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How to Open an Online Store without Inventory?

  Opening a clothing store is a dream of many young girls. When Judy was young, she dreamed of dressing in different clothes every day. Owning a clothing store, not only could she choose different styles of clothes but also she can make money. But... When she grows up, she finds this dream is going far and far away. What problem disturb her? Well, the main problem is worrying about holding inventory.

  Yep, we deeply understand her feeling. Holding inventory means taking a certain risk. You may be left with a pile of products that aren’t sold out. It seems that this problem disturbs many young girls like Judy. If you were a girl like Judy, congratulations, POD(Print on Demand) dropshipping can help to get close to your dream. 

1. What is POD dropshipping?

2. How to choose a proper eCommerce platform?

3. Who is suitable for using the POD dropshipping service?

 1. What is POD dropshipping?

  POD dropshipping can be explained from two phrases- POD and dropshipping. 

  1) What is POD?

       POD is the abbreviation of Print on Demand. It’s a process where you work with suppliers to customize products with your own designs and sell them on a per-order basis under your own brand. It is a low-risk way to sell custom T-shirts, books, and more. 

  2) What is dropshipping?

       Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. When you use dropshipping model, the item will be shipped from the third party directly to the customer. It means you don’t need to stock inventory.

  So, POD dropshipping is a way to cooperate with suppliers who produce your custom products under your own brand, fulfill your orders, and ship on demand. Just from this definition, we can see that POD dropshipping can solve the stocking problem. Except that, we can also find many other advantages of POD dropshipping.

•   Customize your personal products: Make your products personalized, create some personal products under your own brand.
•   No worry about shipping: Once you choose drop shipping, your orders are delivered by a third party. Suppliers will help to do this part of the job.

  Now, maybe, you can’t help asking, who provides POD dropshipping? Here, we come to our second part.

 2. How to choose a proper eCommerce platform?

  Thanks to the rising popularity of eCommerce, there are many suppliers providing POD dropshipping. Just searching POD on any eCommerce platform, you can find many related providers. Using Shopify for example: 

Image1

  From image1, we can see, after searching POD on the Shopify app, we can get some results. It will suggest different suppliers' apps with 5-point comments. You can compare suppliers from the following aspects:

  a. The diversity of products

  From this aspect, you should know what kind of clothes you want to sell and who will buy them. We call this action considering niche. After finding your niche, you will quickly choose the products you want. And suppliers who have a great diversity of products can help you to maintain frequent updates. So, the diversity of products plays a great role in your decision of choosing suppliers.

  b. The printing techniques

  This is also associated with your niche. Different products you want, different techniques you choose. Some common printing techniques are DTG, AOP, and embroidery.

  DTG: It is an abbreviation of Direct to Garment. This technique prints design directly onto the fabric in certain areas of the products.

  AOP: It is an abbreviation of All Over Print. We also call it cut and sew. It is different from the traditional clothing-making process. It will print all the sections of clothes on one fabric and then cut them off and sew them together according to the stitching area.

  Embroidery: It is a complex printing technique that uses threads to give a 3D effect. Limited to the color of thread, it could only be applied to simple designs. Some hats designers prefer to use this technique.

  Some suppliers only support the DTG technique, others may support DTG and AOP or all above. Of course, Yoycol can support above all techniques, and we have advanced printing equipment, you can trust and try us.

 c. The price 

  This factor includes two parts, product price, and shipping fee. Normally, there are two models for suppliers to set prices. First, the shipping fee and product price are separated. Second, the price includes the shipping fee and product price. This factor doesn’t need much time to explain. Everyone wants low prices and high-quality products. It’s a factor which depends on your profits. The lower the price it has, the higher profits you make. Suppliers who offer competitive prices with high-quality products are the best choice for you.

  d. The designing tools

  The designing tools will influence your designing experience and depend on how your products look like. There are various designing tools of different suppliers you may experience. You can consider these factors:

  1) Can you see the mock-up when you design the product?

  2) Can it provide abundant materials for design?

  3) Does it have clear design guidelines?

  4) Can it be used easily?

  5) When you finish designing, can the template be uploaded?

  e. The fabric of products

  Different suppliers have different choices to cooperate with factories that supply different fabrics. Fabrics have different properties which depend on washing care, printing technique, and dressing feeling. There are mainly three types of fabric-cotton, polyester, and fabric blends. This factor also links to the cost of products. Usually, cotton will cost the most.

  f. The fulfillment time

  Each supplier has its own producing lines. So, the time to fulfill the orders will be different. Clearly, everyone wants to receive his products in a short time. The promising day is a vital factor. Short time is better. But if the supplier gives a short promising day, while it’s always delayed, maybe, you need to think again.

  g. The return policy

  Surely, I hope you don’t need to see this. But, it is a guarantee to ensure you that you won’t suffer when your package disappeared, is delivered in the wrong size and poor quality and so on. An excellent supplier should have an excellent return policy.

  h. The support service

  Maybe, you will have some problems when you cooperate with suppliers. Whether they will help to solve your problem and the time of giving an answer reflect the suppliers’ attitude and ability. Nobody likes the feeling of helplessness. A comfortable service experience is also important.

3. Who is suitable for using the POD dropshipping service?

  If you are an individual and meet any of the following statuses, you can try it.

    1) Creators: If you have creative minds and artful designs and want to sell some custom products, then try it.

    2) Celebrities: Maybe you have a large number of fans on Youtube, Facebook, ins or other platforms. Selling your custom products under your brand to your fans, isn’t a great way to make money?

    3) Normal person: Simple reason, just want to make money with low risk and investment, go ahead.

  If you are an organization, a company, a game team, or others, you want to custom some products that can represent your business, institution, and so on, you can use POD drop shipping to help.

  Surely, you can also trust us, Yoycol, who does POD dropshipping business for many years. Last year, we finished millions of printing orders. We help many customers from Europe, America and Vietnam launch their businesses. Our own factory which supports DTG, AOP, and embroidery is located in China. We are concerned about the fulfillment and quality of products. Surely, a competitive price is given to our products.

  Now, we have more than 800 diversity of products which can be divided into men, women, children’s clothes, home, shoes, and accessories.

  Our 3D mockup generator can give you a great design experience. Easy use, fast design.

  Click here to check.

  There are mainly 4 integration options, Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy and BigCommerce. 

  We are doing hard to serve our customers. If you choose Yoycol, we won’t let you down.

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