Printful Exec on Profitable Print-on-Demand

Thanks to companies such as Printful, an enterprising entrepreneur can select a product, upload an image to place on it, sync it with her ecommerce site, sell it, and then pay for it.

Print-on-demand is big business, and David Hooker is a prominent participant. He’s the brand director at Printful and a long-time SaaS executive.

In our recent conversation, I asked him about pricing strategies, sales tactics, merchandising, and more. Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: What do you do?

David Hooker: I’m the brand director at Printful, a print-on-demand platform. Anyone can browse our 350 products and add a design to any item — t-shirts, onesies, mugs, posters.

We can then connect to wherever you sell products (Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, et cetera) so shoppers can purchase those items. We will then print and ship them directly to those customers.

And we offer post-sale support to correct any manufacturing errors, which are rare.

Bandholz: Does Printful take a percentage of the sale?

Hooker: We don’t disclose our margins. We do offer our Growth Subscription, which gives sellers a lower price in exchange for a $24.99 monthly fee.

Bandholz: How do you help entrepreneurs price for value while staying profitable and competitive?

Hooker: The short answer is to have great products. Typically, around a 40% gross margin is where merchants are most successful. You don’t want to dip much below 30%. A fantastic design might reach a 60% margin in a motivated niche. A limited-stock item can command a higher price.

The price needs to align with your costs, which are primarily marketing. Calculate the cost to acquire a customer, as it can vary widely by niche.

Plus, try to increase the order size. Selling one item might only break even, but a second can turn a profit. Structure your store to nudge shoppers to buy two things — for example, through bundles or buy-one-get-one-free offers.

One of the biggest factors that influence sales is the quality of the mockup image. Printful will auto-generate an image, but the best mockups are real-life photographs taken with good cameras, featuring good models showing off the product. The other thing is having multiple images. On Etsy, the sweet spot is 11 pictures of a garment, such as in-use, flat, back, and front.

Access to great cameras, lighting, and editing tools is essential. AI tools such as Gemini and Nano Banana can help, but the best way is still a photo shoot done well.

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Bandholz: Where is the future of Printful?

Hooker: We’re looking into expanding our catalog with more products while ensuring they meet Printful’s quality standards. We’re working on launching puff prints, which are similar to 3D and stand out on a t-shirt. We always keep a close eye on what sells and what doesn’t. We listen to our merchants.

On the platform side, we’ll offer tools that help people sell more quickly and add designs more easily. Creative people have always empowered us. AI will never replace that creativity, but it can help with routine tasks, such as updating listings, adding tags, and SEO stuff.

Bandholz: Where can people sign up for Printful or get in touch?

Hooker: Our site is Printful.com. I’m on LinkedIn.