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Print on demand (POD) looks like a dream business model: no inventory, low startup costs, and endless creative freedom. But here’s the hard truth: Most new sellers stumble into the same mistakes that doom their business.
The good news? Every one of these mistakes is avoidable if you know where to look. In this guide, we’ll break down the most common POD pitfalls, explain why they hurt, and share practical fixes from experienced sellers who’ve been there.
If you’re serious about building a profitable POD store, read on, and you’ll save yourself months of trial and error.
Mistake #1: Sell to everyone
Many new POD stores try to be everything to everyone. That usually starts as a “safe” play: throw lots of designs at a broad market and hope something sticks. But in reality, you are risking on relevancy.
When you don’t define who you’re selling to, your product pages, creatives, and ad targeting all become generic, and shoppers have no reason to pick you over a cheaper, better option.
Selecting a niche will help you sharpen your focus, understand the audience better, and create more relevant designs.
>>> How to fix:
- Find a niche with considerable demand and low competition: Check niche demand with solid numbers, for example, sales volume on ecommerce platforms, search volume on Google, hashtag volume on Instagram or TikTok, and small ad tests to multiple micro-audiences.
- Define your audience: Try to describe your customers in one or two sentences. For example, “Gifts for 25–35 y/o first-time homebuyers who love modern typography and Scandinavian design.” That sentence gives you targeting (age, life stage), occasion (housewarming), and style (typography + Scandi).
With a clear picture, you will know how to create designs and plan your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Mistake #2: Select the wrong supplier
Picking the wrong supplier doesn’t just hurt once. It can set off a chain reaction that eats into profits and damages your reputation. Here are the most common traps sellers fall into when managing suppliers, and how to avoid them.
Poor supplier with long shipping times and low product quality
Choosing low-cost, long-haul suppliers to save pennies up front is a common trap. While the price is competitive, these suppliers, mostly overseas, might come with some critical issues, for example, long shipping, inconsistent print/fabric quality, and a flood of customer service tickets.
It could affect conversion, repeat-buy rates, and customer trust. Even worse, you might face a serious penalty from platforms.
>>> How to fix:
- Match supplier to market: Use regional POD for fast shipping; offshore for non-urgent orders or products. Merchize’s print-on-demand fulfillment services are designed to help you avoid these pitfalls with faster production and reliable quality. With fulfillment locations across the globe (US, UK, Australia, Vietnam, China, EU), Merchize can handle orders with faster shipping times, yet still offer flexibility and diversity with a wide range of products.
- Test end-to-end. Place sample orders to target countries and log actual days, packaging, and watch results.
- Be transparent about delivery windows: Make sure customers are fully informed about the long shipping times if the products are manufactured overseas.
Relying on one supplier or a single fulfillment source
Many POD sellers run their entire store through one fulfillment partner. It feels easier to manage, but it’s risky.
If that supplier has delays, quality issues, or changes shipping policies, your entire business grinds to a halt. It could lead to dozens of canceled orders, angry customers, and a wave of bad reviews that take months to recover from.
>>> How to fix:
Always have at least one backup POD supplier for your best-selling SKUs. Test them in advance with sample orders, so you know their print quality, packaging, and delivery times. That way, if problems hit your main partner, you can switch quickly and keep orders flowing.
Not ordering re-check samples when you change suppliers
A lot of sellers skip ordering new samples when they switch vendors. While the products might look similar at first glance, details and product quality could vary widely from supplier to supplier.
Supplier switch could cause some inconsistency in your product descriptions and images with the actual products that customers received. The impact adds up quickly: higher return rates, negative reviews, and lost repeat buyers.
>>> How to fix:
Always order a new sample whenever you change suppliers. Compare it against your previous version for color, placement, and fabric feel. Yes, it costs a little extra and takes time, but catching issues early saves you from refunds, chargebacks, and brand damage later.
Not ordering bulk or hybrid production when warranted
Many POD sellers stick with print-on-demand fulfillment even after a design takes off. While it works at a small scale, once you’re moving hundreds of units a month, bulk production is the better choice, especially if your products are not personalized.
Bulk production can lower unit costs by 10–30% and significantly reduce the waiting time. It saves you money and improves customer satisfaction and repeat purchase rates.
>>> How to fix:
Shift into bulk or hybrid production when demand justifies it. Negotiate with your supplier for volume pricing, white-label packaging, or a mix of POD + stocked inventory.
For example, if you are selling on Amazon, you can utilize Merchize’s FBA services. With this service, you can order bulk production for Merchize’s products and ship to Amazon’s warehouse, allowing you to cut down shipping time and solve the logistics challenges during the peak season.
This way, you can still test new designs while protecting your margins and shipping speed for proven winners.
Mistake #3: Skip Ordering Sample
Print-on-demand sellers often skip order samples for many reasons: tight budget, eagerness to launch fast, or overconfidence in product quality.
But sellers should be extra careful and not blindly trust the on-screen previews. In reality, print placement, fabric feel, or color accuracy may be way off. And customers, they don’t see the mockup. They see the final product. If it disappoints, they won’t come back. Worst, they might ask for refunds or leave bad reviews.
>>> How to fix:
Always order a sample before launching any product. Test how it looks, feels, and holds up after a wash. Repeat this whenever you change suppliers or product types. That small upfront cost is cheap insurance against bad reviews, unhappy customers, and lost repeat sales.
Mistake #4: Create Poor-fit Design
In print-on-demand, the design is the product. A poor-fit design doesn’t just fail to sell. It confuses your audience, clutters your store, and kills momentum.
Overcomplicating customization/options
It’s tempting to let customers personalize everything — fonts, colors, images, layouts — but too much choice can backfire.
Too many options get shoppers overwhelmed, leading to “choice paralysis” and abandoned carts. Research shows that too many options can reduce sales by up to 30% because customers struggle to make decisions.
On the backend, complicated orders create more room for fulfillment errors and slow down production. It takes extra time spent fixing errors, and suddenly, your margins and customer experience take a hit.
>>> How to fix:
- Limit customization to 2–3 meaningful options that enhance the product but don’t overwhelm the buyer.
- Validate which options people actually want through small tests or by reviewing order data.
- Use input validation (like character limits or font previews) to reduce mistakes. Simple, clear choices make for happier customers and smoother fulfillment.
Poor design quality or a mismatched design voice for the niche
In POD, the design is the product. And a winning design doesn’t have to be an artistic masterpiece. However, it must meet certain criteria:
- Design mustn’t look amateur and low-quality. A poorly-designed artwork can’t stand a chance of getting noticed in a sea of brilliant designs. It is a must to create an artwork that looks decent and appealing to customers.
- Design must match the style of the target niches and fit the taste of the target audience. A survey by Deloitte found that 60% of customers share experiences when a brand “gets them.”
>>> How to fix:
- Invest in design. Hire a skilled designer who understands your niche, or at a minimum, create tight briefs that define style, tone, and audience.
- Validate with small tests before scaling. Good design builds trust, increases perceived value, and fuels organic growth.
- Make the niche specific across three axes: audience + occasion + style
- Audience: demographics, interests, or job/role (e.g., “new nurses,” “vegan dog moms,” “biology grad students”).
- Occasion: when they buy (birthdays, bridal showers, back-to-school, graduation).
- Style/voice: the creative tone that will resonate (funny, minimalist, sentimental, hand-drawn).
Too many SKUs / spreading attention thin across dozens of designs
A common trap in POD is cranking out dozens of designs and hoping one will hit. On the surface, more SKUs seem like more chances to sell, but in reality, it spreads your time, ad budget, and creative energy too thin.
The result is low conversion rates per SKU, messy storefronts, and wasted effort maintaining products that never gain traction. Shopify data suggests that most stores get 80% of their sales from just 20% of products. That means the majority of your catalog may be eating up time and money without pulling its weight.
>>> How to fix:
Start with a small batch of designs, test them with ads or organic traffic, and double down on the winners. Once you have a proven seller, build variants around it with different colors, styles, or slight design tweaks.
Mistake #5: Misprice Products
Your pricing strategy can make or break your store. Many sellers focus so much on making sales that they overlook the hidden costs eating away at their margins.
Underestimating and mispricing costs/margins
One of the most painful mistakes in print on demand is mispricing. It’s easy to get excited when sales start rolling in, but if you haven’t factored in production costs, platform fees, shipping, ad spend, and the occasional refund, you can end up moving a lot of product while actually losing money. A Shopify study found that nearly 40% of new store owners miscalculate their margins in the first year, often realizing too late.
>>> How to fix:
Build a full-cost spreadsheet before you scale. List every expense per order (including hidden ones like payment processing fees), then decide on a minimum margin you won’t dip below. Aim for 30–40% net margin after ads.
This gives you room to absorb discounts, returns, or seasonal ad spikes without killing profitability. In short, price smart before you push volume, or risk growing broke.
Not protecting against chargebacks or fraud
Many POD sellers overlook chargebacks and fraud until it’s too late. A single chargeback doesn’t just cost the order amount. You also lose the product, shipping fees, and often pay a penalty from your payment processor.
>>> How to fix:
A little prevention upfront saves you from a lot of painful losses later, and it also signals to payment processors that your store is low-risk, keeping your fees and account standing safe.
- Always ship with tracking so you have proof of delivery, and make your refund and return policies easy to find (and consistent).
- Use built-in fraud detection tools to flag suspicious orders before they ship. If you’re scaling, consider third-party fraud prevention apps that automatically review high-risk transactions.
Mistake #6: Market Products Poorly
Not testing ad creatives, listings, and offers before scaling
One of the biggest traps POD sellers fall into is scaling too early. Pouring thousands into ads for a design that hasn’t been tested is a fast way to burn cash.
>>> How to fix:
- Test small: Run low-budget campaigns ($20–$50) to A/B test your ad creatives, product listings, and offers. Watch the click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost per purchase. Those numbers tell you if a design has legs.
- Scale winner only: Once you spot a winner, then it’s time to scale with confidence. This method not only protects your ad budget but also helps you double down on proven designs.
Poor mockups / bad product imagery
Shaky mockups, pixelated designs, or generic images instantly lower perceived value. Studies show that over 75% of online shoppers say product photos heavily influence their purchase decision. Bad imagery doesn’t just hurt clicks; it tanks conversions.
>>> How to fix:
- Invest in high-quality mockups and lifestyle images that show your product in real use
- Order samples and take your own photos
- Use user-generated content (UGC) from happy customers
- Seek help from your suppliers for product photography. For example, with Merchize, sellers can order samples and get support from the Merchize team for creating impressive product images and videos for marketing purposes.
Focusing only on creating designs, not on marketing or conversion
A lot of POD sellers fall into the trap of thinking great designs will “sell themselves.” The reality? Even the most creative, niche-perfect artwork won’t move if no one sees it.
Weak listings, poor SEO, or no email follow-up can sink sales, no matter how strong your catalog is. A great design without visibility is basically invisible revenue.
>>> How to fix:
Run small ad tests, optimize listings for keywords, grow an email list, or partner with creators in your niche. Consistent marketing not only drives traffic but also builds a brand people remember, and that’s what keeps sales growing.
Bad listing copy / poor SEO for product pages
Shoppers rely on keywords and clear copy to find and trust your products. According to HubSpot, over 60% of online shopping journeys start with a search engine, so if your listing isn’t optimized, you’re invisible.
Poor copy also hurts conversions. If your description is generic or confusing, customers won’t feel confident enough to click “buy.”
>>> How to fix:
- Write clear, benefit-driven copy that explains why your product is worth it.
- Sprinkle in keywords your audience actually searches for, but keep it natural.
- Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or EtsyRank for inspiration, and always test and refine your listings.
Technical UX / checkout friction (mobile checkout issues)
A clunky checkout process is one of the fastest ways to kill sales. With over 70% of ecommerce traffic now coming from mobile, even a small hiccup like slow load times, too many form fields, or confusing steps, can push shoppers to abandon their carts. Baymard Institute reports that 18% of cart abandonment happens because checkout is too long or complicated.
For POD sellers, this means you might be paying for ads, driving the right traffic, and still losing customers right at the finish line. That’s wasted spend and lost revenue.
>>> How to fix:
- Test your checkout on different devices and streamline it to one or two steps max.
- Offer multiple payment methods like PayPal, Apple Pay, or local wallets so customers don’t hesitate.
Mistake #7: Mess up operations, customer services, and scaling
Landing sales is exciting, but keeping your business running smoothly behind the scenes is where most POD sellers stumble. Operations, customer service, and scaling often get pushed to the back burner until a sudden spike in orders exposes the cracks.
Not diversifying sales channels (overreliance on one platform)
Many POD sellers make the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket, usually Etsy, Amazon, or TikTok Shop. These platforms control the algorithm and the rules. One policy update, suspension, or dip in organic reach can slash your traffic overnight.
In fact, marketplace bans and algorithm changes are among the top reasons small e-commerce businesses see sudden revenue drops.
>>> How to fix:
- Use marketplaces for discovery, but also build your own Shopify or WooCommerce store where you control the brand and customer data.
- Layer in social channels like Instagram or TikTok for audience growth, and always, always build an email list.
By spreading your presence across multiple touchpoints, you insulate your business from sudden platform shocks and build a more stable, long-term sales engine.
Scaling too fast without processes / poor ops & CS
Growth feels exciting, but scaling too quickly without solid systems in place is a recipe for chaos. Many POD sellers hit a sudden sales spike only to drown in customer complaints, missed deadlines, or fulfillment errors.
>>> How to fix:
- Build processes before you need them. Set up clear SOPs for handling orders, returns, and customer inquiries.
- Use automation tools to streamline tasks like order tracking, emails, or inventory syncing.
- Consider outsourcing support to a VA or agency when sales volume increases, so customers aren’t left waiting.
Scaling is only sustainable when your backend can keep up. Otherwise, the momentum that should fuel growth ends up hurting your reputation.
Ignoring customer service & post-sale experience
Too many POD sellers focus only on the sale and forget what happens after. But customer service and post-purchase experience are where loyalty is built or broken.
A bad interaction leads to refunds, chargebacks, and lost repeat business. In fact, 89% of consumers say they stop buying after poor service.
>>> How to fix:
- Make support fast and friendly. Respond to messages within 24 hours, and send proactive updates if shipping is delayed.
- Keep your returns process simple and hassle-free. It builds trust even when things go wrong.
- Add small retention touches like thank-you notes, discount codes, or inserts. These little details cost almost nothing but can turn a one-time buyer into a repeat customer.
Ignoring shipping, returns, and customer expectations
One of the fastest ways to lose trust in POD is by overlooking shipping and returns. Customers today expect fast, reliable delivery and clear policies; if they don’t get them, frustration builds.
Late shipments or vague return terms often lead to chargebacks, negative reviews, and fewer repeat orders.
>>> How to fix:
- Set expectations upfront. Publish accurate production and shipping windows on every product page, and always use tracked shipping so customers can follow their order.
- Be transparent with your return policy, make it easy to understand and hassle-free where possible
Mistake #8: Don’t pay attention to copyright issues
Creativity is the lifeblood of print on demand, but it’s also where many sellers run into legal and competitive trouble. Intellectual property rules aren’t just fine print; ignoring them can get your listings removed, your account suspended, or worse, land you in legal hot water.
Using copyrighted or trademarked designs (IP mistakes)
A common pitfall in POD is using designs that infringe on copyrights or trademarks. It might seem tempting to ride the wave of popular brands, characters, or memes, but it’s a fast track to takedowns and account suspensions. Platforms like Etsy and Amazon enforce IP rules strictly, and in some cases, you could even face legal action. One strike can wipe out months of hard work.
>>> How to fix:
- Stick to original or properly licensed art. Hire designers who understand commercial use rules, or invest in design assets with clear licensing for resale.
- Double-check trademark databases before launching. Training your team on IP basics also saves headaches down the road.
In short, play it safe. Protecting your store’s reputation is worth far more than a quick sale on a risky design.
Not protecting your best designs / letting others copy them
In POD, a winning design can quickly become your biggest revenue driver. But if you don’t protect it, competitors will copy, undercut, and flood the market. This not only eats into your sales but also lowers the perceived value of your work. Many sellers learn the hard way that viral designs attract fast imitators.
>>> How to fix:
- Don’t just rely on the design itself. Build a brand around it. Pair your artwork with a story, niche identity, or community that competitors can’t replicate.
- Consider filing for copyright or trademark protection if the design has long-term potential.
Diversify where you sell so knock-offs don’t dominate a single marketplace. The goal is to make your design more than just a graphic. It should be tied to your brand, making it harder for copycats to steal your customers.
Mistake #9: Have a wrong mindset about print on demand
You are excited about the idea of running your own business, but if you approach the business with the wrong expectations, frustration and burnout come fast. Many beginners fall into mental traps that stall growth before they ever see real momentum.
Expecting POD to be passive or “easy money”
One of the most common traps in print on demand is believing it’s a passive income machine. Many sellers jump in, thinking they can upload a few designs and watch sales roll in.
But the reality is, without marketing, testing, and consistent effort, most stores struggle to get traction. In fact, industry data shows that fewer than 20% of new POD stores make it past their first year.
>>> How to fix:
Treat POD like a real business, not a side hustle that runs itself. That means planning your marketing strategy, budgeting for ad tests, and setting up systems for fulfillment and customer support.
Success comes from experimenting, analyzing results, and improving over time. The sellers who last aren’t the ones chasing “easy money”. They’re the ones building a business brick by brick.
Following gurus, buying courses, or chasing “get rich quick” advice
A lot of new POD sellers fall into the trap of buying expensive courses or copying advice from self-proclaimed gurus. The problem is, most of these strategies are either outdated, overly generic, or don’t fit your specific niche. Many sellers spend hundreds (sometimes thousands) on courses, only to end up frustrated when the promised “blueprint” doesn’t deliver.
>>> How to fix:
Instead of chasing shortcuts, focus on testing small and learning from real data. Run low-budget ad tests, watch how your audience reacts, and refine based on results.
Every niche behaves differently, so what worked for one store may flop for another. Be skeptical of one-size-fits-all promises. Your time and budget are better spent on experimentation and tools that directly support your business.
In POD, the sellers who win aren’t following gurus. They’re building their own playbook.
Conclusion:
Print on demand is full of opportunity, but it only pays off if you avoid the common mistakes that trip up so many sellers. From choosing the right suppliers to pricing smart and building the right mindset, success comes down to preparation, testing, and consistent effort.
The good news? You don’t have to figure it out alone. With the right fulfillment partner, clear systems, and a focus on your customers, you can build a POD business that grows steadily and profitably. Start small, stay consistent, and take action today. The sooner you refine your approach, the sooner you’ll see results.