Dropshipping is an excellent option if you want to start an online T-shirt business. Using a service like Printful, you can sell T-shirts on-demand, which means that there is no setup cost required. The site offers both on-demand dropshipping and warehousing and fulfillment for any products that you have that aren’t made through Printful.
Printful offers a variety of functions and services, including ready-made integrations, design and photo services, and fulfillment in both North America and Europe. If you are an entrepreneur or influencer who wants to start selling apparel online, Printful can offer you a range of benefits.
Printful Features and Services
Printful offers a range of features and services to help you run your online store and business. You might benefit from using just one of their services or by combining them if there are several things that you want help with.
The following features and services are available from Printful:
- Ready-made integrations – connect your online store to Prinful, with integrations to top platforms like Etsy, Shopify, Amazon and Squarespace
- Automated order import – orders from your store are imported into the Printful system and sent to fulfillment
- On-demand drop shipping – no need for inventory and pay any fees only when someone places an order
- White-label fulfillment – everything can be printed or embroidered and shipped under your brand so no one knows it comes from Printful
- Warehousing services – if you have products that aren’t from Printful, they can store, pack and ship these items too
- Fulfillment in North America and Europe – three locations in North America (Mexico, North Carolina and California) and one in Europe (Riga, Latvia)
- Design services – if you don’t have any designs, Printful’s design team can create designs for you
- Photo services – Printful can also photograph your products for you to help you present them well online
- Printful app – the Printful app for iOS and Android helps you keep track of your Printful account with notifications, order tracking and support
How Printful Works
Printful connects with your online store so that your customers can order products, and the orders will be sent to Printful. Once you get your store connected, you can create your products using their online mockup generator. Their products include clothing for men, women and children, hats, accessories and products for the home.
You can add as many products as you want to your store, and nothing will be printed until an order is placed. That means there’s no need to keep any expensive inventory that takes up space. You can then promote your store and products to start making sales. When you make a sale, Printful will print it, pack it and ship it for you.
It’s free to sign up and create your products. When you make a sale, you pay for the product and the fulfillment service. You get to decide how much profit you make by choosing the pricing for your products. You can look at the pricing for all of their products on their website. The prices included fulfillment, although not shipping.
If you decide to use the fulfillment and warehousing services, start by connecting Printful to your online store. You then need to send them your products to one of their warehouses (or more than one). After syncing your products with your store, you can start selling them, and Printful will take care of the fulfillment for you. Printful keep track of how much of your stock they have, and send you an email when they’re running low and need you to send more. You pay processing and fulfillment fees, as well as storage fees
How to Get Started with Printful
If you want to start using Printful, you first need to have an online store elsewhere. Printful supports a number of top ecommerce platforms. These include:
- Shopify
- Etsy
- WooCommerce
- Squarespace
- BigCommerce
- Ecwid
- Amazon
- Weebly
- Prestashop
- eBay
- Shipstation
- Big Cartel
- Storenvy
- Gumroad
- Inktale
- Magento
- Wish
- 3dcart
There is also a Printful API, which larger retailers and those with their own store created by their developer can also integrate Printful into their website. When you have a store set up, you can get started with Printful by creating an account on their site.
If you don’t already have designs that you want to use, you can use the Printful design service. Or you can create your own designs, or look for other design services to help you. You can place a sample order before you start using Printful properly so that you can be sure that you’re happy with the product before you start selling it to your customers.
The process for connecting your online store to Printful varies depending on which platform you use. If you use Shopify, you can just install the Printful app on Shopify. You can go to the Printful dashboard and click Stores, then select the platform that you use to find a useful tutorial.
When you create products using Printful, it will push your new products to your store with most of their integrations. However, this doesn’t work with all integrations, so it’s important to check. If you’re using Big Cartel, Squarespace or Gumroad, you need to add your products manually. This requires you to go to your store’s sync page and select “refresh data”, then click “edit” on your product to finish setting it up. It’s up to you to add photos and descriptions for your products to make them look good and help them to sell, although you can use the basic mockup images of your products.
You will need to set prices for your products, and also calculate the shipping. Printful has a calculator that you can use to calculate your profits so you know what you’ll earn depending on the price that you set. When it comes to shipping, they have flat rate and live rate options. Live rate shopping shows customers the best price for shipping at the time of their order, and is available for Shopify, WooCommerce or Ecwid. Other platforms use flat rate shipping, which has set prices.
Getting set up with Printful doesn’t take long, and it’s a great way to start selling your own T-shirts and other printed or embroidered products. Try it for yourself at printful.com