Does this conversation sound familiar?
Potential Buyer: “I love your art! How much is it?”
Artist: “Thank you. It’s $$.”
Potential Buyer: “Oh gosh, I wish I could afford that. Do you have a something that’s less expensive? I’d love a print.”
You may have experienced something similar at an exhibit or art fair, and wondered how you could get your art into the hands of more people. Some of your potential buyers may not have the budget to invest in an original, but that shouldn’t stop them from collecting your work in other mediums. Consider diversifying your audience and products by offering different ways that a customer can invest in your art. We recently learned about Printful, a custom print on demand and drop-ship service based in California that could help.
Differences Between Printful & Other POD Sites
You may already be familiar with the plethora of print on demand, or POD, sites available on the web such as Society6 and Fine Art America. You can see our Ultimate Guide to Print on Demand services here.
The basic premise is that by signing up with one of these services, you’re given some online real estate where you can upload your artwork with the hopes of getting noticed by potential buyers. Once you sell a piece, the POD service will print your art off for you on canvas or on a number of mediums (think cell phone cases and tote bags), and you get the full value or a cut of the price paid.
There’s nothing terribly wrong with using a third-party site to sell your art, in theory, but if you’ve been around The Abundant Artist long enough you know we’re all about empowering artists to create their own website first and foremost. Printful seems to be on the same page, encouraging sellers to go the extra mile to set up their own site for a better profit margin than you’d get with a service like Society6 (although still pretty comparable to Fine Art America or Saatchi). You can read more about how Printful compares itself to the competition here.
Why Printful
I dig Printful for a number of reasons. There are no minimum orders, you can get 20-percent off sample orders so you can gauge quality before you buy, it’s easy to use, and they integrate with Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce stores (or you can use their API to integrate with your own system). This integration means you won’t have to mess with manual orders. There’s also no set-up fee. You can also rely on the quality of the final product; Printful uses top-of-the-line printers, museum-quality paper, and give you options to choose from such as high-quality Alternative Apparel or budget-friendly brands like Gildan if you’re printing a t-shirt.
Printful’s inventory of products include everything from t-shirts and totes to canvas printing and framing posters. While they don’t have a high quantity of items, the products and services they do provide seem thoughtfully curated and they’re obviously advocates for their community, even offering advice on how to price your items for the best profit. Printful is particularly transparent about their process and have created a number of videos to give you a glimpse into their operations. Watch how they print a digital art file and prepare a framed canvas for shipping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysDh3oeHTbU&feature=youtu.be&list=PL2Izbl4TRq4eAJES6l6ecc7dA7l22O9hI
CASE STUDY: Creative Action Network
To gauge the feasibility of Printful from a real user’s perspective, I reached out to Aaron Perry-Zucker, the co-founder and Chief Creative Office of Creative Action Network. Creative Action Network partners with artists and designers who can upload their art to the site and develop them into print, apparel and other products, selling them through their online store to support social causes. You can see why they rely pretty heavily on Printful to help run their daily operations. Learn more about contributing to one of their campaigns here.
When they started their business, Creative Action Network needed a way to print posters on demand other than using a bunch of printers in their studio. The process they were relying on was tedious, unsustainable, and unscalable. As part of the tech scene around San Francisco, Aaron knew about Printful and the print on demand technology they were developing and decided to give it a try. By pairing Printful and e-commerce platform, Shopify, Creative Action Network now has the ability to outsource and automate many of the more manual fulfillment duties they were trying to manage themselves. “Instantly, our numbers shot up ten-fold across the board. It was a game changer for us,” Aaron told us. “We have interesting niche needs that they have been great to accommodate.”
Aaron and his team have automated the process to the point that their sophisticated system can automatically open up a new product once it’s uploaded to the site according to a set template using Shopify, sync it up with Printful, and once orders start rolling in, can let the artist know when it’s live.
Aaron gets some artists are hesitant to use a POD service, but has a good perspective on why it’s a good way to go: “I know artists that create and their work never leaves their bedroom. But unless you spend some sort of effort, having people buy it requires some work for their to be any potential of money-making.”
Some skeptics would compare a Printful to a service such as CafePress but Aaron disagrees. “I’ve found that there’s more control on Printful’s interface versus a CafePress. The quality control is there, and it’s a better tool overall for designs and commerce integration,” he says. “They’re a small team, which means you can always talk to someone and get a personalized solution versus working with a big, faceless company. They’re also a startup so they get what entrepreneurs and other start-up companies are going through.”
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a print on demand service that can provide top quality goods and shipping, personalized solutions, and customer support, Printful’s your best bet.
Have you used Printful or a similar POD service? What did you like or dislike about the process? Leave your comments below! We look forward to hearing from you.
I haven’t used either of them yet. I have been doing my own prints-8×10 and 11×14 and buying my giclees. I have been approached by Artstorefronts.com. They have what looks like a great product but it’s expensive. Cory, do you know anything about them?
I’ve talked to the folks at Art Store Fronts a couple of times, and they sponsored a few podcasts. The sites look great and seem to work pretty well. The challenge they had before was pairing artists with right local printers. If they’ve solved that then it seems like a pretty good idea.
I almost signed up for Art Storefronts. It is a good solution if you want to create a bigger online art storefront. There is a considerable amount of work to be done to create the website and the cost is really quite high. In the end I opted not to go this route but rather create my own web site via Adobe Muse (love it) and add in Shopify for sales. But if you are wanting a bigger operation Art Storefronts may be one answer, but also a costly one.
I read a good review of ArtStorefronts on a photographer’s blog a while back, so I checked out his store there. It seemed like a good potential solution, until I clicked on a gallery thumbnail to go to that photo’s page. I kept waiting for it to load… and waiting… and waiting… far longer than I would wait for a page to load on any website. Finally, I opened a new tab to do something else. When I eventually went back to that photo’s tab, I saw that the page had eventually loaded. So I went back to his gallery and tried to load more photo pages. Some worked fine, others took literally minutes to load. I also experienced intermittent problems getting gallery pages to load.
I wrote a comment to him on his blog post about the issue to find out if he was aware of it and how long it had been going on. He said,”Thanks for the feedback Karen! I have noticed this myself in the past, and told the team about it. I’ll let them know again.”
I visited his site again a few days ago, and the problems seemed to be solved. Still, it seems like that’s an issue that tech support shouldn’t be dragging their feet on, ever. If people can’t get to the page they want to order from, you’re not going to make a sale. And worse, they may decide to never bother with your site again.
I think this is a great tip thank you! I was already checking different POD Service. But still hadn’t found a satisfiying solution. I will definitly try them!
I already sell limited edition prints but am curious about the other products you offer (canvas, etc.). I have worked with Zazzle in the past and the quality is unacceptable. Over the years I have worked with a number of supplier of good quality items (T-shirts, totes) and am particularly interested in organic cotton and items of recycled materials, which is what my customers prefer. (I’ve been producing my work in a wide variety of forms since 1979.)
Hi Sara,
Printful offers a range of organic t-shirts that you could have a look at. And you’re more than welcome to check out our print quality with a sample order – 20% off and free shipping. We’d love your feedback on our quality! You can get in touch at: support@theprintful.com
I registered with a POD service about two months ago and have not received any orders. It seems highly unlikely that there will ever be any orders due to the plethora of art images on these sights. I think it is far more tempting to buy in person at a store or stall than by browsing online. That latter is passive with no vendor contact. In person, the vendor interacts with the prospective buyer facilitates the sale by easing the potential customer’s reticence about acquiring art and also just being there for those who zero in on a particular painting or print.. This opportunity does not exist online. If I could make 10% of my income from online sales, I would be astounded.
As it is, I have spent days at a flea market selling a portion my old work at a fraction of what my newer work is listed online having few alternatives. Some of my newer work is also in a gallery where in the past I have sold but now collecting dust. So, it would be a miracle if I sell in that gallery. And I have lowered my prices to nearly half what I was getting in the recent past. I saw a print by a well known artists displayed in an antique store that also shows art. They slashed the price three times and still it hangs there. And yet, this artist has sold his work both originals and prints there and around the town.
With the daunting challenges of selling in person or in a gallery, how much more so are the challenges of selling online where one is buried by many, many artists eager to do same?
Hi Jonathan, I feel your pain, I really do. There are lots of examples of artists doing well on this site. You might check out the Creative Insurgents category for some video chats with some of those successful artists.
In addition, our free email course walks you through how to get started selling art online. You can sign up for that on the top right corner here.
I have some work in a POD service. I haven’t sold anything there yet, but what I like about it is that it connects to my FB page and then at least lots of people see it there and comment, sometimes share. What I don’t like about their advertising style is that it looks really commercial and like hype. I am actually thinking about taking this advertising out of FB because it is so agressive! I’m still balacing out the pros and cons about this.
Another really important thing that is NEVER mentioned to people that sell or buy prints in a POD service versus your own website and mail, is that all of these prints are UNSIGNED and UNLIMITED EDITION. From your own site you can sell signed, limited editions with a Certificate of Authenticity.
From this article, it appears that Printful is very much like the other PODs.
The primary difference between Printful & other POD sites is that Printful allows you to handle all of the customer interaction directly on your site.
Signed, limited editions only matter to a small handful of art enthusiasts. Open edition prints can be a great revenue source if you have the right marketing.
Hi, Carole,
Regarding your FB issues — have you considered manually loading a small, low-rez version of your image to FB, along with any comment or description you choose to add, and a link back to your POD? This way, you put your image and info out there, but circumvent the commercial, cookie-cutter look of the POD-generated ad.
That’s how I handle my own FaceBook posts.
Best of luck to you!
I have used Printful for many of my orders on my site and they have always been good. They are very responsive to particular questions concerns etc.. and they show genuine interest in their clients. I was certainly not their biggest client but they treated me with respect and never made me feel like I was on the back burner because of a small order size or anything like that (which some companies certainly do). I would definitely recommend Printful to anyone who may be on the fence.
I loved when they broke down the profit potential for each item, but all the shirts I saw on their products page were at least $12.75, making the profit on a t-shirt substantially less than they claim. Were they using a ‘very large’ volume discount? The cost of the t-shirt gets awfully hefty for the consumer when the artist starts with such a high price ($13-$20) and they throw in $5 shipping. I guess the upside is that the price includes their handling and shipping of the product which saves the artist a lot of time.
Not mention you’re saving on time, storage, minimum quantity orders, stale inventory of designs that may or may not sell, shipping supplies and equipment and general time consuming fulfillment duties.
The profit margin definitely shrinks but also opens up a lot of time and reduces costs in other areas in specific situations.
I’m leaving this comment mostly out of curiosity to see what others have to say. Personally the only POD I have used is Fine Art America. I actually paid to have a ‘personal’ site and spent a lot of time and energy putting it together. I sold one canvas print through them. Not worth it. Instinctually I bristle at the thought of giclees….I’ve seen them offered at max prices (especially ‘hand embellished’) to buyers who don’t seem to know the difference between an original and a high quality print. Also I can usually end up seeing the pixels. (Also I think it’s entirely illogical to print onto canvas. Canvas is used because of the tooth which makes it attractive to paint on! The only reason to print on it is to mimic paintings… it’s cheesy.) The most success I have had with prints is doing them myself. I get a batch of card stock paper and print at kinkos. I’ll admit their machines are not always consistent, but the quality for an 8.5″ x 11″ isn’t bad. I get bags and archival backing from clearbags.com I sell them out on the street/at markets & fairs myself for $20. On my website I offer them for $30 to cover postage and shipping time. They are a great bread and butter supplement to selling originals and I’ve made thousands of dollars over the years offering them this way. (You can also leave a box of them in various shops and split a percentage.)
Each artist has their own standards for prints, and each customer has different desires for paper, canvas, etc. Do what works for you.
I am interested in checking out Printful. Thank you, Cory! I currently sell prints on Etsy and Fine Art America and at some retail stores. I have a woo commerce shopping cart on my site, but have not had the time to add all of my prints/ products there and have discovered that it takes a lot of energy and time to monitor and manage your products if you are on several different sites. Etsy does very well for me, but it takes constant daily management to keep my store up to date and keep up with filling made to order gift products, which I also sell. I would love to have the control of printing and selling my artwork myself from my own personal site, but realize that that would require expanding my business, really working hard on SEO to get the traffic I would need in addition to hiring some help, so maybe Printful would be a good option for me:) Thanks, again!
Have you considered hiring a virtual assistant to manage your ecommerce activities?
No, Cory. I have never thought of that. I would love to know more about that option! Please tell me more…
Check out Chris Ducker’s book Virtual Freedom. That will show you pretty much everything you need to know about hiring virtual assistants.
Hi Bonnie!
Printful could definitely help you ease the management of your online store and make it less time consuming post-sale. If you were to link your WooCommerce with Printful and sync your products the post-sale process becomes fully automated leaving you more time to focus on your SEO and marketing. We have heaps of tutorials and support services to help you as well. If you’ve got any questions/queries you can get in touch at: support@theprintful.com
Hi, Cory,
This is timely information, for me.
I’ve used both methods of selling my work online:
Doing all the printing, shipping/order fulfillment myself — which is satisfying, but every bit as grueling, time-consuming, and frustrating as it sounds, and
Loading my images to POD sites where printing, payments, and shipping are handled for me, but I feel isolated from buyers.
Recently, I’ve been looking for a ‘happy medium’ solution, and think a company like Printful might be what I’m looking for. As a stickler for quality control, it’s great to hear that Printful is vendor- and customer-responsive, which leads to peace of mind for buyer AND artist.
I’ll definitely be checking them out.
Thanks for the information, Cory; I’m always looking for viable ways to enhance the online branch of my art business.
~ Wendy
Many artists do not seem to understand about POD’s. Someone like Fine Art America will handle the ordering, the production of the prints and shipping. But it is still up to the artist to do the marketing. FAA is quite clear about this. The same is true for others like Printful. Developing strategies for building a mailing list is essential if you want to do online marketing of artworks as well as knowing how to take useful advantage of social media like Facebook. POD’s may print and mail it for you but you still have to market it.
But Stan, selling and marketing are evil. They make your art cheap and you will become more of a businessman than an artist. A retired art professor who creates “high art” living on his pension once told me this sage advice. _sarcasm-
As a retired art professor myself I have to say this is a load of nonsense. Artists everywhere are searching for ways to make a living off the sales of their art but finding this hard to do. But that does not mean one should not try. The potential of selling art online is growing exponentially and the smart artist will see this and look for ways to make it happen…… and dream of the day when they are supporting themselves on the sale of their art.
I would love to hear some experiences with POD from Europe. I am based in Copenhagen, DK; and due to import tax to EU on goods from US, I cannot use Printful or other US-based services. It gets way too expensive. However, some US companies might collaborate with EU businesses…? – Any suggestions…?
Hi, Ulla,
FineArtAmerica.com is one of the POD sites I use. Over the last year they’ve introduced printing and order fulfillment from both the UK and Australia. That might help with your shipping issues.
Good luck!
I agree with Sara Steele, I ordered a test greetings card from them and it was wide of the mark on colour and printed in the US, so not much good for UK artists.
I plumped for Fine Art America as the quality is very good from what I have ordered from them. An increasing range is being printed in the UK or EU so I can order without calculating import duty. The customer services was fab when something went missing in the post and you can name your profit margin with them.
I am not holding my breath for sales to appear from their website, it is V A S T! It’s a useful way of getting prints hassle free and directing clients to if they want my work on a substrate that I don’t keep in stock. I have been researching production and fulfillment companies but they’re all in the US – come UK catch up!
Hi Cory,
Thanks for this terrific intro to Printful and for the wealth of information and expertise that you’re sharing with us. You’re making a big difference in our lives, thank you!
I built my website a year ago on Weebly and had just started adding items for sale using the interface provided by my Weebly Pro account. I had a chat yesterday with a customer service person at Printful and they said their service does NOT integrate with Weebly.
So… do I:
1) Install an e-commerce provider on my Weebly website and hope that Printful is able to integrate with it?
2) Place an e-commerce provider (like Open Cart or GumRoad) on my FB Page, link to Printful from here, and link to FB from my website?
Thanks for helping me wrap my head around this process. I’m glad I didn’t get too far in setting up my Fine Art America account before learning about Printful!
Hello Shae, Brian here.
I am currently using Gumroad and Printful on my own website: http://www.daibutsumusic.com and I can tell you first hand that I really like their work.
If Weebly allows you to paste in HTML code, then I would consider getting Gumroad, and linking it to Printful. They have a YouTube page, and there’s quite a few videos on all the different e-commerce services they can link to. If you go through their site thoroughly, you’ll also learn that YOUR logo goes on the tags, t-shirt labels, invoices and shipment stickers when order through Printful. This is invaluable with creating your brand! I’ve provided links below.
Now, I gather that you went with Weebly so that you can avoid having to write code, right? Well, I can also tell you that it’s actually worth learning to code, so you know what it does, how to you can fine tune it. Sure it’s time consuming, but anything worth doing always is. If you take a look at my website (listed below), you can see that the results can be well worth it.
Here’s all the links. Good luck, and you can contact me through my site if you have any other questions. Take care!
Sincerely,
Brian K. James // DJ/Producer Name “The Engineer”
Daibutsu Music // wwww.daibutsumusic.com // @daibutsumusic
Whoops! Here are the links:
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnzsJ4Wvmug35USak9mGx3w
Gumroad:
https://gumroad.com
My Site:
https://www.daibutsumusic.com
Codecademy (learning to code):
https://www.codecademy.com
Hi Cory,
Thanks for the info, very helpful. No bullshit content as usual.
I’ll start to look at printful, that could expand widely the offer for artists. Do you have any numbers to know how much people you can reach using a partner like that instead of just selling original canvas ?
To be clear, Printful probably isn’t going to help you expand your reach. But they will make fulfillment easier.
I’ve ordered some of my prints so that I could see the quality. I think that they did a very good job,colors were good and everything securely packaged. My only issues were that on the greeting cards they put their huge FAA logo on the back of the card, right in the middle. Very large, blue and unattractive, and just took away from the quality look of the card. You see that even before you see the artists name. My decision was to take the card availability out of my store. Also the clear cover that they put over your print (instead of glass) scratches very very easily. Not a good thing to happen when your on your way to a gallery to display your pictures.
Oh no, does this mean they don’t use glass on their frames?
So I’ve checked out Printful’s site, and overall it seems great. Except that I don’t see anything about fine art prints, either framed or unframed. (Posters, yes – but that’s not what I want to sell.) Yet from this review and comments people have made, it sounds like they sell prints. Am I missing something here?
very limited. they print on posters, and a few ( like 8 ) stretch canvas sizes. warning, thier quality is not on par with proffessional art printers. they dont even print giclees.
This is why I can’t use Printful, posters is for teenagers and my customers are older women into elegant things.
How does Printful compare with art Storefronts?
my 2 cents.
Printful is not top quality…art or apperal wise. They dont even do giclee. i think its all heat transfer. they are a bit sloppy with gallery wrapped camvases and tshirts are hit and miss.
they have cheapest prices, but you get what you pay for. They also recquire you to handle returns.
Artstorefronts; uses a legit printer called Skyline. Powerful API and highly customizable for your art products. very simple, clean and basic ecommerce site for art. expensive start up fee and yearly plan, AND a 10% transaction fee -on top of the 3% stripe fee eliminates any potential margins with Skyline. Basically they are an expensive alternative to Shopify.
Summary;
Printful has best prices, but you get hit and miss work. you also must pay couple hundred + a year for a shopify store. you handle all returns. limited product line for art. – you get whst you pay for.
Artstorefronts:
Expensive fees; start up and monthly. Good printer. You get to collect buyer info but you handle all returns and customer service. Makes a good effort in helping artists set up thier store, social marketing, analytics etc. Has potential to take on Pixels.com if they lower their costs and provide more products.
In the end Im probably going to stick with Pixels ( previously Fine Art America)
Thier product line is always increasing and the quality is top notch. easy to use. incredible API and back end. they may not give you buyer info, but of you are trying to build an email list, let the customer choose sign up. they handle all returns. all you need to do is sit back and collect checks.
i highly recommend you use thier iframe code to embed the store in your own website so you can control the look and brand. Oh and pro level is only $20 a year.
I’m curious about what the actual quality issues you had with Printful relating to their paper prints.
I ask because they seem to use similar Epson SureColor printers/inks as the Skyline place you mentioned, as well as similar quality Epson matte/photo paper (although no heavy “fine art paper” option – boo). The best information I had on Pixels printer/paper/ink was some old FAA guidance that said they were using relatively recent Epson Sylus Pros that had slightly less “advanced” inks (although this may have changed). What exactly is your standard for giclee? (or were you
referring to apparel, etc?)
I’m curious to know if you noticed problems with color reproduction, ICC profile issues (HUGE annoyance of mine), or sloppy cutting/margins. Or was your main objection their lack of heavy/textured “fine art” paper? (Which I do understand could be an issue depending on your business model)
Thanks!
I came across Fotomoto, a POD service you can put on your site. Cory, have you heard of it?
I know a few artists who use it. I don’t have any personal experience with it.
Cory,
Thanks for the information on Printful. I have used their services since August 2015 and they have been wonderful. My Otter Things store has gone from dream to reality because of them.
I used to sell my designs through CafePress, Zazzle, and Spreadshirt, but I just wasn’t happy with the commissions and lack of growth for my brand. I also wanted more control over communicating with customers.
I compared the print quality of Printful with my previous printers and found the Printful quality better. They allow me to integrate with my Woocommerce store, with my own brand, and I don’t have to compete in some huge marketplace for tiny commissions. With other companies, I always felt like the youngest of eight siblings vying for a parent’s attention.
They are increasing their product line all of the time, and I have the ability to use American made products. I hope to make a video, or at least some photos, to compare my Printful products to those of the other PODs.
Customer Service at Printful has always been there for me when I needed them. They aided me with setup, integration, and shipping. I only had one issue that needed more work than they could handle, sales tax. They were helpful, but in the end I used Avalara Tax integrated with my site, and everything runs smooth as silk.
The best part about using Printful, I can connect with customers directly. When someone has a question, I can answer it. Printful is transparent about all of their charges and lots of helpful resources on their site. They allow my to put my brand on the packaging and they even give me graphics to help in marketing.
If a customer likes one of my designs or products, and posts a review, I can personally thank them. I can get input on their purchase and improve my designs and store.
I have even created designs specially for some of my customers, and they all told me that the service I gave them was wonderful. That personal customer interaction is what makes a great brand. Printful gave me that ability and I thank them for it.
Thanks for the feedback Angela. I’m glad its working out!
I am looking for a PoD to sell a series/collection of greeting cards with a focus on family caregivers. I don’t want to print them out myself and I don’t want to stock them (out of my budget at the moment). My biggest obstacles are that 1) I am not using a storefront on my site but rather a shopping cart, 2) I need to be able to design the inside as well as the outside, and 3) I don’t want to wait until I reach some minimum earnings of $50.00 before I get paid.
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Hi Patricia,
I am in the exact same boat as you, looking for the exact same solution! I have searched high and low and cannot find a POD drop shipper who can handle printing on the outside and inside of greeting cards, who prints white-label without any of their own branding on the product, and ships orders directly to the customers. I never thought it would be this difficult to find a POD solution for greeting cards. Every time I find someone, they strike out on one more more key pieces of the puzzle. I have emails in to a few different printers, and if I find someone suitable I’ll post another reply here. In the meantime, if anyone can answer Patricia’s question, it would be a big help to me as well!
Thanks,
Chloe
I was already checking different POD Service. But still hadn’t found a satisfiying solution. I will definitly try them .
Thanks
I’m currently using Redbubble because of their archival materials and the ease of use but I will take a look at Printful
I use Printful few times for t-shirt and cell phone case printing.
I suggest you to do a sample to judge for yourself especialy if you print on colored t-shirts.
It might help to re-ajust a bit your image colors if you are very fancy about it!
On closer examination I don’t see Printful as among the top POD producers. I see them as more of a hybrid operation focused primarily towards printing on clothing and accessories. I don’t see them as a fine art printer who an artist would go to for giclee printing and they don’t list anything other than canvas prints, no prints on paper. As an artist myself I consul other artists to seek out top fine art print houses for their printing and I can say this also because for 16 years I have been doing high end giclee fine art paper and canvas prints for artists and I know who the main POD companies are.
First, thank you for the article. I’ve been looking at Printful after being referred to it by a friend. My big question that I have been researching (which is what brought me to this article) is whether I can sell my own products (My original art) in the same iteration as the Printful store? In other words, will they play together well, or do I have to run 2 separate stores on my site? Does anyone have experience with that?
I like your advice to give your customers different ways to invest in your art. That makes it even more personal for them. They can truly make a collection out of your art that way and you end up reaping benefits from it too.