can lcd displays be put on clothing pricelist
You can get extremely detailed with pricing. Some owners leave nothing for granted and account for things like their shop"s overhead, time on press, capacity, impressions, number of colors, t-shirt costs and so on – you absolutely should account for those nitty-gritty details. But that"s not all there is to pricing.
Instead of trying to develop an all-encompassing formula, it"s best to follow some general strategies for smarter pricing. The reality is that you"ll need to price every unique job differently.
You"re paying to buy t-shirts from wholesalers. This takes times and money, and it"s the first step to printing custom t-shirts. Your garment markup is the first place that you should make profit.
That t-shirt may cost you just $1.50. But there is a real labor cost for procuring, processing, and printing the shirts in your shop. This fixed cost does notdepend on how much you paid for the t-shirt.
Garments that cost $10 from a wholesaler are typically marked up by about 150%. A $10 sweater becomes $15 for the customer. Some examples of clothing with lower markups:
For example: a $20 wholesale price translates to a $30 customer price with a 150% markup. That"s before you"ve even applied the cost to print the garment!
To recap: having one garment markup for all types of t-shirts, jackets, and hoodies you sell and print on...is unwise. Appropriately price your garments for the customer. Lower cost goods need the highest markup, while higher cost items require a lower markup. Higher cost items are more profitable, but also riskier to print on.
You should never offer a customer a screen printing quote for a job that you don"t understand. This is why we can"t tell you exactly how much you should charge: there are so many variables that come into play. Each and every shop is unique, and each job is unique on top of that.
There are several common factors related to the screen printing process that we can use to anticipate your printing cost and price jobs appropriately:
If you have more than one print location, it"s like you"re printing 2 shirts.Removing the shirt from the press and replacing it for another print location takes more time and labor.
Novice screen printers may think a 4-color job is more complicated than a simple 1-color print in two locations. But this isn"t true. Printing a 4-color design on the front of a shirt takes less time than printing two separate designs: you have to remove and replace the shirts for that second print location.
Our advice? Price multiple location prints like you"re printing a new garment each time. This could mean charging your print fee two times. You could offer a different price for sleeve prints, neck label prints, and so on. Perhaps the back print is 50% of the original print fee.
Don"t discourage multiple print locations. Correctly raise your prices for the additional labor, supplies, and complexity that multiple print locations introduce.
Printing one ink color on every job would make the world a more boring place – for your screen printers and for your customers. But you have to charge more money for the increased complexity that colors introduce.
So how should screen printers price colors? Build a "plateau" in your pricing model.One color should always be affordable. The jump to two colors is sharp, but not so sharp that customers can"t get what they want. And the jump between four colors and eleven colors should be massive!
A two-color print job with a 60 second flash is not the same as a two-color job with no flashing. Flashing will take more time, introduce more risk, and present more possible production problems.
If your shop prints manually, you must account for flashing in your pricing – your workers are the ones that have to pull that squeegee and wait while the shirt cures!
Add 1 to 2 colors to your standard pricing when you have to flash a job. I"ve created a separate price matrix for flashing jobs. To get an even more accurate picture, try timing two jobs with similar prints – one with flashing and one without. How large of a difference is there?
Remember: underbases often require flashing. Be ready to discuss underbases with your customers and explain why a simple print that is only one color may require an additional fee.
Screen printing pricing is volume-based. Most print shops really want customers to order as many goods as they can: it"s far more efficient to print 300 shirts than three.
But if you"re a small shop (or just starting out) doing a four-color job with flashing on 75 pieces will take a ridiculously long time to print manually.
Therefore, you need to adjust your pricing based on whether you use an automatic press or a manual press. Even if you are using an automatic press, you still need to account for flashing costs.
Once you cross the threshold into automatic printing, you can begin to distribute price breaks a bit more generously. Until then, be sure to account for the added labor & time constraints that manual printing adds to the process.
You can tell this creates a bit of a problem for new screen printers: the guy with the big automatic press is cheaper than you are. But there are still lots of ways that your small shop can add value to customers.
There"s a huge opportunity to make sales to groups, teams, and organizations that are challenging to deal with – you can simply make an online store into your ordering platform.
In my shop, we add a flat fee on top of our traditional screen printing prices (between $1 to $5 per garment depending on the job). It will add costs to your business (such as bagging-and-tagging) – but it can also boost your revenue and open up new sales opportunities.
Need help getting started with online stores for screen printing? Check out The Ultimate Guide to Online Stores for Print Shops and Screen Printers – with custom sales and marketing materials you can download.
Difficult customers and jobs drag your team down and cut into your profits. It"s administrative and customer service work tacked on to design and art work.
On the one hand: they really push our shop"s limits, challenge our skill set and bring out the inner artisan. They"re rewarding when they work out! More importantly, these customers can be converted into lifelong customers and educated about how to make the process easier.
On the other hand: they can be costly, they"re risky, they might lose you money and they can easily ruin customer relationships if they don"t turn out well. Bad reviews are a huge risk with this kind of job, so carefully consider whether you can realistically handle the extra workload for a needy customer or a really challenging print job.
The discount can be a percentage per garment, a percentage off the total order, or even a different cost per garment as you climb the ladder toward large orders.
A customer that orders 100 shirts is more valuable than a customer that orders 15 – and a customer that orders 10,000 garments is making you orders of magnitude more money than either of those. It simply makes financial sense to offer a discount to your largest customers.
The pricing matrix generator below allows you to implement breakless pricing, which is really just a fancy way to say you calculate your prices for every quantity individually.
Instead of having one price tier for 24 to 48 garments, you price out every garment quantity individually. This way, your customers are not incentivized to order "just a dozen more to get a discount." They get the appropriate discount every time. This prevents Mark Coudray"s "print shop pricing trap" where your quantity breaks actually work against you (see the video for a further explanation of how this works).
Maybe you call it the "friends and family discount," but the best way to think about it is that a discount can act as a gesture to keep a great relationship with a customer.
It"s worth keeping a good rapport with a customer that"s going to return again and again to your shop, even if it means keeping a lower margin on their orders.
Be sure you point out any discounts on your invoices. Something small like a 3% discount can be meaningful if you present it as a gesture of kindness & appreciation.
"Always point out what you"re giving away. Even if the price of the shirt actually accounts for it. We show a line item for "FREE" screen output and set-ups at $20 per color and side. Customers love this. They love getting something for free."
The discount is psychological – setup fees are already baked-in to my pricing! –but if I present it to a customer as a discount, they"ll be very grateful.
Cover your costs: pay your workers, yourself, your bills and everything else. Don"t starve your business because you"re worried about competitors offering a slightly lower price.
You"re probably not going to be able to compete with Custom Ink for market share. You may not even be able to compete with your rival shop, much less a local contract printer on price.
Keep your work high in quality and keep your relationships with customers in great standing – it"s easier to say no today than to explain why that big & challenging order didn"t turn out well to an irate person that"s highly respected in your city.
The #1 question screen printers and print shops have is "How do I set my prices?" This is a topic as controversial as it is difficult – every shop we talk to at Printavo has a different strategy for their screen printing pricing.
We"ve spent several months developing a way to encourage responsible pricing. We are not accounting or pricing experts, but we knew that we could add something valuable: what if we could help print shops generate a price matrix for every job they print?
There are lots of tools, softwares, and methods for developing a pricing model for screen printing shops. We wanted to arm you with something simple that you can use to generate a screen printing pricing matrix.
Update for version 2:a huge thanks to Andrea Harmon from Idaho Shirt Stack for her help. She corrected several errors on the first version of this spreadsheet.
To use our screen printing pricing matrix generator, there are 7 essential steps. It"s important to understand them all so you can get the most out of the spreadsheet (and modify it for your own purposes). The 7 basic steps are:
Define your shop"s monthly costs.While your costs may change, we suggest using a "slightly higher than average" number for your monthly costs. We"ll use these values to help calculate a "cost per impression."
Your utilization rate.How much of a working day is spent actually printing? We give you a range of values (from 5% to 50%). Be aware that the typical shop operates at less than 30% utilization!
Tell us how long setup and break-down will likely take.How long do you estimate spending on administration (sales, communication, data entry, etc.), artwork, and pre/post press activities (screen burning and reclaim, setup, etc.)?
Initially, you may need to estimate certain values (or develop a plan to collect more data) to get an accurate value. As the saying goes,good stuff in, good stuff out.The more accurate your inputs, the more accurate your price matrix eventually is.
The first step is defining the percentage profit you want to make.You select a percentage from the drop-down menu. The higher the percentage, the more the tool will charge per screen printed impression (and the higher your shop’s suggested hourly rates and daily revenue targets will be).
How this number is used:this value is used to calculate an idealized cost per impression. Since you are not inputting your revenue – and this is aforward-lookingcalculation – we provide you a “target revenue” based on your costs plus the desired percentage of revenueabovethose costs.
We’ve provided three extra cells for additional costs.This is where you may want to play your variable costs: office supplies, inks, tape, and other consumables.We can’t anticipate every shop’s different costs, but these covermostof the bases. We’ve found that labor expenses, rent, and equipment leases are typically the lion’s share of a small-to-medium print shop’s monthly expenses.
Break-even targets.These are how much you have to make daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to cover your shop’s costs. If you’re trending below these numbers, you are off track.
Profit targets.These are how much you have to make daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to cover your shop’s costsandmeet your defined profit percentage. If you’re trending at or above these numbers, you are on track.
Let’s be transparent: this is where things get a little bit more challenging.Let’s dive in to each area separately and help you understand what values to input.
Impressions per hour. This is an estimate of your production capacity. Don’t think of this as how manyshirtsyou can print in an hour, think of this as how many times you do animpression(in other words: dragging the squeegee across the screen).
Tip:calculate the number of impressions for a job, and then time how long printing takes. Do this repeatedly to get an estimate for how many impressions per hour are likely in your shop.
Total impressions per hour. Unless you are planning on operating more than one press for this job, you don’t need to alter this field. If you are using one press for the job, this value should be the same as your impressions per hour.
Tip: to change this value, alter the Number of Presses in Operation cell. It will simply multiply the number of impressions per hour by the number of presses.
Utilization rate. This is the most important metric in the spreadsheet. Your shop’s utilization rate is the percentage of time your presses are actually printing. We have discussed shop utilization with dozens of shop owners and industry consultants and found that shop utilization tends to be no greater than 40% (and, typically, is much closer to 20-30%).
Tip: utilization willalmost neverbe higher than 50%. We have given you more options but we strongly suggest keeping your utilization around 10% lower than you believe it actually is.
Number of presses in operation.This is NOT how many presses are in your shop. This is how many presses will be in use forthis particular job.Typically, this should just be left as “1.”Changing this value will alter the “Total impressions per hour” cell and affect your pricing.
With the info provided, we can create simple metrics to judge your shop’s performance and gain a high-level overview . The image above shows several interesting calculations:
Hourly shop rate (with utilization included)is the amount, per operating hour, that you need to hit to get to your profitability goalswhen your actual shop utilization is factored in.
Tip: these values may seem higher than you anticipate. It is worth examining how utilization plays into your shop’s hourly rate: as utilization goes up, your hourly rate goes down (you’re more efficient per hour).
Cost per impression.This is an estimated cost per impression. You’re provided with two different numbers, but only one is used in the pricing matrix calculation.
Cost per impression (with utilization included) is calculated the same way but includes a markup equal to your utilization rate. For example, if your utilization is 30% and your cost per impression is $0.50, this cell will populate as 30% of $0.50 ($0.15)plus$0.50 for a total of $0.65.This cell is used for calculating the price matrix.
These numbers capture what you need to take in to cover your costs (break-even targets) and also provide a high-level target revenue to match your desired profitability.
These are highly idealized values, but they can still be useful as a benchmark to check against. You can do basic back-of-the-envelope calculations about how long a job will take and compare the price to your revenue targets. This could help you know whether to take a job, raise or lower the price of a quote, or subcontract a money-losing job.
"How do I know what to charge as a markup?"You can choose a percentage markup from the drop-down menu. It will calculate the specific dollar amount and display it beneath the drop-down menu. Ultimately, the markup you charge is based on your judgment.
Administration.This is the time and effort expended to get the job into the shop. It could include sales, gathering information, getting approvals, ordering garments, etc. – anything that is required to administer the job and get it on press.
Enter an estimated amount of time (in minutes) to be spent on the job.While you may not have a clear picture of exactly how long it will take to set-up and break-down a job, this is a great way to estimate the the cost of pre-and-post press activity.
Once you’ve entered data, your price matrix will automatically generate in the "Step 3 - Matrix" tab (no need to do anything but enter your data – the spreadsheet updates in real time).
You can modify the quantity that the matrix displays to your liking. Feel free to change the green quantity values to anything you like. It may be helpful to use dozens, but for a very accurate picture you can replace dozens with single garments.
But we think this can give you a boost. With this tool, you can start to examine the relationship that pricing has in relation to your shop"s productivity, your shop"s costs, and your revenue goals.
We will continue to update and improve this tool as time goes on. We really want your feedback, so don"t hesitate to let us know what you think! We owe thanks to Andrea Harmon from Idaho Shirt Stack for her corrections and feedback – and we want yours!
With thousands of SKUs, products, decoration methods and variables to control, it"s no wonder that pricing is the single most common question in the garment decoration industry.
Want to start pricing your jobs correctly? Develop one pricing calculator based on your best guesses, then compare it to jobs you"ve already done. Are you close to your target, or way off base?
Once you"ve implemented a price matrix, keep checking up on it. Are you still profitable? Are your customers still happy? Revise your prices quarterly!
It"s easier to get specific when we know the details – this is a general guide for what to consider before making your price matrices, not a plug-and-chug equation you can jot down and use later.
About the co-author:Steven Farag is co-owner of Campus Ink in Champaign, IL. He regularly writes for Printavo and works closely with us to offer feedback, advice, and guidance for how to make Printavo even better. Steven"s focus on improving processes and workflow – as well as a relentless pursuit of new productivity-boosting tools and automations – has made Steven a leader among the newest generation of print shop owners.
Unless you’re only screen printing for fun, you need to know how much you should sell your shirts to make a profit. The best way to know for sure how much you should sell your shirts to make a profit is to use a profit calculator. Following a calculator is helpful, but how does it translate to the real world? Here’s a crash course in pricing shirts as well as some pricing advice from real-life shops.
Before you even think about processing the cost of a specific job, your first step should always be to find out how much money per month you spend on simply having a business. That includes rent, electricity, internet/phone bills, insurance, equipment cost, and the amount of money you want to pay yourself as a business owner.
Find out what the total monthly cost of these expenses is, divide that by the average number of items you print each month, and you have the amount you have to charge per item to cover overhead for that month. This will help you figure out what you need to remain sustainable.
Alright, so you know what the overhead cost of your shop is per month and how that translates to each shirt printed. Now it’s time to calculate the total labor cost per shirt. This formula varies from shop to shop. Add up the number of hours it takes you to print a job. This includes pre-production, printing, cleanup, and anything else you do for a job.
You’ve calculated the overhead and amount of hours spent on a job. What about your time? It’s valuable, and you want to make sure you’re staying in the green, as well as paying any employees you may have. Here’s a formula to help you out:
Once you know how much it will cost to print the items, you have to calculate the cost of the materials that go into the printing itself. Here’s how to find it:
There’s one more step: calculating the price per item in a job. To do this, add the overhead, labor cost per item, and the cost of materials per item used on that job. You’ll end up with the total cost per item for that job.
Let’s put all of these formulas into perspective. Heather Mueller, owner of Loyal to the Press, a print shop in Vancouver, Washington, prices her shirts based on garment quality, color availability, print and placement, and whether or not a shirt needs an underbase or additive.
For a 50-piece, one-color order, their base cost is $6.64 per shirt plus the cost of the garment. Other variables include the garment, if the artwork needs to be re-worked in any way, and setup fees and ink charges.
Maher Hachem, or Munch, the printer behind Love Yourself Clothing, takes a few factors into consideration when pricing shirts. He starts by calculating the cost of overhead and labor and then does some comparison shopping. He checks out similar brands and messages friends to see how much they would be willing to pay for the shirt.
To find the cost of the shirt, he combines the cost of t-shirts, his per-print charge — usually about $5 per print — and increases that number by a few dollars if he’s using a specialty ink. Other factors include burning the screens, adding a fixed percentage on the invoice that can cover any damaged pieces during production, and the cost of making samples for each piece.
For a 50-piece, one-color job, Maher charges the wholesale cost of the blanks, adding 15% on top of the wholesale to cover any damaged goods during production. He charges about $5 per print on each shirt depending on color and then charges $35 per screen being burned (this covers the screen, transparency, & labor of making the screen). Other variables that would affect this could be the turnaround time for the project and any specialty ink used.
The point of a business is to make a profit, right? Depending on the situation, most businesses want to aim for 20% to 45% profit. In some shops, the set-up simply won’t allow for a 45% margin due to high production time, material costs, or overly competitive local pricing.
Check with local shops in your area to see what they’re doing. If you simply can’t keep up with your competition"s pricing, consider specializing in something they don’t offer. Here’s a formula to calculate the profit you’ll make:
When running any small business, pricing can be a worry. What if customers don’t agree with the prices? What if the price is too low, and you don’t make any money? While staying competitive is important, it’s also important to know that you are offering a service that takes time, energy, and money to provide. You deserve to be paid fairly for it.
Loyal to the Press advises printers not to worry too much about whether their pricing has hit the sweet spot. Instead, focus on gaining quality clients who appreciate the work you do.
“We find that if a client is ready to move forward with their print then the pricing won"t be an issue. With each quote, we do let our potential clients know that we are a custom hand screen printing shop, meaning each piece we print is hand created with care, which takes time,” Heather said. “They"re either ready to pull the trigger or they aren"t.”
Offering discounts can be a great way to get recurring customers or to get large accounts to pull the trigger if you do it right. Don’t go overboard with these, though. The goal is still to be in the green at the end of the job.
Flash sales encourage customers to buy products they might not normally purchase. These sales usually are quick and don’t have a lot of build-up surrounding them. They’re generally geared to people who are paying attention to the shop or brand and hop on it immediately.
Think about Amazon’s Prime Day. How likely are you to at least peruse the flash deals they offer? While it isn’t guaranteed they’ll have what you want on sale, you might buy something you normally wouldn’t just because it’s on sale. Offering these sorts of quick deals to customers who are tuned in to your shop may have the reward you’re looking for.
If you run a clothing brand, pricing can look a little different. Because everything in the brand is your creation, it has intrinsic value. You created the logo, the designs, and the feel of the brand from scratch. Because of this, you can charge a little more for your work.
Here’s an example: Converse shoes. There are a ton of knockoffs on the market that mimic the real thing pretty well, but nothing is quite like the real deal. Because of this, Converse shoes are more expensive. You’re paying for the brand and everything it stands for, not just a shoe with a rubber toe.
Love Yourself Clothing is a company focused on promoting mental health awareness through apparel. Munch, the creator of the brand, breaks down pricing completely differently than with client work.
“For Love Yourself, we do everything made to order so we don"t sit on any inventory. Once a week I place a wholesale order and begin production once the blank shipment arrives. For clients, we take their shirt quantity, design, and turnaround and give them an invoice based on that. Naturally, this causes a difference in payout since our model is based on drop shipping and the clients are based on having inventory.”
So you’re printing your own apparel brand. How much should you charge? Shop around to see how much other clothing brands are charging for custom-printed shirts. This can help you gauge what other brands are doing, and how to price your own shirts to be competitive.
Heather of Loyal to the Press used to print for an apparel brand. The prices of the brand shirts ranged based on the difficulty of the print, just like client work does.
No matter what you decide to charge, make sure it makes sense for your customer base and your shop. Make it something you’re passionate about and don’t be afraid to charge what it’s worth.
There’s a lot to think about when it comes to pricing. It’s not just about getting the best bang for your buck. Stay competitive, but stay true to the profit margins you want to receive and the value that you place on your craft.
The pricing breakdowns listed above represent our most common order sizes. We are happy to work with you on orders of more than 1500 shirts. Just ask us for custom pricing on larger orders!
We actually get asked all the time what factors influence the prices of our screen printing service. We know money doesn’t grow on trees and, depending on what your shirts will be used for, sometimes you may be wondering what may help cut the cost of your order.
Well, rather than repeating ourselves (which we don’t mind – we love talking to our clients), we decided to write a guide that will decipher the complex science behind how screen printing companies come up with that crazy figure on the bottom of an estimate. We’re just kidding – it’s not that complex – in fact, it’s really simple once you know what you’re looking for.
Each silk screening company has their own way of breaking down their pricing but there are certain factors that every screen printer takes into consideration when pricing a job.
White shirts will be your cheapest option when it comes to shirt color. The darker the shirt gets, the more expensive it gets. So, a black shirt will usually be at the top end of the pricing scale. Most other shirt colors will fall somewhere in between white and black when determining price, however, some darker colors like red or dark blue will be priced at the same level as a black shirt.
While we don’t want to bore you by detailing the entire process, the main thing to take away is each color is independent of each other and printed onto the shirt separately, which translates to the printer having to utilize more materials and labor.
This is the reason why DTG (Direct To Garmet) printers are becoming very popular in the industry, but there are still drawbacks to using a DTG printer.
Not all products are created equally and it’s the job of the company you’re working with to understand what you’re looking to accomplish and give you the best product that will achieve your goals.
Clients who are using shirts as a promotional tool may opt to go with a lighter weight (5 oz vs 6 oz) shirt. By going with a lighter weight shirt, their job may not cost as much but they still have a great product to promote their business.
The “style” of your shirt will also play a factor into pricing. Standard “T-Shirts” will usually be your most economical choice, however, we know a lot of times that will not fulfill what you’re looking for. Styles like tank tops, V-Neck shirts, scoop neck, etc will usually cost a little more.
Check out this video from the Wall Street Journal which highlights the difficulties in searching for the perfect t-shirt or you can read more about it here.
Similar to the concepts of Sam’s Club and Costco, the more garments you order (at one time), the better ‘price per shirt’ cost you will get. Each company has their own set of “minimums” they require from their clients.
We do shirts for a lot of youth sports teams and organizations and buyers are constantly surprised that the cost of youth apparel is typically more than adult sizes, especially with shirts. Most people think “youth sizes are less fabric and therefore should be cheaper.” While that seems logical, believe it or not, youth shirts are generally more expensive than adult sizes.
On the other end of the spectrum, sizes such as 2X-Large and above are referred to as “extended sizes”. Extended sizes, depending on what type of garment you’re getting, will cost you a little more per piece.
The most economical shirts you’ll get will usually be cotton – either 100% cotton or a blend of cotton and another fabric. These are also the most popular items to get screen printed.
Normally, the standard print areas for shirts include the center front of the shirt (including a “pocket” print which is on the left chest) and the center of the back part of the shirt.
Some companies consider printing on a sleeve to be special placement so it’s best to check with whoever you’re working with and find out. We consider sleeve prints as a standard print placement with no extra charges to the customer.
Some clients are looking to print on other parts of the shirt, for example, right under the neckline, on the side of the body, etc. Most companies will charge a little extra, per piece, to print in these locations because it takes a little more time to print. A company may claim they do not charge for ‘specialty print locations’ but they’re just adding this fee to another part of your order.
Specialty inks, such as shimmers, glitter, etc. will add some costs to your order. Also things like rhinestones or other similar materials will cost more than your standard inks.
Most times, people have a pretty good idea of what they want and will even have artwork they found on the internet or something done by a graphic artist.
Okay, you’re excited because you’ve found something online and want put that on a shirt. We promise not to get too technical on you but there is a motto screen printers follow called “GIGO” (Garbage In Garbage Out). If you’ve pulled something from online, it is most likely going to be “low resolution”. Simply put, it means the resolution is too low for us to effectively print it on a shirt. If we “enlarge” your picture, design, etc. to make it big enough to print on a shirt, the design will become ‘grainy’ during the enlarging process.
Can we put it on a shirt? Sure, but short of enhancing it through software, it most likely won’t come out as crisp and clear as you ‘d like. The graphic may appear “fuzzy” and there’s a good chance you won’t be happy. It’s very easy to put a low resolution image onto a shirt on a computer screen and email it to you as a proof. Sure, the shirt will look flawless on your computer screen but don’t expect the same quality on the finished product.
The good news is there are things we can do to help make your design better but keep in mind if you start with a small, low resolution graphic that it will never be that same quality on a shirt.
While graphic artists wear many hats and are proficient at many things, unless they specifically know the inner workings of how screen printing works, they may not know all the fine details that will make your design pop on a shirt.
Sure, the more you can give us and the less time we have to spend to get your files print ready will definitely minimize the time (and associated fees) necessary to get your files print ready. However, if your artwork file is not print-ready for garment printing, then you should keep in mind that the printing company will need to spend some time to prepare your files so they are print-ready, which will add to your costs.
When a company talks about “screen set up fees,” they are referring to the process it takes to get the actual screen ready so they can put that on the press to make your shirts. While not getting into too much detail on what the entire set up process entails, they basically need to:
Remember, as stated above, screen printing requires each color to be separated so if you have a 5 color design, then the company will need to make 5 screens (1 screen per color). It takes materials, labor and time to complete the entire process which is why companies charge customers for this.
Some companies will advertise “No Screen Set Up Fees”. That’s fine and dandy but 9 times out of 10 they’re making it back somewhere else. The only time you’ll avoid these fees outright is if you order a large quantity (bulk order), which will vary from company to company.
We hope this helps explain some of the factors companies use to determine how much your job will cost. If you have any comments or questions about our screen printing services, please drop us a line.
Prices listed are per print location. If you have two, let’s say front and back, then it is an additional print location. Using the above example, $6.00 + $2.00 front + $2.00 Back = $10.00 per shirt.
There’s an abundance of retail product display options for today’s store owners. Knowing what they are and when to use each type can impact your retail sales revenue.
In this article, we’ll take a look at what retail product displays are, how to display products in your store, and the most popular types of product displays.
The look of retail product displays relies heavily on your visual merchandising strategy. Generally, the first interaction customers have with your products in-store is via your displays.
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, retail product displays are a must. You or your visual merchandiser can arrange displays to showcase your products and increase sales.
It’s also a visual merchandiser’s responsibility to manage and maintain your retail product displays over time. Fixtures may break or become worn down.
Use Shopify’s analytics and reporting to make the right merchandising decisions at each of your store locations. Spot seasonal trends, see which products require promotion, measure your display"s impact on product sales, and more.
There’s an endless list of ways you can display products in your store. It depends on what types of products you have, who your customers are, and how creative you want to get.
Strategic placement of each retail product display can impact your sales. It’s key to keep your visual merchandising strategy in mind when choosing how to display your products.
Think outside the box.Creative signage like “Insta worthy” wall art can get the attention of your shoppers. It can encourage people to engage with your products (and share a picture on their Instagram feed).
Use cross merchandising.You can merchandise by color, product type, or theme. Cross merchandising complementary products on the same retail display is one way to use secondary product placement to increase sales.
Location, location, location.You can place displays that house new products and bestsellers in high-traffic areas. Smaller, impulse buy or add-on items can get displayed near the checkout counter.
Change displays on a weekly basis.Changing retail product displays on a regular basis keeps your retail store looking fresh. It can also help your regular customers discover new products with each visit.
Add decorations. Go above and beyond to improve the shopping experience by adding decorative items that suit your customer’s lifestyle. For example, if you sell yoga clothing and mats, add plants, candles, and lighting on or near your displays to set the mood.
Maintain your retail displays. It’s important to always keep retail product displays clean, spaced, and organized so customers can easily find (and buy) products without feeling overwhelmed.
Every retailer’s visual merchandising strategy is different. Take a look at other stores to see how they set up their displays. We don’t suggest copying directly, but pulling different elements from displays you like is a great way to get started.
Retail product displays can be broken down into three categories: standalone and point of purchase (POP) displays, store shelving displays, and clothing and furniture displays.
Trying to decide which layout is right for your store? Download these free templates to learn which types of layouts work best for different industries and draw inspiration for your own design.
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Clothing and furniture can be displayed using standalone POP displays and store shelving, but there are also retail product displays that are perfect for these types of products. Creating product displays for apparel and furniture is distinctly different from grocery store merchandising.
Racks are a good way to display clothing. They come in several configurations, including circular, multi-level, and with shelves. Garment racks also come in a range of materials like metal, wood, and plastic.
You can create a clothing display that showcases items grouped to create an outfit along with accessories. Or display home products that can be purchased together to complete a set.
Use mannequins to give shoppers a visual presentation of your products and how they go together. This is a great opportunity to promote add-on purchases and impulse buys.
Make a lasting impression by immersing your customers in the environment or experience where they’d use your products. The example above of an apartment setting is simple and cozy.
Both examples are simple, but follow a unifying theme that makes the overall effect powerful and persuasive. Immersive product displays pull people in and help them visualize using the products.
You don’t need to build something extravagant. Use themes and simple fixtures to display products and personalize the customer experience. Tell a story your customers relate to and they’ll be compelled to stop and take a look.
For example, a furniture store may have various material options for the same sofa. Shoppers can test the product by sitting on it, and alternative fabric swatches can be placed nearby for people to touch and feel.
A point-of-purchase display (POP) is an in-store display that is used to attract customers to a special offer or particular brand in your store. In some cases, the displays are made of cardboard and printed with advertisements. It’s more common to see printed POP displays in grocery or box stores.
Unlike wall shelving, a more permanent retail display fixture. You can change POP displays completely—from the display itself to the merchandise it holds.
Standalone displays are a type of POP display that stand independently of common aisle shelves. These displays are usually seen in the middle of large store aisles, also known as “action alleys.”
You can use standalone displays anywhere there is open space. They play a vital role in your visual merchandising strategy and require thoughtful design to make an impact.
Dump bins are stocked with small impulse buy items. Consider using bins when you need to show a lot of low-price merchandise quickly. Bins can be accessed from all sides and are easy to move throughout the store.
Freestanding displays are also simple to set up and can be made of cardboard or other materials. They are usually filled with larger items than dump bins and are more organized.
With a freestanding display, you can showcase products on hooks or shelves. They’re accessible from all sides and give you the opportunity to cross merchandise similar items.
Display cases are usually encased on all sides in glass, plastic, or Plexiglas. They are standalone displays, sometimes accessible from one side, sometimes from all around.
Customers usually can only access products in the case with the help of a store employee. These cases are used to securely display high-end merchandise.
You can also use these cases to entice shoppers with a beautiful product display and then store the products for purchase on a shelf or in a separate storage case nearby.
Window displays are found in the front window of a brick-and-mortar store. This is a way to make a first impression with your shoppers. Make sure your display showcases your store’s merchandise in a visually appealing way to draw customers in.
They can be used at your checkout counter to encourage customers to buy impulsively. Or you can place countertop displays throughout your boutique on tables or shelves to showcase small products and add-on accessories.
Retail shelving is fixed and sturdy and can display a variety of different goods. Shelving is the core of many grocery and big-box stores. However, they are also a great option for boutiques of all sizes.
Shelving helps to direct the flow of traffic and display items in an orderly fashion. It can be single-sided and placed along walls or double-sided to create aisles.
Think of these displays as little islands of merchandise in the sea of your store. They are freestanding and accessible from all sides. In some cases, they rotate.
A shelf stopper is signage that highlights an item on a retail shelf. The signage sticks out perpendicular to the shelves and gives the item increased brand recognition and stopping power.
A small pop-up display is called a sidekick or power wing. Like freestanding displays, they are an effective merchandising tool to increase basket size.
These displays set products apart from other items on the same shelf. You can use additional branding, trays, or other items that break the visual monotony of shelves.
The shelving on end caps is sturdy so that you can display heavier merchandise on them. Use them to highlight specials or new inventory and cross merchandise complementary products.
A glorifier is a small glass or plastic box that stands out from a standard shelf and highlights an item. This is a unique and non-traditional way to showcase your products.
For example, if you’re selling perfume, you can use a glorifier to make each scent stand out from the shelf. Think of it as a podium for your products.
Developing your visual merchandising and retail product display strategy takes time, creativity, and testing. The results can mean the difference between great sell-through rates and dead stock that you need to markdown.
Deciding which retail displays are best for your boutique gives you a chance to roll up your sleeves and have fun. Use retail product displays to tell a story and help your customer discover new items.
Whether you use garment racks, display tables, or shelving, the return on investment makes spending time and money on retail product displays a no-brainer.
The effectiveness of retail product displays is not dependent on how flashy they are. Keep it simple. As long as you keep your visual merchandising strategy and your customers in mind, the right product displays can increase sales.
Use Shopify’s analytics and reporting to make the right merchandising decisions at each of your store locations. Spot seasonal trends, see which products require promotion, measure your promotions’ impact on product sales, and more.
A retail display is a physical structure or space used to promote and sell merchandise in a retail environment. Retail displays can be found in both physical stores and digital stores. They are typically used to showcase products in an appealing way, to attract customers and encourage them to make a purchase.
Product display is the way in which a product is presented to potential customers. This can include factors such as packaging, color schemes, and labeling.
From t-shirts to posters, backpacks to books, you can put your own original spin on everyday products and sell them online. However, if you go the traditional route of buying and holding your own inventory, you may be left with a pile of products that aren’t selling.
Print-on-demand services offer an easier way to bypass the time, investment, and risk associated with managing inventory, helping you create custom products at a fraction of the cost than manufacturing them on your own.
This guide will give you an overview of the print-on-demand world, with tips on how to start your print on demand business as well as how to most effectively start selling custom products.
A print on demand business is where where you work with a supplier of white-label products (like baseball hats or tote bags) to customize those products and sell them on a per-order basis under your own brand and with your own designs.
With print on demand, you don’t pay for the cost of the product until afteryou’ve actually sold it, so there’s no need to buy in bulk or hold any inventory yourself. As such, it continues to become a popular business model in the world of ecommerce.
A major additional benefit of print on demand is. that once you’ve set everything up, it takes only a few clicks to fulfill an order after you’ve made a sale.
The print on-demand industry shows no signs of slowing down. There’s ongoing demand for unique products and personalization options for today’s consumers. Print-on-demand services allows any size business to provide customized products at a fair price.
Monetize an audience you’ve built(print on demand is a great option if you’re a YouTuber or cartoonist who wants to spend your time creating instead of fulfilling orders)
Test ad creative: Because you don"t pay for cost of goods up front with print on demand, you can run ads to see which designs and items are most well received. If you get a sizable amount of orders, you can double down on the creative and increase your ad spend!
Print on demand can be used to build a business based on the dropshipping model—where the products and shipping are all handled by a third party. It’s one of the most accessible ways to source products or start an online business, but you should know the perks and limitations before you dive in.
Shipping orders is taken care of.Shipping and fulfilment is out of your hands and into your supplier’s. After the sale, you’re just responsible for customer service.
Less control over shipping. Shipping costs can get complicated, as it might vary for different print-on-demand products. Your options are also limited if you want to create a standout unboxing experience.
Limited products.Your ability to customize products depends on the vendor and the product. Depending on which print on demand companies you want to work with, you’ll have to weigh base costs, customization options, and available sizes when deciding which vendor to choose.
While many print-on-demand services might seem relatively similar at first glance, you’ll have to carefully consider the ones you choose based on the products you want to create, where you’ll be shipping them, and the retail prices you want to offer, among other factors. As print on demand has grown in popularity, so has the amount of print on demand companies in the market.
For example, a low base cost for one product might make it an obvious choice, until you realize that it would take 21 business days to reach customers with your most affordable shipping option.
It"s incredibly important to exercise due diligence when evaluating print on demand companies. Google and other review sites are your friend. Choosing one of the wrong print on demand companies can set you back financially, and even hurt the growth of your brand.
To help you out, we put together a quick overview of some of the most print on demand sites that cover a variety of scenarios. All of these services are free to set up (you only pay when you order a product), plus they integrate with your Shopify store.
Printful is a popular choice among print-on-demand sites because of its wide selection of high-quality products and brands (Gildan, American Apparel, etc.), easy-to-use mockup generators, and options for adding your own branding to the unboxing experience.
Direct to Garment prints directly onto clothing—especially good for simpler designs (i.e., witty t-shirts). You can only print on certain areas of the product as a result.
Cut and Sewissometimes known as “all-over print.” The article of clothing is cut, printed on, and then put back together for a seamless print across the entire piece. While the base costs may be higher, this lets you create a more premium product that could sell for more. This is not to be confused with “sublimation printing,” which is a less accurate but more economical method of achieving an all-over print.
Embroidery is perhaps the most complex printing technique because the final product is actually a threaded design with a 3D effect. This is best for simple designs that involve only a handful of colors, and for products like hats.
I use Printful [for my online store]. They’re amazing because you don’t have to put a lot of money into it upfront. I get an order in the store, they will print my design on a shirt and they’ll ship it out. I’d go insane if I had to ship everything myself.
You should also be mindful of how additional customizations affect the price. Printing on the sleeve or inside label, for example, will usually mean paying a nominal fee on top of base cost.
Lulu is a self-publishing platform for printing and distributing your own books and ebooks, offering many of the tools you’d need. It"s one of the most popular print on demand companies.
Lulu Direct is its print-on-demand offering and lets you choose from a wide selection of book sizes, binding types, and page/print quality to build your own book product.
While there is no built-in editor to design your book, Lulu Xpress does offer downloadable templates to get you started. It even has a transparent pricing calculator to help you cost out your project, including various shipping options.
However, since Gooten uses an international network of vendors and dropshippers to print its products, there’s also a lot more variance between its items in terms of print quality and shipping. But that also means you’re likely to see lower product and shipping prices as well.
Printify is another print-on-demand service that features the usual selection of t-shirts and hoodies. What’s notable about Printify is it also offers an international vendor network that enables a number of unique white-label products you’re not likely to find elsewhere, such as jewelry, clocks, shoes, and water bottles. In fact, the platform boasts over 200 products you can print on.
While Printify is free to use, a premium subscription is available that gives you 20% off of all products for $29 a month, which is a solid option if you’re looking to scale up later and improve your profit margins.
Design plays a crucial role in creating successful print-on-demand products. But you don’t need to be a full-time designer to source original designs. In fact, recent surveys show that nearly 32% of shop owners outsource designs for their stores.
There are many ways to commission or produce your own designs, as long as you understand a few key concepts that will help you work effectively with designers.
First, and most important, is preparing your design file. When working with designers, you should specify that your design is for printing. This implies that it should be saved at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi). The dimensions of the images you upload should be the same size as the printing area for the product.
Note that print specifications will change depending on the printing technique used. When in doubt, just send the designer the print specs for the specific product so they understand the context.
In most cases, the file you upload will be a PNG or PSD. Keep in mind that if you use a transparent background, the color of the t-shirt will be your background color.
In the best case scenario, you’re a designer or know one you can work well with. But don’t be discouraged if you don’t have access to design skills. That’s what outsourcing is for.
You can find designers to work with on Behance or 99designs who can produce usable designs as long as you provide clear instructions. Here’s how you can add clarity and context for a design project:
Clearly explain what you want. Use your initial pitch and subsequent revisions (you should get at least one or two) to over-communicate what you’re looking for, and try to provide concrete feedback every step of the way.
There are lots of talented designers, so you should be able to find someone to bring your idea to life. The really tricky part is figuring out what you want to design in the first place.
You can look for content, messaging, or styles that already resonate with your target audience to brainstorm ideas worth pursuing. Just be sure you’re not infringing on anyone else’s work.
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Using a print-on-demand service might be easier than managing your own inventory, but there are some considerations unique to this approach that you should be aware of. Luckily, for most of these challenges you’ll face, there are creative solutions.
You want to ensure your physical product looks and feels as you intended, and the best way to do that is to be your own customer, so you can experience first-hand what it’s like to receive your products. Some services, like Printful, even offer a sample discount of up to 20% off or free shipping, so be sure to take advantage of that if it’s available.
Even when you’re not shipping products yourself, shipping still offers some complexity in the form of shipping times and costs, and how to set the right expectations with customers. The best print on demand companies will be transparent about shipping and be proactive about sharing information on any potential delays.
You’ll want to be sure that you’re accounting for printing times when it comes to shipping. Whatever the shipping times are, be sure to add anywhere from two to four days for production, or more depending on the product.
Always be upfront about shipping times or you’ll wind up with a support inbox full of shipping questions. Outline what to expect on your FAQ page or consider creating a separate Shipping page to explain shipping to customers.
If you can, try to partially or fully absorb your shipping costs into your retail price. Year after year, studies show that surprise shipping costs added at checkout can deter customers from buying. On top of that, free shipping bolsters a number of your other marketing efforts:
Free shipping is still a great sales sweetener, even if you can only offer it for specific regions, and provides customers with one more incentive to buy.
Conditional free shipping (e.g., “Get free shipping when you spend $30 or more”) encourages customers to add more to their cart to reach the threshold and usually helps you achieve a better total shipping rate by shipping everything together.
You can use free shipping to justify longer wait times. Many consumers will wait a bit longer for an order if they know it will save them money on shipping.
While models can help you snap compelling photos of your products, mockups are also an effective alternative and will be a prominent part of your product pages.
Many print-on-demand services can help you create your own mockups, showing your products on a person or as a flatlay. But there are other services and plenty of free mockup templates that can also bring your products to life.
These mockups are what will sell your products to customers, so it can literally pay to go the extra mile. PlaceIt is an easy-to-use mockup generator that lets you create photo and video mockups for $8 each. Or, if you know the basics of Photoshop or other photo editing tools, you can browse Mockup World or Behance for templates.
Since your margins will be a bit thinner with print-on-demand products, you’ll want to be strategic about how you position your brand. Having a clearly defined audience (e.g., dog owners) can actually help you lower the costs to acquire customers and maximize your potential profits because your targeting will be much more precise.
If you’re getting into print on demand, you’ll come across different marketplaces to sell your custom designs on. For example, RedBubble and Zazzle offer POD services when you create a store on their platforms. People also sell custom products through Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.
These marketplaces do come with some benefits: Amazon alone has 300 million active customer accounts worldwide, putting more eyeballs on your products. Etsy has over 80 million active buyers. Zazzle has a good reputation, listing hundreds of millions of products since its founding in 2005.
Marketplaces give shoppers choice and an easy way to find products. But what they don’t do is provide a shopping experience that you control. This gives you a unique startup opportunity.
When you build a branded storefront on top of an ecommerce platform like Shopify, you can control the experience: how your store looks and feels, how people interact with you, how they discover your brand. It also offers integrations with top POD services so everything happens from one dashboard. Not to mention the lower fees you’ll pay from owning your own store.
Shoppers who aren’t loyal to brands like Etsy or Amazon may enjoy getting to know your brand and browsing your site. Your email list, remarketing ads, and social media profiles make it easier to stay connected with them and build a relationship that extends beyond the marketplace. Having your own website can be incredibly helpful in establishing your brand further as well.
Print-on-demand services offer an accessible place to begin for new entrepreneurs or for anyone who just wants to test an idea before they invest in it. There are thousands of white label products out there that you can make your own, and no shortage of possible designs to pair with them.
If your business idea pans out and you start generating a meaningful number of sales, you can always graduate from print on demand to holding your own inventory, or continue to use these services while finding new ways to grow your audience.
If you’re planning to start a print on demand business, begin by choosing a niche and the products you want to sell. Then get your designs and website ready. After that, look for a print on demand service and add the products to your store so you can start to sell products. Once you start marketing your website, you’ll begin to receive orders, and your print provider will take care of the fulfilment. Get started!
How much you make with your print-on-demand business depends on the target market, their needs, product demand, and seasonality. When determining how much you can earn, you’ll have to consider the sale price, fees for your print provider, and volume of orders. Print on demand helps you sell products for relatively low risk.
There are a number of products you can sell with print on demand. Some of the popular print on demand products include \ t-shirts, caps, mugs, wall prints and posters, drawstring and cloth bags, hoodies, towels, phone covers, notebooks, cushion covers, sweatshirts, and leggings. You can technically do print on demand for free, but will likely need to spend some money on marketing and ads to start seeing results. Get started for free!
Your print on demand product prices will depend largely on how well you market your brand. When pricing your products, look at what the market is charging as a baseline. You can charge higher prices for print on demand products with customizations. Otherwise, you can price the products similarly to your competitors as a safer bet if you want to cover a larger target market and make a profit.
Ordering custom shirts first starts with selecting your preferred garment or product. The next step is then creating your custom design or requesting a quick quote. Once you create your design and your garment has been selected, you can decide where you want the design to live on your t-shirt, sweatshirt or other types of apparel.
With UGP, it"s easy to order your custom shirts online using our custom Design Studio, or you can visit one of our store locations to place an order in person. You can get started on your order with our easy-to-use Design Studio.
You can pay for your order online at the time your order is placed via credit card or PayPal. We also accept business or personal checks, but cannot begin the order process until the check is received. If paying by check, ple