For beginner dropshippers, print on demand (POD) is the perfect way to start an e-commerce store. It’s a marketing strategy that helps differentiate your business in a highly competitive market. With print on demand, overhead costs are low, and there’s no need for physical stock to customize your customers’ orders.
This business model allows you to delegate all the work to your supplier with a guarantee of quality. However, like any popular business model among professional dropshippers, print on demand has its drawbacks.
If you need to understand how to navigate the downsides of print on demand, this guide is for you. We’ll outline the issues you might encounter and the solutions to overcome them. Let’s dive in!
The drawbacks of Print on Demand: an overview
Print on demand is an attractive dropshipping strategy for selling online products with your store’s brand or logo. While it can be profitable, this business model presents challenges, making it a real test to ensure your dropshipping business thrives.
- Product selection: The products available for sale are often limited to what’s in your suppliers’ catalogs. You have fewer options to fill your niche, making it difficult to meet your customers’ product expectations.
- Low profit margins: It can be expensive to request a single product to be printed by suppliers, but ordering in bulk is more affordable. This makes it hard to offer competitive prices and still make a profit.
- Quality control: Print quality can sometimes be an issue with certain suppliers, leading to dissatisfied customers who don’t receive what they expected.
- Long production times: With print on demand, processing and shipping times can be longer than expected. This can create uncertainty for customers accustomed to the fast shipping times offered by platforms like Amazon.
- Limited customer experience control: It’s often challenging to control how customers’ orders are handled and shipped. This makes it difficult to guarantee a pleasant experience for your customers.
- Limited branding options: Most suppliers use the same packaging as your competitors, making it hard to distinguish your brand. However, you can opt for unique packaging, which comes at an additional cost.
- Growing competition: The competition is fierce due to the number of dropshipping entrepreneurs using print on demand for their customers. This can make it difficult to stand out and generate consistent sales.
These are just some of the challenges you will face with dropshipping print-on-demand orders.
What are the main disadvantages of Print on Demand?
When starting in dropshipping, particularly with print on demand, there are important precautions to consider. Here are 7 disadvantages of print on demand that you must be aware of:
Limited product options
The primary issue with print on demand is the limited variety of products available from suppliers. This impacts your ability to diversify your niche products. Customizing certain POD product groups, such as clothing, can be particularly challenging. Items like sportswear or oversized garments are hard to find.
It’s difficult to achieve the exact result you want with print on demand products. Unique details, such as color options and placement areas, can be constraints for your suppliers.
Solution to solve the problem
To avoid dependency on a single supplier, here’s what you can do:
- Find and work with multiple suppliers
Diversifying your POD suppliers is the best solution to offer a range of customization options, such as books or product pieces, for your customers.
Lower profit margins
Profit margins are a common issue with the POD business model. For dropshippers, this is a significant problem, as the model doesn’t allow for substantial earnings from customer orders. Profitability is reduced because print on demand products are expensive. In this case, placing an order in bulk is necessary for the supplier to lower the price.
To make a profitable sale, you would need to charge your customer more, which could be challenging for them to accept. Only stores with affordable prices will benefit from these customers.
How to address this situation?
Low profit margins shouldn’t discourage you from POD dropshipping. There are reliable ways to make profits without upsetting your customers:
- Increase value
It’s not worth competing on price; instead, focus on the value or quality you deliver to your customers. Take your time to create unique designs for products with custom packaging.
Most customers are willing to pay more if they see the value.
- Bundle products
Grouping products and offering special sales allows you to sell without reducing your profits. For example, you can offer an item with artistic representation or a machine with similar designs at a discounted price. Most customers will gladly purchase without hesitation.
You can also think creatively about bundling products to attract your target customers. This is a way to ensure profits without too much hassle in POD.
Quality control challenges
In the print on demand dropshipping industry, quality control is often overlooked. During the order processing and shipping stages, many things can go wrong with your supplier, and these issues are hard to control.
In POD, print quality is often lacking, which can lead to dissatisfied customers. When a customer is unhappy with their order, they’ll likely voice their concerns, and you’ll be held accountable. It’s crucial to learn how to handle these situations to ensure the success of your e-commerce business.
How to solve this problem?
Today, there are several ways to address the quality control issue, a delicate matter for both beginner and professional dropshippers:
- Find reliable suppliers
You need to thoroughly research reliable suppliers who are quick in shipping and offer only high-quality items. Not all suppliers are equal in order processing and shipping.
- Set clear expectations
Clearly communicate the shipping deadlines and potential delays to your customers. This is the best way to manage their expectations. This approach, often overlooked by dropshippers, reduces complaints and allows you to relax with your customers.
- Recycle returned products
The best way to use products returned by customers is to repurpose them for marketing promotions. You can also consider giving them as gifts to loyal customers.
Drawbacks of print-on-demand - Long production times
With a POD order, you must be prepared to deal with the issue of long production times. Producing a print on demand product takes time. In this case, longer production times are the price to pay in dropshipping. Be honest with your customers by always making it clear that their order needs to be processed, printed, dried, and sometimes hand-finished before being shipped.
There’s a long queue, as previous orders need to be completed before yours, for example.
How to address this drawback?
Here’s how to manage this issue effectively:
- Keep bestsellers in stock
For popular models, you can place orders in advance, store them, and ship them yourself when a customer places an order. This way, you can offer quick shipping without the hassle, gaining your customer’s trust.
- Offer shipping upgrades
Offering expedited shipping options allows customers to believe they’ll benefit from faster shipping and delivery. Always emphasize that the customer needs to pay more to enjoy a faster shipping upgrade.
Limited control over customer experience
Just like shipping, the production of products has limited control over ensuring a unique shopping experience for your customers. In dropshipping, the customer cannot touch the product before making a purchase or placing an order. Therefore, you must expect any complaints or grievances after the package is delivered.
What are the solutions to this problem?
To minimize these complaints or grievances, there are ways to enhance your customers’ experience:
- Create a brand image
Create a unique and perfect brand identity to align with your various types of activities. This is a meticulous task that helps you better communicate with your customers.
- Establish strong communication
Your company’s brand should define the voice used to communicate concisely with your prospects. It’s always a good idea to read or follow examples from POD stores to gather inspiration.
- Enhanced online experience
It’s possible to create a unique online experience with POD dropshipping. To achieve this, the dropshipping platform must be intuitive, easy to use, and provide fast customer service. Additionally, the content you publish about your products should inspire customers to take action.
Tools like Google Analytics help you understand traffic on your dropshipping platform. The number of visitors gives you clues on how to improve activities on your website.
- Customer engagement strategies
While challenging, you can achieve customer loyalty. It’s a good initiative to create a loyalty program that allows your customers to make purchases with rewards after repeated orders. Asking your customers questions helps you understand what needs to be done to ensure their satisfaction.
Limited branding opportunities
If you don’t already know, branding helps differentiate your dropshipping business from the competition. Generally, suppliers provide neutral packaging for POD orders, which creates an issue with personalization.
In these conditions, your packaging cannot make your brand stand out since it isn’t unique. The customer experience becomes ineffective because the packaging is generic.
How to resolve this drawback?
Faced with this challenge, you need to deploy creative means to differentiate your online store:
- Customized shipping labels
With some POD suppliers, it’s possible to ship orders with customized shipping labels for all orders. To ensure a job well done, you need to detail the work to be done to your supplier. In short, you need to be very creative with the texts to add and the message to convey on the shipping labels.
- Brand inserts
Stickers and discount codes are useful items to make the package delivered to your customer very unique.
Fierce competition - Drawbacks of print-on-demand
Competition is fierce and growing due to the increasing number of dropshipping entrepreneurs. It’s not easy to close a sale in a saturated market.
Not only do you have to attract customers to your online store, but the best way is to have a unique brand identity, offer quality products, and provide unbeatable customer service. This is an unavoidable challenge if you want to compete and outperform other competitors.
What are the effective solutions to this drawback?
To differentiate your store from the intense competition, here are some essential precautions to follow:
- Niche down
A niche is necessarily unique for a specific group of customers who love the products it contains. Therefore, you need to create trending product niches and ensure you have dedicated customers, a technique that competitors often overlook.
- Unique designs
Creating unique or attractive designs involves finding unique selling points for your online store. Beyond working with talented artists and influencers, it helps you understand the real investments needed to distinguish your brand.
- Build a brand story
Unique designs allow you to create a historic brand, presenting your online store in a way that each customer remembers the image after their visit.
What are the advantages of Print on Demand?
Print on Demand (POD) has become an essential technique for dropshipping entrepreneurs. This method allows the creation of customized products without the need to manage inventory, which is a significant advantage for businesses looking to minimize financial risks. Let’s explore the positive aspects of Print on Demand and why this technology is becoming increasingly popular among dropshippers.
No need for inventory management
One of the greatest advantages of Print on Demand is that there is no need to manage inventory. With this method, products are only manufactured when an order is placed, which means there’s no surplus to store or sell at a loss. This allows businesses to focus on product quality and customize each item according to customer preferences.
Payment required only after sale
In the Print on Demand model, payment is only required after the product is sold. This means businesses don’t have to bear high upfront costs. This process is particularly advantageous for those starting in dropshipping, as they can offer a wide range of products without incurring the cost of pre-manufacturing.
Easy to target niche markets
Print on Demand offers unparalleled flexibility in targeting niche markets. Thanks to digital technology, it is possible to customize each product to meet the specific needs of each customer, allowing you to stand out in highly targeted markets. For example, a publisher can create customized books for a particular audience, or a business can offer unique items made to order. This personalization not only satisfies customers but also offers them a unique product they won’t find anywhere else.
Flexibility to modify designs
Print on Demand also offers great flexibility in quickly and easily modifying designs. Unlike traditional production methods, where a design change can lead to high costs, digital printing allows design adjustments without significant additional costs. This enables businesses to experiment with different designs and respond quickly to market trends.
Potentially environmentally friendly
Print on Demand is also an environmentally friendly process. By producing only what is ordered, there is less material waste, reducing the ecological footprint. Additionally, the ability to customize each piece means that customers receive exactly what they want, reducing returns and associated waste.
Global sales potential
Print on Demand offers global sales potential. Thanks to digital technology, products can be manufactured and shipped worldwide without high initial equipment costs. This opens up opportunities for businesses to sell their products to an international audience while maintaining low production costs. Whether it’s a customized book or a unique item, Print on Demand allows you to reach a wide audience without traditional logistical constraints.
No initial equipment costs
Launching a POD dropshipping store does not require an investment in printing equipment to satisfy your customers. This support method greatly facilitates the launch of an e-commerce business.
Conclusion
Despite its numerous advantages, Print on Demand presents some drawbacks to consider. Firstly, the unit cost of each product is often higher due to small-scale manufacturing. Secondly, the quality of materials and printers can vary, impacting the final output.
Additionally, production and delivery times can be longer, which may frustrate customers. The limited choice of products and colors can also restrict the offering. Finally, dependence on digital technology and service providers remains a challenge for some businesses. With concrete strategies, you can overcome the issues associated with this business model.