There are a lot of reasons that more and more entrepreneurs prefer Print on Demand (PoD) businesses these days instead of taking chances with inventory and stock.
Though this new idea for business is only a few decades old, it is fast becoming one of the best ways to start a t-shirt business for newcomers.
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What is a Print on Demand (PoD) Business?
In a regular T-shirt business, you get an inventory ready and wait for potential clients to make an order. You could have put your designs on anything from backpacks to notebooks, posters to caps, or anything else your printer permits.
However, with a traditional business, you never know just how many products to print on. You can end up with a surplus and a loss, or your customers can leave empty handed because you haven’t made enough for everybody.
In either case, a traditional stock-based business is full of uncertainties, and it is entirely possible to face a huge loss.
On the other hand, with Print on Demand (PoD) businesses, bypasses the risk of a mismatched inventory and connects directly communicates with the client.
The client tells the manufacturer exactly what they need, and the exact number of products are made and supplied, eliminating any loss or leftover stock. This is a business model where you pay for a product after you’ve sold it to a client, using the payment made by the client to make the product.
Customcat vs. Printful – Which one is the Best PoD Business?
Although there are a lot of names when it comes to Print on Demand businesses, Customcat and Printful are two of the most popular and common ones. This article with review both these businesses and decide which one is the better one.
Customcat
Customcat is a Print on Demand app with more than 300 apparel options. The App is available on the Shopify website and is quite easy to download and install.
With Customcat, you can upload designs not just for printing on T-shirts and other surfaces, but also embroidery options for cloth bags, polo T-shirts and caps. Your repeat customers get special customized coupons and discounts that will encourage them to order more of your products,
Besides, Customcat immediately credits your Paypal account the moment that the product has been shipped to the client.
Printful
Printful offers more than 200 products for your designs to be printed on, including phone cases, mugs, pillowcases, T-shirts, caps, etc. It is an one-stop solution for a Print on Demand business that takes care of everything from printing to manufacturing, packaging and shipping to the client.
Printful is a great platform for new designers and entrepreneurs, because they don’t have to worry about anything other than the designing part.
Comparison Between Customcat and Printful
Here are some basic differences between products from Customcat and Printful:
Price
Products from Printful are relatively expensive products, which is good either way if you sell a lot of products or only a few. If you only sell a lot of products, though, you earn more from a percentage of the individual sales.
You can make plenty of profits on your designs with Printful. The pricing is this website may be more compared to others, but the clients on this website is okay with paying the high prices.
However, Customcat beats Printful with more expensive products, which means the designer and the seller earns a lot with their sales. The more they sell, the more they earn on every design.
Subscription Fee
Printful doesn’t charge a monthly fee; instead, Printful only charges money on every product that you sell from their website with your designs. This means that you can start your PoD design business without any kind of expenditure in the beginning, with just your designs.
Customcat gives you a 14-day trial period, but charges you a monthly fee of $30 after that. This can seem a lot when your designs aren’t selling so much as to cover the fee, or if you are new to this business.
Product Variety and Quality
Customcat has more than 500 products that you can print on – a whole lot of products than Printful which has around 200 product types.
On the other hand, Printful offers you more choices in high quality T-shirts and other products, while the other competitive businesses mainly print their designs on average-quality T-shirts and products.
Sample Price and Quantity
With Printful, you can order your first samples and mockups for yourself at a 20% discounted price, and get free delivery at any location of the world. With Customcat, you have to pay the full price for any sample products you want to see of your own designs.
With Printful, you can order only two products with each sample order. There is a limit to the number of samples that you can order from Printful every month, but there are no sample limitations with Customcat.
Marketing and Sales
Customcat gives your regular and repeat customers special coupons and discounts, but this option is not available for Printful. Besides, Customcat sends you buyer data of clients who have bought your designs, so that you can directly contact your buyers yourself.
On the other hand, with Printful, you can quickly link your personal website to your Printful website. You can also use the same images and link to market your products and integrate your own ecommerce site.
Extra Design Options
Customcat allows you to make embroidery designs on certain products, such as T-shirts, polo shirts, caps and pillow cases. This option is not present with Printful.
Speed
Customcat uses a direct Design to Garment printing process, which makes the process extremely fast. Customcat is definitely faster in the process of production compared to Printful.
Both Customcat and Printful gives supplies great prints and products to customers within only a few business days, all around the world. The products used and supplied by them are similar to each other and of excellent quality, and with both companies, you get some extra features and advantages, i.e.
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An excellent virtual mock-up generator to see examples of your designs,
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White label product, where you can print your own business logos on your product,
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Immediate payment after a product with your design has been sold,
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Excellent refund and return policies,
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Customer service for both entrepreneur and client, etc.
Verdict
Considering everything, Printful seems to be a better quality company than Customcat.
User experience and review for Printful sales are more positive than the ones for Customcat on their respective websites, where you can see many negative reviews from previous clients regarding the latter’s customer care services, delivery time and other services.
