Are you looking for a Printify review? Is Printify a scam? Can Printify really help you build a profitable print-on-demand eCommerce business?
E-commerce has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, opening up new opportunities. People prefer to buy things online rather than offline as it saves them time and money.
Print-On-Demand (POD) seems like a great business idea that you can get started with right away
However, even though it is easy to start a business, it is very difficult and complicated to make it a success because we need to invest time and money to make it successful.
Print-on-demand businesses can face many challenges along the way, but how you deal with those challenges makes all the difference.
POD services like Printify are dedicated to helping designers, artists, and dreamers bring their ideas to life.
You may wonder if that sounds too good to be true.
To help you make an informed decision about Printify, I have done thorough research about it in the past few weeks. So I can tell you everything you need to know.
As a disclaimer, I’m not affiliated with Printify, which means I’m not paid to write this review. So you can be sure that my words are unbiased.
Printify Review – Key Takeaways
- Company Name: Printify
- Website: https://printify.com/
- Type: Print-On-Demand Service Provider
- Co-Founders: James Berdigans and Artis Kehris
- Overall Rank: 2/5
- Who is it For: Anyone who wants to start an eCommerce store using POD model
- Alternative Business Model: All-in-One Platform For Starting An Affiliate Marketing Business
In this Printify review, I’m going to cover the following topics.
Table of Contents
- What Is Printify?
- How Does Printify Work?
- Printify Features
- What Products are Available on Printify?
- Printing Technologies
- What are the Printify Providers?
- How is the Printify Shipping?
- Where Does Printify Ship From?
- How Does Printify Integrate With eCommerce Platforms?
- How to Integrate Printify on Shopify?
- Printify Pricing
- Cons and Complaints of Printify
- Pros of Printify
- Printify Customer Support
- How is the Print Quality of Printify?
- How to Get the Most of Your Printify?
- Who Should Use Printify?
- What I Like About Printify
- What I Don’t Like About Printify
- Is Printify a Scam or Legit?
- Positive and Negative Feedback From Users of Printify
- What Happens To The Returned Products And The Refunds?
- How Much Can You Make With Printify?
- How Does The Replacement of Defective Items Work?
- Printify Review: Final Verdict
- The Best Alternative to Make Passive Income Online
- Alternatives to Printify
- Printify FAQs
What Is Printify?
The Print-On-Demand platform Printify provides a solution to your printing needs. It allows people to sell products that are designed by them. With Printify, you can easily print and ship orders directly to your customers.
You can run a print-on-demand business through Printify by simplifying the complex and hard process. The website offers a variety of products that you can select to create your own designs.
With Printify, you can sell products instantly without having to make upfront investments. Plus, you can manage all the job production and ship your order directly to the customer with your own branding.
You can easily set it up for easy access to your customers, and you can connect it to the most popular eCommerce platforms
With Printify, you have access to more than ninety print providers, and since Printify takes care of order fulfilment, you can focus on creation and sales.
For those unfamiliar with the term, “print on demand” originated in the book industry, but has since spread to many other areas.
This includes business processes where nothing is printed until an order is placed. In addition, this method not only reduces waste, but also allows for smaller and/or custom prints that are very unique. There are many ways to make unique books, bags, mugs or t-shirts.
Buying and selling electronically, usually over the Internet, is called eCommerce, which is another common term. Printify combines these two technologies, making design available to both artists and consumers.
Despite the convenience, however, the problem is whether you can really make money with Printify. Because no matter how convenient it is, if you can not sell the products and make money with them, it’s useless. I will cover this issue in a later section.
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How Does Printify Work?
Getting started with the Printify platform is easy thanks to its simple functionality
Printify lets you design custom products and sell them to over 90 print vendors and more than 300 unique products.
There are dozens of vendors to choose from, including ArtGun, Fifth Sun, T Shirt and Sons, Prodigi, CG Pro Prints and many more
Choosing the right manufacturer for your business is a matter of price, quality and location
Now let’s take a look at how this platform works.
Step 1: Create
At first, customize the product with designs, logos, art, or photos that reflect your brand and business well.
Step 2: Get Samples
On Printify, you can find the right printer for your business needs. All you have to do is test out their products right away. The app allows you to order a sample and see its quality.
Step 3: Add Products To Your Shop
Now that you have added products to your shop, you can sell them and earn money. You can sell them in your stores or anywhere you want. This is the most difficult step and Printify cannot help you with this.
Step 4: Fulfillment Care
Printify can handle fulfilment for you while you’re busy selling your products. Invoicing, manufacturer inquiries and shipping are handled by Printify, so you don’t have to worry about fulfilment.
Here’s the YouTube video explaining how to create a product on Printify:
Printify Features
The free Printify plan still has many useful features.
Use Without an Online Store
You don’t need to link Printify to your online store to use it. If you don’t link your store, you will have to place orders manually through Printify.
Most people choose to integrate Printify with their existing store because Printify doesn’t provide a customer-facing storefront. By integrating Printify with a web store, all order processing can be done mechanically.
Design Tool and Mockup Generator
Printify makes it possible to design something without the help of a graphic designer or a computer genius. Uploading photos of your designs is easy with the mockup generator. If you want to use several different images for the same product, you can simply drag and drop them onto the product.
The base color of the product is also customizable. Whether you produce black or white t-shirts, or t-shirts in a different hue, depends on the options your service provider gives you. The availability of a particular product color may vary from provider to provider.
The design tool’s warning feature, which alerts you when your graphic is stretched too much, is one of the better features. A handy indicator lets you know if you’re working with a high, medium, or low resolution image.
Order Routing
The order routing function takes over when your usual print service provider is unavailable. In this case, your order will be automatically forwarded to another service provider. This method is applicable when:
- The item you ordered is currently out of stock at your preferred source.
- The product you purchased has been discontinued by the source you selected.
- The print service provider has reached its daily order limit.
- The print service provider has been temporarily closed.
If you enable the account setting, the orders will be automatically forwarded.
Just do what I say:
- Select Manage my stores.
- Select the store for which you want to enable the setting. Select the Preferences icon.
- Select Preferences. From there, find the Automatic order shipping option.
- Save the changed settings by clicking Automatically replace orders.
Custom Order Import Tool
The Purchase Order Import feature in Printify allows you to import purchase orders from your store, whether they contain Printify products or not. These purchase orders can be found on the “Other Purchase Orders” tab
Business owners who benefit from this feature include:
- Switch to Printify from another print-on-demand platform.
- Product bundles are available.
- Personalize your products.
A Printify SKU is not recognized if it has been modified by hand. You will see it here as well.
The steps to use the custom importer are as follows:
Select the “Other Orders” menu. This will display any purchase orders that are not already associated with a Printify product. Identify the order(s) you wish to import.
You can then link the purchased item to a Printify product. Select the Product button. Then select the Catalog tab to select the product, print service, and other options. It is also possible to link the item to an existing product in your My Products section.
Product Migration Tool
You can use a product migration tool when integrating Printify with a Shopify store.
With this application, you can easily import your existing Shopify products into Printify. This way, you protect your hard-earned search engine optimization (SEO).
Explore the My Store section and navigate to the External Products tab. To migrate a product, locate it in the list and click the Migrate Product button.
You have the option to stay on the My Products tab and select an existing product from your store to link it to your Shopify item. You will be able to see only the products that have not been released to the public yet.
Alternatively, you can create a new product in the Catalog section that is nearly identical to your Shopify offering.
The Shopify variants and the Printify variants can be matched after the project is selected or created. If a product is not associated with a Printify SKU, it will be deleted from the offering.
Then, select Migrate Product and proceed as indicated.
Shipping Calculator
Shopify also has a shipping calculator for its customers. To better estimate shipping costs, this tool is very useful. It ensures that the correct shipping rate is automatically applied to the customer’s shopping cart.
To activate the shipping calculator, either an advanced Shopify plan, an annual Shopify payment plan or a shipping calculated by the provider can be used. Using the carrier calculated shipping option will incur an additional $20 monthly fee. To do so, contact Shopify customer service directly.
To enable this option:
Go to the shop’s settings. To use the shipping calculator, select this option. Select the option “Use Printify shipping calculator at Shopify checkout”
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What Products are Available on Printify?
Printify offers a large selection of options for you and your designs.
Categories include the following:
T-shirts
There are many options for this versatile garment from Printify – short sleeve, long sleeve, sleeveless, tank top, v-neck, scoop neck, crew neck, fitted, and loose fit. Your design can be placed on the front, back, sleeves or all over the body!
Clothing
A T-shirt is technically an article of clothing, but because of its popularity and specificity, it has its own category. Polo shirts, hoodies, jackets, dresses, skirts, and swimsuits comprise the clothing category. There is also an array of accessories such as hats, socks, and leggings.
Shoes
Shoes are another option for those of you who want to rock the runway (or the sidewalk). In addition to flip flops and sneakers, high tops, high heels and Doc Martin boots can also be designed.
Accessories
These accessories are not directly related to wearable fashion, but they enhance the look. Bags, shopping bags, backpacks and cell phone cases are examples. There are many more options in this category, as Printify offers more than 250 products.
Jewellery
If you want to provide people with unique jewelry, you can choose necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings.
Home décor
Probably the most common fabric choice, home décor includes cushions, shower curtains, towels, bath mats, blankets, coffee mugs and a wide variety of wall art.
Stationary
Printify offers notepads, cards, stationery and stickers for those who still handwrite their letters and thank-you notes.
Printify has a wide selection of materials, sizes, cuts, and colors, as well as products sorted by gender (men/women) and age (adults/children).
The mockup generator lets you experiment with design placement, write product information, and adjust the price of each product using the tool.
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Printing Technologies
Depending on the print provider and item, Printify offers a variety of printing methods.
You can choose from the following:
Direct to Garment (DTG)
An inkjet splashes onto the material. This is because the ink penetrates the fabric and makes the pattern visible. The principle is the same as traditional paper printing, except that the printed products are garments.
On-demand printing is simple, requiring very little preparation. It is a more environmentally friendly option than screen printing, which can generate textile waste due to overproduction.
All-Over Printing ( Sublimation )
In this process, the design is first printed on thermal transfer paper and then ironed directly onto the garment. Due to the high temperature, the ink melts into the material. Sublimation is more expensive than other printing methods, but the end result does not fade, break or peel.
Compared to products printed using alternative methods, this process holds up better. Fabrics made of polyester are suitable for sublimation. Cups, coasters, mouse pads and other items with special polymer coatings can also be used.
There is no method to reproduce white with CMYK printing. This printing method will not work if your design is exclusively white.
Digital Printing with Professional Grade Inks
The pixels of an image are mapped and ink is carefully applied to match them. This type of printing is best for things other than clothing, such as paper.
Embroidery
Embroidery is a real alternative to direct-to-garment and sublimation for certain items. Since there can only be 16 different thread colors for embroidery, designs must be tailored to the medium. Printify offers a guide to embroidery designs.
What are the Printify Providers?
This list of service providers is by no means complete. See the full list here.
- AVMM
- Air Waves
- ArtsAdd
- Awkward Styles
- Big Oven Tees
- Colorway
- Ink Blot
- Monster Digital
- Personalized Luggage
- OPT OnDemand
The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Latvia and China all have suppliers.
There may be more than one option for printing some products. It is possible that some things are only available in single pieces.
Each of the suppliers offers some information about the products they provide.
The information includes color, size, minimum price, production time, as well as areas where a design can be printed (this is mostly applicable to clothing choices).
The base price charged by each provider is different, so it pays to spend time researching each provider.
Considering that most of the suppliers are located in the US, UK, and China, it could have a significant impact on delivery, production, size, and pricing.
Using the Mockup Generator, you can upload your design and play with it after choosing the best printing provider for your product.
After the design is complete, you will see a mockup and get a more specific description and price, which will be automatically added to your online store.
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How is the Printify Shipping?
Because Printify handles all printing and shipping, selecting a supplier or vendor is the only step you need to take. Shipping rates for each country should be provided by the vendor.
Depending on the vendor and destination, you can set up weight-based, flat-rate and express shipping parameters
Of course, delivery times vary by provider and destination, but they range from five to ten days, and international delivery is estimated at ten to thirty days.
By applying a flat rate to the products in your shopping cart, Printify’s shipping calculator ensures that the correct shipping rate is calculated every time.
Where Does Printify Ship From?
Printify outsources its work to independent stores. Because the work is done in small stores, the exact delivery location depends on your supplier.
Printify’s suppliers are located in California, Georgia, Colorado, Florida, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Michigan, and North Carolina. There are also overseas suppliers: three in the UK and one in China.
You should try to choose a supplier that’s as close to your customers as possible. You shouldn’t choose a Chinese supplier if you’ve a local business in Michigan.
How Does Printify Integrate With eCommerce Platforms?
Printify has seamless integration with many eCommerce platforms:
- eBay
- WooCommerce
- Shopify
- Etsy
- Wix
- Prestahop
- BigCommerce
WooCommerce users can use the Printify WordPress plugin, while Shopify users can use the Printify Shopify app.
Etsy can also be linked. For these platforms, all you need to do is click the appropriate button in your Printify dashboard.
Price and size adjustments can be made at the last minute, allowing for further customization
The product is automatically added to your store once the design is complete. Printify is perhaps better thought of as an extension of an existing online store.
Recent updates to Printify’s eCommerce platform offer integrations with eBay and Wix Stores, as well as PrestaShop and BigCommerce in beta testing.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How to Integrate Printify on Shopify?
By using Printify on Shopify, you can easily sell your print-on-demand products. Integrating Printify with Shopify is actually very easy.
Your products can be up and selling on Shopify in just a few simple steps.
- You can click the 3 dots in the top right corner of your Printify products once you have created them
- Next, click My Stores
- Then click the Connect button in front of the Shopify options
- Link to your Shopify account
- You will be prompted to install the Printify app on your Shopify store
- As soon as your installation is complete, you will see Printify in your Shopify dashboard. From there, you can access and edit your products.
You can use Printify’s app to start selling your products on Shopify through the Shopify App Store. It also integrates your store directly with WooCommerce Shop in your Printify account.
Printify Pricing
With Printify, you are not charged commissions or transaction fees. Your product is paid for when it is sold, and the rest of the money belongs to you
Therefore, your profit is calculated by subtracting the total printing and shipping costs from the sale price.
On the website you will find the following example: If you sell your custom t-shirt for $30.00 USD and you paid $12.00 USD to make it, you will receive $18.00 USD. It really is that simple.
However, Printify offers three different “plans”, each with different benefits. The more you pay, the more bonus features you get.
Free Plan
The basic package is Free, which is the basis of this written analysis.
The base package includes five stores, unlimited products, a mockup generator, integration platforms, manual order creation, 24/7 merchant support, and a self-service help center for when things get crazy. The two paid packages include the features of the free package.
Premium Plan: $29 Per Month
The second plan is the Premium plan, which costs $29.00 per month.
For this monthly fee you can access ten stores, import custom orders and get up to 20% discount on all products. This plan may be of interest to you if your sales are growing and you need more support
In addition to the 20% discount, Printify will give you a one-time sign-up bonus to use as you see fit.
Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing
The third plan is Enterprise, which is for merchants who process ten thousand or more orders per day.
There is an unlimited number of stores per account and an unlimited number of product designs, as well as custom pricing
You also get early access to new features, custom API integration, a dedicated account manager, and brand-specific customer support. For customers with a diversified product portfolio, this plan is best.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Cons and Complaints of Printify
1. Low-profit margins
On-demand printing services are more expensive than buying wholesale. That lowers your profit margin significantly.
Also, because print-on-demand companies handle all shipping, packaging, and sales, they take a larger percentage of the profit.
You also have to pay royalties to the artists
When you add up all these costs, the result is a very small profit margin. That’s why many eCommerce stores that use print-on-demand services like Printify can not make a decent net profit.
2. Poor Product Quality
The technology of print on demand is not advanced enough to ensure quality as you create your art, your designs, and your products. This can negatively impact your business.
For example, technically, some good quality fabric might not be suitable for printing, so you may find that the fabric quality used by Printify or other POD companies is very poor when compared with those produced by established brands.
It will look very cheap in the eyes of customers as they are used to the high-quality apparel of big brands like Nike, Addidas etc.
3. Slower Order fulfilment
The fact that each product is printed on-demand means that it takes longer for orders to be fulfilled as opposed to if you already had the product in stock.
It takes time to print the designs and package. So you customers may complain about the slow dispatch of orders.
4. Sales won’t happen automatically
You shouldn’t believe that just because you make a beautiful design, buyers will find you. The key is not a beautiful design but driving visitors to your online store.
eCommerce stores that are successful in using print-on-demand services spend a great deal of time and money promoting their products and engaging on social media.
Without traffic, you cannot make money even if you automate the fulfilment process with Printify.
5. Customer Service May Be Delayed
Customers will reach out to you if they have issues with an order.
However, you may need to reach out to your print-on-demand service provider, i.e. Printify for a resolution. Your customer service process may be slowed and may cause unnecessary frustration for you and your customers.
6. High Financial Risk
Your eCommerce store won’t sell ANYTHING if you don’t ADVERTISE. But Facebook ads costs are skyrocketing and will eat away your PROFITS. You might need weeks or even months to just break even, before seeing any profit.
In another word, you have to take a huge FINANCIAL RISK in doing a print-on-demand business.
7. Facebook ads are Pricey and Difficult
After observing most print-on-demand stores’ results, at best, the total Facebook ad cost will account for at least 30% of your total sales.
But Facebook ads seldom stay effective for too long. Once your ad has exhausted the audience, it becomes ineffective. Your total revenue will be much lower and even result in a net loss.
According to Forbes, Facebook saw an increase in Ad costs of 90% year on year.
Worse still, the learning curve of Facebook ads is quite steep because Facebook changes its algorithm all the time. You have to invest a lot of time and money in learning and testing Facebook Ads.
If you run Facebook ads without any experience, your ad account will be banned for violating their strict policies.
8. Customer Support is very time-consuming
In dropshipping with Printify, you have to spend a lot of time communicating with Printify and dealing with customer service.
If your customer has any issues with the product, you have to wait for Printify to help you.
Printify does not offer returns or refunds in most cases and hence you have to bear the loss yourself. Therefore, many POD stores have poor customer reviews and have no returning customers.
In the worst case, you would expect a lot of credit card chargebacks, which risk getting your payment gateway shut down.
9. Hard to Create Popular Designs
For your POD store to keep making money, you always have to find a design that has the momentum to go viral in order that the ads costs can be covered.
Most products of POD stores reach their peak in 1-2 months or even weeks. This is because many competitors will steal your design and create a better ad. Or increase their budgets on Facebook ads to outbid you.
Therefore, you need to keep creating new designs to keep generating cash flow.
You might see people post revenues online but they don’t tell you the net revenue.
Some of them might be making money but it’s not sustainable.
The POD business model is not as passive as you think. Most people who succeed in POD business are doing it full time because it requires you to keep making new designs and testing new ads to make your income stable.
10. Printify Makes Money But Not You
Think about it, if the POD business is very profitable, why would Printify not do it themselves?
The reason is that people who sell shovels during a gold rush will make far more money than those who go out and mine for gold. Printify became rich selling printing services to you.
It might look so easy to create an eCommerce store with Printify and simply create some designs to make money. But the reality is not that simple.
Only a very small percentage of POD stores can make a positive net profit.
11. High Refund Rate
The customer refund rate of POD stores is very high. The reason is that you are selling poorly made products, despite unique designs.
When your customers receive the products, it’s very likely that they would ask for a return and refund because of the poor fabric or other materials.
So the chargeback rate is very high. Your bank account may get shut down because of this.
You may lose a lot of money because you would have to bear the product and shipping cost whenever there is a refund request.
You won’t have to deal with this issue if you do my #1 recommended business model, which I will tell you in the next section.
12. POD Business is Highly competitive
Due to the low entry barrier, everyone can start a POD business at a low cost. That’s why many people will become your competitors and keep copying your hot-selling products.
Therefore, in order to survive, you have to consistently test new designs which are unique but attractive to your audience. After all, creativity won’t guarantee sales.
It’s hardly possible to make 5 figures a month with this POD business model. To do so, it would cost you a lot of money in advertising, such as running Facebook ads. You won’t sell anything without advertising.
Also, if you sell apparel, you are not only competing with other POD companies but also the big apparel brands like Nike, Addidas, Hollister etc. That’s why it’s almost impossible to win the competition.
If you are looking for a passive income method, I won’t suggest you to start with POD.
13. Winning designs die very quickly
Even if you found a POD product that is hot-selling, you still can’t sell it for a long time. This is because the popularity will die out in a few weeks.
So don’t expect to find one winning design and then make money while sleeping. You have to keep working to create new designs to maintain your sales. You have to catch and follow the trend all the time.
14. Lack of control
Consumers and business owners can neither control the people at Printify and its printing providers.
If the orders don’t arrive on time, you can’t make them speed up delivery.
In addition, you cannot control what goes into packing and fulfilling orders – you are forced to trust Printify with this.
Some products might become unavailable if they don’t have enough stock. In that case, even if your product is hot-selling, you have to stop promoting them.
15. Long Shipping times
In the POD business, there is often a problem with shipping times.
Printify doesn’t have its own logistic network but outsources it to a third party. That means Prinfiy themselves has very limited control over the shipping time.
It can take a very long time to receive a product if the customer orders it from another country.
For international shipping, your customers may have to wait about a month for it to arrive.
Therefore, customers may not be satisfied with your shipping times and may request a refund before it arrives.
16. Difficult returns and refunds
If you entered the wrong size, color, or design, the buyer cannot return or exchange the item. Because Printify only prints when someone orders, they do not store returned items in their warehouse. Exchanges are also not possible since every order is unique.
You must inform your buyers about this policy. But that may reduce your sales.
17. Poor Customer Reviews
I found that Pinrtify has quite a lot of poor customer reviews.
Here are some extracts that you make reference with:
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Pros of Printify
1. Integrations
Printify’s six integrated platforms are more than what other PoD services offer. Some of the biggest names in e-commerce, like Shopify and Wix, are among those Printify partners with, while others, like Squarespace, are not.
However, this is mitigated by the fact that Printful supports API integration, which means that with enough technical know-how, it can be connected to just about any platform.
I say “partially” because any merchant using Squarespace (a user-friendly website builder) probably will not care about the API. A first-party solution is always preferable, but the public API is for self-managed web stores or third-party plugin developers.
In any case, if you already use one of the six supported platforms, the integration should go smoothly.
2. Order Management
Once an order is placed, Printify requires little interaction from you, which is beneficial for maintaining productivity. After a customer places an order, you immediately begin production.
The lack of a mobile app is the real drawback to Printify’s order processing.
If Printify had an app, it would be so much easier to make changes to an order on the go.
It’s important to remember that Printify doesn’t offer storefronts as part of their system. So, the shop management is only used to manage the products once they’re ordered. In your shop’s management system, you should usually look for information about orders that have nothing to do with the printing process (e.g. Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.)
3. Mockups
In most cases, what you see in your Printify mockup is what you get when you place an order, but…
There aren’t enough options.
The mockups look generic, like most mockups created by print-on-demand platforms.
They work well for product pages, but aren’t suitable for advertising. Use only high-quality PSD t-shirt/item templates or mockup generators, or better yet, order physical copies and hire a photographer.
Printify Customer Support
It’s not too difficult to get in touch with Printify if you’ve questions or concerns about the functionality of your store or the products you manufacture. If you’ve questions, you can either fill out the online form or send an email to the address provided.
Printify can be contacted via email, but they should respond pretty quickly to social messages, so this channel isn’t your only option if you need a quick response.
You can try to resolve your issue yourself if you don’t want to use social media or a contact form. Printify’s extensive help center covers a wide range of topics, from placing an order to shipping and even integrating with Amazon.
If you’re based in the United States, Canada, or one of the many other countries supported by Printify, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting help with your on-demand dropshipping.
How is the Print Quality of Printify?
Your choice of print provider directly affects the quality of the print on your merchandise. To choose a printer, you can look at their ratings on Printify.
To compare the quality of their work, you may also place test orders at several printers.
There are some products that have many print providers, while others only have one.
However, overall the print quality isn’t excellent. When the iron-on print is stretched or washed, the designs tend to crack. The problem is that most customers would not wear the shirt if the design is already damaged.
While the print colors are good, they are not as vivid or crisp on products as they are on mockups.
Therefore, your customer might complain about the difference between the actual product and the Printify mockups. They will not get exactly what they are seeing.
Also, since Printify does not manufacture products, they don’t have much accountability for the results.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How to Get the Most of Your Printify?
If you want to get your store off to a good start, don’t just find an image, add it to a product and put it up for sale. That could be a recipe for disaster.
Order Samples
Once you have decided on a vendor, it is time to order samples. It is wise for you to order the same item from several different vendors. Before you start selling, you can see the final product for yourself and be sure it meets your expectations. The quality of the print and the actual product are both comparable. There are no discounts for sample orders at Printify.
For this review, we ordered a few samples. We purposely chose different printers so we could evaluate Printify’s efficiency in a multi-vendor environment.
We purchased a hoodie from Printforia, a mouse pad from District Photo, and a fabric face mask from MWW on Demand. Although the mask is thinner than others on the market, all products were of good quality. For our logo, we opted for white lettering on a black background. The final results are of high quality and we have no problem using them as promotional items.
Choose images with a higher contrast
Instead of screen printing, Printify uses digital printing techniques. Given the high cost of producing items to order, this is good news for your business. However, the graphics lose their contrast and do not look as bright and colorful as they do on your computer screen.
If you use a higher contrast image than you would for web use, you can avoid problems with the final output. That’s another reason you should try it out before you buy it. Before you release your product to the public, you can identify and fix any color irregularities.
Who Should Use Printify?
A successful print-on-demand approach starts with the right tools. For many business leaders, this means choosing between two viable options like Printful and Printify, or debating whether or not to use a tool like Teelaunch.
Printify is a useful platform for producing print-on-demand articles. Since you don’t have to spend a small fortune on regular payments, your business can make a healthy profit margin. You’ve plenty of room to grow your print-on-demand business at your own pace. You can easily and quickly add new products and alternatives to your existing portfolio.
It’s good that Printify offers so many design options. It’s also important to know that you can work with numerous shipping labels to speed up the delivery of your goods to your customers. However, the availability of a variety of shipping companies can result in varying quality of service.
Businesses of all sizes, from startups to multinationals, can benefit from Printify’s ability to boost their bottom line. Printify can adapt to almost any budget, making it easy to get the best possible deal on your products. The standard of print-on-demand products is also quite high. With Printify, you can make sure that your business is not only doing well, but that it is also growing steadily.
One of the best features of Printify is that users are not forced to upgrade to more expensive plans unless they want to. Just try out the features without spending a dime to see if they meet your needs.
What I Like About Printify
Getting started with Printify could not be easier. With Printify, you can quickly start a business selling personalized goods. Compared to similar products, this product offers much better value for money. Compared to Printful, they have a larger global footprint.
Because of the wide variety of products, you can easily set up specialty stores. If you use a platform that allows multiple stores under a single account, you can open many brands with relative ease. Consider opening a clothing store in addition to a home furnishings and accessories store.
Printify not only takes care of fulfillment, but also automates the entire process. Aside from public relations, they take care of everything else.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
What I Don’t Like About Printify
According to some reviews, DTG still has some quality problems. It’s possible that the problems are unique to this provider. This shows how important it’s to order samples in advance.
Users have complained that not all product vendors are as easy to access as they appear to be on the Printy website. The turnaround times that Printify vendors advertise aren’t always accurate. An average processing time of 30 days is quoted for all orders.
Is Printify a Scam or Legit?
I cannot say Printify is a scam. It’s a totally legit business that offers POD service.
However, I don’t recommend Printify and other POD services because it’s hard to make money with them.
The products you can sell with POD services are very limited, which generally have a low perceived value. For a T-shirt, it’s not possible to charge a hundred dollars. So you have very little flexibility when it comes to pricing. And hence you will have a very low or even negative profit margin.
People who are successful with POD business model are generally celebrities who have a huge following on social media.
So they don’t have to run paid ads and their fans are willing to pay a premium price for a low-quality product. Most importantly, loyal fans won’t request a refund even if the shipping time is long and the printing quality is cheap.
However, if you are not a celebrity but just an unknown person, you are going to face a lot of difficulties in handling your customers if you use a POD service.
That’s why if you want to make money online, POD business model with Printify is not recommended.
Positive and Negative Feedback From Users of Printify
Positive Feedback
- Easy configuration to connect with over 90 print service providers
- Choose from more than 300 different things. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, bags, decorations, stickers and more are available.
- Amazing items, ready for customization.
- Over 500,000 business owners linked.
- Shipping calculator mockup generator
- 24/7 support for merchants
- More than 90 printers, primarily in the United States, United Kingdom and China
- Printify streamlines and automates the procurement process.
- Up to 20% off all products and unlimited product designs
- Integration with Shopify, Etsy, eBay and other marketplaces
- Custom API integration
Negative Feedback
- The quality of DTG is abysmal.
- Some users noted that some product providers are hard to find.
- The turnaround time reported by vendors is not trustworthy; it is a 30-day average of all orders.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
What Happens To The Returned Products And The Refunds?
Returns, refunds, and exchanges are not supported by Printify.
It is the seller’s responsibility to ensure the order details are correct.
After an order is manually sent for production, you cannot change the information or cancel it.
Automated order fulfilment is no different. If you set up your automated payments to occur once a day at 5 pm. Prior to that time, you can still make changes to my customers’ orders, but not thereafter. Upon payment, the order is automatically forwarded to the print provider to begin the fulfilment process.
It would not be possible for the buyer to return or exchange an item if you entered the wrong size, color, or design. The vendors don’t store returned items in their warehouse because they print only when someone orders. There is also no exchange because every order is unique.
It is your responsibility to let your buyers know about this policy. If you want to allow your customers to return and exchange their orders at your expense, you can do so.
The only way to solve this problem is to take this into account when pricing your products. You can markup a bit higher to avoid too many losses on refunds, returns, and exchanges. But this might also mean fewer sales.
How Much Can You Make With Printify?
If you’re concerned about quality, I don’t recommend using Printify, but the affordable production costs allow you to earn more profits than you could on other platforms.
Due to low costs, the company can offer better price margins, resulting in higher revenues and competitive prices. There is even a 20% discount for sellers who have a Premium plan for only $29. Under each item in the catalog section, you will find the Printify Premium prices.
However, since the most you can charge for a shirt is around $25, you will have a very low-profit margin to use Printify. The production cost, shipping cost and design cost, and advertising cost will account for almost 90% of the total sale price.
How Does The Replacement of Defective Items Work?
A replacement will be provided free of charge if there is a problem with order fulfillment.
In the event of a replacement failure, they are also willing to refund the amount paid for the production and shipping. You will receive the refund through your Printify account.
Your refunded amount can be used for two things. The first option is to leave it in your account for future use. The second option is to withdraw it via the original payment method.
Printify Review: Final Verdict
Printify is a user-friendly platform providing print-on-demand services, and they integrate with the largest e-commerce sites.
However, I don’t recommend starting a Print-on-demand business with Printify because it’s hard to make any money with this business model.
In the next section, let me tell you the best business model to make money online, which has enabled me to make a 5-figure income in a year.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
The Best Alternative to Make Passive Income Online
Although POD business model seems to automate the order fulfilment process for you, it’s not a passive income model. You still have to handle customer service, create designs, and do active promotion of your store. Therefore, it’s not suitable for doing as a side hustle.
So you might wonder if there is a better business model that doesn’t need Facebook ads and can do it as a side-hustle.
Yes, I would suggest you get started with affiliate marketing. It is far easier and less time consuming as you don’t even need to handle customer service.
In affiliate marketing, you can run your business almost with zero cost. Most importantly, you don’t need to invest in creating and developing any products.
But How Much Can You Earn in Affiliate Marketing?
A 21-year old student from my #1 recommended training platform of affiliate marketing was able to earn $7,395 in just 1 week, which means he made more than $1k a day…all while using free traffic methods and affiliate marketing.
Wealthy Affiliate has existed for more than 10 years and there are many success stories over the years.
To give you more examples, here are some of the other inspiring success stories of Wealthy Affiliate members.
You can also visit Trustpilot where Wealthy Affiliate has 4.8/5 rating.
Where to Join Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate has a very simple pricing scheme. It has free and premium membership.
If you want to feel about Wealthy Affiliate, you can sign up for the starter membership here (no credit card required). You can select to be a free member with no time limit.
And as a starter member, you can get instant access to the community, live chat, over 500 training modules, 2 classrooms, networking, commenting, 1 free website, access to the keyword tool.
You can enjoy all these values without paying a penny.
So I strongly recommend you to register a free account and see it yourself.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Alternatives to Printify
Printify vs Printful
The two most common options for print-on-demand services that business leaders consider are Printify and Printful. If you need to ship products internationally, Printful is a good option. Handling and printing are done in-house, so there are no surprises when it comes to who you’re actually dealing with.
While Printify only offers sublimation printing, Printful can also print directly onto garments. Another factor is that shipping times to foreign countries are longer with Printify. Printify’s international shipping can take up to a month.
However, unlike Printful, Printify allows you to store your items. In addition, both applications come with a variety of integrations, a user-friendly backend environment, and a mockup generator.
Printify vs. Sellfy
While Printify focuses exclusively on the print-on-demand dropshipping market, Sellfy offers a wider range of products for sale. Sellfy not only offers its customers the ability to sell digital and physical goods, but is also a full-fledged eCommerce platform. Its print-on-demand feature is just one of many that simplify the process of opening an online shop and selling to customers.
However, Sellfy tries to be too many things to too many people. It lacks Printify’s extensive selection of print-on-demand products. Apparel, posters, phone cases and tote bags are all you’ll find at Sellfy. In contrast, Printify offers a wider selection of non-apparel products, such as home accessories, stationery, and kitchenware.
This year, Sellfy no longer offers a free plan. Instead, Printify offered a free option where users could upload an unlimited number of products to five retailers without paying a dime. To gain access to premium features, such as bulk import of custom orders and discounts on Printify products, you can upgrade to a paid plan.
Printify vs Print Aura
Users not interested in Printify’s extras should check out Print Aura. This white-label solution allows your customers to create their own websites, similar to Wix and similar platforms. You’ll get some of the best print quality on the market if you’re making custom apparel to promote your brand. You can also produce goods other than t-shirts.
Print Aura is similar to Printify in that it speeds up shipping your products to customers. The cost is reasonable, and there are no complicated corporate rates. However, you’ll find that the quality of the samples you order is quite variable. Also, Print Aura’s customer service isn’t always the best.
Keep in mind that while Print Aura offers high-quality options, you may have to spend more money than you’d planned. For startups on a tight budget looking to expand quickly, the Print Aura portfolio can be prohibitively expensive.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Printify FAQs
1. Can you make money with Printify?
It’s very unlikely that you can make a lot of money with Printify if you don’t have a huge base of followers on social media. Due to the extremely low profit margin of this business model, you won’t be able to afford the advertising cost.
2. Does Printify work with Amazon?
Yes.
3. How Is Printify’s Product Quality?
Printify does not ensure quality, but rather the quality depends on the brand of the product you choose to print your design on.
If you are new to Printify, you can start with their best sellers. However, if you compare the quality with the established clothing brands, the fabric quality is very poor.
4. How long does it take for customers to receive their orders?
The delivery time is usually around a week or two, depending on several factors.
Print providers themselves are the first consideration. If you check the vendor list for an item, you will see their average production times. Print providers differ because they have different equipment, human resources, and the number of orders they need to fulfill.
Your order volume is the second factor. Customers ordering in bulk may encounter certain circumstances. It is possible for vendors to run out of stock if they do not expect many orders for a certain product. In addition, if an item of that order goes wrong, the entire order will not be shipped.
The third factor is the location of your customer. Printify’s advantage is that they have an extensive network of print providers to fulfill orders around the world. The company has printers in the U.S., UK, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, and China.
It is also important to keep in mind peak seasons. The process will take a little longer than usual.
5. Is Printify better than Printful?
Printify and Printful are similar in many ways. You may also read my Printful review.