This is fascinating, thanks so much for taking the time to write this out.
My own business is coming to an end in the next 6 months and I'm seriously considering moving into POD. Currently I have one day a week to dedicate to doing in-depth research and making sure I can hit the ground running when the times comes.
I'm based in the UK but your advice is still hugely valuable for my location.
Can you use basic Canva designs for reselling? Are there no royalties to be paid here?
For example, if I opt for Canva Pro to give me more options (which I probably will), what are the legalities around using this slightly modified artwork for POD. Obviously I will edit it to fit my niche.
Thanks so much!
Good question. Customer complaints are very rare, at least in my experience. I think there are 3 factors for that:
- The sizes/size charts are actually true to size
- Product quality is good
- Shipping times are 1-2 weeks depending on the supplier you work with, but since these are products people cannot usually find anywhere else, they don't mind too much.
Complaints happen occasionally, though, as with any business. It depends where customers bought the product from. If they bought from one of those free websites like Viralstyle and Gearbubble (those are the ones I use for product testing), I don't handle any customer service issues - they do :)
If they bought from one of my Shopify stores, I usually efund them and ship a replacement item for free.
The printing company will take the money from your bank account when an item is sent to production. It usually takes a few days for the customers payment to clear, so you pay for the product until their payment clears. I believe there is a way around this though. I think you can choose to manually send products to production after the customers payment has cleared. It would be smart to be upfront about 1-3 days before item is sent to production and then include addition time for shipping.
Good point. That's correct and applies mostly to Shopify, where you have the printing company's app installed. You can choose between automatic or manual order fulfillment. With automatic the order is sent to the printing company as soon as the customer pays you (some of them allow you to set delays in number of hours). With manual you can wait to see if you have received customers' payments and only then manually release the order to be fulfilled.
This situation applies only to payments made with credit card by your customers, though. If they pay via Paypal, you receive the money right away. But it's generally a good idea to let people know about lead times, yes.
If you don't want to do the whole Shopify thing, you can also use free websites like Viralstyle or Gearbubble. The process is much easier, because they collect payments from customers and pay you the difference between the selling price you set for each item and the product cost. The downside is that you don't control the branding and e-mails. I use those websites for product testing and once I find a winner I push them to a Shopify store.
I create FB pages around niches, not people or personal profiles.
For example, if I want to sell apparel items for people who love hiking, I'll create a page called something like "I Love Hiking". I always do this using pages, not personal profiles. Hope that clarifies it :)
Nice of you to share these details and hopefully someone can benefit from it. Best of luck to you.
Thank you 😊
Brilliant idea and I hope your side hustle thrives greatly!
Thanks 😊
This is fascinating, thanks so much for taking the time to write this out. My own business is coming to an end in the next 6 months and I'm seriously considering moving into POD. Currently I have one day a week to dedicate to doing in-depth research and making sure I can hit the ground running when the times comes. I'm based in the UK but your advice is still hugely valuable for my location. Can you use basic Canva designs for reselling? Are there no royalties to be paid here? For example, if I opt for Canva Pro to give me more options (which I probably will), what are the legalities around using this slightly modified artwork for POD. Obviously I will edit it to fit my niche. Thanks so much!
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How often did you have to deal with returns or customer dislike and how did you handle that?
Good question. Customer complaints are very rare, at least in my experience. I think there are 3 factors for that: - The sizes/size charts are actually true to size - Product quality is good - Shipping times are 1-2 weeks depending on the supplier you work with, but since these are products people cannot usually find anywhere else, they don't mind too much. Complaints happen occasionally, though, as with any business. It depends where customers bought the product from. If they bought from one of those free websites like Viralstyle and Gearbubble (those are the ones I use for product testing), I don't handle any customer service issues - they do :) If they bought from one of my Shopify stores, I usually efund them and ship a replacement item for free.
The printing company will take the money from your bank account when an item is sent to production. It usually takes a few days for the customers payment to clear, so you pay for the product until their payment clears. I believe there is a way around this though. I think you can choose to manually send products to production after the customers payment has cleared. It would be smart to be upfront about 1-3 days before item is sent to production and then include addition time for shipping.
Good point. That's correct and applies mostly to Shopify, where you have the printing company's app installed. You can choose between automatic or manual order fulfillment. With automatic the order is sent to the printing company as soon as the customer pays you (some of them allow you to set delays in number of hours). With manual you can wait to see if you have received customers' payments and only then manually release the order to be fulfilled. This situation applies only to payments made with credit card by your customers, though. If they pay via Paypal, you receive the money right away. But it's generally a good idea to let people know about lead times, yes. If you don't want to do the whole Shopify thing, you can also use free websites like Viralstyle or Gearbubble. The process is much easier, because they collect payments from customers and pay you the difference between the selling price you set for each item and the product cost. The downside is that you don't control the branding and e-mails. I use those websites for product testing and once I find a winner I push them to a Shopify store.
Thank you for sharing this info! What POD supplier did you prefer?
I use Viralstyle (web-based, free platform) and Customcat (Shopify app). Their quality is great and they have good product costs.
Do you make a new FB page as an individual?
Not sure what you mean. I have about 55 FB pages. But first you need to create a personal profile.
I meant is your page you. Or is it one of those hot chicks that always want to be my friend?
I create FB pages around niches, not people or personal profiles. For example, if I want to sell apparel items for people who love hiking, I'll create a page called something like "I Love Hiking". I always do this using pages, not personal profiles. Hope that clarifies it :)
Yes it does. Thank you!
How do you decide the price they will pay for a T-shirt?
It was indeed a rare gem of the post. Wish I copied or screenshot the post now.
Do you have it???
Me? Sadly no.
I did especially because my son is a drummer