Due to its profit potential, print on demand is one of the leading eCommerce business models you can try. However, a major challenge most newbies face is deciding on which print on demand fulfillment company is the best to use.There are many POD services out there some of which include Printify, Gooten, Print Aura, Custom Cat, and Printful amongst others. In this article, however, our interest is on the first two POD sites – Printify and Gooten.
If you’re wondering which among the two is better than the other, you’ll find out at the end of this Gooten vs Printify review.
But before we get started on that, it will make sense to shed some light on how print on demand works.
Print On Demand Overview
Like dropshipping, print on demand is one of the best inventions for internet entrepreneurs that cannot afford to go through the traditional route of buying and holding inventory.
In this case, the artists work with suppliers to place their designs on white-label products to be sold on a per-order basis under the artist’s name.
Image source: Shopify
Essentially, this means that, aside from the time spent in making the design, the artist does not have to spend a dime in capital until they have actually sold the product and made a profit from it. You also get to set your profit margin.
And it gets even better.
With print on demand, sellers do not have to worry about the sales process after they have published their designs on their preferred print on demand platform.
And that includes printing, stocking, and shipping.
Everything is taken care of by the supplier.
So all the seller really has to do is create designs and the money starts trickling in, or not. But it is essentially risk-free.
Which is why print on demand is ideal to:
- Test out new ideas to see how they will be met by a target audience without running at a loss if they fail to meet expectations
- Upscaling your business as a social media influencer, like a YouTuber or blogger. This way, you can focus on creating content, while still making sales from your own branded products without much work
- Print one-off items for personal use or to gift to family or friends.
Print on demand works based on a similar business model as dropshipping, where product fulfillment is handled by a third-party. And while there are a lot of perks attached to it, it isn’t without limitations.
On the bright side, print on demand lets you:
- Create products and put them up for sale in a matter of minutes
- Focus only on customer service afterward, while it takes care of shipping and fulfillment
- Stake little or nothing, since you do not exactly involve yourself with any physical product
- However, having these perks may mean:
- Lower profit margins, since customers may not be buying your products in bulk
- Lesser control over products. In fact, the only time you ever have full control over your product is just before you hit the upload button
- Design restrictions depending on the vendor
What You Need To Get Started
While you may not need much to launch your own print on demand business, you do need to exercise due diligence as you consider some basic factors to help you get started.
First, you need a catchy brand name and logo that will be easy to get behind, and most importantly, will look good on the product.
Then a mockup generator to help you showcase your products in more realistic 3D forms.
It will also make sense to first order the sample product to check its quality before staking your brand name and reputation on it.
And then, an apt print on demand platform that will be responsible for everything else after you submit your design, which is where Printify and Gooten come in.
Printify
Image source: Printify
Printify is a print on demand and order fulfillment company. It handles billing, shipping, and all the others. You just need to handle marketing and sales.
You can use Printify as a WooCommerce, Shopify, or Etsy seller. This POD company features integration options with these eCommerce platforms.
The process is simple. You create products that they provide then you design on those products and you sell, with a full catalog to choose from, including T-shirts and all kinds of sweatshirts and hoodies.
Printify gives you information for each product.
They have different print providers, prices, average production time, where they can print, and the sizes and colors they offer.
So all you have to do is customize designs on products that they provide, set a retail price, pay the wholesale price, and you profit.
Easy peasy.
As a print on demand fulfillment company, Printify makes it very easy to set up an ecommerce platform and gives you the opportunity to make some money.
They save you time with their tools and handle dropshipping.
Give shape to your dropshipping dream. Printify gives you the liberty to create, design and sell your custom prints using 3000 plus products. What's more, it is absolutely free!
How Printify Works
Printify works in four straightforward steps:
First, you choose the type of products you’d like to sell. The platform offers a variety of products such as mugs, T-shirts, phone cases, etc.
It’s on these items that you will place your designs and logo.
The next step is the branding itself.
This is where you get to create your designs, images, and logo using the tools within Printify.
Your job is merely to place the designs on the product and adjust the size, position, and other aspects. Since Printify sells white label products, you have unlimited branding options.
The third step is where you pick the product supplier. Printify suppliers usually let you order a sample product to check its quality before you open your shop to the public.
The final step is placing the product on your website while you sit back and watch Printify do the rest.
Setting Up A Printify Account
If you are ready to start selling your print on demand product in your ecommerce shop, setting up a Printify account is easy.
The Printify app is always free on the Shopify app store. You can even add your WooCommerce and multiple shops to Printify.
Alternatively, you can manually publish your shop.
Here’s how to create an account:
If you are bent on using Shopify, you can start a 14-day trial account for free and only pay once you are ready to publish products and sell them in your shop.
Image source: Shopify
Signing up for Shopify is done in a few easy steps.
Once you’ve signed up, here’s how to add the Printify app to your Shopify store:
On your Shopify dashboard, select ‘Apps’, and click on ‘Visit Shopify App Store’.
Image source: Shopify
Here you will need to search for Printify, choose the app from the dropdown list, and install.
To integrate Printify on other ecommerce platforms, first sign up for a free Printify account.
Image source: Printify
Once you have successfully signed up, you will find a welcome screen explaining how to start selling.
If you are a WordPress user, you might be using WooCommerce. You can easily add your WooCommerce shop to Printify within your Printify account.
You can also add your Etsy store from inside your Printify dashboard.
Give shape to your dropshipping dream. Printify gives you the liberty to create, design and sell your custom prints using 3000 plus products. What's more, it is absolutely free!
Adding Products On Printify
Creating products on Printify doesn’t take much time, and once you’ve published your products to your shop, Printify handles fulfillment and shipping.
To add a product, first browse through the product catalog to make your choice.
Image source: Printify
Next, select the most suitable print provider for your needs, based on location, color variation, or other criteria.
Under each print product, you’ll find shipping and other details, including location, shipping rates and carriers, product sizes, colors, etc.
Now you are ready to design your product with its built-in mockup generator.
Once you’ve chosen a product, you can add your design.
If you picked a t-shirt, you can add your designs to the front and back sides, left and right sleeves, and even a custom designed neck label.
Image source: Printify
Choose the color of your mockup, edit the details – including your retail price – and publish your shirt straight to your shop.
Ordering Samples
After you’ve designed a new product, you’ll want to ensure the quality before publishing and marketing it.
As realistic as Printify mockups are, you’ll only know for sure how your artwork looks when printed on the final products.
In addition, ordering samples helps you see if sizing and fabric softness meet your expectations. Moreover, it’s great to do your own photo shooting with the samples for marketing purposes.
Here’s how to order samples:
From your Printify dashboard, go to ‘My Store’.
Image source: Printify
Right next to the add product button, there’s a Get Sample button.
When you press that button, Printify will show you a list of all of your products. You can use the search bar to quickly find a specific product, or browse until you find it.
Choose the product you want to order, and select its variants.
You can add more samples to the order by pressing the ‘add from created products’ tab.
Give shape to your dropshipping dream. Printify gives you the liberty to create, design and sell your custom prints using 3000 plus products. What's more, it is absolutely free!
Managing Order Fulfillment Settings
When you start running your print on demand store, customers may sometimes call you to manage size or color, or to cancel the order completely.
With manual order approval, you can always edit order information before orders are sent into production.
With automatic order approval, you only have a small window of time to change orders.
The most important detail is that once an order goes into production, it cannot be changed or canceled.
This is due to the automatic integration with each print provider and because orders are fulfilled on demand.
So you have two options:
You can opt for manual order approval, whereby orders are only fulfilled after you press ‘Send To Production’.
Image source: Printify
The other option is automated order fulfillment, which ensures that your customers get their orders as soon as possible, without your manual approval. Printify is a global print on demand company. Their on-demand partners ship almost anywhere.
Printify Pricing
Printify has three pricing tiers – free, premium, and enterprise.
The premium plan costs $29/month. However, you can get it cheaper at a $24.99 monthly fee if you pay annually. The enterprise plan is custom-based.
Image source: Printify
Give shape to your dropshipping dream. Printify gives you the liberty to create, design and sell your custom prints using 3000 plus products. What's more, it is absolutely free!
Customer Service
The major source for help as a Printify Customer is the Help Center. This resource contains more than 100 articles on using the print on demand company. In addition to the Help Center, Printify also features exclusive guides, recent eCommerce statistics, and a blog.
You can get direct help from the Printify support team by sending them an email. Furthermore, you can reach them on social media. Unlike other Printify alternatives, they feature accounts on all major social media platforms and more. This includes Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Discord.
It’s important to note that Printify offers 100 percent merchant protection to all their users. The exclusive merchant support can be contacted if there’s any problem with your orders.
Gooten
Image source: Gooten
Gooten has a fully automated integration with Shopify and you can access all of that once you are logged into your account.
The integration process is quite simple. All you need to do is sync your store, configure a few settings, and you can go forward in terms of linking products that you currently have, or publish new ones.
Gooten also fully supports partners who are selling on other platforms.
Their customer order forms and CSV order uploads are great solutions for Etsy users.
Plus, Gooten offers great opportunities for persons looking to go mobile. They have JavaScript SDK across iOS and Android.
How Gooten Works
There isn’t much difference between Gooten and other print on demand services in terms of their modus operandi.
Just like Printify, it has four processes to it:
The product selection, design upload, sample ordering, and uploading of the finished product on the ecommerce store. Gooten will take care of everything that comes after, including manufacturing, printing, and shipping.
Setting Up A Gooten Account
Signing up on Gooten is easy and does not require any billing information.
Image source: Gooten
You can now install Gooten on third-party app stores.
To add Gooten on Shopify, search for the Gooten app on the Shopify app store and click ‘Get’.
Shopify will then redirect you to Gooten’s sign up/sign-in page where you will have to log in to sync your Gooten and Shopify accounts.
Then you can finally install the app on your Shopify app store.
Image source: Shopify
Adding Products On Gooten
You can add new products to your Gooten shop from your Shopify dashboard.
To add a product, go to ‘Product Catalogue’ and you will be prompted to log in to your Gooten account. Once you are in, click on the Add a New Product button.
Image source: Shopify
Choose the product and variations, and upload your designs.
Ordering Samples
You can order samples on Gooten before presenting the products to your audience.
Go to the Gooten dashboard, click the Order a Sample button, and follow the prompt.
Image source: Shopify
Gooten Pricing
Unlike Printify, Gooten does not charge you any monthly fee. The only money you pay is the amount charged for the product which can be found in the product catalog.
Customer Service
Gooten offers an exclusive support service to customers via the Help Desk. To access this Help Desk, you need to be signed in. Otherwise, you can submit a request via the online contact form.
You can get help from the Gooten Help Center too. It contains articles on everything about using Gooten including policies, store setup, reports, etc.
As a Gooten partner, you can gain access to white label support. In other words, your customers can get help directly from Gooten without knowing you’re not the one providing support. Finally, support is attainable on social media via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Tips For Using Printify Or Gooten
Fulfillment services like Printify and Gooten will make your print on demand business grow, without much stress.
But remember, for every relief any automated system can give you, your additional effort has the capacity to improve your returns.
So whether you decide to use Printify or Gooten, here are a few tips that could help you if you are just starting out:
1. Check out samples before you launch a new line
Always order your sample before you stake your brand on it.
Do not mind that most of the work is done over the computer. Somewhere along the line, there will still be inputs from humans – and humans are prone to error – which is why you must be your first customer before you let your product reach the hands of others.
That way, you can see if anything was lost in transmission, and quickly reach out to your supplier to fix it.
Aside from ensuring that your products are up to standard, ordering your products is important for promotional purposes.
You have to take pictures of your finished work for your online profiles and campaigns.
2. Ship right
Print on demand services are just like your standard dropshipping – you don’t do the shipping yourself.
However, you still have a role to play.
Unlike general ecommerce dropshipping, you have to factor in printing time when it comes to shipping, which means that you have to add an additional 2 to 4 days to the standard shipping time.
And it helps to be transparent about these details on your website, or you will spend a lot of valuable time answering questions from aggrieved customers.
Also, as much as possible, make your shipping free. Or at least, make it look that way.
You can do this by absorbing the standard shipping fee into your retail cost, that way you have a good reason to justify your longer shipping time.
3. Showcase your products with mockups
If you can’t afford to hire professionals to model your products, using mockups can be almost as effective.
Your print on demand platform can help you create flashy mockups or you could opt to use third-party services.
If you are working with a big budget, you can use premium services like PlaceIt that lets you create professional-looking photos and videos for your products for under $10. Or hire a freelancer to create awesome designs for you.
4. Focus on a particular niche
There’s nothing wrong in trying to sell to everyone, but having a target audience usually makes marketing a lot easier.
Think about it, if you plan to run ads on social media, you will reach more people if you run more focused ads, rather than casting your net without a clear idea of what you want.
Also, having a niche makes it easier for you to create permanent marketing assets since you already know your audience.
It becomes easier to create an Instagram profile and build your audience by providing content that is relevant to your niche, run targeting Facebook ads, obtain emails to send relevant newsletters to the right people, and a lot more.
Final Note – Printify vs Gooten
I’d opt for Printify first before Gooten, especially if you are looking to sell more than 50 shirts per month for the fact that you’ll make a higher profit within a shorter time.
But before you make any decision, I’d recommend that you try out both companies to see which one works best for you.
