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Why I LEFT Printful And STOPPED Selling T-Shirts On My Shopify Print On Demand Store

Published on: November 29 2022 by Joe Robert

Why I LEFT Printful And STOPPED Selling T-Shirts On My Shopify Print On Demand Store

Table of Contents

Why I LEFT Printful And STOPPED Selling T-Shirts On My Shopify Print On Demand Store

startTime durationTime text
00:00:00 00:00:05 so almost exactly one year ago today I
00:00:02 00:00:07 made a video on YouTube called stop
00:00:05 00:00:09 selling t-shirts with Shopify it's
00:00:07 00:00:11 actually number one on YouTube search
00:00:09 00:00:13 results during the video I advised
00:00:11 00:00:15 against selling t-shirts for a number of
00:00:13 00:00:18 reasons and in the comments section
00:00:15 00:00:19 people absolutely lost their minds one
00:00:18 00:00:22 person said it was a completely useless
00:00:19 00:00:24 video and someone else even said that
00:00:22 00:00:26 this is totally based on assumptions and
00:00:24 00:00:28 not actual calculations which I will
00:00:26 00:00:30 address at some point in this video
00:00:28 00:00:31 today but the thing is it's completely
00:00:30 00:00:34 true everything that I said in that
00:00:31 00:00:35 video is still true today and an example
00:00:34 00:00:37 of what I was saying can be seen right
00:00:35 00:00:39 here with this t-shirt from printful
00:00:37 00:00:41 this is their best selling shirt it is
00:00:39 00:00:43 also their highest reviewed shirt as
00:00:41 00:00:47 well and you can see right here that it
00:00:43 00:00:48 costs $12.95 if you take a look at the
00:00:47 00:00:51 shipping cost for this shirt it's also
00:00:48 00:00:53 going to cost you 399 now I'm no math
00:00:51 00:00:55 whiz but when you add those two numbers
00:00:53 00:00:57 together you get a total cost of almost
00:00:55 00:01:23 17 dollars and if you are selling a
00:00:57 00:01:25 t-shirt that cost you $17.90 on Etsy and
00:01:23 00:01:27 you don't have to use facebook ads I am
00:01:25 00:01:29 well aware of that I am fully aware that
00:01:27 00:01:31 you can start an Etsy shop and you can
00:01:29 00:01:33 load designs onto it and you can make
00:01:31 00:01:34 organic sales there is also going to be
00:01:33 00:01:36 people that are going to be toking
00:01:34 00:01:38 about organic growth through Instagram
00:01:36 00:01:40 or paying influencers to post your
00:01:38 00:01:43 products in making sales that way I am
00:01:40 00:01:45 also fully aware of that business model
00:01:43 00:01:47 as well one thing about me is my first
00:01:45 00:01:49 successful store was a t-shirt store
00:01:47 00:01:51 that was based solely on Instagram
00:01:49 00:01:54 influencers this was a store that I
00:01:51 00:01:55 started back in 2017 it made me
00:01:54 00:01:57 thousands of dollars of profit per month
00:01:55 00:02:00 and I ended up selling it on the Shopify
00:01:57 00:02:02 exchange for a five figure profit
00:02:00 00:02:03 why do I tell you that well I tell you
00:02:02 00:02:05 that to let you know that I used to sell
00:02:03 00:02:07 shirts that used to be my primary
00:02:05 00:02:09 product that I would sell and I was
00:02:07 00:02:11 pretty successful in doing it so much so
00:02:09 00:02:13 that someone was willing to pay me over
00:02:11 00:02:15 $10,000 for my
00:02:13 00:02:18 door but now I primarily use Facebook
00:02:15 00:02:20 ads to sell my products because I find
00:02:18 00:02:22 that is the quickest way to scale a
00:02:20 00:02:24 print-on-demand brand and if I want to
00:02:22 00:02:26 do that selling t-shirts is not a good
00:02:24 00:02:28 option now on the screen right now these
00:02:26 00:02:30 are a few of my students and I'm showing
00:02:28 00:02:31 you guys this stuff to show that the
00:02:30 00:02:33 things that I'm doing are working not
00:02:31 00:02:35 only just for me but also for a lot of
00:02:33 00:02:37 other people as well over the past few
00:02:35 00:02:39 years we have had dozens of students who
00:02:37 00:02:41 have made tens of thousand and sometimes
00:02:39 00:02:43 hundreds of thousands of dollars
00:02:41 00:02:45 following simple strategies with
00:02:43 00:02:47 Facebook ads but they're selling high
00:02:45 00:02:48 margin print-on-demand product and the
00:02:47 00:02:50 methods they are using if they were
00:02:48 00:02:52 selling t-shirts it just simply would
00:02:50 00:02:54 not work how do I know well take a look
00:02:52 00:02:56 at this this is a diagram that I pulled
00:02:54 00:02:59 from a marketing company who basically
00:02:56 00:03:00 did a study based on hundreds of
00:02:59 00:03:03 thousands of dollars in ad spend on
00:03:00 00:03:04 Facebook and what they found may
00:03:03 00:03:06 surprise you they actually found that
00:03:04 00:03:08 the average cost to acquire a new
00:03:06 00:03:10 customer with Facebook Ads is about ten
00:03:08 00:03:12 dollars now if you think back and you
00:03:10 00:03:14 remember that t-shirt example from
00:03:12 00:03:16 printful where with the shipping costs
00:03:14 00:03:19 added in it costs you about 17 dollars
00:03:16 00:03:21 if you're also spending the average that
00:03:19 00:03:24 they found of $10 per sale that means
00:03:21 00:03:26 your total cost is $27 not a great
00:03:24 00:03:28 business model right because if you're
00:03:26 00:03:30 selling that shirt for 25 you're almost
00:03:28 00:03:32 guaranteed to lose money now there are
00:03:30 00:03:34 going to be people in the comments as
00:03:32 00:03:35 well that are going to say well why
00:03:34 00:03:36 don't you just sell the shirt for a
00:03:35 00:03:38 little bit more than that that's a
00:03:36 00:03:41 perfectly good option where you could
00:03:38 00:03:42 try to sell your t-shirt for $29.99 or
00:03:41 00:03:44 something like that and if you're lucky
00:03:42 00:03:47 to actually have someone give you that
00:03:44 00:03:49 amount of money you are going to be the
00:03:47 00:03:51 proud owner of just a few dollars in
00:03:49 00:03:53 profit to me if I make a thousand sales
00:03:51 00:03:56 I'd much rather make 20,000 dollars than
00:03:53 00:03:57 just a few thousand dollars so that's
00:03:56 00:03:59 what we're gonna sort of break down
00:03:57 00:04:02 today in this video here and if you guys
00:03:59 00:04:05 enjoy it please drop a like we'll jump
00:04:02 00:04:05 into it right after this
00:04:09 00:04:13 alright guys so before we jump into my
00:04:12 00:04:15 store if you are brand new to
00:04:13 00:04:17 print-on-demand we have a couple
00:04:15 00:04:19 different resources for you the first
00:04:17 00:04:21 thing you can do is subscribe to my
00:04:19 00:04:23 channel I have a playlist on my channel
00:04:21 00:04:25 that is completely dedicated to
00:04:23 00:04:27 print-on-demand beginners I also have a
00:04:25 00:04:29 print-on-demand Facebook group at the
00:04:27 00:04:31 time of recording this video there is
00:04:29 00:04:32 over 16,000 members inside of it you
00:04:31 00:04:35 guys can check it out the link is down
00:04:32 00:04:37 in the description I also have my free
00:04:35 00:04:38 print-on-demand course it's going to
00:04:37 00:04:40 walk you through the entire process of
00:04:38 00:04:42 setting up your store there was a link
00:04:40 00:04:44 down in the description so like I said
00:04:42 00:04:45 guys my name is Joe Robert I am NOT a
00:04:44 00:04:47 guru I am just a regular guy who has
00:04:45 00:04:49 figured out a way to make some money on
00:04:47 00:04:51 my Shopify store and I'm so passionate
00:04:49 00:04:54 about this stuff because every single
00:04:51 00:04:56 day I see videos from YouTube gurus and
00:04:54 00:04:59 Facebook ads and YouTube ads for people
00:04:56 00:05:01 trying to sell various print-on-demand
00:04:59 00:05:03 courses and a lot of them are really
00:05:01 00:05:06 just pushing the idea of selling
00:05:03 00:05:08 t-shirts now this is inside of my store
00:05:06 00:05:10 and you can see that this month in July
00:05:08 00:05:12 we have done just over six thousand
00:05:10 00:05:15 dollars in revenue you can see that if
00:05:12 00:05:18 we switch it to last month that we did
00:05:15 00:05:19 over thirty four thousand dollars and
00:05:18 00:05:21 this is about ten thousand dollars in
00:05:19 00:05:23 profit and this would just not be
00:05:21 00:05:25 possible if I was selling a t-shirt I
00:05:23 00:05:27 want to break it down a little bit for
00:05:25 00:05:29 you guys and really try to convey to you
00:05:27 00:05:31 the reason why I think you need to be
00:05:29 00:05:32 using Facebook ads to promote your
00:05:31 00:05:34 products and why you need to stop
00:05:32 00:05:37 selling t-shirts here we are inside of
00:05:34 00:05:39 my ads manager and this is an ad that's
00:05:37 00:05:41 been running for a little while now and
00:05:39 00:05:44 you can see we have about thirty eight
00:05:41 00:05:46 hundred dollars in ads been about three
00:05:44 00:05:48 hundred and seventy nine sales and just
00:05:46 00:05:50 over ten dollars each in ad spend to
00:05:48 00:05:51 acquire a new customer if you are brand
00:05:50 00:05:53 new to Facebook ads and you don't know
00:05:51 00:05:55 what that means it basically just means
00:05:53 00:05:57 that we have to spend about ten dollars
00:05:55 00:05:59 an ad spend to get one person to buy our
00:05:57 00:06:02 product and if I was selling that shirt
00:05:59 00:06:03 from printful I would literally be
00:06:02 00:06:06 losing money right now but because I'm
00:06:03 00:06:08 choosing a product that makes me a much
00:06:06 00:06:10 higher margin I am able to be very very
00:06:08 00:06:12 profitable so let's just do a quick
00:06:10 00:06:14 breakdown here right I have two products
00:06:12 00:06:16 on the screen right now the one on the
00:06:14 00:06:18 right is a pair of leggings very high
00:06:16 00:06:19 margin product that you can get from a
00:06:18 00:06:21 lot of different print-on-demand
00:06:19 00:06:23 suppliers and then on the left I have in
00:06:21 00:06:25 image of a t-shirt let's assume for the
00:06:23 00:06:27 sake of this little walkthrough that the
00:06:25 00:06:29 product on the left is going to cost us
00:06:27 00:06:31 ten dollars and we're going to be able
00:06:29 00:06:33 to sell it for about twenty-five and you
00:06:31 00:06:35 can see that after we factored in our ad
00:06:33 00:06:36 spend for both of the products that the
00:06:35 00:06:39 product on the right the leggings is a
00:06:36 00:06:41 much more profitable product like I said
00:06:39 00:06:43 earlier for me I would much rather sell
00:06:41 00:06:45 something where I can make margins like
00:06:43 00:06:47 this on the right than something on the
00:06:45 00:06:49 left if you want to turn print-on-demand
00:06:47 00:06:51 into a full-time job or even just
00:06:49 00:06:53 something that can give you an extra
00:06:51 00:06:55 $1,000 a month you are literally going
00:06:53 00:06:57 to have to make hundreds of sales
00:06:55 00:06:59 selling t-shirts compared to just a
00:06:57 00:07:01 fraction of that if you are selling a
00:06:59 00:07:03 product like legging and leggings is not
00:07:01 00:07:04 the only product that you could
00:07:03 00:07:07 potentially sell there are literally
00:07:04 00:07:08 dozens of higher-margin print-on-demand
00:07:07 00:07:10 products that you can sell and promote
00:07:08 00:07:13 them with Facebook Ads and if you make
00:07:10 00:07:15 just a handful of sales every single day
00:07:13 00:07:17 you are going to make a ton of profit
00:07:15 00:07:19 every single month now I want to sort of
00:07:17 00:07:20 spend the majority of this video from
00:07:19 00:07:22 here on out looking at various
00:07:20 00:07:24 print-on-demand a pat has some of these
00:07:22 00:07:26 higher margin products but by now I'm
00:07:24 00:07:28 hoping that some of you are seeing that
00:07:26 00:07:30 if you intended to use Facebook ads to
00:07:28 00:07:32 promote your low margin t-shirts it's
00:07:30 00:07:35 probably not a great business strategy
00:07:32 00:07:38 so for example here we are in the print
00:07:35 00:07:40 fi app if you go to Home & living you
00:07:38 00:07:41 can see that they have canvases in here
00:07:40 00:07:43 and the product that I really want to
00:07:41 00:07:45 highlight is this wall tapestry if we
00:07:43 00:07:47 look at this it's going to cost us
00:07:45 00:07:48 thirteen dollars and ninety cents but if
00:07:47 00:07:49 you guys have a printer five premium
00:07:48 00:07:51 account you're gonna be able to get 20%
00:07:49 00:07:53 off of that so let's call it about
00:07:51 00:07:56 eleven dollars you could probably sell
00:07:53 00:07:59 that tapestry for $35 which is a twenty
00:07:56 00:08:00 five dollar profit before you have any
00:07:59 00:08:02 Facebook ads spent another really great
00:08:00 00:08:03 product that I mentioned earlier was
00:08:02 00:08:05 leggings you can see that if you have a
00:08:03 00:08:07 print if I premium account you're going
00:08:05 00:08:09 to be able to get that for just sixteen
00:08:07 00:08:10 dollars and I'm sure you could sell
00:08:09 00:08:13 those leggings all the way up to almost
00:08:10 00:08:15 50 dollars a pair if you do achieve a
00:08:13 00:08:16 fifty dollar sale price on it you're
00:08:15 00:08:18 making over thirty dollars per sale
00:08:16 00:08:20 before you spend any money at all on
00:08:18 00:08:22 Facebook Ads another app that I really
00:08:20 00:08:24 like is called shine on they have these
00:08:22 00:08:26 awesome jewelry products where you can
00:08:24 00:08:28 literally customize the message card
00:08:26 00:08:30 here this is a great product for a
00:08:28 00:08:32 number of niches they also have these
00:08:30 00:08:34 cross necklaces they have bracelets and
00:08:32 00:08:36 dog tags and if you look you can
00:08:34 00:08:40 see that the price on this necklace is
00:08:36 00:08:42 only $9.97 let's say that you sold that
00:08:40 00:08:44 necklace for $34.99 you're making about
00:08:42 00:08:46 twenty-five dollars in profit before you
00:08:44 00:08:48 even spend on Facebook ads and here's
00:08:46 00:08:50 some more this is inside of the app
00:08:48 00:08:53 sublimino you can see that they have a
00:08:50 00:08:54 hooded blanket right here which costs
00:08:53 00:08:56 you just thirty seven dollars and one of
00:08:54 00:08:58 the cool things about subliminal is that
00:08:56 00:09:01 all of the shipping costs are included
00:08:58 00:09:02 in your product price that means that
00:09:01 00:09:05 your all-in cost for this product is
00:09:02 00:09:06 just thirty seven dollars in the past I
00:09:05 00:09:09 have sold products like this all the way
00:09:06 00:09:11 up to 79 99 now if you guys are
00:09:09 00:09:13 achieving that sale price you're
00:09:11 00:09:16 actually doubling your money you are
00:09:13 00:09:18 making almost $40 in profit per sale
00:09:16 00:09:20 right with the t-shirts you're just
00:09:18 00:09:22 making two or three dollars so it really
00:09:20 00:09:24 doesn't make any sense to me why anyone
00:09:22 00:09:26 would follow someone online who is
00:09:24 00:09:28 toking about selling t-shirts or even
00:09:26 00:09:31 if they create a course with the word
00:09:28 00:09:33 shirt in the name honestly anybody who
00:09:31 00:09:35 is doing that probably doesn't actually
00:09:33 00:09:37 still run their own print-on-demand
00:09:35 00:09:39 business told you guys earlier that one
00:09:37 00:09:41 of my primary products when I first
00:09:39 00:09:44 started print-on-demand was tee shirt
00:09:41 00:09:47 back in 2016 in 2017 in a little bit of
00:09:44 00:09:49 2018 it was possible to be profitable
00:09:47 00:09:51 with Facebook ads and t-shirt however
00:09:49 00:09:53 over the years things have really
00:09:51 00:09:56 started to increase when it comes to the
00:09:53 00:09:59 cost of Facebook ads costs on Facebook
00:09:56 00:10:01 are determined by your CPM CPM basically
00:09:59 00:10:04 is just a measure of how much it costs
00:10:01 00:10:06 you to show the ad to 1000 people and
00:10:04 00:10:08 over the years those CPMs have continued
00:10:06 00:10:10 to rise as more and more people are
00:10:08 00:10:12 using Facebook to promote their products
00:10:10 00:10:14 Facebook is continuing to charge more
00:10:12 00:10:16 and this is going to be a trend that is
00:10:14 00:10:18 going to continue if you build your
00:10:16 00:10:20 business around t-shirts you my friend
00:10:18 00:10:22 are going to be destined to fail so if
00:10:20 00:10:23 you guys are seeing somebody who is
00:10:22 00:10:26 really just trying to tok you into
00:10:23 00:10:27 learning some sort of system about
00:10:26 00:10:29 selling shirts they're probably not
00:10:27 00:10:30 actually practiking what they preach I
00:10:29 00:10:32 showed you guys my store in the
00:10:30 00:10:34 beginning because I actually do run
00:10:32 00:10:36 print-on-demand businesses full time but
00:10:34 00:10:38 I have switched from selling t-shirts
00:10:36 00:10:40 with printful to selling higher margin
00:10:38 00:10:42 products with other print-on-demand app
00:10:40 00:10:44 another thing that you guys can do to be
00:10:42 00:10:45 even more profitable with your
00:10:44 00:10:47 print-on-demand products is to utilize
00:10:45 00:10:49 personalization now here
00:10:47 00:10:51 is the app T launched they have a
00:10:49 00:10:53 built-in feature where you can sell any
00:10:51 00:10:53 of these products that are on the screen
00:10:53 00:10:56 right now
00:10:53 00:10:58 anything from a pillow to canvases and
00:10:56 00:11:00 blankets and beer steins and Bluetooth
00:10:58 00:11:02 speakers can be easily personalized by
00:11:00 00:11:04 your customer right on your store
00:11:02 00:11:06 without using any additional app here's
00:11:04 00:11:08 an example right here okay let's say
00:11:06 00:11:10 that you are selling this product right
00:11:08 00:11:11 here there is no mock-up being shown
00:11:10 00:11:13 because I don't have a design uploaded
00:11:11 00:11:17 but this is for a personalized blanket
00:11:13 00:11:18 that's going to cost you just $25 if you
00:11:17 00:11:20 are offering this product on your store
00:11:18 00:11:22 and someone can put their own photo on
00:11:20 00:11:24 it ARDS are you're going to be able to
00:11:22 00:11:26 charge more than $50 for this product
00:11:24 00:11:29 and if somebody buys it you are making
00:11:26 00:11:31 over $25 in margin from just one sale in
00:11:29 00:11:33 order to make $25 by selling t-shirts
00:11:31 00:11:35 using the same math that we've been
00:11:33 00:11:37 toking about the same time you would
00:11:35 00:11:39 have to sell over 10 shirts just to make
00:11:37 00:11:42 that same amount of profit if you had
00:11:39 00:11:44 the goal of making $500 per month like I
00:11:42 00:11:46 said earlier you would have to sell
00:11:44 00:11:48 hundreds of shirts just to achieve that
00:11:46 00:11:50 small amount of profit and like I said
00:11:48 00:11:52 I'm making this video today because over
00:11:50 00:11:54 a year ago I made a video called stop
00:11:52 00:11:56 selling t-shirts and the amount of hate
00:11:54 00:11:59 that I got was really quite comical to
00:11:56 00:12:01 me I'm wondering how those people are
00:11:59 00:12:03 doing now but I want to reference a few
00:12:01 00:12:05 posts from inside of my print-on-demand
00:12:03 00:12:07 Facebook group where people are
00:12:05 00:12:08 continuing to try and promote t-shirts
00:12:07 00:12:10 with Facebook Ads
00:12:08 00:12:11 I'm showing you guys all this stuff
00:12:10 00:12:14 because I know what it's like to
00:12:11 00:12:16 discover print on demand and think hey I
00:12:14 00:12:18 can show any of my designs on a t-shirt
00:12:16 00:12:20 I can use Facebook ads to promote it and
00:12:18 00:12:21 I can make a bunch of sales that was
00:12:20 00:12:22 literally me when I started
00:12:21 00:12:24 print-on-demand
00:12:22 00:12:26 I was super excited to throw all of my
00:12:24 00:12:28 designs on t-shirts and use Facebook ads
00:12:26 00:12:30 to sell them and it worked for a little
00:12:28 00:12:32 while but over time Facebook ads have
00:12:30 00:12:34 just become too expensive to be
00:12:32 00:12:36 profitable with t-shirts if you guys are
00:12:34 00:12:38 looking for even more print-on-demand
00:12:36 00:12:39 products that you could sell that are
00:12:38 00:12:41 going to get you a good margin I would
00:12:39 00:12:43 invite you to check out some of the
00:12:41 00:12:44 other videos on my channel I have
00:12:43 00:12:46 several where I dive in and show you
00:12:44 00:12:48 some of my favorite print-on-demand
00:12:46 00:12:50 products that have a high margin I also
00:12:48 00:12:51 have a ton of other content on the
00:12:50 00:12:54 channel where I show you step-by-step
00:12:51 00:12:55 how to start your store and things like
00:12:54 00:12:57 that and like I mentioned in the
00:12:55 00:13:00 beginning of the video I do have a free
00:12:57 00:13:01 100% free print-on-demand course down in
00:13:00 00:13:02 the
00:13:01 00:13:03 scription which will show you
00:13:02 00:13:06 step-by-step how to open your
00:13:03 00:13:08 print-on-demand business on Shopify so
00:13:06 00:13:10 I'm looking forward to reading all of
00:13:08 00:13:11 the hate comments down in the comments
00:13:10 00:13:14 below on this video I'm sure there are
00:13:11 00:13:15 going to be a few but really it's just
00:13:14 00:13:17 because people had this dream of
00:13:15 00:13:19 starting a t-shirt store and using
00:13:17 00:13:21 Facebook ads to sell them and I'm
00:13:19 00:13:23 pointing out that the math simply does
00:13:21 00:13:25 not add up and like I told you earlier I
00:13:23 00:13:27 do know that you could be profitable on
00:13:25 00:13:29 Etsy or you could use Instagram
00:13:27 00:13:31 influencers to sell your t-shirts but
00:13:29 00:13:33 like I said earlier the quickest way to
00:13:31 00:13:35 scale a print-on-demand product is to
00:13:33 00:13:37 launch Facebook Ads and show that
00:13:35 00:13:39 product to thousands of people per day
00:13:37 00:13:41 and make sales on autopilot that's what
00:13:39 00:13:42 I've been able to do that's what my
00:13:41 00:13:44 students have been able to do and we're
00:13:42 00:13:45 able to do it because we are selling
00:13:44 00:13:47 higher margin products so I will tok to
00:13:45 00:13:50 you guys later my name is Joe Robert
00:13:47 00:13:50 thanks for watching

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