Michael Essek

Comparing Print-On-Demand T-Shirt Fulfillment Companies In 2018

Last year’s T-Shirt Fulfillment Companies review is a little out of date now, so it’s time for a fresh look.

In previous articles I’ve compared Printful, Printaura and Customcat – but recently I’ve begun using Printify to fulfil some of my Shopify orders.

Printify is a slightly different beast to other POD T-Shirt fulfilment options, in that Printify serves as a platform connecting you to a variety of fulfilment partners.

Printify doesn’t do any printing or shipping directly – instead, it sends your orders over to a partner of your choosing (Printify works with several different providers). In this way it creates direct competition between printing partners so you can compare the best price and turnaround time.

In this article I’m going to throw Printify into the mix, and compare (through direct experience) the prices, turnaround time and monthly costs / potential profits of these three services (Printful, CustomCat and Printify).

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The Rise Of ‘Officially Licensed’ Print-On-Demand T-Shirts (& Merch Collab)

For years now (maybe even decades) – the print-on-demand t-shirt industry has benefitted from – and contributed to – and incredible amount of Intellectual Property Infringement.

That infringement went largely unnoticed – or was ignored – for a long time, but increasingly the victims (or potential victims) of such infringement have begun to stir, and to realising what is going on.

In response to that stirring, some new opportunities are springing up.

The most recent and high-profile example of this is Amazon’s new ‘Merch Collab‘ program.

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Why I Don’t Show You My Own T-Shirt Designs

I get asked a lot of questions, and one that comes up very often is this:

“Can I See Your Designs / Store?”

The answer, I’m afraid, is no.

It’s not because I don’t like you, or because I’m rude.

It’s for these 2 simple reasons.

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2017 Q2 Review – Merch By Amazon Income Review + 2 Big Lessons

Woah, we’re halfway there.

Yes friends, 50% of the year is up and that means it’s time for my Q2 Review.

Here’s how things have been looking for the past 3 months…

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How To Outsource T-Shirt Designs The Right Way (+ Mistakes To Avoid)

With the increasing growth in the Print-On-Demand T-Shirt industry – and platforms like Merch By Amazon – demand has increased for cheap and easy T-Shirt designs.

This has flooded the market with designers offering T-Shirt artwork at very low prices (eg. from $5 per design through sites like Fiverr) – which can appear very tempting for newcomers looking to get a lot of designs for as low a price as possible.

And although what constitutes a ‘quality’ design is subjective, there are a lot of ways in which cheap designs can be a liability, rather than an asset.

In this article I’m going to give a few tips on finding a good designer, what to beware of, and how to approach the outsourcing of your designs to help build a long-term and sustainable business.

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