The print on demand industry is a booming sector of the ecommerce world, and with good reason.
It's an easy way to get your products into people's hands without having to invest in inventory or deal with logistics.
And it also offers a variety of benefits for both store owners and shoppers alike!
In order to help you make sense of this ever-growing industry, we've compiled a list of 15 successful print on demand stores that are thriving in 2023.
Before that though, let's learn what exactly print on demand is:
What is Print on Demand?
Print on demand is a popular way to make and sell products in the fast-paced world of ecommerce.
POD works by using your own design work on an item like shirts or coffee mugs which are then sold through your website.
Once someone purchases one, your supplier will then print your design onto it before shipping them out for delivery. Just take a look at our infographic below:
This ‘print your design' is also one of the main differences compared to ‘normal' dropshipping.
The best part about this process?
You don't have to spend extra money ordering more items that may not end up selling!
This also means that the process is largely hands-off, and you're mainly focused on marketing and design work.
For more information about what print on demand is, check out our beginner's guide here.
The list of 15 Print on Demand store examples
One of the most effective ways to own a successful business is by learning how others have done before you.
This is true for POD businesses as well, so let’s take a look at 15 notable print on demand stores!
As we go over each company in detail, you will learn what makes this store stand out among its peers and ultimately leads it towards success.
Then after reading about these companies' successes – from layout choices to copywriting strategies – you'll get a better idea of how you might apply some (or all) of these ideas to your own store moving forward!
Are you ready for some inspiration?
If so, let's begin!
Important reminder: These examples are intended to inspire creativity and innovation in building your own brand.
While it can be helpful to learn from successful businesses, it is essential to avoid simply copying their strategies and ideas. Instead, strive to create a unique brand that sets your business apart and resonates with your target audience.
1. Shadawear
Shadawear was founded by the musician Kaysha and inspired by a sense of belonging and to share a positive outlook on life with stylish designs.
His success comes from his cohesive designs and a powerful message supporting being a part of your culture. One of the most vital strengths of apparel is its community-driven effect that aids in the business’s overall mission.
What can you learn from this store?
Showing off your community
Shadawear loves its community, as shown by Kaysha’s music.
When someone purchases from his store, he sends a message asking them to share a photo of their new clothes.
They can be rewarded with a shoutout or a promo code for more sales.
You can also apply this by using this user-generated marketing strategy to showcase further how much your community matters to you.
Branding colors and graphics
Shadawear use of color is powerful shades of vibrant and dark colors. However, you’ll also see they strategically use the same logos and other imagery that ties everything together.
You can use specific images and logos on your designs to ensure everything looks cohesive to your design style.
So when something is important to say in your store, the designs will be noticeable without using capital letters or other ways you would have to express it.
You can check out this guide by 99designs to learn more about branding colors.
2. Ferris Built
Lindsey created Ferris Built after she had to reevaluate what to do with her life after having to lose her event production business due to COVID-19.
Inspired by women's issues and current events, she embraced her creative side to launch her own apparel brand that uses POD to help her boast a catalog to be proud of.
What can you learn from this store?
Have an impactful ‘why'
This means there's a reason why every business is done besides just making a profit. Lindsey's story is about loss and transitioning to a new way of living, like how COVID-19 changed everyone's lives.
People love to hear a good story about overcoming adversity, and Ferris Built is based on that.
You can also apply your ‘why' to your store's ‘about us' page that will help resonate with your customers so they can say, ‘this store is for me.'
Supporting a great cause
People don’t really like supporting a business; they like helping humans who are making a great cause with their company. This is true with Ferris Built and its support of mental health awareness.
A percentage of their proceeds will be donated to mental health organizations, which is huge in their brand perception, making you feel like your money is being spent on something worthwhile.
You can apply this by looking at local nonprofits that align with your store’s mission and continuing a percentage of your profits to them. You can take it a step further by joining in collaboration with them as well.
3. Melanin Is Life
A couple made Melanin is Life by the names of Gene and Jas. Their problem was seeing stereotypical issues the African American communities face and how to reframe them in a motivational way.
Gene and Jas knew there was unfair justice and wanted to bring it to the world so that their culture could be supportive and educate others.
That’s why they have apparel designs to showcase they are good people in the community and can be an example.
What can you learn from this store?
Have a powerful message
With every great story, there are emotions. Gene and Jas felt annoyed, sad, and frustrated to hear all the crimes and poor representations of African Americans.
They are challenging that idea by proving it with his community of people who are there to be celebrated and unapologetically proud.
You can have a powerful message, too, by talking about what frustrates you in your industry.
Do others feel it too? Now you can be an example of what it would look like so your customers will be more likely to support your message.
With all websites, you need to move around and click on buttons to get to your desired outcome of a website.
Melanin is Life makes that super easy to find and buy their designs by keeping them simple and organized in their header.
When designing your header, remember people want to find the essential pages ASAP, and the fewer clicks to get there, the better. So remember why someone is on your website and remove anything that can hinder that.
4. The Happy Givers
The Happy Givers is a nonprofit POD store for apparel and accessories that supports The Happy NPO, which helps builds home for people in Puerto Rico.
What can you learn from this store?
Leverage your store with another business
Their success comes from building off these nonprofits off of each other that share the same mission. So when one nonprofit becomes successful, the other will inherently be as well.
If you have another side business, think of how you can work with that into a POD business. Your customers would love to support you in other ways, and this makes it that much easier to do so.
Use an ambassador reward system
A powerful marketing tool is to reward people who are the most invested in your brand.
This can be they get exclusive products or discounts they can use to market your products for you.
You can be in full charge of what they can and cannot do as an ambassador, and a great way to share your success with others who helped make it possible.
5. Famous in Real Life
Pop culture is a fun phenomenon that makes people laugh and share similar niche interests.
Famous in Real Life (IRL) uses these designs based on pop culture that brings out the personality and hobbies of the customer.
What can you learn from this store?
Gallery of photos
Photos of your products are much needed to know if it's worth purchasing them. Famous IRL knows this by having a gallery page of their appeals being used out realistically.
Having your own gallery gives a cool page to show off all your products in one simple way.
Have a mystery product
With so many designs to choose from, it can be difficult to find your next shirt. That's why Famous IRL has a mystery shirt option where you purchase a shirt that will be randomly selected from their collection to be sent to you.
It's exciting to find out what it could be and adds a fun element to the mystery.
You, too, can have a mystery product where you get to decide what they'll receive. It's all about having fun and fitting with the humorous brand.
6. GearBunch
GearBunch is a well-known brand for yoga pants and leggings for women. It started as a research project to find what are the best workout pant designs. As it turned out, it can be profitable to find the answer to that!
There's a lot of surface area in leggings to work with, so there's lots of room for creative expression on them, and it shows. They're popular based on a strong focus on workout pants while looking great.
What can you learn from this store?
The product images
When you look at a legging product, you'll see in the photos a range that captures the full 360 degrees of how it looks. This is useful because you get to see it from all angles to know just how good it'll look.
Mostly when you see a product, it's just a forward-facing picture of it. With this idea, we can use more angles of it to reassure what it'll truly look like without surprises.
So when you're adding a new product to your store, think about if it needs to have other photos of it.
7. PassionFruit
PassionFruit‘s simple but powerful story is trying to celebrate pride all year long with clothing and accessories. They also give back to the community that inspires them for their designs.
They are designed by and for the pride community, which adds a human and empathic element to their products. They also love to have people share their products on their Instagram for fun exposure from their customers.
What can you learn from this store?
Use a blog
Passionfruit is so involved in the pride community they like to showcase the culture around fashion, music, art, film to promote on their blog. So there is less about them as a brand but rather the people associated with the brand.
Like how people like to purchase from humans rather than faceless business's these blog posts are successful because it's about the people.
They even like to support other businesses in the same industry because they want everyone to succeed instead of being fearful of competition!
8. The Classic Dad
The Classic Dad is a homage to the old Dad style of puns, grilling, parenthood, and being a family man through shirts. Filled with humor and classic terms, there's success in every father that sees a little bit (or a lot) in these humorous designs.
A strong marketing strategy The Classic Dad uses is videos.
Found on their main page, various videos fit the classic dad's brand of what you would expect from a family man.
What can you learn from this store?
Website design simplicity
Web design is important for all POD businesses is because that's the only storefront of the business. This means making it well is a huge deciding factor of success. The Classic Dad's design works because it's dead simple.
The shirts are all in plain view with easy to read and navigation. No need for extra clicks or find what you want. While this isn't going to win originality but why improve what's not broken?
9. Vegan Savage
Vegan Savage started with the lifestyle of being vegan through health and mindfulness of the environment.
This POD niche is strong because the vegan culture becomes more powerful if more people join it.
What can you learn from this store?
What Vegan Savage does well is promoting via content marketing across multiple different platforms such as youtube and Instagram. This allows more reach in their mission of celebrating veganism.
#BEAVEGANSAVAGE is a simple yet powerful hashtag because not only is it direct with the brand name, it also means you want to show off what being a vegan means.
To a lot, this means being strong to challenge the common thought of vegan are weak because they don't eat protein.
The challenging social expectation is a great way to have a unique voice and be heard within the community. Vegans worldwide can feel proud of their health choice; knowing others show how positive it can be.
10. Jolie Noire
This POD apparel store started with two sisters wanting to be role models for women like them. They want to challenge the views of the color black. They believe it's beautiful and wants the color to speak on a cultural level.
Jolie Noire shows the black color in a lot of their apparel, matching with different colors.
What can you learn from this store?
The product descriptions
Jolie Noire knows fashion and key elements to look good. They also know how and where their customers will use their products.
With the power of words, they're able to envision using comfy joggers to lounge on the couch while watching a good show.
Have a ‘What's New' section
With constant new designs coming, it's a great idea to have a page to show off what's new.
The word ‘new' is powerful. It makes people think there's something special that worth looking into. So if you always have new designs, it's worth the time.
11. House of Chingasos
House of Chingasos is a fun and playable brand in Latino culture. They live and breathe the humor and want to share it with everyone.
What can you learn from this store?
A good sense of humor
You're imminently greeted with an in-your-face design that features a play on words with big, bold imagery. There's a lot of fun to be shown, and it all makes it memorable.
When you're doing humor, it's about creating joy or a way to express based on trends or cultures.
Have an organized collection of designs
House of Chingasos does a great job of having a collection of different ways of sorting their products.
From Cinco de Mayo to new drops, to men or women specifically design shirts. It makes everything easier to find, especially when they have a big collection of designs to look through.
12. I Like Maps
I Like Maps started as a hobby of loving maps from the owner and realized it's a profitable business having map locations worldwide.
What can you learn from this store?
Allowing custom design work
Because there are so many locations globally, it can be difficult for I Like Maps to cover them all. That's why they have a service to do a specific location for your request.
Let's think of ways you can allow your customers to have their own special designs in your POD business as well.
Think simple
When you think of designs, you think of wanting to create a wow factor for your customers. But, sometimes, it's actually as simple as making them resonate with something they're proud about.
The locations of maps have a story within themselves, and the product idea can apply to a lot of other designs. So don't worry about always looking cool but also what emotions they want to feel.
13. Iconspeak
It feels impossible to not see icon graphics everywhere we go. It's on every device we use and Iconspeak knows it. That's why they're also on your shirts!
What can you learn from this store?
Featured on their website, you'll see they have been on CNN, the Huffington Post, 9GAG, and National Geographic. This helps build a social trust they're worth buying from.
This also gives an edge over the competition as well. Anything you can say or do over what other POD businesses are doing helps build a brand.
Use in trends
To add how they were featured in big publications is by having similar trends as them.
Right now, we're seeing a ton of icon graphics and why they're able to use them in their own way.
None of this is breaking new ground, but it doesn't need to be because that's how trends work. It's about using what is already successful, so you don't need to create your own validation when it's already been done for you.
14. Grafo Map
Grafo Map offers fully customized maps and posters for others to create and order.
However, they actually don't sell any of their own designs. Instead, you design your own through an easy-to-use in-app right on their website!
What can you learn from this store?
Full custom work for customers
Since their competitors are offering their own designs, Grafo Maps is just focusing only on the customizability aspect of the business.
But, on the other hand, it means they are fully interactive and give a unique identity in their advertisements.
Offer a full return policy
Having a full return policy can be tricky because you have to handle the POD returns and the shipping of the product. Not to mention if it's a customized design, then it's going to be super hard to resell it.
So why bother? It creates reassurance to your customer that you'll cover the worst-case scenario. Since Grafo Map has been offering it for so long, they may find the setback of this policy to not really be difficult to deal with.
You may offer one yourself and find out if it's too much of a hassle, then you can reconsider how you want your policy to be.
Related article: How Do You Handle Print on Demand Returns in 2023?
15. Prewar Prints
Prewar Prints offers prints based on vintage baseball images and art. It’s a fun and exciting way to display a historical game of a sport through limited edition collectibles.
You can tell the owner is a big fan of the sport through imagery, as you’ll see that passion is used throughout all the designs and why they’re so popular.
What can you learn from this store?
Use a subscription model
Prewar Prints uses a unique way to recreate the limited edition of collectible baseball cards through prints.
Instead of having separate prints you can purchase, they use a monthly subscription where you get a unique, one-of-a-kind print for a special price.
So think of a way to provide a fantastic subscription service for your POD store to give a new experience to your customers.
Offer gift cards
Many physical retailers offer gift cards, so why not digital retailers? It’s pretty easy to make, just like any regular product. With apps and built-in tools with website builders like Shopify, you can create gift cards like them.
Its experience is even better because it’s often through a simple process through an email or a pdf that allows a code to be used at the checkout, just like any promo code.
What did we learn from these POD stores?
Before we close off this article, let’s quickly go over the main things that we learned today from these excellent print on demand stores:
- Involve your community. People love to share what they purchased, and to become something more significant is a huge plus.
- Use brand colors and graphics. When they see those colors and images, they’ll instantly associate them with you. Anything that makes you memorable will keep you relevant.
- Have a powerful message. If you believe in something, others will be willing to accept it too.
- Have an easy way to navigate. If people can’t find what they want, they will not purchase anything. So always keep the navigation simple.
- You are supporting a great cause. People love to support businesses that are helping this world become a better place. Always look for ways for everyone to ‘win.’
- Leverage your store with another business. Collaborations are enormous because you can share like-minded audiences, so everyone wins.
- Have compelling product descriptions. Use words that captivate the five senses (touch, taste, smell, hear, and sight) when describing a product to make them sound more appealing.
- Use social media proof. Building trust is one of the hardest things for a new store to overcome. Using well-known media or people that have featured your product or store will be a great way to show you’re worth purchasing from.
- Use trends. Trends are influential because they’re proven to work. But, They’re also about using it to fit your brand to find a way for your customers to love it.
Pretty interesting, right?
Let's go over now how you can find more print on demand stores:
How do you find successful Print on Demand stores?
That's a good question because Google alone doesn't give you the kind of results you would hope for.
A great way to find other successful print on demand stores is to venture into other POD communities. They exist all over the web and social media.
Facebook groups such as our own can help connect with like-minded people to share what's been working for them.
There are tons of communities that love to share their success stories and are helpful to those who are just starting.
Another is searching the top on design marketplaces like Redbubble and Society 6.
But, again, the first products you see are usually by successful account holders that you can view their profile and other designs to see what they're doing well in.
Lastly, a great way and inspired by this article is to browse through your POD supplier's blog and see what success stories of their users are there.
They often give real-world advice about what made them successful and can be easily applied to your business!
Conclusion
With this knowledge of these 15 successful POD stores, you should identify what exactly made them successful now.
It's important to know not every store is doing every feature that is highlighted here. Some don't see a need, some may not actually be helpful or don't align with their goals.
It's all about finding what works well for you and what your customers would like! Don't be afraid to experiment as well; it's a journey and not a straight path.
If you're interested in even more inspiration, then you should check out these 27 print on demand niche ideas! Or check out these 15 successful personalized stores here.
Plus, if you don't have a print on demand supplier yet, check out our list here with the best print on demand companies! Or this one here with the best US POD suppliers.
Have fun and best of luck on your journey!
Want to learn more about POD?
Ready to move your print on demand store to the next level? Check out the articles below:
- 10 Best Print on Demand Tools for your Business
- Printful vs. Printify: Which One for Print on Demand?
- 23 Most Successful Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
- Is Print on Demand Still Profitable Today in 2023? Or Not?
Plus, don’t forget to check out our in-depth how to start a print on demand business guide here!
