Print on demand Automation: Speed Up Your Business Process

Why you should use print-on-demand automation?

“Work smarter, not harder" We should adopt this as our motto for modern-day work. Using automation to do our tasks can save us time and money, and it lets us focus on the tasks that more important things. Automation can take us away from boring tasks so we can spend our time on more important and fulfilling work.

Print on demand (POD) automation is a powerful process that can help businesses of all sizes streamline their operations and increase profits. By handling tasks like fulfillment, shipping, and helping customers automatically, so you’ve got more time to grow your business. Here are ways that automation can help your print-on-demand business, including:

• Increased efficiency: Automating your POD process eliminates the need for manual handling of orders, reduces the potential for errors and saves time.
• Cost savings: With POD automation, you spend less on labor and don’t need to stock up on actual inventory, so you save money.
• Improved accuracy: Having your printing and fulfillment automated means your orders are spot-on, leading to fewer errors and happier customers.
• Scalability: Automation allows you to easily scale your POD business as it grows, without needing more resources or manpower.

Overall, POD automation’s a big win for businesses of all sizes. It helps you save time and money, ups your efficiency and accuracy, and makes scaling your business a piece of cake.

Example:

Imagine a small business owner who sells custom-printed t-shirts. They use POD automation to handle all the order logistics. When a customer orders a t-shirt, the automation software sends it straight to the printer, who then prints and ships it directly to the customer. This gives the business owner more time to focus on other parts of their business.

Which parts of your print-on-demand process can be automated?

Fulfill process

Most print-on-demand providers will support integration with popular e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, eBay, etc. Once you connect your store with the print on demand vendor of your choice, your orders will be synced to their system and the automatic fulfillment process will be activated. Every time an order comes, it will be automatically fulfilled by the print-on-demand provider.

You should note that not every platform can be compatible to automate the fulfillment process. In these cases, POD supplier will require you to manually import the orders, which will take some time to do. It also requires you to regularly check the orders to keep your orders processed.

Generate multiple design variations

To increase visibility and selling possibilities, most print-on-demand business owners will upload myriad designs to their stores. The more designs, the better.

But your brainpower has its limit. It is hardly possible to come up with a good number of designs with each one is unique on its own in a short period of time. Instead, most print on demand sellers will select a few designs and then make variations from the original designs.

The good news is that these simple design creations can totally be automated, which can save you time and give you more design options in just a matter of seconds.

Upload your designs to multiple print on demand marketplaces

Quantity is a huge contributor to the success of print on demand. There might be up to hundreds of designs for each update. And the catalogs are refreshed regularly, a few times a month. And if you have stores on multiple platforms, the workload will multiply accordingly. It would be very time-consuming to do it all manually.

Automating your design uploading will be your life savior. It will help you to save a significant amount of time.

How to automate your print-on-demand fulfillment process?

Automating the fulfillment process is the first and easiest step to make your print-on-demand business run smoothly with no friction.

When choosing the print-on-demand provider, sort only the vendors who have integration with your e-commerce platform. For example, if you are selling print on demand via Etsy, select print on demand provider that has native Etsy integration.

At Merchize, we offer integration with the major platforms for print-on-demand businesses like Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Amazon. Our automatic and seamless fulfillment process allows your orders to be automatically processed without your intervention.

Whenever the order comes, it will be synced to our system and produced shortly afterward. Plus, we also allow users to set up print on demand automation rules to trigger the printing and shipping of orders based on certain criteria, such as order status or product type.

How to automatically generate designs for your print-on-demand store?

Designing and working with multiple design files could be very daunting. But with the right help, you can minimize your effort but still be able to generate a number of designs with just a few simple steps.

Here are some print on demand automation software that can automate your design process to make unique designs based on a single template.

AutomatePOD

AutomatePOD makes it easy for you to generate hundreds of designs using one template. Just by importing a file of variables, you can create as many designs as you want in just a few clicks.

However, the limitation of this application is that it only allows you to create text-based variables, not design elements.

How to create designs with AutomatePOD

• Add AutomatePOD to your browser extension
• Create or upload your original designs to Canva. (You can create designs on software like Photoshop or Abobe Illustrator then export your design into Canva)
• Use AutomatePOD extension to upload your variation file to generate multiple versions from one single design.

Merch Informer

Merch Informer is a powerful tool that helps you research, analyze and optimize your designs. The software helps you find the right keywords, niches, and designs that will make you stand out in the market. Especially, it can also be used to automatically generate designs using the given template.

With Merch Informer’s built-in design feature, users can create and insert variables into the text box. It will help to make multiple variations using different phrases. Plus, it also helps with automatic uploading. In general, this is an all-rounder print-on-demand tool that assists you every step of the way.

In order to improve your print on demand store, check out the best print on demand tools.

How to automatically upload designs for your print-on-demand store?

Uploading designs can be very time-consuming if you are selling on platforms, which is likely to be the case for most print-on-demand sellers.

But no worry. Here are a few print-on-demand upload automation tools that can simplify your process and save you a lot of time.

MerchTitan

MerchTitan is a print-on-demand automation software for Amazon. This tool is developed specially for people who are selling designs via Merch by Amazon. However, it can also support automating your selling process across many other marketplaces like Redbubble, Zazzle, Society6, Spreadshirt, Teespring, and so on.

Besides automating design uploading, MerchTitan also offers product research features that give you useful insights to earn more with Merch by Amazon.

Flying Upload

Flying Upload is another all-on-one print-on-demand automation software that comes with product uploading features. An advantage of this Flying Upload is its user-friendly interface. It is super easy to use. There is no need to work with spreadsheets and so.

You just can drag and drop images, and input details so easily and automatically. Flying Upload will help you to publish products across different marketplaces.

Other useful features from Flying Upload:

• Niche research
• Market trends
• Trademark checker
• Keyword finder

PODTurbo

PODTurbo is found by the owner of tinymarketinglab. This tool is designed to make the print-on-demand process easier. With PODTurbo, you can upload multiple products within a short time.

What you need to do is fill out a CVS file with product data like names, descriptions, images, and prices. PODTurbo will automatically publish all the listings to Amazon.

Read more: +10 Best Free Print on Demand Design Tools and Resources

Embracing print on demand automation can help businesses meet customer demands and stay competitive in the marketplace.