{"id":46332,"date":"2017-06-08T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=46332"},"modified":"2024-04-16T05:08:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T12:08:34","slug":"how-to-online-print-product-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-online-print-product-shop","title":{"rendered":"How to Create an Online Print Product Shop With No Stock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening your own print shop doesn’t require massive amounts of upfront investment. These days, you don’t need to lease physical space, you can open an online store instead. You don’t even need to invest in inventory, since you can now work with a print-on-demand drop shipper to print and ship your products for you. Sounds like something you’d like to try? Read on as we walk you through the process of opening an online store painlessly and optimizing your products to get more sales.<\/p>\n

All you really need is an e-commerce platform, a drop shipper, and some marketing gusto to bring your online store to life. Bring on your design ideas, and get ready to make some extra income!<\/p>\n

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<\/span>Part 1: Picking your platform and theme<\/span><\/h2>\n

\nThe first thing you’re going to need is an e-commerce platform to run your store. Think of it as your piece of online real estate.<\/p>\n

There are many platforms and websites you can use to do this, like Shopify<\/a>, WooCommerce<\/a>, and Ecwid<\/a>, to name a few. Each platform offers different features and price points, so shop around and decide which one best meets your needs.\n<\/p>\n

If you’re a new seller, you might want a simple, user-friendly platform that’s easy to set up and with limited fees. Or if you have more tech experience, you might want a platform that’s customizable to your liking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nFor the purposes of this blog post, we’re going to focus on WooCommerce<\/a> as an example.\n<\/p>\n

<\/span>What is WooCommerce?<\/span><\/h3>\n

\nWooCommerce was built to integrate with WordPress, so if you’re already using WordPress, this is an excellent choice.<\/p>\n

WooCommerce benefits:\n<\/p>\n

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  • Integrates with one of the most popular and trusted content management systems<\/li>\n
  • It’s completely customizable – set up your store exactly the way you want it<\/li>\n
  • It has plenty of extensions to help run your store<\/li>\n
  • It’s free<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \nHowever, WooCommerce requires some technical and programming knowledge to set up, so there may be a learning curve. In addition, although WooCommerce is free to use, it doesn’t offer hosting.<\/p>\n

    What does that mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Hosting involves leasing space from a hosting provider’s server to run your website. Some e-commerce platforms already come with hosting, but WooCommerce doesn’t. This means you’ll have to find a hosting provider yourself, which costs time and money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    In a nutshell: WooCommerce offers a ton of bonuses and options for customization. But you’ll need some technical know-how and your own hosting.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/span>Picking a WooCommerce theme<\/span><\/h3>\n

    \nThink of how you feel walking into your favorite brick-and-mortar store. How is the store laid out? What kind of music is playing? The atmosphere of the store contributes to your buying experience, and this is true for online stores too.<\/p>\n

    Creative Market offers a variety of customizable WooCommerce templates that allow you to tweak design elements until you get the right look and feel for your brand. Here are some WooCommerce-compatible themes you may want to look at:<\/p>\n


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    \n<\/p>\n

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    You’ll also want to take a look at these Print-on-Demand Finds<\/a>: handpicked assets that are ready to license and turn into an end product for sale.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    <\/span>Part 2: Installing Printful<\/span><\/h2>\n

    \nThe next step is connecting with Printful, AKA the drop shipping service that’ll print and ship your products.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/span>What’s drop shipping?<\/span><\/h3>\n

    \nDrop shipping is when a third party stores, prints, and ships products for you to your end customers.<\/p>\n

    This is a cost-effective way to get started in e-commerce because you don’t need to invest money upfront in buying inventory or equipment. Your drop shipper prints your orders on-demand, so you only pay when a customer buys something from you.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/span>What’s Printful?<\/span><\/h3>\n

    \nThink of Printful<\/a> as your drop shipping fairy godmother that handles printing and then some.<\/p>\n