Etsy launched in 2005 as a niche platform for connecting and supporting crafters, artists who create and sell their handicrafts, artworks, and personalized goods. With a strong emphasis on one-of-a-kind products, Etsy has grown from a small niche market to one of the most prominent eCommerce platforms. 

According to Wallstreetzen statistics, Etsy has over 90 million active users including 4.7 million sellers in 2021 and is expected to increase 89.9% by the end of Q1 2021 when compared to the same period last year. Sellers shouldn’t overlook this giant cake!

To get started, let’s address the basic information of what print-on-demand is and how print-on-demand Etsy works!

Print on demand, usually called POD, is a type of dropshipping model in which the merchant works with the supplier to customize white-label products like t-shirts, mugs, or tumblers and sell them under your brand name as soon as the order has been placed. Meaning that you don’t have to pay any costs to operate the production or hold any inventory that you are not sure if they can be sold or not. You only pay for the product until after the product has been sold.

Usually, POD comes with fulfillment whereas as a merchant, you don’t have to deal with any packing, shipping, or inventory management processes. From printing to packaging and shipping, every stage will be handled by a third party with fulfillment services like Gearment. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Yes, it is, but only if you find a good POD partner who is able to handle every problem sellers have had like Gearment!

Even if POD is a great business model, is it allowed on Etsy? The good news is Etsy does allow you to sell print-on-demand products on its platform. If you are currently operating a POD business on other marketplaces, Etsy with over 250 million organic traffic is a fantastic marketplace to reach a larger audience as well as generate more revenue.

Unlike Amazon, Etsy doesn’t assist you with stock management. Sellers will have to handle everything from managing orders and inventories to marketing themselves. You can work with POD fulfillment companies to customize white-label products like t-shirts, mugs, or tumblers and sell them under your brand name as soon as the order has been placed on the Etsy marketplace. POD fulfillment service providers enable your Etsy store to integrate with their platforms. Once someone buys from your Etsy store, that order is sent to your service provider for printing and fulfillment. 

Read more: Top 5 Best Selling Print On Demand Products To Sell

1. Global Etsy market:

Etsy was first established as a very niche market where only specific handmade products were sold. It has developed and become one of the world’s biggest eCommerce platforms! There are around 90 million active customers and 4.7 million sellers creating a huge marketplace where both customers and sellers fall in love with. The number is forecasted to increase more year over year, showing the great potential of Etsy in the future! 

Etsy has been truly the global marketplace since one-third of its sales are international, meaning that you can even expand your businesses globally with Etsy. Not only that, the print-on-demand Etsy has been growing dramatically recently since the POD market has become more competitive and common in many developed countries. Etsy and POD are a winning combination since Etsy offers sellers a great solution for shop owners who cannot cover all handling and shipping processes to use third-party services from partners.

2. Vietnamese Etsy market:

Because of the extraordinary development of technology and Vietnamese eCommerce as well as the changes in Vietnamese customers’ shopping habits, business owners and retailers are going outside of the box by starting to invest in pushing business models towards online-based. Choosing an appropriate eCommerce marketplace in Vietnam is such a decisive step for the development of online business. 

Shopee, Lazada, and Tiki are dominant players in the Vietnamese eCommerce industry that constantly get updated with new initiatives and changes to not only support online business owners and retailers but also adapt and serve the continuous changing of customer’s needs. But, when it comes to POD,  Shopee, Lazada or Tiki are not really potential and suitable markets for selling POD. So if you are selling POD, Etsy is one of the best marketplaces for you to run a POD eCommerce store and scale up your business globally. 

The market share of POD in Vietnam is not as big as others, but there are many POD Fulfillment companies owning Vietnam-based or US-based warehouses and factories with modern technology manufacturing processes, experienced personnel, and a Vietnamese support team...

List of POD suppliers in the US

• Gearment Fulfillment
• Printful
• Customcat
• Dreamship

List of POD suppliers in the UK

• Teezily
• Moteefe

List of POD supplier in Vietnam

• Merchize
• Lenful
• Printway
• OTB Fulfillment

1. No need to hold inventory:

The costs for inventory, including costs to buy products in bulk, warehousing costs, operation costs, and labor costs are huge. POD business model can eliminate all these costs putting some responsibilities off sellers’ plates. Also, print-on-demand Etsy is a common word in the industry as Etsy supports POD businesses more than enough to build their shops on the platform and the POD market on Etsy is growing tremendously year over year! 

2. Low cost:

Since you don’t have to hold any inventory before you sell any products, there are no inventory costs you need to cover for your eCommerce stores while the money saved can be used for marketing and other important things. This is a much lower-risk business model compared to other models. Sellers run their businesses without worrying about inventory backlogs. 

3. Easy to set up a store:

Registering an Etsy selling account is easy and only takes a few minutes. Gearment will guide you through the process of creating your own store on Etsy. You just need to follow the guide step by step. A plus point is that it’s free to open a basic shop on Etsy so you don’t need to pay any costs to register a selling account.

4. Huge load of traffic

Etsy is the world’s leading eCommerce platform that attracts up to 90 million active users globally, creating a huge marketplace on the platform. Businesses on Etsy can leverage this huge traffic for their stores. Make sure you do some research and get full understanding of how you can optimize this free giant traffic!

5. M-commerce presence: 

eCommerce sales, also known as mobile commerce sales, are set to reach $3.56 trillion by the end of 2021 and there’s no slowing down. If you want to reach the customer segment who made a purchase online using their mobile device, let’s think about selling POD on Etsy marketplace as Etsy has a great mobile app that works efficiently and has been used by many customers worldwide. In 2020, 61% of the company’s gross merchandise sales were generated through mobile devices. Selling POD on Etsy gives you a chance to gain higher sales and profit.

6. Personalize your storefront:

People make snap judgments. It takes only 1/10th of a second to form a first impression about a person. Websites are no different. Your shop home, the virtual storefront of your Etsy business, is often the first impression your brand makes on potential customers. A well-coordinated shop home captures visitors’ attention, inspires buyer confidence, and has the potential to build long-term loyalty.

Like other marketplaces, on Etsy, you can customize your storefront. Etsy allows you to list your products accordingly, and brand your e-commerce store, including customizing the shop homepage, putting a shop title, logo, and tagline, and creating your own policies.

7. Offer shipping label:

Unlike Amazon, Etsy doesn’t offer fulfillment services, but they made order fulfillment easier and more affordable with tools like shipping labels, calculated shipping, and shipment tracking. One important tip to minimize account suspension on Etsy is to use platform labels from the platform. Shipping labels have the power for sellers to gain more credibility from both customers and Etsy which really comes in handy to eliminate the probability of getting suspension from the platform. Only a few platforms offer this shipping label and Etsy is one of them so don’t forget to leverage this opportunity!