Are you looking to start your own online business and wondering if Printify and Etsy can help you make a profit? If so, you’re not alone. Many people are turning to Printify and Etsy as a way to sell their own unique designs and products. However, before jumping in headfirst, it’s essential to understand just how much you can realistically expect to make.
In this blog post, we’ll break down everything you need to know about making money on Printify and Etsy. We’ll cover the basics of these platforms, including their pricing structures and integration with each other. Additionally, we’ll provide tips for selling successfully on Etsy and understanding your costs and profits on Printify. We’ll also share some success stories from real sellers who have found financial success on these platforms. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of whether Printify and Etsy are the right fit for your online business goals.
Understanding Printify
What is Printify
Printify is a print-on-demand service that allows users to create and sell their own custom-designed products without having to handle the production and shipping process themselves.
With Printify, you can choose from a variety of products and add your own designs. Once an order is placed through Etsy, Printify takes care of the printing and shipping.
Printify integrates with Etsy, making it easy for you to sell your products. Whether you’re an artist, designer, or entrepreneur, Printify provides a convenient and cost-effective way to start your online business.
What can you sell with Printify?
Printify has an ever-growing catalog of products you can personalize and sell. Here is a list of the most common ones you could start with
- T-shirts
- Hoodies
- Sweatshirts
- Mugs
- Phone cases
- Wall art
- Bottles and tumblers
The full list is huge but these are the most popular items you start with
Printify pricing
If you look through the Printify catalog you will see every item has a ‘from’ price. This is because Printify is like a middleman to print shops worldwide. When you click on the product you would like to personalize, let’s say a Bella Canvas 3001 t-shirt you will be given a choice of all the available print shops that offer this product to you.
Some products, like the Bella Canva 3001 t-shirt, have a large number of print providers you can choose from so you can use the drop-down menu to list them accordingly
Other products may not have so many print providers to choose from
You need to consider then the price of the product and the price of shipping. This will give you a total price to work with when looking at how much profit can be made from each sale.
Printify’s integration with Etsy
Printify integrates seamlessly with Etsy, making it easy for you to add customized products to your Etsy store.
Once you connect Printify to your Etsy account, you can upload your designs and create product listings directly from Printify’s dashboard.
When a customer places an order on Etsy, the order is automatically forwarded to Printify, which then handles the production and shipping of the item.
You are only charged for the cost of the item and shipping. So you get to keep the price you sell at minus these charges.
This integration eliminates the need for you to manually create and fulfill orders, saving time and simplifying the selling process. Additionally, the integration allows you to access Printify’s network of printing companies, which enables you to offer a wide range of products and designs to customers.
Understanding Etsy
What is Etsy
Etsy is one of the internets leading marketplaces. It started out as a place for crafters to buy and sell handmade items but has grown into a website that millions of people go to every month to buy unique and personalized items.
Etsy gives you the tools you need to get your business off the ground and thrive. There is no need for technical expertise as it is so simple for you to up and running.
It is one of the fastest-growing marketplaces as it doubled its turnover from 2019 to 2020 to $10bn and continues to grow.
You can now purchase almost anything you would like off the site from sellers all over the world. The sellers range from hobbyists to large companies.
Get 40 free listings on Etsy when you sign up here.
The importance of choosing a niche
There are two ways to grow on Etsy. The first is to pick a niche and stick to it. It could be the wedding niche or the baby niche. You then fill your shop with products that are linked together by this niche.
Let’s take the wedding niche as an example. You could do bridesmaids and groomsmen gifts, signage, and wedding day decor.
Sticking to this niche would help customers know you are the place to go to for such items. If they purchase an item from you and like it, the chances are that they will head back to your shop to look for other items.
This makes it easy for customers to recommend you to their friends and family. This will then help your business grow organically. Using social media to promote your shop is also easier as the page can be all on one theme.
The second way to grow your business on Etsy is to be more of a general store. This is like the Amazon philosophy. This is where you just add as many product types and niches as you can to try to please everyone.
As Etsy drives traffic to your items there is a benefit to having as many products as you can. This increases your chance of an item getting found by a customer.
Tips for selling successfully on Etsy
Like any business, your customers’ experience is paramount for your growth. If you do everything you can to make your customer happy they are more likely to have a positive view of your business. Hopefully, this will lead to a positive review on Etsy, making you look more trustworthy to new potential customers.
These are the most important things to do to keep customers happy.
- Reply to questions as quickly as possible
- Dispatch items within the time frame you set
- Package your items well and secure
- Write accurate descriptions of your products
- Work with customers on issues that arise
Keeping these in mind will help keep your customers happy which will help grow your business.
Using tools such as Everbee can really help you find top-selling products and improve your SEO. Etsy is becoming harder and harder to get ahead so tools like this can really help. Be sure to check it out. We have covered it more in this article.
Calculating Your Profits on Printify and Etsy
To calculate your profits you need to work out all the expenses you will have. These include;
- Cost of product from Printify
- Cost of shipping from Printlfy
- Etsy listing fee
- Etsy transaction fee
- Etsy payment processing fee
- Off-site add fee (if using)
This may look like a bit of a headache but luckily there are now sites like fullfees which you can now use to work all this out for you. All you need to do is enter the price charged to the customer and what you have paid to Prinify and it will work out your profit/loss for you.
As with most things the prices do creep up so it is always worth keeping an eye on these figures over time to make sure you are still making what you thought you were.
Let’s look at an example of what you could make on a sale. We’ll use a Bella Canvas t-shirt sold at $25 with free shipping and use Monster Digital (a Printify print partner) to print and ship the product.
So for a single order, you can make over $6 in which you have not done anything since you uploaded the design. The Printify print partner has printed, packaged, and sent the t-shirt straight to the customer while you sit back and relax. They even update the order as shipped and add tracking info on Etsy for you. This can be a great passive income once set up.
Success Stories
Have a look through the Etsy marketplace and you’ll see plenty of shops that have used this business model and turned it into a 6 or 7-figure business.
Here are a few we have found to show you what is possible.
Nowgift has been trading on Etsy since 2020 and in its first 3 years has done close to 48000 sales. Times that by the average profit margin of $6 an order and they have made $288,000 or $96,000 pre-tax a year. This can all be done from a laptop in your kitchen so no overheads.
HTownApparel has also been on Etsy since 2020 but they have managed to do close to 73,000 sales in its first 3 years. Using the $6 average profit per order they have made a $438,000 pre-tax profit. This is a yearly profit of $146,000 pre-tax which is incredible considering they have never had to go out and buy machinery, t-shirts, and office space to get off the ground.
Conclusion
Starting an Etsy print-on-demand business is not easy. It takes time to build your design portfolio and get your first few orders in. You have to put the work in to keep your customers happy and get those positive reviews. Like starting any business, at the start, it is easy to get discouraged when days or weeks go by with little to no orders. But if you keep trying and keep improving you can achieve a handsome income from just a laptop and an internet connection.
The business model does work and has so many benefits and for this reason, it is very competitive. There are thousands of others doing the same thing, fighting for the page 1 Etsy ranking. Although you will not need to do any printing and packaging you will have to spend hours researching, designing, and adding to your store so it is far from passive income.
However, if you enjoy designing and want to start a business with no start-up cost print on demand is a very good option.