During the height of the pandemic, online shopping reigned supreme, with print-on-demand technology underpinning many of those e-commerce purchases. Unlike many a lockdown-fueled trend (sorry, 24/7 sweatpants, sourdough starters and sea shanties), the print-on-demand boom has not gone away and, in fact, is arguably stronger than ever.

“We came to market in 2021 as Taylor OnDemand,” says Rusty Pepper, head of global markets and partnerships at Taylor Corp., speaking about the company’s print-on-demand fulfillment arm. Taylor Corp. is also the parent company of Counselor Top 40 distributor Taylor Promotional Products (asi/333647). “And it’s been a rocket ship ride ever since.”

Counselor Top 40 supplier Vantage Apparel (asi/93390) has also seen great success with its print-on-demand technology. “It represents 34% of growth for us this year,” says CEO Rob Watson, a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of the most influential people in promo. “That’s huge.”

Right now, 54% of distributors say they provide print-on-demand services to clients, according to ASI Research. However, 78% of those who offer print on demand say it’s an add-on to the traditional method of selling promo products, rather than a replacement.

Proponents of the technology, though, expect the script to flip in the near future. “We’re at the very early stages, but it’s rising fast,” says Josh Ellsworth, chief revenue officer of Stahls’ (asi/88984), which offers its own print-on-demand (POD) solution, Fulfill Engine, and hosted an inaugural POD conference earlier this year. “I do see a future, probably in five to 10 years, where print on demand becomes the majority of units and revenue. When you look at it, it just logically makes sense as the smarter way, both financially and environmentally, to transact business.”

POD technology enables the production of customized products only after an order is placed, often routing orders to a connected network of decorators around the world so products can be fulfilled and shipped as close to the intended destination as possible. The POD model eliminates the need for preprinted stock, thus reducing waste, lowering inventory risk and supporting faster turnaround times. The technology also allows for greater personalization, scalability and sustainability, experts say.

As with any relatively new – and potentially disruptive – technology, plenty of misconceptions surround POD. Let’s bust some of the most common myths.

Myth 1

‘Print on demand means ordering in quantities of one.’

While POD has often translated into one-piece orders, rather than the bulk buying methods traditionally used in promo, it’s not the crux of the definition. Instead, it’s the “on demand” aspect of production that’s most salient.

“Print on demand is making only what you need, exactly when you need it – on time, every time, we like to say,” Ellsworth explains. “A lot of people think it’s just quantity of one, but it can also mean quantities in the hundreds.”

Jed Seifert, co-founder of Cleveland-based Stakes Manufacturing (asi/88974) and the Counselor 2024 Bess Cohn Humanitarian of the Year, agrees that the classic definition of POD no longer fits. Originally, he adds, POD meant going to a website, buying a single product, with the order sent via API to a decorator to be printed and shipped directly to that end-consumer.

“Print on demand is making only what you need exactly when you need it on time, every time.Josh Ellsworth, Stahls’ (asi/88984)

Five years ago, Seifert says, such one-off direct-to-consumer orders accounted for 100% of Stakes’ business. Now, however, 40% of the decorator’s orders are low-minimum, quick-turn wholesale, produced on demand. “It could be 12 shirts for a customer’s softball team or 30 shirts for their corporation,” he says. “It’s also fulfilling directly to people’s distribution centers so that they can order in small quantities, free up their cash flow and not have as much inventory risk.”

Oftentimes, Stakes Manufacturing even ends up handling last-minute 1,000-piece orders that normally would be done by a screen printer, rather than the digital decoration methods Stakes uses. “Typically, when we get those orders, it’s a panic situation where the screen printers in their network can’t handle the 24- or 48-hour turn time, so they call us,” Seifert says. “We joke that we’re firefighters because we help put out those fires.”

Myth 2

‘Print on demand isn’t profitable enough.’

Related to this myth is the idea that offering POD services will dry up traditional promo orders and the margins that come with this tried-and-true distribution method. However, taking advantage of technology tools and making sure you set expectations about pricing can help distributors ensure their margins are met with POD. And offering clients the on-demand services that they’re, well, demanding can help strengthen and deepen relationships and sometimes even lead to more traditional bulk promo orders.

On the technology side, automation helps ensure profitability, says Dave Conner, director of product marketing for Stahls’ Fulfill Engine. “Historically, small-piece orders had less profit potential because of the manual touchpoints in the process, with a distributor selling items and then giving that order to a decorator,” he says. Applications like Fulfill Engine, however, can aggregate demand, connecting it seamlessly to supply and fulfillment, eliminating many of the time-wasting touches that create inefficiencies and shrink profit, according to Conner and Ellsworth.

“Integration and technology has to be a ride-along conversation to print on demand because without technology you’ve got all this extra overhead and no one’s profiting off a single-piece order.”Rob Watson, Vantage Apparel (asi/93390)

Watson of Vantage agrees: “Integration and technology has to be a ride-along conversation to print on demand because without technology you’ve got all this extra overhead and no one’s profiting off a single-piece order.”

Minnesota-based Liquid Screen Design (asi/254663) began offering e-commerce “POD stores” about a year ago after continual requests from current clients, says Brooklyn McCue, director of e-commerce.

Online stores, backed by POD fulfillment, give customers the flexibility to play around with fun designs and creative ideas. “It’s allowed a lot of our clients to experiment,” McCue says. “There are many things that might sell better online that they weren’t expecting everybody to love, and then that becomes something they order on the bulk side as well.”

Liquid Screen Design (asi/254663) transformed the Jewish Theological Seminary’s logo with rainbow colors for Pride on its e-commerce site. The design proved so popular, the client later ordered it in bulk from the distributor.

For instance, she adds, the Jewish Theological Seminary, a college in New York City, recently asked Liquid Screen Design to redesign its logo in rainbow colors for Pride and add it to the school’s online storefront. The design ended up being so popular that the client reached back out to place a larger order of the limited-edition design soon after, McCue says.

Myth 3

‘Print on demand is only for digital decoration like DTG and DTF.’

In some ways, the term “print on demand” is a misnomer because the model encompasses so much more than print, Ellsworth says. In addition to digital methods like direct-to-garment (DTG) and direct-to-film (DTF) printing, POD platforms can accommodate decoration techniques like UV printing, laser engraving and embroidery. “It’s really on-demand branding,” he adds.

Vantage, for example, offers on-demand services for four of its decoration methods: DTG, DTF, laser etching and embroidery. “We’re fulfilling thousands of embroidery orders every day, one piece at a time,” Watson says.

Even when it comes to digital decoration methods, there are variations in quality levels depending on the types of machinery in which decorators have invested. While low-end DTG printing might fade too quickly or be unable to hit Pantone colors and budget DTF prints are disdained for having a thick, plasticky feel, decorators using higher-end equipment are getting much better, retail-quality results, Seifert says. Stakes Manufacturing is even achieving special effects like high-density prints, puff and faux embroidery with digital printing equipment. “We can make a shirt that feels like a Van Gogh painting,” he adds.

Myth 4

‘Print on demand is mostly just for apparel.’

Apparel makes up a large portion of POD goods – in much the same way wearables dominate the promo industry as a whole, encompassing about 36% of market share. But POD can be applied to a range of products, including caps, bags, drinkware and paper products. “The assortment is what really excites me,” Ellsworth says.

Pepper notes that Taylor OnDemand’s network has more than 8,000 product SKUs. Hot items include large-format signage and hyper-personalized packaging down to the shipper tape and wrapping paper. One POD product that surprised him? Custom napkins to add an extra touch of branding to parties and picnics.

“POD allowed a lot of our clients to experiment. There are a lot of things that might sell better online that they weren’t expecting everybody to love, and then that becomes something they order on the bulk side as well.”Brooklyn McCue, Liquid Screen Design (asi/254663)

“We’ve got clients that are literally buying hundreds of thousands of branded napkins every month,” Pepper says.

Among POD apparel categories specifically, the standard, budget T-shirt remains number one in terms of units sold, but that’s starting to change, Ellsworth says. “Sometimes people think print on demand is just a commodity, ‘brandfill’ product,” he adds. “But we’re seeing a shift toward more premium and elevated goods.”