How To Start a Print-on-Demand Business in 2026

Print on demand (POD) is a low-risk business model in which a seller designs products and a POD supplier prints and ships the finished goods once customers place an order. It offers flexibility and creativity on the brand and design side, without the investment in inventory or printing materials. 

According to Precedence Research, the print-on-demand industry is currently worth $13 billion, and projected to reach $118 billion by 2035—a massive jump with huge potential for individuals looking to build a print-on-demand business.

In this article, you’ll learn how to start a print-on-demand business that works for your budget, from creating compelling designs to curating a product line and engaging with your target audience.

What is a print-on-demand business?

With the print-on-demand business model, you print custom designs on products only when customers place an order. Rather than producing large amounts of inventory that may or may not sell, you create and fulfill individual orders as they come in. Most print-on-demand businesses work with a print-on-demand company that handles printing, packaging, and shipping, while the business owner focuses on design, branding, marketing, and customer experience. 

Apparel company Life Is Good is a unique example in the print-on-demand industry, having moved its POD services from overseas to in-house and then becoming a POD supplier for other businesses through its sister company, Keep It Simple. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, Life Is Good president Tom Hassel says that the company focuses on offering a “blank canvas,” and that he enjoys seeing the vision of many different artists printing designs through the spinoff brand.

Benefits and challenges of a POD business

Whether you’re considering launching a POD business to sell custom products or want to incorporate POD into an existing online business (like creating merchandise for your brand), here’s what to know about the benefits and challenges of the business model.

Benefits of a POD business

The main benefits of print-on-demand center around ease of doing business, including: 

• Minimal upfront costs. Because POD businesses don’t require physical space or products to launch, they have low upfront costs.

• No inventory management. No physical inventory means no managing warehouse space or products. 

• Easy to scale. Because there’s no need for physical inventory, once you’ve found your target audience and groove, you can scale with ease, instantly expanding your product line or offerings, and processing thousands of orders without hiring more staff. 

• Speed to market. The structure of a POD business creates a fast turnaround from idea to printed product, allowing you to capitalize on new trends or ideas quickly. “We could make t-shirts about what we were all experiencing in the quarantine,” Tom says, “and they sold like nothing I’ve ever seen in my career.” 

Challenges of a POD business

While it’s relatively easy to set up, the print-on-demand model comes with certain drawbacks, including: 

• Lower profit margins. POD business margins vary based on product category, but the average t-shirt company profit margin is 15% to 25%. Because a large part of each transaction goes back to the supplier, and brands don’t get bulk order discounts, they must price strategically in order to make a profit. 

• Limited control over fulfillment. In a traditional brand-POD supplier relationship, brands don’t have control over the fulfillment process, which means they have to manage the customer experience without the ability to address issues directly. 

How to start a print-on-demand business

1. Choose a niche
2. Decide what products to sell
3. Create or source designs
4. Choose a print-on-demand supplier
5. Create your store
6. Price your products
7. Market your store

Ready to start your own print-on-demand store? Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you from conception to launch.

1. Choose a niche

A niche differentiates your brand from competitors. Identifying your POD niche helps to define your own target audience, the products you’ll offer them, and your marketing strategy.

Plant lovers, pet parents, camping enthusiasts, and grammar nerds are examples of niche audiences. To find your niche, evaluate your interests and skills, and your ideal customer profile, taking cues from Google trends, search engine optimization reporting, and tracking viral social media trends. 

2. Decide what products to sell

Once you have your niche in mind, you’ll need to decide which POD products you’ll sell, whether that’s apparel like t-shirts and hoodies, or accessories like tote bags, hats, mugs, waterbottles, phone cases, or stickers. If you’re starting a POD apparel business, think through product details such as cut and feel, colors offered, and custom embroidery options. 

Keep choice paralysis in mind during this process: A tightly curated shop with clear reasoning behind each inclusion, rather than an endless list of products, can be easier for customers to browse.

One strategy is to limit your product styles but offer a wide range in designs. “Having a much broader catalog of products increased our business at a dramatic clip,” Tom says. Though they’d begun to shift to a less-is-more stance on the inventory side, the team embraced a more-is-more ethos on the design side.

“Having too many choices can be a tax on the consumer in some businesses, but not when you’re dealing with artwork,” he explains. “Artwork is so personal; it can take a hundred graphics in one particular niche topic to make sure that you have something for everyone. The more art we create, the more business we’re going to do.”

3. Create or source designs

If you’re launching a print-on-demand arm of an existing brand, you may have designs ready. Life Is Good creates all of its designs in-house, but outsourcing product design to a freelance graphic designer—who you can find through a number of online freelance marketplaces—is another way to generate custom artwork for your store. 

When sourcing your own designs, be aware of usage rights. Start by browsing stock imagery already approved for commercial use; some are free, while others, like Adobe Stock, charge a fee for access to a wider library of assets and graphics.

4. Choose a print-on-demand supplier

Many online marketplaces, like Amazon Merch on Demand or Redbubble, offer printing services to anyone looking to create custom products. Or you can choose a print-on-demand service to manage your designs and fulfillment from a central source. Here’s what to consider when choosing a POD supplier:

• Production locations. Where a supplier is based will impact fulfillment times for your customers. Apps like Gelato allow you to ship to a global network without overlong shipping times by using localized printing facilities.

• Product quality. Check the quality of your suppliers’ print-on-demand products. You can ask for samples or place a few orders to see whether the fabric and printing technique meet your standards.

• Product variety. Make sure your suppliers can support any future products you envision. Life Is Good, for example, recently added embroidery, the ability to apply patches to hats, and direct-to-film printing. If you plan on offering multiple styles, understand how it will affect pricing and order timelines. 

• Ecommerce integration. Print-on-demand apps offer automated syncing with your ecommerce store, so you don’t have to manually process each individual order as it comes through. Most of these apps, like Printful, offer custom branded packaging as well—so your brand identity and experience carry through the unboxing process.

• Environmental impact. Many print-on-demand suppliers offer environmentally friendly materials or practices, so you can stay true to your company values even without having control over each individual step. 

5. Create your store

While many POD sellers maintain stores on Etsy or Amazon, creating a website on an ecommerce platform like Shopify has several benefits, allowing you to:

• Build a cohesive brand

• Control your own pricing strategy

• Avoid competing with other listings in a marketplace

• Retain more of your earnings rather than give a cut of each sale to the platform

• Own access to customer data

Shopify’s step-by-step checklist for setting up a print-on-demand store covers the essentials.

6. Price your products

Because you won’t be manufacturing your products in bulk, each item will have a higher individual production cost. This cost is informed by your supplier’s base cost—what they charge for product types or printing technique—and what it costs to print and ship your product to your customer. Pricing your products effectively ensures that you still make a profit after paying your supplier to create each order. 

There are a few ways to determine your pricing:

• Competitive analysis. Market research is a cornerstone of pricing strategy. By understanding the competitor brands that also serve your unique niche, what they charge for similar products, and what their customers seem willing to pay, you can identify a sweet spot for your own pricing.

• Built-in shipping fees. Wrapping the cost of shipping into your final price can be an attractive marketing technique and way to smooth the conversion process. Customers don’t have to go through the additional step of considering shipping fees, and you cover your costs.

• Markup. What you charge on top of your total production costs to get to your final price is known as markup. How much you add depends on your offerings, your market, your audience, and your competition: for example, premium materials, on-trend designs, or customization options might justify a higher price point.

• Undercutting. It can be tempting to offer a lower price than your competitors to capture market share, a technique known as undercutting or predatory pricing, but it’s not recommended for POD businesses. Doing so puts your own profitability at risk, since most of each print-on-demand transaction will go to your supplier. 

7. Market your store

Marketing your store requires a compelling brand message that gives your customers a reason to connect with and purchase from your brand. Use social media marketing to tell those stories and share customer reviews as they come in. Your market research will help you understand where your customers already spend their time and look for products (Instagram, YouTube, Google search), which can help you understand where to focus your efforts and marketing budget.