Best Print on Demand Apps for Shopify
Inci Vardar
When launching a business, entrepreneurs usually create product lines based on their ideas, market research, and business plans. However, predicting the demand for each product can be challenging. Some products may fall short of sales expectations and end up unsold by the end of the year. This case was a common issue until the advent of print-on-demand apps. Now, e-commerce entrepreneurs like Shopify store owners can begin their ventures with minimal capital and produce only what sells, eliminating the need for storage and reducing excessive production costs.
What Is Print-on-demand?
Print-on-demand (POD) or “white-label print-on-demand” is a production method that frees vendors from responsibilities such as printing, packing, and shipping goods, allowing them to concentrate their efforts on design and marketing. Print-on-demand is a type of dropshipping, and it offers a low-risk entry point for business owners who want to sell customized apparel, accessories, home decor, merchandise, printed literature, and so on and so forth.
What Are the Important Essentials to Look for in a POD?
While many POD companies share expected benefits such as sourcing and storing products, printing designs, providing custom packaging, and managing shipping, some features set them apart. With a variety of print-on-demand apps available on Shopify for all kinds of stores, you should consider the following essentials before making a choice:
- Printing quality: Although vendors seldom interact with the final product, they must ensure that the resolution, coloring, and material quality meet customer expectations. So, your chosen company needs to provide samples and deliver consistent quality.
- Customization options: Product variety and customization options can help you expand your product line or create custom merchandise for your brand. For example, providing a range of merchandise or freebies besides your clothing line, such as branded mugs or journals, can make shopping on your Shopify store more attractive.
- Shipping speed: Today’s customers, who are increasingly accustomed to same-day delivery, do not have the patience to wait more than a few days, even when purchasing personalized products. So, shipping speed can be crucial for customer satisfaction, and global shipping options can help you expand your business operations without logistics headaches.
- Order management: Features like real-time tracking and order modification will enable you to respond to customer inquiries more accurately.
- Integrations: You need to make sure that the POD app seamlessly integrates with the e-commerce platform you use to sync orders and inventory automatically. Thanks to its huge app store, which is filled with all kinds of integrated apps, Shopify store owners are free of this hassle.
Apart from these, every business has unique needs, and you need to select accordingly. Now, let’s review the best print-on-demand apps for your Shopify store.
Printful: Comprehensive Print on Demand
One of the top print-on-demand apps on the Shopify app store, Printful offers a wide range of customizable products, from regular t-shirts to personalized puzzles. Printful creates a unified brand experience by adding your branding to products and packaging, including inside labels and packaging inserts, for an additional cost.
The free plan requires you to pay only after an order is placed, but the growth plan includes more features and discounts. While it takes 2–5 business days to create a product and fulfill an order, shipping time depends on product availability and delivery destination.
With a built-in mock-up generator and extensive customization options, Printful provides a comprehensive print-on-demand service for Shopify store owners who want to maintain brand image from product to packaging.
Printify: Global Printing Solutions
Printify boasts 900+ high-quality products and the largest global print network, making it a fast and cost-effective POD partner. Trusted by over 8M sellers around the world, Printify differentiates itself from its competitors with speed, selection, and scale.
The company leverages a global network of print providers, increasing shipping speed and lowering costs. Its automatic routing function ensures that you can meet customer demand even during peak seasons. The product margins can be a little high, but the premium plan offers better deals for those who want to scale.
SPOD: Fast Turnaround and Low Return Rates
SPOD is an efficient dropshipping print-on-demand service offering one of the industry’s fastest fulfillment times. Focusing on apparel, wall art, and a limited number of accessories, SPOD produces 95% of orders in under 48 hours.
Offering quite competitive pricing for a smaller selection of products, SPOD is a good fit for entrepreneurs who want to start selling fast.
Apliiq ‑ Print On Demand: Fashion-forward Custom Apparel
Built by a team of apparel experts, Apliiq offers Shopify store owners print-on-demand solutions for fashion and lifestyle brands. It produces top-quality clothing products that are fully branded on demand in about a week. Along with a variety of textile printing options, Apliiq’s services include quality assurance, with an in-house production artist examining your product for quality.
Apliiq products do not have generic tags; all are customizable. You can replace private labels with your own tag or use patches, woven labels, or neck prints to highlight your brand on all kinds of clothing.
Gelato: Global Reach with Local Manufacturing
Gelato localizes both print and delivery, offering production in 32 countries. For some orders, it offers 72-hour delivery. It uses an algorithm to select the most appropriate printer based on the delivery location. Through its shipping and delivery calculator, you can view the cost and estimated time of delivery of selected products.
Its wide range of customizable products, from apparel to stationery, requires no minimum orders or upfront fees, making it cost-effective for businesses at various stages.
Either as a side hustle or a scaling plan, POD apps make it easy to operate a fully functional e-commerce business from the comfort of your home without all the related headaches. Shopify offers a variety of POD apps that specialize in meeting different business needs. As the POD system manages production and fulfills the orders, you can concentrate on collecting insights for new ideas, driving leads from social media to improve your sales potential, and providing first-rate customer service for closing sales. The good news is that you can manage all of these on a single dashboard powered by a 24/7 AI sales assistant.
Enhancing POD Customer Experience with Juphy AI
Increasing sales by up to 5x, Juphy AI stands as an innovative solution for Shopify stores utilizing POD apps. It is a generative AI-powered sales assistant that streamlines the shopping experience, delivers excellent customer service, and reduces cart abandonment rate by 50%.
Juphy AI weaves into your Shopify store seamlessly, gathering all the details on your product catalog, FAQ and policies in minutes. It simulates your brand tone of voice perfectly while serving your customers, and automates all customer service interactions, much like your POD app streamlines production.
After learning all about you, Juphy AI starts learning about your customers as well by interacting with them. It tracks all customer behavior on your website, starting from the first social DM, and acts upon this data to make personalized recommendations and accurate retargeting. It not only increases the chances of a successful transaction but also smoothly applies upselling and cross-selling strategies into conversations to increase your business’s average order value.
What Are the Main Benefits for your POD business?
Utilizing Juphy AI along with a suitable POD app practically automates the whole business operation, from sourcing and production to sales and fulfillment. This should leave you with enough free time to create new ideas for scaling your business. Customer feedback is crucial for stores aiming to improve their product offerings and customer satisfaction, and Juphy AI streamlines this process as well.
Integrating Juphy AI into your POD-based Shopify store can lead to a seamless and enhanced customer experience, driving sales and reducing returns by ensuring customers have all the information they need.
Lastly
POD apps are rapidly changing how we conduct business, creating a streamlined and hassle-free production process. The best print-on-demand app for your Shopify store depends on your business needs, but production speed and quality, customizable product selection, and shipping options should be among your top criteria.
Also, you should remember that in order to make the most of your POD app, you need to make sales first. In order to effectively drive traffic and manage the surge of visitors to your site, you can use a round-the-clock sales assistant like Juphy. This free-to-install tool can increase your sales significantly through a personalized shopping experience and help you improve your services with its data collection features and actionable reports.
Key Takeaways
- POD apps allow entrepreneurs to launch their businesses with minimal capital by producing only what sells, reducing the risk of unsold inventory and high production costs.
- As well as providing a point of start for new ventures, POD apps help all kinds of businesses to expand their offerings with customized products, merchandise and freebies.
- When choosing a POD app for your Shopify store, prioritize companies that offer high-quality printing and a variety of customization options, as well as efficient international shipping.
- Look for apps that provide real-time tracking and order modification features to streamline your operations and ensure accurate and timely responses to customer inquiries.
- Combining Juphy AI with your POD app can improve your sales performance and enhance your customer experience through data-driven insights.