Sell custom products without inventory
Choosing the right Print Provider is key to building the best print-on-demand setup for your store. It affects print quality, delivery speed, costs, and the overall customer experience.
With dozens of print-on-demand companies to choose from, it helps to know what truly matters. This article explains how to choose the best Print Provider for your store and how Printify simplifies the process.
What is a Print Provider, and why is your choice so critical?
A Print Provider is the company that produces, packages, and ships your custom products after a customer places an order in your online store. In a print-on-demand business, this partner handles everything after the sale, so you can run your store without managing inventory or shipping yourself.
Because of that, your print-on-demand supplier plays a huge role in how smoothly your business operates and directly impacts customer satisfaction. Printing methods, packaging, production time, and international shipping all depend on the Provider you choose.
How a Print Provider impacts your business
Your Print-on-Demand Provider shapes the entire customer experience. Print quality affects how your products look and feel, while production and delivery speed influence how quickly orders arrive. Delays or inconsistent quality can lead to negative reviews and lost customer trust.
Since you don’t hold inventory, you can start selling custom products without upfront costs. As your store grows, scalability becomes just as important to maintain consistent fulfillment and customer satisfaction. Print vendors with reliable print networks, multiple fulfillment options, consistent quality, and responsive customer support make selling globally easier.
For these reasons, partnering with the right vendor is a key step in starting a print-on-demand business.
Key factors to consider when choosing a Print Provider
Some print-on-demand companies focus on low prices, while others emphasize fast shipping or product range. Looking at product quality, costs, shipping time, and customer support helps you choose the right print partner for your eCommerce business.
Product and print quality
Product quality is one of the biggest factors in long-term success. High-quality printing achieves this by keeping designs sharp, colors accurate, and products aligned with customer expectations. Consistent product quality builds trust, improves customer satisfaction, and encourages repeat purchases.
Look closely at printing methods, material quality, and customer feedback, including discussions on forums like Reddit and Quora. The best print quality usually comes from providers that follow clear standards across their entire production process.
For example, Printify supports multiple printing techniques across a wide range of customizable products. Sellers can choose from direct-to-garment and all-over printing for t-shirts and apparel, or laser engraving for hard-surface items like necklaces and glassware, depending on the result they want to achieve.
Product pricing
Pricing affects your margins and your store’s competitiveness. Review all the costs involved besides the base product price, including printing fees, shipping costs, and optional extras like custom packaging inserts.
Pricing stability and market positioning matter just as much as individual item costs. Predictable pricing makes it easier to plan promotions, run ads, and scale your product selection. Aligning your Provider with your target price point helps avoid constant margin trade-offs as your store grows.
Competitive pricing doesn’t always mean the cheapest option. Fewer errors and higher quality can reduce refunds and save money over time.
Shipping speed
With delivery speed playing a big role in buying decisions, shipping time directly affects customer satisfaction. Fast production, combined with reliable shipping, helps reduce delivery delays and improve the overall customer experience.
Check where products are fulfilled and whether the print partner offers global shipping options. Providers with multiple fulfillment locations usually ship faster and more reliably, particularly when shipping worldwide. Some may also offer overnight shipping options in certain regions, which can be useful for time-sensitive orders.
Printify Choice automatically routes orders to a POD fulfillment vendor based on the recipient’s location to reduce shipping time.
Customer support
Even with a strong Print Provider, issues can happen. Reliable customer support helps resolve problems quickly and keeps customers happy enough to come back.
Print Provider reviews are a good place to gauge how responsive a Provider’s support services are. Make sure there’s clear communication and easy ways to get help when orders are delayed or products arrive damaged. This becomes even more important as your order volume grows.
Where to find and review Print Providers
Most Print-on-Demand Providers have their own production and fulfillment networks. Some rely on a single facility, while others work with multiple partners across regions. The size and reach of a Provider’s network directly impact product availability, shipping speed, and fulfillment process.
Printify is a good example of a large, distributed print network. The platform connects sellers with 90+ Print Providers worldwide, so orders are produced closer to customers and shipped faster. Each Provider offers different products, printing methods, and order fulfillment speed, giving sellers more flexibility as their business grows.
Printify partners with many well-known Print Providers, each excelling in different product types and regions, for example:
- Printful. Offers a broad catalog of customizable products across apparel, accessories, and home products with in-house production and global fulfillment.
- Monster Digital. Best for high-volume direct-to-garment printing in the US.
- SwiftPOD. Specializes in DTG printing for t-shirts and apparel, with rich color results.
- Duplium. Canada-based print company with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing and printing.
- SPOKE Custom Products. Best for drinkware and hard-surface items, including UV printing and engraving.
How Printify helps you choose
With Printify, sellers can default to Printify Choice, which automatically selects Print Providers based on a balance of price, quality, and speed. This option works well for new sellers or anyone who prefers a simpler, hands-off setup.
Sellers who want more control can review available Providers manually using our performance score. This score reflects recent data from the previous four weeks, making it easier to compare Providers confidently for each product or market.
Common mistakes to avoid when choosing a Print Provider
Choosing a print-on-demand service isn’t just about finding a vendor that works today. Avoiding these common mistakes can save time, protect profits, and prevent long-term problems.
Focusing only on the lowest price
A low base price can be tempting, but it rarely tells the full story. Ignoring printing quality, shipping reliability, and support can increase the true cost of Print on Demand through refunds, reprints, and lost customers.
Pro tip: Compare total costs per order, not just base pricing. Factor in error rates, shipping fees, and long-term customer satisfaction when evaluating print-on-demand companies.
If you run an Etsy store or plan to sell on that eCommerce platform, the Etsy Calculator can help you estimate profits and price products more confidently.
Ignoring fulfillment locations
Shipping duration and reliability depend heavily on where products are produced. Providers with limited regional coverage can cause long delivery times, especially when selling internationally.
Pro tip: Choose print-on-demand companies with fulfillment near your main markets to cut shipping time and support local businesses at the same time.
Relying on a single provider
Depending on one Provider limits flexibility and increases risk. Delays, stock issues, or regional problems can quickly affect orders, damaging customer trust.
Pro tip: Work with multiple print-on-demand suppliers to create backup options and handle demand spikes or regional orders more efficiently.
Overlooking platform compatibility
Not all Print Providers work the same way across different print-on-demand sites and eCommerce platforms, which makes compatibility an important factor to check early. Overlooking this can lead to extra setup work, manual order processing, or workarounds that slow fulfillment and increase the risk of errors.
Pro tip: Partner with print-on-demand services that connect directly with your chosen eCommerce platform to keep your fulfillment process fully automated.
Printify integrates with popular eCommerce platforms and marketplaces such as Shopify, Amazon, and Etsy, making it possible to set up and start selling in just a few minutes.
Treating Print on Demand like traditional inventory
Print on Demand removes the need for inventory management, but it still requires attention. Skipping test orders or ignoring provider reviews can lead to quality or shipping issues as your business scales.
Pro tip: Place sample orders and review Provider performance regularly to catch issues early. Samples help you assess a print network’s reliability, product quality, and consistency throughout the customer journey.
Start your business with Printify and our Print Providers
Now that you know what to look for in a Print Provider, the next step is putting that knowledge into action. Printify makes it easy to launch and scale a print-on-demand business without managing inventory or production yourself.
Here’s how to get started:
- Create a free Printify account and choose a product to customize.
- Upload or create your design using the Product Creator.
- Preview mockups and order samples to check quality.
- Publish your product listing and start promoting your store.
Printify’s Product Catalog offers over 1,300 customizable items and continues to grow, supported by a global network of Print Providers held to high standards. Whether you start small or grow fast, Printify takes care of production and shipping so you can focus on growing your business.
FAQ
Choosing the right print-on-demand service comes down to print quality, pricing, shipping speed, and customer support, not just the base product cost. Look for reliable fulfillment, clear pricing, and production locations near your customers. Focusing on these factors instead of choosing the cheapest print-on-demand company is key to long-term success.
The best way to check print quality before committing is to order samples. Sample products let you review print clarity, color accuracy, materials, and overall finish firsthand. Customer reviews, photos, and forum discussions can also highlight recurring quality issues. Including this step in your POD Print Provider selection process helps set your store up for a strong start.
Using multiple Print Providers is common and recommended for flexibility, faster delivery, and backup options. However, manually managing several can be hard, especially for new sellers. Instead, partner with a print-on-demand supplier that already has an established network of providers, like Printify. This approach simplifies scaling, comparisons, and consistent fulfillment without the hassle of researching and testing suppliers yourself.
If a Print Provider isn’t working out, you can switch to another one when using a print-on-demand platform with an established Provider network. You can compare options, review performance data, and change who fulfills your orders without hassle. Alternatively, migrate your entire fulfillment setup to a different Provider, which is easy with Printify.
With Printify, you can choose a Print Provider automatically using Printify Choice or select one manually. Providers can be compared by price, production time, shipping cost, location, and a performance score that’s updated weekly, making it easier to pick the right option for each product or market.
Print smarter, not harder
Choosing the best print shop for your store comes down to focusing on what matters most. Consistent quality, transparent pricing, fast and reliable shipping, and responsive customer support all support long-term success. Avoid beginner mistakes like focusing only on the cheapest options or relying on a single Provider, and you set your store up for long-term growth.
Printify’s global network of Print Providers makes it easier to balance quality, price, and shipping time in one place. If you want more choice, better visibility, and room to scale without managing everything yourself, switching to Printify for fulfillment is the obvious next step. Our POD guide is a great place to start.
