I agree with the time it takes to design, tweak and manage your design even before you get onto Etsy. You also need to invest in platforms / programs that will upscale your image resolution and keep track of files (naming deisgns... not looking at a bunch of images in a file with random names). You need to get to know your babies!! You need low res for mock ups, high res for POD, a 'raw' file of your images and remove background files etc... All of this has to happen b4 you even think of opening an Etsy store! Banners, logos and a list of ideas for tags and descriptions are also handy to have on standby in the background in Word to C&Paste. And yes.... don't believe every RU-vid clip you see about £5k in a month - it doesn't happen... particularly with POD - they boast sales figures without subtracting costs (which you did!) and also new starters who need to lower their profit margins to get the first sales before establishing their brand / shop before pushing them up the the recommended 40% P/fy suggests. An honest clip and there is a lot to learn B4 earning the £££
Yeah they definitely throttled you due to the late orders - in fact if you ship from the US and that order goes via USPS, you should be aiming for a delivery date of 7 days or less. I don't know (yet!) if that's possible with POD, I just know Etsy are moving to prioritise sellers with faster delivery. Excellent video, good to see some POD advice that approaches it more like a real business and less like 'mAkE 10K WItH AI mUgS!!1!' 🙄
I suggest Gelato if you are worries about on time shipping. They are shipping 2-3 days faster than printify. And also, as soon as your order becomes "in product" states in Gelato, they provide a tracking number. So you can manually complete your order with that tracking number. Order will be in pre-ship status for a few days. But it is not a big deal like late ship. Also I think gelato working with providers that has better printing quality. Downside, Some of the products are 5-10% more expensive than printify.
Ahhh, I just had a random day where I felt like researching how the stickers from Etsy are made and can’t believe I found you. I’ve been a customer of TurtleTags! 🥰
Two things you could do that could fix your POD headache is find out other manufacturers that the POD is using. Printify has a section in your ordering where you can choose a specific manufacturer. Second option is if you are using Printify try using Printiful and vice versa.
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I’m staring a print on demand store, I was thinking of using Printify, BUT I also want to think of packaging and making it look more professional and “beautiful” DOES anyone know what printify packaging looks like?
Same here. In my country etsy allows only established businesses to open shop which is ridiculous. How are people who make hand made items at home suppose to have registered businesses
Say you have a product you want to sell in both digital and POD, do you make seperate listings for them or is there a way to have both options in one listing?
As you know Printify doesn't print anything that I am aware of. They are a middle business that have accounts with many print houses. Anything can cause a delay and most of the time it is unexpected so there is no way to give you a heads up of how long it will take. It could be an inventory issue if supply didn't come in when it is suppose to, to equipment malfunction or an overwhelming amount of orders the print house received. You give up quality as well. If you cancel a customer order due to delay are you still paying Printify or will they refund you?
You're right Trevor. I haven't asked, but I assume there would be no refunds. Also, as far as I can tell there's no way to contact the print houses either, so there's no way to get information about delays. If late orders continue, I may have to look into Printful which is more expensive but I think they print everything in house.
@@TimKoa The print house may be listed on the item on Printify unless it is generic. You might be able to search them if named and open an account with them directly. The problem with that is you would have to submit the order yourself once you receive it on Etsy and notify your customer when it ships. A little more hands on but less than the work of printing and packaging it yourself.
Printify does indeed refund/reprint if the quality is bad or processing /printing time is longer than expected. I work with with printify for over a year and never had real issues that could not be fixed. Same as printful. Both refund/reprint/redeliver. I once had the issue that the package was lost and they sent the order via express within 3 days to the customer (custom embroidery). Can‘t say anything negative about those two but I am still planning on printing my own custom premium shirts myself any time soon when I am at home
It's a balancing act for sure... POD costs and reduced control but with increased product range snd access to better products vs your ability to scale via your own productivity, the value of your time doing menial tasks such as printing, cutting, packaging, and posting orders. Their costs. Dealing with returns, the value of your time that could be better used for something else. Considering all of the above, if you aren't selling something you love, and only want to make money, you will likely give up when experiencing too many hurdles. As someone who helps people to sell on Amazon, i wouldn't waste my time on Etsy. You can print out a bunch of products all at once, send them for FBA, and take some pressure off yourself. Between 2005 and 2011, I sold over 400 different types of chess products on Ebay and Amazon. And that taught me a LOT!
Hey Tim , I just watched your video and I must say that it was really informative and well-made. I was wondering if I could help you edit your highly engaging videos and thumbnails which will help your video to reach to a wider audience and increase your subscribers and viewers.
Hi TimKoa, this is my first time reaching out to you via a RU-vid comment. I have a question and would appreciate your honest advice: When starting an online business, it's essential to gain clarity on your purpose and determine why you're doing it. From your perspective, why did you decide to create Name Stickers? There are various reasons, and I'm really curious about your 'why'.
HeyTim , very good video . I can do better editing in your videos which can help you to get more engagement in your videos . Pls lmk what do you think ?
Thanks for sharing the pitfalls. I've been interested in POD, but concerned with dispatch times, quality control, and customer returns. I have some competitors that sell a blend of digital and POD products. They can't maintain Star Seller status, I think purely because of unreliable POD printing times. Your tip about paradox of choice is so good to remember. People think more options are good, but they're not! Hope it works out for you, would love to see an update on this in another couple months.
Thank you so much for your video, it was really helpful. Can you please make a video recommending providers? I wanna know your opinion about awkward styles or gelato
Curious, is it better to create one shop in a niche or set separating different niches into different your shops? I'm wondering if i would risk a ban also if i tried to incentivise customers to my own website on etsy
It helps that you already have an established customer base and following from your previous venture. I’m curious what these numbers would look like and how long the ramp up time would be if you were starting from scratch with no previous platform.
Thanks for sharing your revenue and experience , I found your channel by searching how to start on etsy, For this shop did you create an instagram account to promote, or you promote somewhere else, or it only exists on etsy ?
I really wanted POD to be my main business method but after making your own products, it’s really hard to rely on other companies for fulfillment after seeing quality control and late shipment issues pop up time and time again. I always end up going back to in-house production. Maybe I need to drop physical products and switch to digital-only…
I would def cutoff POD from your store that’s focusing on digital products only. That will help you to niche down the business strategy and simplify it as well. At the end of the day, you want your business to be as efficient as possible, then simple money cash flow will come.
My biggest issue with POD is mockups. Etsy wants the main photo to be an actual mockup from the provider, but most of the time they look terrible or like everyone else. Is there anyway around this?
Just make your own mockups and upload the main photo. Absolutely game changing because many people often recognize a basic mockup. Also, if you use your own mockups for lets say every shirt design, people recognize your brand even better in etsy search.
@@thereapercsgo8301 yeah but the main photo has to be the mock-up provided by provider. Which sucks cuz I would like to make my own mock-up stick out and stand out.
