How To Create and Sell Custom Products Online

You won’t be the only business selling print-on-demand goods, so it’s crucial that you understand the current market and can identify a lucrative product that’s high in demand.

When conducting market research, consider these three questions first:

What Does Your Audience Want?

Your products should appeal to your target audience’s needs. Use data-centric websites like Google Trends, as well as social media platforms, to gauge what items are currently popular with consumers online. You can use this market data to understand what your target audiences are looking for in a product.

What Is Your Niche?

To stand out from the competition, you need to understand how your product fits in with the wider market. To identify your business’ niche, think about what you can offer shoppers that other stores can’t. For example, you might be selling print-on-demand mugs featuring pop-cultural slogans that are difficult to find in stores.

What Is Your Competitor Pricing Like?

Last of all, make sure that you’ve assessed the pricing of similar goods in your niche. To do this, type the name of a product into Google search, assess the competitor pages that appear, and take note of their pricing strategies. Ideally, you’ll want to offer shoppers competitive pricing that will still make you a reasonable profit.

Answered the above three questions? Now, with your new information, you should be able to settle on which custom products you’d like to sell. Remember to take consumer demand, competitor offerings, and profit margins into account.

🛒 Still not sure what products to sell? Check out our guide to the best print-on-demand products.

With your market research complete, it’s time to identify a print-on-demand company that can help you turn your business ideas into a reality.

Though there are numerous companies to choose from, I recommend Gelato overall. This supplier enables you to sell high-quality products at a low cost, so you can start your print-on-demand business without breaking a sweat.

It’s a particularly good fit if you’re creating print-on-demand homeware or stationery products, since Gelato excels at producing calendars, cards, photobooks, and wall art. You can even take your products global thanks to Gelato’s local production model, which sees 90% of orders produced locally to your customers. This reduces shipping delays as well as your business’ environmental impact.

When choosing your supplier, it’s worth considering the factors below to make the right decision:

• Multichannel selling – If you’re already set up selling through websites like Shopify or Etsy, you’ll need a supplier that’s compatible with these platforms.
• International selling – Do you have plans to sell overseas? Make sure that your supplier can accommodate these ambitions. For example, Gelato has over 140 print providers in 32 countries, making it the largest print on demand network. For you, this means it’s easier to ship your goods to buyers abroad reliably and at a reduced cost.
• Product quality – Before you choose a print-on-demand platform, make sure the supplier can produce your custom items to a high standard.

Get 50% off your first order

Gelato provides fast, reliable shipping for your custom products, and it doesn’t come with any setup fees or minimum order requirements. Simply set up your products and start selling!

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Before you start to create and sell custom products, you need to make sure that you have an online shop to sell from (but feel free to skip this step if you already have one!) Popular options include: 

• Ecommerce website builders – With website builders like Shopify, you’re given all of the sales tools you need to set up and sell online. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you can easily open an online store and manage it from your dashboard, though you will need to pay set monthly fees each month.
• Online marketplaces – If you use a marketplace like Etsy to sell your custom products, you’ll have access to a huge range of customers from across the globe. However, a small fee will often be taken from each listing and each sale, so make sure to keep these extra costs into consideration.

If you’re using Gelato, you can easily connect your account with your storefront in one click. This includes website builders like Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, and Squarespace, alongside online marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, and TikTok Shop.

🏪 Curious about how your Shopify store might look? Refer to our guide covering the best Shopify print-on-demand examples around.

With your chosen third-party supplier and store sorted, it’s time for the best bit: designing your products!

As an example, let me show you how I created a unique design on Gelato.

Once I’d made my account and connected it with a pre-existing store, I clicked on “Product catalog” from the left-hand sidebar to get started. 

In this instance, I decided to customize a photobook since I was impressed by the high-quality options Gelato had available. I could choose from different book sizes and decide how many matte-laminated pages I wanted in total.

To customize my photobook, all I had to do was select “Create order.” I was then redirected to another screen where I could get creative and tweak my design. Some of the design options I had included:

• Uploading my own files to my design
• Adding custom text
• Adding pre-made graphics
• Changing the template of each page

When I was satisfied with my finished product, I selected “Add to order” to review my product and pay.

Before your print-on-demand products go live, you need to make sure that your product information is all accurate and ready to go. Here are a few things to consider: 

• Shipping – Since you’re using a print-on-demand supplier, you don’t need to worry about setting up shipping yourself. However, check your supplier’s shipping rates first so you understand what your estimated costs and delivery times will be based on the regions you’re selling to.
• Pricing – With your products created, you need to double check your product margins and make sure that you’ll make enough profit. Don’t forget to take retail prices, total product costs, and shipping costs into account.
• Product information – Your product information needs to accurately represent what you’re selling. Make sure that your titles and descriptions contain key information, and that customers know about any personalization options available, be it different sizes, prints, or colors to choose from.

Once you’re happy with your items, you’re ready to start selling your custom products from your website!

Congratulations! You’re now ready to create and sell custom products and start making money. But, as your print-in-demand business grows, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your sales to measure how effective your strategy is. 

Remember, online shopping trends will change over time, so you may need to tweak the custom products you’re selling now and again to keep up with changing consumer needs.

Start selling your custom products

Keep costs low and take your products global with the largest print-on-demand network across 32 countries. Gelato helps small sellers scale, and you could be next!

Try Gelato