Top 10 Print On Demand Products to Sell on Shopify in 2021

When it comes to print on demand, choosing the right product is the best growth hack. If your goal is to generate more customers and make more revenue, knowing what products will set you up for success is the perfect place to start a print-on-demand product that can be the perfect canvas for your creativity. It's really the perfect business model for anyone just starting out, who wants to give their customers unique products they can't find anywhere else. It's a low investment, low risk, and you get to create and sell custom products without holding any inventory - what's not to love. So today we're going to go through the top 10 products that you can sell on Printful. Today's video is going to feature YouTuber and e-commerce educator, Wholesale Ted. Wholesale Ted is a treasure trove of information for e-commerce business owners. We're so excited to be collaborating with her. So buckle up for some serious value. 

Top 10 Print On Demand Products to Sell in 2021

So I'm not just going to be telling you my ten favorite print on demand products, I'm actually going to be sharing with you the top 10 selling products on Printful, which is a print on demand app that has great integration with Shopify so that you can see which items are the most popular with customers. And so I decided to kick this video off with a bang and tell you the most popular item on Printful and that is unisex t-shirts.

Unisex T-Shirts

 And I should know because unisex t-shirts are one of the most popular items that I sell too. Customers absolutely loved them and to be honest, it shouldn't be a surprise that they love them. T-shirts are an extremely popular item because they work in all four seasons. They work in winter, summer, fall, and spring because, you think about it, swimwear, which we in New Zealand actually call togs - yes, togs -  is seasonal. 

Most people only wear it in summer. And on the flip side, you take sweaters, sweaters are big and heavy. So most people only wear them in colder months like winter but, t-shirts are great. Because in summer people can wear them as a single layer and then in winter, they can wear them under sweaters because, you think about it, homes are usually heated so oftentimes it's too hot inside to be wearing a sweater. So you want a t-shirt on underneath. So because unisex t-shirts are so popular with customers as they're so versatile, when you load up Printful, you're going to see a lot of different t-shirts to choose from, which can be very confusing when you're just starting out. So I'm going to tell you what my favorite t-shirt is, and that is the Bella + Canvas 3001. This is my number one unisex t-shirt that I sell, and I love it for three reasons. First, I love it because it's made from super soft cotton. It is so comfortable to wear. By picking a comfortable t-shirt to print onto you will have happy customers. And oftentimes happy customers turn into repeat customers.

Secondly, I love it because it's a great fit. It runs true to size, which means that it's a classic retail fit. So if a customer would normally purchase a medium t-shirt from a common retail brand like American Eagle, then chances are a medium t-shirt from the Bella + Canvas 3001 will fit them as well. By making it easy for customers to choose the right t-shirt brand you're going to minimize returns. And thirdly, I love Bella + Canvas because they produce their tees locally in the USA and they're WRAP certified, which means they treat their employees fairly and they also produced their tees in a way that is environmentally friendly. And if you are looking to sell your own unisex shirts, then my pro tip for you is it the most popular color with customers is black. So I highly recommend creating designs that look great on a black t-shirt. 

Children’s T-Shirts

Print-on-demand product number two, children's t-shirts. As you can probably imagine if adult t-shirts are popular then so are children's t-shirts too. And luckily, if you want an environmentally friendly t-shirt that is sweatshop-free and wraps certified Bella + Canvas produced children's t-shirts too which you can print onto with Printful. They make the 3001 B, which is designed to fit babies. 

And they make the 3001 T, which is designed to fit toddlers. And they have the 3001 Y, which is designed to fit elementary school children. I've had a lot of success selling children's t-shirts so I have a pro tip for you. I highly recommend taking your most popular designs on your adult t-shirts and, on the condition that they are family-friendly, print them onto children's t-shirts too. A lot of parents like to buy matching t-shirts for themselves and their children. So it makes for an awesome upsell. Print onto demand product number three. 

Mugs

Just like with t-shirts mugs are one of the most popular print-on-demand products, because they are so versatile and people use them a lot. Here's the thing though, where most people think about selling mugs, they just think about selling the 11 oz white mug, and while you can still sell these mugs, these aren't actually my biggest sellers. Instead, my two biggest sellers are these. First of all, the accent mug from Printful, which features a colorful handle, and the inside is printed in the same color. And the second one is the enamel mug, which is actually a relatively new item from Printful, but it's super trendy right now and my customers absolutely love it. And it's fast becoming one of my biggest sellers.

The All Over Print Hoodie

So if you're listening to this and you're interested in selling mugs then I have a pro tip for you, and that is that most beginners place the design in the wrong part of the mug. They place their design in the middle of the product design template because that's what you usually do with print-on-demand products, such as t-shirts, place your design in the middle. But if you do this with a mug then your design will print opposite to the handle and not be visible when drinking from the mugs. Instead, place your design on either the left side or the right side, or ideally on both sides so that it will be visible when somebody picks up the mug and drinks from it. Print-on-demand product number four, the all-over print hoodie.

 So for all of you budding artists out there that enjoy an exciting challenge, then the all-over print hoodie is something that you are going to absolutely love. In the early days of print on demand, the most that you could do with a hoodie is print on the front of the hoodie or the back of the hoodie, or on the sleeves of the hoodie. But now, all-over print hoodies have been made. You start out with a completely blank hoodie and you can print over all parts of it. All-over print hoodies are super trendy right now in the streetwear niche, which is why a ton of influencers have all-over print hoodies in their merch lines. 

And my pro tip for you if you want to sell all-over hoodies, is this. Because they are far more complex to make and print, they're going to cost a lot more. However, that is okay, because you can charge much higher prices for all-over print hoodies. A lot of people are afraid to raise their prices, but to those people, I say this -  pricing is entirely subjective. You think about it, you can go to Walmart and you can buy a hoodie for $20, or you can go to Gucci and you can buy a hoodie for $2,000. What is the difference? Well, it's because of something called perceived value. This is a term that we use in marketing to refer to the value that your customer perceives your product to have. And oftentimes the way that they come up with its value is by comparing your product to others. So when a customer sees a Gucci hoodie, the reason why they perceive that hoodie to be worth $2,000 isn't that it's made from better materials. It's because of the prestige that is attached to that hoodie. And because of that prestige, it makes the hoodie more novel and unusual, which means the customer is willing to pay a higher price for a rarer product. Well, that's exactly what all-over print hoodies are. They are unusual and novel. Most hoodies just feature a design on the front and maybe the back, but with all-over print hoodies, the design goes all over and it stands out. And so because of the fact that it is unusual and, novel customers are willing to pay a higher price for it. So don't be afraid to bump up your prices. 

All Over Print Yoga Pants

Print-on-demand product number five, all-over print yoga pants. Just like with the hoodie, with this, you can print your design all over all aspects of the yoga pants. These have become extremely popular, especially after people started wearing them to festivals. Chances are a lot of you have probably seen all over print galaxy yoga pants. These are super trendy and they sold super well. My pro tip for anyone who wants to sell these is just like with all-over print hoodies, these are definitely not cheap to make and sell. This means that you're going to want to focus on increasing the perceived value so that you could have a higher price point by having a super cool trendy design. So this is usually a product that I recommend that experienced graphic designers and artists focus on. 

Engraved Jewelry

Print-on-demand, product number six, engraved jewelry. Printful offers a range of different necklaces and jewelry that you can engrave pictures and text onto. This is something that I've been experimenting with a lot lately, and I absolutely love it. As I said, they offer quite a range. They sell a circle necklace, a hexagon necklace, a heart necklace, and a bar chain necklace. They also have a bar chain bracelet and they have hexagon earrings. My pro tip for you if you're looking to sell these is to take advantage of the amazing opportunity to sell niche-specific jewelry. You see, here's the thing, if you look at the reviews for the bar chain bracelet on Printful, you'll see that some people are choosing to engrave more traditional things that you might expect, such as the customer's names onto the bracelet. And while this is absolutely fine, you have a really good opportunity here to create jewelry for groups of people that would not normally have options available for them. Because you think about it, jewelry is quite expensive to make so there are going to be some smaller groups of customers and some niche groups that will not have jewelry made for them because of the fact that it's expensive to mass-produce it. And so people are not willing to mass-produce jewelry for these niche groups of people, because they don't know if it's going to be worth it. 

So for these smaller groups of customers that it's risky to mass produce jewelry for, you can use print on demand to create jewelry, to meet the specific needs and wants without that risk. For example, in Printful's review section for the bar chain necklace, one seller, Emily, showed how she had created a necklace that featured the Hawaiian phrase for mother. Now because of the fact that the Hawaiian language is not widely spoken and may have been considered risky to mass-produce this necklace in bulk. But because of the fact that she was able to make this with print on demand, it removed that risk and allowed her to sell it. If you love the idea of running a semi-automated business from anywhere, then you're going to want to register for this free webinar that will teach you how to quickly start a profitable print-on-demand store. This 40-minute webinar will get you from a product idea to set up an online store, to getting your first print-on-demand sale. Learn where to find designs. How to connect with suppliers without paying for products upfront, worrying about inventory, or shipping a single package yourself.

Posters

print on demand product number seven, posters. It probably shouldn't be a surprise that posters are popular because posters have been popular and will always be popular. Because, you think about it, but you rather have a blank wall, o features cool art that you like. Now, while there will be some minimalists out there that will choose a blank wall, chances are, most of us would rather have a wall that features artwork that we like. My pro tip for you, if you're looking to sell posters, is that unlike some items like t-shirts and mugs where you can get away with a lower quality print when it comes to posters, you want to make sure that your design is vibrant. So make sure you print a picture with a high resolution of at least 300 DPI. 

Champion Jacket

Print-on-demand product number eight, Champion jackets. If you haven't heard about the clothing brand champion, it is fast becoming one of the trendiest clothing brands that you can wear. It is one of the first streetwear sports clothing brands. In fact, it's older than Nike and Adidas, and actually, it is 40 years older than Nike. Recently Champion has been having a huge comeback and has become super trendy in large part because they've been working with influencers like Kylie Jenner to wear and advertise their clothing. And they've been working with popular brands like Nintendo to create cool products like the Super Mario Brothers hoodie. So thanks to the influencer and brand deals Champion is more popular than ever. And now thanks to a deal with Printful you can create print-on-demand products using the Champion brand because of the fact that champion is so popular, it has a high perceived value and the most popular product on Printful right now is the jacket. This is pretty cool. Instead of printing a picture onto the jacket, they instead stitch your design into the corner of the jacket. This is part of print's embroidery line. Because of the fact that this is more novel and increases the perceived value even higher, which means that you can charge higher prices. If you're looking to sell this my pro tip for you, is to remember that because this is stitched, Printful has a limited selection of three colors. They have 15 vs a DTG printed clothing item, which in theory can be printed in thousands of colors and shades. Luckily Printful does have a sample of these colors and I highly recommend ordering them so that you can see them in person. 

Tote Bags

Print-on-demand product number nine, tote bags. Tote bags are great print-on-demand items to add to your store because they're super easy and beginner-friendly to create because most designs that look good on a t-shirt also look good on a tote bag. So my pro tip for you, if you want to sell tote bags, it's exactly this. Take your t-shirt designs and place them onto tote bags and then offer the tote bags as an upsell, because it's a really effective one. Hi, I see you like this design on a t-shirt, I think you might also like it on a tote bag as well.

Fanny Packs

Print-on-demand product number 10, fanny packs, or bum bags. Yes, as surprising as it may be, fanny packs, or as they're known in the UK, bum bags, are one of the most popular items on Printful right now and the reason why I find it so surprising is that I was a nineties kid growing up. We wore the classic standard fanny pack or bum bag on our trips and vacations. But because of the fact that I'm a nineties kid, I also watched them go out of fashion and become one of the least cool items that anyone could wear. In the 2000s you would not be caught dead wearing a fanny pack. But times have changed because fanny packs have had a huge resurgence of popularity as designer clothing brands like Gucci have made them cool again. Instead of wearing them around your waist, you now wear them like a sling bag. So because of the fact that designer brands, like Gucci, have made them really cool, they sell super well and are trendy gain. And just like with yoga pants and hoodies, they are an all-over print item. And so my pro tip for you is that if you want to sell fanny packs remember, to take advantage of the fact that this is an all-over print design to increase your perceived value.

If you take a look at the reviews for this item inside of Printful, you will see some people have created some super cool designs that do take advantage of this, and they look great. And by doing this you'll be able to increase your perceived value, which means you will be able to charge higher prices, which means you will be able to make more money per sale.

What are some best design practices for print-on-demand?

Well, there are three big tips that I would give anyone for creating great print-on-demand designs. The first is the bigger the resolution of the picture you were printing onto your product the better. While you might be able to get away with a low resolution with some products like t-shirts and mugs and print at 150 DPI, 300 DPI or higher is always better. The second is to make sure that you saved your picture on a transparent background. So for example, if you place a picture on a white background and save it with that white background in that white background print onto the t-shirt and it will look super ugly. 

Whereas if you save your picture on a transparent background, then it's going to look super awesome and you're not going to have that ugly box. And my third big tip is this. While it may be tempting to use popular characters and brands like Star Wars and Disney, that is also a great way to get a copyright strike too. So avoid copyright material and just focus on your own designs. 

What are some really important product page best practices?

So there are two big pieces of advice that I recommend for people when they're creating product pages for their print-on-demand products. The first thing I recommend is that if you were selling clothing, make sure you have a sizing chart somewhere. So you could link to a sizing chart that's on a different page, or you could include a sizing chart on the page. A really cool app that I love for this that's integrated with Shopify is Kiwi Sizing Chart. It doesn't matter how you do this just make sure that customers can access a sizing chat somewhere on the product page. If you don't do this and customers order the wrong size, then understandably, they might blame you if they pick the wrong one.

 So it's much easier to avoid this in the first place by ensuring customers ordered the right size for them. The second big piece of advice that I have is to make sure that you put a disclaimer on your product page description, that your item is going to take time to manufacture because it is created on-demand. Print usually creates their products within two to seven business days. So that means the customer needs to be willing to wait for an additional two to seven business days on top of the shipping to get their item. That's why Christmas last year Printful's order-by date was December 8th, because you had to allow for seven business days for the item to be made and then the additional shipping time. If you don't warn customers about this on the product page, then you're going to risk them having a birthday party in five days for a friend, and then order a t-shirt from you to give to them. And then understandably, be very upset. When in five days time they find out that not only has their item not arrived yet, it hasn't even been made yet. Now most customers don't need the items immediately. And in my experience, most customers don't mind, but they obviously appreciate the warning. So make sure you note this on your product page. 

What are the most common mistakes that print on demand beginners make that prevent profitability?

The most common mistake that I see people make, as they come into this industry with a copy mentality. They look for popular products that have already sold well to copy, but usually, imitations are not as good as the real deal. And so they get confused. They go, hey, I copied a popular product design. Why is mine not selling well? And that's the exact reason why it's not selling well. It's because you copied someone else. Instead, if you want to be successful, focus on creating designs that customers will go, wow, I've never seen this before. I absolutely love this. This is better than all of the other designs out there. And so for me, what I usually recommend that you want to propose to do if they want to start a print-on-demand store is to create products around niches or hobbies that they are interested in by creating products around things that you yourself are passionate about. You can use yourself as a yardstick. 

You can go, okay, what t-shirts or hoodies or fanny packs, or whatever product you're trying to sell, does not currently exist in my niche that I would like to buy? By asking yourself that question, you can find gaps in the marketplace where people want products, but they don't exist. And so you can then design a product to fill that gap and create a new original product that other people who are also passionate about your niche will love. Thank you so much, Shopify for having me on your channel. It's been an honor to be on here, and if you'd like more videos from me about print on demand, then be sure to check out my channel. I'll see you over there. Hopefully, this video has given you some solid product ideas that you can use to expand or start a print-on-demand business. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a carefully curated one meant to give you ideas of products that are high in demand. Ultimately it will be your creativity that will bring these products to life. So once you've sourced the perfect product and you've built a beautiful online store, you might find that fewer people are coming to your site than expected, but you wouldn't be alone because gaining traffic is easily one of the most common problems new online stores encounter. Luckily I was recently featured in a video on Wholesale Ted's channel that covers just that. Be sure to click on this link that will take you to Wholesale Ted, to learn more. If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for our free webinar on how to start a profitable print-on-demand business. Also, don't forget to like and subscribe to this channel so you don't miss out on more tips to grow your online business. Remember, we're a channel for small business owners with big plans. We give you the knowledge you need to start and grow your online business. I've been your host Tyler, and I'll see you next time on Learn With Shopify.