When someone asks me what I do, I no longer say I’m a printer or in printing tech or even in print-on-demand (POD). I tell them M.i.A Merchandise is a fulfillment solutions provider, which sounds like an opaque answer; however, in reality, I think it’s what we all do. It’s time to elevate our collective status and our offering to customers.

Print-on-demand company M.i.A Merchandise started out manufacturing surfboards on demand in Australia.

M.i.A started manufacturing on-demand surfboards in Australia, taking CAD onto the web (and later got our break on Shark Tank). We evolved into POD (it turns out average joe didn’t make a great surfboard engineer, but they could design the graphics pretty well), and from there we evolved again into a fulfillment solutions provider across the U.S., U.K. and Australia. I see the industry evolving as well and believe we are at another inflection point, or POD 3.0, if you will.

POD 1.0: Print-on-demand has been around for some time now, with “print-your-own” retailers and fulfillment trade printers popping up. Products were limited, technology worked even if it was a little clunky and you’d be lucky to get your delivery in two weeks.

POD 2.0: As the market expanded, POD evolved. No longer were providers printing only flyers or wedding invites. They were expanding into T-shirts, hats, hoodies, mugs and a lot of other interesting items. Printers invested into more automation tools, direct-to-garment (DTG) machines, barcoding and APIs to make a more connected ecosystem.

POD 3.0: Today, many people know how to print a T-shirt or sublimate a white space on a mug. The market has expanded yet again – we’re seeing all kinds of entrepreneurs with unique appeal, from painting your pets to matching mom and baby outfits, from music and entertainment brands doing monthly brand refreshes to HR teams delivering to remote employees.

How To Create the POD 3.0 Experience

With so many people moving into the POD space, it’s crucial to give the best possible experience to each and every customer. Here’s some advice:

1. Move beyond the standard print area. Businesses are demanding more and more unique items to ensure they stay fresh, can capitalize on SEO trends and increase repeat purchase rate from existing customers. This means moving beyond a simple, basic tee with a front print. Instead, it means working with alternative print areas like cuffs, sleeves, under arms and oversized prints. It’s also about new blanks that step outside the norm, oversize fits, heavy blends and mixed print methods (embroidery and DTG).
2. Go beyond just T-shirts. No longer are businesses satisfied with a one-location print on a tee. They’re asking for more kiss-cut items like decorations, plaques, keychains, 3-D models, custom fragrances, pet items, skateboard decks and paint-by-numbers kits (to name just a few).
3. Think about retail & packaging opportunities. Blank packaging no longer fits the bill. Think bioplastic shrink-wrapping, eco-hangtags, coat hangers, barcoding and variable print batch numbers, 3PL and kitting. As more businesses look to outsource their entire back-end fulfillment to a partner, so must fulfillment solutions providers evolve to match their new channels matrix.

Read the full story on Apparelist, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic content partner.

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