Print on Demand (POD) services that I use
If you're looking for options for print on demand (or produce on demand) and you're based in Australia, this article may be helpful.
I'm an illustrator and artist based in Western Australia and so I searched for POD (Print on Demand) options locally first. After finding there were no options locally that had Shopify apps, I widened the search to national and overseas vendors.
While I work on my physical art, I thought why not setup the illustrations and art prints in the meantime into a gift store. So here's what I looked for:
Search criteria:
- A vendor that did it all, great quality (Yeah, there just isn't one)
- An option for great art prints, ship fast for a reasonable price
- An option for merch, in particular t-shirts, hoodies and tote bags
- Stickers ... hmm maybe later
- Sustainable businesses
I looked at some of the Australian (in particular Western Australian) photographers and art print suppliers and how they sell their prints on demand. Some had vendors that made a good canvas mounted print, some had nice art paper. But not many with multiple great options. Although not my main driver at the moment, I really wanted a local sticker producer to have Shopify integration but I couldn't find one for now.
The integration with Shopify is where I got stuck usually with the vendors. Most don't have an app or easy way to connect your store. Anyway after much research, here's the vendors I chose and why, hope it's helpful:
Art Prints - Printumo
Printumo looked like a good service, run by artists and their product looked quality. They have a limited range of canvas prints only, but they're great. Other reasons:
- I messaged them and the responses were quick and helpful
- Free setup
- Connects to shopify easily
- Option for Etsy connection
- Ships to many countries
- Mockup images included (some services charge extra - i.e. Printful)
- Shipping centre in Melbourne
Things to look forward to - Etsy, Amazon and eBay integrations are coming within a couple of months.
Art paper has launched (Mar 2025). So Printumo now produce art paper prints as well as canvas. They aren't available for Australia yet though.
I tested the service and it was very quick and the print and frame are quality. Here are some photos:
Clothing - Teemill
The WWF online store uses Teemill so I thought, yeah must be okay! Everything Teemill produces is organic cotton and often it's remilled material.
I have ordered a sample and but it seems the shipping is on the slightly slower side coming from the UK to Aust. Their policy is 35 days for arrival. When the sample arrives this week I'll update this post.
Clothing, phone cases & other - Gelato
I checked Gelato out a while back because I really want a quality stationery vendor. They didn't really have a big range. It seems short, local print runs using a local printer might be the best option for quality stationery rather than POD. Anyone got any suggestions?
But Gelato seems to have good phone cases and the clothing range also looks quality. I'm testing the phone cases and tote bags for now.
- Easy, free setup
- Nice dashboard system (maybe the most advanced)
- Some very cool sleeve, label and other branding options
- Option for Etsy connection
I'm looking forward to testing out some of their products with samples.
Split Shipping
So what happens when people order products from more than one vendor? Well Shopify supports split shipping now. More info in the link.
Summary
Well that's where I'm up to at the moment with organising print / produce on demand.
Samples are still arriving but so far with the vendors listed here, I've had no issues and the system connections seem to be working well.
Have you had a different experience, or do you have a recommendation? Leave a comment if you have thoughts.
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