings

Ease of Use

GearLaunch is easy to use thanks to its simple user interface. As a store owner, you are responsible for creating designs and selecting products for publishing. The order shipping and fulfillment tasks are solely handled by GearLaunch.

Based on this, GearLaunch has a 5-star rating out of 5 for ease of use.

Features

There are several useful features on GearLaunch, such as the design suite, order tracking, different payment options, and easy integration with Shopify. In fact, its features are essential for managing an online POD store effectively.

So again, GearLaunch earns a 5-star rating out of 5.

Customer Service

GearLaunch has reliable customer support. Apart from their several helpful resources, they also offer email, live chat, and phone support.

However, there is no phone support for free version users, unless you subscribe to the paid version of the GearLaunch application.

To sum it up, GearLaunch’s rating for customer service is 3.5 stars out of 5.

Value for Money

GearLaunch can be used for free. No monthly payment or annual subscription implies that less money is spent.

In addition, the premium Shopify GearLaunch app is also very affordable for less than $5 and it is a lifetime purchase. However, some users would argue that the product base prices and shipping rates are somewhat expensive.

For the value of money, GearLaunch was rated 4 stars out of 5.

GearLaunch Pros & Cons

Pros

• Variety of POD products
• Easy to use
• Fast fulfillment
• Seamless Shopify integration
• Free to use
• Affordable paid version
• Good resources

Cons

• No phone support for free users
• Less third-party integrations
• Less presence outside the US
• Expensive shipping rates outside the US

Check Out: TeeSpring Vs Printful

Is GearLaunch Legit?

Like other print on demand platforms, GearLaunch is a legitimate POD business that operates from the United States of America.

Generally, the overall customers’ reviews about the platform put a dent in its customer service.

Most reviews fault the customer service response time. This is not encouraging for potential new users who might encounter issues getting started. Persistent complaints also affect old users.

There are a few positive reviews though. The quality of product from GearLaunch has never been in doubt despite the delayed customer service response time.

Best GearLaunch Alternatives

The print on demand industry is relatively competitive.

There are several competitors and alternatives that provide similar POD services like GearLaunch. Some even have more interesting features and mouth-watering offers that designers will find really hard to turn down.

Some of the major GearLaunch alternatives in the POD industry include:

1. Printful

Printful is one of the frontrunners in print on demand worldwide. It was founded by Davis Siksnans and Lauris Liberts in 2013, and it is based in the United States of America.

One of the selling points of Printful is its large range of product collections. You can decide to design arts on apparel, or even sell wall art as prints. There is just a lot for you to choose from.

Printful’s support for several third-party integrations is definitely another factor that makes it stand out. In fact, other print on demand services do not outrun Printful in terms of third-party integrations.

2. Printify

Another GearLaunch alternative is Printify.

There are over 300 product options with Printify. Popular products include apparel, tote bags, phone cases, mugs, towels, journals, face masks, etc.

Printify’s printing process usually takes three days from order collection time to complete. And its order fulfillment timeframe is mostly done within 5 business days to two weeks.

Not to mention, Printify also integrates with top eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.

3. Society6

Society6 is another noteworthy GearLaunch alternative.

However, it functions as a print on demand online marketplace; hence, you can either buy or sell custom print items on Society6.

Interestingly, Society6 is popular for its home decor products. Their customer satisfaction rate is generally positive, while their products are of good quality.

Rounding Up The GearLaunch Review

As you can see from this GearLanch review, it is a reliable POD platform thanks to its features and Shopify integration.

Just like other popular POD platforms, you are only charged for product prices and shipping, which is ideal for a profitable business.

Also, if you use Shopify and choose to go with the paid version, you get to pay only a one-time amount of $4.99.

Nonetheless, GearLaunch does have its fallbacks, but overall, it is an ideal print on demand platform for every online merchant.