When Christopher Hamze founded teelaunch, a leading print on demand fulfillment company he was all set for success. From the beginning, Hamze had decided to go against the conventional bulk production and sales models that companies had long known. When he chose to go the print on demand way, the market was not ready for him and he made terrible losses.
Then Hamze launched his company’s Shopify app, also known as teelaunch. Having mastered the ins and outs of the industry, Hamze and the team at teelaunch used the print on demand model to change the face of production.
From starting with just printing custom designs on T-shirts, teelaunch now sells more than 50 other categories of products. By grossing $50 Million in sales in the last four years, teelaunch continues to stay true to its mission – to change what entrepreneurs think about print on demand. Here is how.
Rewriting The History of Print on Demand
When the print on demand model first hit the industry, there was so much negative vibe going round about it. More often than not, customers thought of a print on demand establishment as something other than a serious business venture. Everyone was used to the ‘order in bulk, store in a warehouse’ traditional way of production (and we will tell you why it doesn’t work).
Put simply, printing on demand has had a bad reputation, or in better terms, a rocky history.
This explains why Hamze suffered losses and up to $700,000 in debt during the first two years in the business. After studying the weakness of the traditional model of production, Hamze finally launched the teelaunch Shopify app, a platform that helps customers access print on demand products with ease. teelaunch is now on a mission to rewrite the rocky history that has for years brought entrepreneurs in the print on demand industry to their knees.
Why The ‘Order in Bulk, Store in Warehouse’ Myth Doesn’t Work.
Traditionally, companies leveraged bulk production and sales to reduce the cost per unit. The traditional way of saving money for these companies was spreading the setup costs over a great amount of units produce. While this and other strategies as off-shore production might have saved them money, the process took much longer than it does for print on demand companies. as well as how much they paid on raw materials. While the traditional model might have worked then, it pretty much won’t work today. At least not in the eCommerce industry.
Why?
Because most online shoppers are young to middle-aged people, and they are a choosy generation. As such, it would only be prudent to produce goods on demand. Doing it the traditional way carries the risk of having a dead stock problem, with goods that moved fast the previous month only for their demand to plummet the following month.
In Hamze’s world, production is as easy as receiving a request to have a certain product made to specific features and having it done on the spot, without having to pay upfront for the work. Teelaunch also leverages the print on demand strategy to save the company as well as the clients money. Hamze’s company saves massively since they have absolutely no dead stock. The company doesn’t have to spend any money on transportation of bulk goods to a warehouse, and therefore also spend zero on warehousing.
Why Print on Demand is Good For You.
The most sensible way of understanding why print on demand is good for your business is the fact that it is a low-risk way to sell custom products. If that sounds like something you could use, then print on demand is the business model for you.
Print on demand also allows you to use a single design for many products. Additionally, the model allows you to test ideas quickly without putting money upfront.
Also, since with print on demand is based strictly on customer specifications, you will almost always get it right with quality. As a result, your business ends up with positive reviews and never-ending referrals.
Conclusion
Christopher Hamze’s company is slowly deconstructing the view that print on demand eCommerce stores are simple startups hungry to make some bucks in a bid to move from their basement office or get something to live by. Going by the rate at which Teelaunch is growing it is safe to say that though the transition from conventional to modern production models is just picking up, the future is worth looking forward to.