What is print on demand

Have you ever wondered what POD or print on demand actually means?

It means that a product is only put into print from the moment a customer places the order.

The advantage is that you do not incur any upfront costs for printing and storing. However, the profit margin is often set by the print service provider, which can sometimes be quite low.

What can be printed on demand?

Books can be printed on demand, which has made self-publishing – i.e. publishing books yourself – much easier in both the novel and non-fiction sectors.
Also Notebooks can be printed on demand, depending on the print on demand service, you can also add lines and quotes or anything else you want.

T-shirts and other garments can also be printed to order. T-shirts can also be personalized in addition to the existing design, if the platform offers this option.

You can also sell canvases in all sizes, posters, metal pictures or even wooden pictures with print on demand.

Cups, trays, tablecloths, napkins and coasters can also be printed on demand.

Also very popular are cell phone covers, foils for notebooks, notebook cases and bags.

Even furniture like tables, stools, benches and sideboards can be ordered with countless different designs.

The market is getting bigger and bigger.

Who provides PoD?

Here is a small list of print on demand platforms, without any claim to completeness.

T-Shirts

Spreadshirt: Spreadshirt offers T-shirts, hoodies, long-sleeves and everything else the shirt market has to offer. Just like bags, mugs, water bottles, stickers, posters, pillows and much more.

Clothing, Home Decor, Accessoires

T-shirts are also available at Society 6, but the focus of Society 6 is not necessarily on the shirts, as it is at Spreadshirt.

Society 6 offers lots of home decor items, such as curtains – including shower curtains – pillows, floor cushions, bedcovers, bath mats, towels, doormats, wall hangings and even wallpaper. The above-mentioned furniture pieces can also be found at Society 6. So can cups, bottles, coasters, trays and cutting boards, cell phone and tablet cases and adhesive sheets, notebooks, stickers, wrapping paper, cards, bags, backpacks and more. What I also find worth mentioning are the folding garden chairs and loungers – which are of course also suitable for the beach and also the picnic blankets.
In addition, murals of all kinds, bags in various designs and so much more.

However, one disadvantage with Society 6 is that it often takes a long time to upload and customize the designs for each product.

Fabrics

One of my favorite categories is fabrics. I love fabrics!

A lot of my Designs can already be found on Spoonflower and more are added every week. Uploading is very convenient, you can also combine the designs into collections, participate in design challenges, which increases the design output even more, and there are quite a few fabric qualities to choose from. The only thing to keep in mind if you want to sell your designs on the fabrics is that you have to order a test print first, to make sure that the design really looks the way you want.
In addition, Spoonflower also offers its customers to order the designs they want ready sewn on pillows, bedspreads, tablecloths and cloth napkins.

And there are countless other German and international POD service providers that I have come across, but most of which I have not yet tried out myself, for example:

Art Box One
Junique
Contrado
Fashion Formular
Casify
Shirtinator
Teezily
Teespring
Threadless
Textilio
Merch by Amazon

(Important for all platforms: Be sure to read the terms and conditions!)

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