Print-on-demand has become one of the most developed direct selling industries in the world in 2024. Therefore, print-on-demand suppliers are springing up from all over the world. Thousands of suppliers are vying to provide their services, forcing you to understand how to find the right print-on-demand supplier and how to evaluate their products and services before you consider which partner to establish a long-term relationship with.
This article has prepared 10 evaluation criteria to solve the above problems. You can refer to these criteria to choose the print-on-demand supplier that best suits your POD business needs, helping you to conduct a professional and comprehensive evaluation of potential suppliers before making a cooperation decision. Comprehensive assessment.
1. Product Type
The print-on-demand market is popular for its diversity, with a wide range of products covering apparel, accessories, jewelry, home décor, home furnishings, and more. For beginners, it is recommended to first choose a specific niche that meets the needs of your target customers. As your business grows, you may need to expand your product range to stay competitive, so it’s wise to choose a supplier that can cover multiple categories.
When selecting suppliers, consider long-term cooperation factors, and be cautious when choosing suppliers with a wide range of categories, because this is related to the direction of your future business plans. Ensuring that the products provided by your suppliers meet high-quality standards and have been certified is crucial to establishing and maintaining a good reputation for your store, as well as ensuring your long-term success with your suppliers.
2. Product quality
Knowing how to find a print-on-demand supplier is relatively simple, but finding one with high-quality products is a more challenging task. This is a key criterion that needs to be evaluated especially carefully, as product quality is directly related to your business reputation and customer satisfaction.
Suppliers who focus on product quality use high-quality inks and embroidery materials to ensure that the durability and visual effects of product printing and production meet high standards. They also conduct rigorous quality assurance to ensure that each product meets expected standards, thereby meeting customer expectations and safeguarding the reputation of your business. So when choosing a supplier, be sure to focus on the quality of their products and their quality management processes. This will ensure that the products you provide to your customers are always of high quality.
Consider the supplier’s production resources, especially whether modern equipment and production lines are used. Updated equipment and high-tech R&D capabilities help improve product quality, increase production efficiency, and ensure consistent product quality control. Suppliers’ investment in equipment and technology further demonstrates their commitment to high quality. They are responsible for quality control of their products and help your POD business win credibility and benefits.
3. Delivery time
Considering that this is a print on demand supplier in question, delivery within a few hours is impractical as this would need to include time for custom product production. Normally, the total delivery time can be calculated according to the following formula: Total delivery time = production time + shipping time.
Production time is the time it takes for manufacturers to complete printing and produce products. This information is usually updated and released regularly on the supplier’s official channels. Most suppliers will provide the average production time of each product series. This information can be found on the supplier’s website. found on the website. Of course, there are also some suppliers who update their product production times every week to meet the needs of merchants. When selecting a supplier, understanding its production times and delivery commitments is critical to meeting your customer’s delivery expectations.
Unlike production time, shipping time is affected by carriers, different carriers deliver to different countries, and suppliers often work with carriers to deliver fulfilled products to customers on a regular basis. During the holidays, shipping times may fluctuate, but generally, suppliers and their carriers will try to maintain stable shipping times, but if delays occur, the supplier will be responsible for notifying you and providing a solution. You can find information about production and shipping times on the supplier’s website, and for weekly updates, they will often provide this information on social media channels, a custom website, or within the platform.
4. Production plant location
The reason why knowing how to find a print on demand supplier near you is important because it directly affects the aforementioned delivery time. The closer the production facility is, the shorter the delivery time will be. To determine the best production facility location for your business, you need to be clear about where to target your print-on-demand marketing strategy.
For example, if you plan to sell products in the United States, it would be wise to choose a supplier based in the United States, such as Printful, CustomCat, or Dreamship; if your target market is the EU, then choose a supplier located in the EU, such as Picanova , may be more suitable; but for sellers who pursue cost-effectiveness, it is crucial to reduce the trouble of communication and feedback in one-piece customization & one-piece dropshipping operations. You can choose Chinese local customization suppliers who better understand sellers’ needs, such as Printdoors custom POD platform.
5. Customer testimonials
Of course, customer reviews are very important. Through customer reviews, you can understand how other customers feel about the supplier’s product range, product quality, delivery time and other aspects. These are places where you can comprehensively refer to their opinions.
When looking at a vendor’s reviews, pay attention to the number of reviews and the average rating. The number of reviews can give you a rough idea of the number of merchants that work with or have worked with the company, while the average rating can help you partially confirm the quality of the supplier.
You can view reviews from different channels, for example, on Shopify, vendors usually have a plug-in that connects to the platform, so on the Shopify App Store, you can view all reviews, as well as product quality ratings on the plug-in app page. You can also check the supply chain platform’s website to see if there are testimonials and reviews from customers. These customer reviews will help you more fully evaluate the credibility and reliability of the supplier.
6. Free sample service
After studying the top 5 criteria on how to find a print on demand supplier, remember to request a free sample from the supplier. By getting free samples you can verify the authenticity of the above 5 standards and ensure that the supplier’s promises are consistent with the actual situation.
Now imagine that you are a customer and can select products on the page for customized design. After placing the order, the supplier will receive your order, make samples, and then send them out by express delivery. Through the above steps, you will be able to check the product quality and delivery speed of customized samples, and verify whether the reviews of other merchants are true.
Free sample services are becoming more and more common in this industry, if the supplier does not support this service, it is recommended that you consider looking for the next supplier who sincerely cooperates with you, because they cannot even meet the simple request of the merchant to inspect the product, possibly There are two reasons: one, their product quality is below average, or two, they are unwilling to provide this level of service. So in the long run, you should choose a more reliable and trustworthy partner for your business.
7. Return and Refund Policy
Next some customer-related situations will be discussed, starting with the return policy. When running your business, you may encounter situations where customers want to return products for various reasons, maybe because they are not satisfied with the quality of the product, or the delivery time is too late, they want to cancel the order, etc. Depending on your customer support solution policy, you’ll want to see if the vendor you plan to work with has a return policy. You’ll want to check these policies carefully, as they can affect not only yourself, but your customer satisfaction as well. Remember, customers are the most important consideration when running a business. And these policies help you establish a clear return policy for your store to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
8. Customer Service
When you run a print on demand business, this means you need to establish a channel to connect with suppliers. Many businesses find it difficult to find print on demand suppliers who are ready to provide customer service support.
Normally, once you receive a support request about a product, you should contact your supplier immediately to resolve the issue within 24 hours, and your supplier should respond promptly within 24 hours.
In the development of e-commerce, customer service is a key factor in obtaining customer satisfaction. You can ask a random question through the support channel and see how quickly they respond to you.
9. Industry experience
Another factor to consider is the supplier’s seniority in the industry. Suppliers with high seniority tend to have proven their quality and service superiority over other competitors over a long period of time. Why? Because the industry is growing in volume more than ever.
Suppliers with high seniority will have an easier time understanding and handling customer and merchant situations, often because they have experienced many industry cases and fulfilled countless production delivery orders. They know how to solve problems and serve you Provide more suggestions to help you solve difficulties.
And experienced suppliers are often able to adapt quickly to industry changes, which is one of the main factors for survival in this industry. Therefore, if you are looking for a long-term partner and see your business as your main source of income, it is best to choose an experienced supplier.
10. Personalization
The final criterion is personalization, also known as product customization.
Given that personalization is becoming an increasingly important trend in the future of print-on-demand, you’ll want to check whether your supplier supports and offers personalized product options. This could include printing on shirt sleeves, adding embroidery, or adding embroidery to the shirt sleeves. Print your store’s brand labels on the products, etc.
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The above 10 criteria will help you understand how to choose a suitable on-demand printing supplier. If there is currently a supplier that can meet 8 of the criteria, congratulations, you have successfully chosen an excellent partner to support you. print-on-demand business. I hope this article can effectively help you and bring continuous growth to your cross-border POD business and continue to reach new heights!
