WARNING! Your Etsy account has been SUSPENDED for
violating our terms of service! YEP... I am sure that that is pretty much the number one nightmare
of most print on demand store owners on Etsy. And I'll be honest, YouTubers myself included, do
not talk about this stuff enough. Because it's true! If you use print on demand platforms the
wrong way, it can kill your store and even get it banned! Which is exactly why I don't use the
cheapest printing providers, even though it means that I might earn less money per sale. So here's
the thing, if you have a print on demand store or stores on their own website, such as a Shopify
store, like me then bad reviews don't matter as much. However, if you also sell on third-party
marketplaces like eBay or Etsy, like me, then bad reviews matter a lot, because third-party
marketplaces like eBay and Etsy can and do suspend stores which have too many bad reviews and a low
customer satisfaction score. And on the flip side, these marketplaces reward stores which have
great reviews and very high customer satisfaction scores, so it is crucial that you try and keep
each customer you have as happy as possible. And I'll be honest with you, the fastest way to having
an unhappy customer is to send them a bad product. And some print on demand providers are just not
as good as others at consistently creating high quality products. So for example in this video
here I reviewed three different t-shirt printing providers that are available on Printify. One of
them was Monster Digital who are currently selling the Bella Canvas 3001 t-shirt for $9.13 and
another was Swiftpod, a cheaper print on demand shop who is selling them for just $8.32. Now you
might be thinking well Monster Digital they cost 10% more, that's a big difference, right? Well,
so is the difference in their print quality. In this video I compared two different t-shirt prints
side by side. Monster Digital was easily the best print. And so for me I don't let price be the
deciding factor between which print provider I use. Instead I let quality be the deciding factor.
And if the best provider happens to cost an extra 10% it is worth paying that to avoid negative
reviews. Plus it also makes me money in the long run because happy customers have a funny habit
of turning into repeat customers! And there's something else that can get you banned very
fast and that is if you sell unique products. So I don't want to throw shade but there are
lots of YouTube videos out there saying that you shouldn't sell t-shirts because it's too hard
and it's too competitive, and you should instead sell lower competition unique products. However,
something which just doesn't get talked about enough is that those unique products can also be
very risky! And to explain why, let me show you something. So this here is the Bella Canvas 3001.
It is the most popular print on demand t-shirt on Etsy. As you can see there are lots of different
print providers out there that sell this t-shirt. Well then, let's say that you had chosen to use my
favorite print provider Monster Digital to create your t-shirts, but due to supply issues out of
their control Monster Digital ran out of large sized t-shirts. Well that would be absolutely fine
because you could just switch to a different print provider temporarily to get the customer their
t-shirt, or you could even switch to the more expensive but very high quality Printful to
fulfill them for you. Now then let's compare this to a very different item, the print on demand
hockey puck! So perhaps you'd come to Etsy and you saw that there were already thousands of different
cat t-shirts out there and you thought it would be too hard to create a t-shirt and stand up in this
niche and so you decided to instead check to see if there were any cat themed hockey pucks. And you
found that they were basically none, and figured that well I should sell this because there's no
competitors! And so you went and created your cat hockey puck and you add it into Etsy and then
it actually started selling! Amazing right? But then a supply chain issue happens and the print
provider MIA runs out of hockey pucks. Well, you have no other suppliers here on Printify
that offer this ,and other print providers such as Printful certainly don't! And so now with no
other option you have to refund your customers. But for many customers that isn't enough, they
are angry that you sold them something that you couldn't fulfill, and you wasted their time. So
now they leave you a negative review, putting your store at risk! Now look, I'm not saying that you
shouldn't sell hockey pucks because it's true that if you sell a popular common item like a t-shirt
there are lots of other great t-shirts out there, and so you do have to put a lot more effort in
and do more niche research to create a design that stands out. However, you're also rewarded for
that extra effort by building a stable business which has a stable supply chain. So yeah, pros
and cons! And by the way if you'd like to learn what my favorite print on demand items are to
sell, you should be sure to get a free copy of my ebook the six steps that six figure online
stores follow to make over ten thousand dollars a month. You can get a copy of my ebook emailed to
you for free by clicking on the link in the video description below. But, anyway, back to the video.
And on to the next thing that can get you banned: Selling unique product colors! So look I see an
argument for selling unique products which are high risk but high reward. But I do not see any
good argument for selling unique product color variants! So what do I mean by this? Well remember
how this t-shirt here has lots of different print providers selling it well as you can see some
offer this t-shirt in more colors than others take this print shop for Fulfill Engine. They offer
it in lots of colors. In fact they're the only provider offering these shirts in the pebble brown
color. And so let's say that you like this color and you had an idea for a design that matched it.
You might think great I'll use Fulfill Engine for my t-shirts! But the problem is that YouTubers
myself included don't spend enough time talking about the fact that print providers can go out
of stock for specific variants. Case in point you can see that they're currently out of stock
for all of your pebble brown color t-shirts. Well, wouldn't it have sucked if you had advertised this
and made this your most popular color, because now you would have no other print shop that you could
switch to! You'd have angry customers that you were now forced to refund and cancel orders for
risking, again, negative reviews. Which is why I personally only bother selling popular colors that
lots of print providers sell. I mean look how many of them are selling black t-shirts! So I just
don't think that it's worth the stress, but if you disagree with me let me know in the comments.
And there's something else that I never sell, and that is products that run small. Because here's
the thing right, as unfair as it kind of is, there are customers out there that will leave you a
negative review if they choose to buy an item that doesn't fit them. So before I sell any clothing
I will come to the product listing in the print on demand app and check to see if it says that it
is true to size. What this means is that if you'd go into a department store and then usually pick
up a medium sized t-shirt off the rack, then a medium in this t-shirt is likely to be a great fit
for you. Whereas some product listings, especially clothing that's designed for women, will instead
say that it runs small. This means then that if you'd usually pick up a medium-sized t-shirt off
a rack in a department store then a medium in this t-shirt brand would not fit you instead you'd
have to order up you'd have to order a large or maybe even an extra large t-shirt! And so I
just don't worry about the stress and only sell clothing and accessories that runs true to size. I
also make sure to check reviews for base products on websites like Jiffy Shirts and Amazon. So
something else that some customers will also do is they will leave reviews if they dislike the base
product that you're printing on. So if you sell them a t-shirt for example and they don't like the
material they'll leave a negative review. Or if they buy a mug and they don't like how it feels
to hold, well, they'll leave a negative review. And so if a base product is branded I like to go
and check out the reviews for it so for example let's take the Bella Canvas 3001 t-shirt again.
Well what you can do for clothing like this is you can come to Jiffy Shirts and you can look up the
product page for it such as the Bella Canvas 3001 and see what people have to say about it. You'll
see that it has a very high review score and that the majority of people confirm that it does run
true to size, which is great. And you'll also see that people are saying that it's super soft.
You'll also see that a lot of people do find the material to be thin, which is true it is a thinner
t-shirt. Which mostly only matters for the white t-shirt since it can be a bit see-through. So this
might help you decide by reading the reviews that you won't sell white t-shirts and you'll instead
pick another color. So there's a lot that you can learn about from reading reviews like this. And
it's not just clothing that you can check out reviews for, there's lots of non-clothing items
that print providers sell that's also branded. So take for example this magnet that's being sold
by the provider Duplium. They are using a magnet made by a provider called Magnum Magnetics.
Well if we check out the reviews for Magnum Magnetics you'll see that they are very highly
reviewed with people saying that they stick very strongly onto surfaces so chances are customers
will also like this too. And take this mug here which is being sold by Mylocker. They are using
a particular mug that is called the Orca coated mic now these are listed for sale on Amazon. So
you can actually go over to Amazon and read the reviews on there. And generally the reviews show
that people really do like them themselves and most of the negative reviews on here were for
the fact that Amazon shipped it to them poorly. And something else that isn't talked about, is
that it's a good idea to audit print providers before you use them. Now of course YouTubers sort
of do mention this because plenty of YouTubers, myself included, have reviewed different print
on demand companies. But that's not all because something that I just don't see being talked about
is that you can deep dive into a company profile and the company reviews. Because what a lot of
people don't realize is that on Printify the print on demand companies you see here such as my
Mylocker are entirely separate companies that have nothing to do with Printify. So it's a good idea
to audit the company reviews and their company pages. And one place that you can do that is Site
Jabber. If we come to Site Jabber you'll see that Mylocker does not have good company reviews at
all. But, to be fair, you do need to actually read the reviews. For example, this review here
is just a customer complaining that a face mask that they sell uses the material. And well, if
you don't plan to sell face masks with Mylocker, this review is kind of irrelevant. However, this
review here is from someone that ordered a t-shirt with them from Printify and they showed the print
quality with photos, which was not good. And so if you were planning on using Mylocker for t-shirts
then this is an important review to read. Now, to be fair, the people in life that have a
bad experience are always going to be the loudest. And so you shouldn't expect a company
to have perfect reviews. But let's be honest, a one star rating is a pretty big red flag! And
another thing that you can do is you can find the company's address and then look them up on
Google Maps. For example I went to the Mylocker official website and I found that they were based
in Detroit on their hiring page. And so I looked them up on Google Maps and checked out their
reviews. And again you've got to actually read them because a lot of these reviews were left by
employees either talking about having a good or bad experience working for them. But you'll also
see reviews from people here who have actually purchased products from them. and so those reviews
are very helpful to read. And so on to the next thing that you really need to know about but first
a quick word from today's sponsor. Me! Yes, as my subscribers know due to shady YouTube sponsors I
am currently choosing to sponsor my own videos. And I am sponsoring it today to let you know that
if you would like to build a print on demand store but you don't know how, then you should be sure
to check out my print on demand course the Ecomm Clubhouse so that you can build your store
alongside me. If you would like to see if my course is right for you I will have a link to it
in the video description below. But, anyway, back the video. And on to something else that I wish
was talked more about, and that is that Chinese print providers are risky! So I've definitely seen
a lot of YouTube videos recommending that you use print on demand providers based in China. And I
do understand why, because China is the number one country in the world by far for manufacturing
consumer goods. So the truth is if you work with a Chinese print on demand supplier you're going to
have access to a much broader range of goods. Take sneakers on Printify. There are two suppliers that
make sneakers, both are based in China. Which is understandable since that is where most sneakers
are made. The problem though with all of this is Chinese New Year. During Chinese New Year holidays
the whole country basically shuts down for two weeks, plus there's about two weeks either side of
it whether you're a big shipping and manufacturing delays. And so that's about six weeks of the year
that your customers will experience major delays. Now you can warn your customers about this in
advance. But if this video has taught you anything there are plenty of customers out there that will
ignore those warnings and just buy from you anyway and they will still leave you negative reviews!
And so I just choose not to bother with this and instead what I do, is I prioritize products
that are being printed globally around the world. Possibly the most incredible amazing thing to me
is that despite the fact that I live in little New Zealand, the internet is a global place. Anyone
in the world can find my stores and items and buy them. It is amazing, which is why to give my
global customers the best experience possible and to increase the chances that they will leave
me a five-star review, I choose to prioritize products which are produced in multiple different
continents. Because if a product is made on the continent that somebody lives in shipping will
be much faster, rather than having to be flown halfway across the world. So let's say for example
that I was deciding between Printfy's three top selling zip up hoodies. Well I wouldn't choose
to sell this one because no print provider for it is based in North America, which easily has
the biggest customer base of English speakers. And I wouldn't sell this one because even though
it's printed around the world it's not printed by providers with amazing reviews. Instead I would
sell this one. Not only is it printed in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia, but it's also
printed by suppliers that have good reviews and a solid proven history of happy customers.
And so this is easily the one that I would choose. So then, did you learn something new
from my video? If so, please subscribe. And if you'd like to watch my print on demand provider
reviews be sure to watch my video Printful versus Printfy t-shirt review. So go ahead, watch
my next video, and I'll see you over there.
