AngelaIn this guide I am going to take you step by step through everything you need to do to start a Shopify Print On Demand (POD) Website.
This is based on my own personal experience after successfully building my own Shopify POD t shirt store. There is no need to pay for any course or guru, I will explain everything below with nothing left out.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.
How To Create A Shopify Print On Demand Store
It's possible to sell a wide variety of clothing and merchandise on your Shopify store without holding any stock. By connecting a print on demand provider to your store you can sell custom t shirts, mugs, posters and more.
Its fully automated and when an order is placed the print on demand provider will manufacture and ship your item. This means you can have hundreds of products without it costing you anything upfront. Read on to find out how.
Step One: Register With Printful
In this guide we are going to use my favorite print on demand provider Printful. They fully integrate with Shopify so that you can fulfill orders 100% automatically.
Printful has fulfilment centres in the United States, Mexico and Europe, plus they will ship worldwide. The quality of their merchandise is very good and they have lots of items to choose from.
So head over to Printful now and register for a free account by clicking HERE. There is no set up fee and there is no monthly cost. Printful only charge you when you place a order. They even allow you to order samples of your designs with extra discount.
Here are some of the items you can sell with Printful:
- T-Shirts, Tank & Crop Tops
- Hoodies & Sweaters
- Leggings
- Skirts & Dresses
- Swimwear & Beach towels
- Sports bras
- Baby Bodysuits
- Hats/Caps, Bags, Socks, Aprons
- Phone Cases
- Coffee Mugs
- Posters & Canvas Prints
Check out this official Printful video explaining in more detail how to integrate with Printful.
REGISTER FOR FREE WITH PRINTFUL
Step Two: Set Up A Shopify Store
The next thing you need to do is set up a basic Shopify website to list your Print On Demand Merchandise. For those of you not familiar with Shopify its a platform that allows you to build your own eCommerce site.
If you have already got a Shopify store then you can skip this step.
Head over to Shopify and register for one of their store packages. There is a lot involved in setting up a store which I will not be going into in this post.
If you are looking for a step by step Shopify guide I would recommend Adam Reeds course on Udemy. Its the one I used when creating my own store a few years ago.
Step Three: Integrate Printful With Shopify
Now that you have set up your Shopify store and registered with Printful we need to link them together. This is very easily done by using the Printful Shopify store app.
- Head over the the Shopify app store
- Search for the "Printful" app
- Install the app
- Log in to your Printify account via the app
Step Four: Add Your First Print On Demand Design
There are a number of ways to create designs for your Shopify store. One of the easiest methods is to use the built in Printful mock up generator. It easily allows you create simple text or graphic designs on any of their products.
You need to think of what your sites theme or niche is and create designs for your audience. If you have a store based around dog owners then you could make a "I Love Dogs" t shirt.
For a more in depth look at the different ways to create t shirt designs then check out my other post. Beginners T Shirt Design Guide.
Step 5: Optimize Listings On Shopify
When you create a design on Printful the product listing is sent over to your Shopify store. However the listing will not be optimized and you will need to amend things like categories, tags and other settings. Once you have checked the listing you can now make it live on your store.
Congratulations you have now created a Shopify Print On Demand merchandise store. You can go ahead and add your designs to as many different products as you like.
Summary: Shopify Print On Demand
So we have covered off the main steps you need to complete to create a Shopify print on demand store. In this example we have used my favorite provider Printful. You can actually use multiple print demand providers at the same time. This can be useful to pick the best prices across different platforms and also different items.
There are other providers that will also integrate with Shopify such as Printify. If you want to find out more check out my post comparing Printful vs Printify.
You can also integrate Printful with Etsy online marketplace as well. Head over to my other post to find out how. ETSY Print On Demand – Printful Integration
