You have a knack for designing things, and you always get recognized for being creative. So, you wonder, “Can I make money out of this?” Well, of course! One way to do so is through print on demand.
Artists and graphic designers particularly benefit from selling print on demand products. It’s a business model that lets you sell merchandise using your own artwork or design, but you leave the order fulfillment part to a service provider.
Is it profitable? You can bet. The global print on demand industry is expected to hit over $152 billion by 2022. Custom t-shirt printing alone is forecast to score $3 billion in the next five years.
Now, the question is, how can you make money selling print on demand products? First, you need to look for a fulfillment service provider. There’s quite a lot of them, and understandably, it can be overwhelming to choose which one to work with. Let us help you get started with this Pillow Profits review.
Table of Contents
Is Pillow Profits Legit?
Yes, Pillow Profits is a legit business. Pillow Profits is a fulfillment service provider that offers premier footwear and home goods. It’s registered in the US and ships products from Eastern Asia.
You may be waiting longer for your order, so you start wondering about its legitimacy. Don’t worry, you weren’t scammed. The delays are due to the pandemic, which has affected almost every business we know. You can find reviews on Shopify, which is proof that it’s doing business with merchants, delivering actual products.
How to Start Selling With Pillow Profits
Now that we’ve cleared the legitimacy of Pillow Profits, you’re probably wondering how to get started. Here are the essential steps to creating your accounts and starting to sell with Pillow Profits:
- Register for a Shopify account. You have a 14-day free trial, then you can choose your plan later, starting at $29 per month.
- Register for a Pillow Profits account. It costs $29.99 per month, but if you install the app via its website, you can enjoy Pillow Profits free trial for 7 days. If you install via Shopify, you get 30 days free trial.
- Wait for Pillow Profits’ email that approves your registration. It usually takes 6 to 12 hours.
- Download the Pillow Profits app from Shopify’s app store and install.
- Connect your Pillow Profits and Shopify store.
- Start uploading your designs and publishing your products on your Shopify store.
- When the order comes in, Pillow Profits will take care of the fulfillment up to delivery to your end customers.
Pillow Profits Features
The success of selling a POD product partly depends on the available features and resources that the POD fulfillment service provides. Let’s take a look at what Pillow Profits has to offer:
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Large database of resources. One of the first things we noticed about Pillow Profits is that it has lots of video tutorials, which are quite useful, especially for first-time eCommerce business owners. From registering an account on Pillow Profits to designing products to avoiding fraud orders, Pillow Profits has you covered. It even has a YouTube channel with additional video tutorials.
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Free product mockup generator. You can upload your designs on the app and see Pillow Profits mockups for different products you can sell. That way, it’s easier to see how your design will look on actual products. You can download the images too and use them for promotions and ads.
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Free designs. If you’re not the creative type, but you still want to sell POD products, you don’t have to worry. You can choose from the many designs available on the Pillow Profits app. There are more than 10,000 ready-to-use designs you can take advantage of!
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Free shipping. You don’t have to worry about paying extra on shipping fees because the cost is already embedded in the fulfillment prices of the products.
Shipping
As mentioned, there’s no shipping fee charged to the merchant or the customer. The shipping cost is already built-in to the product costs. However, Pillow Profits offers Express-Line products, which cuts the delivery time. The products are delivered by DHL for additional shipping fees.
Some products take 2 to 4 days to produce, such as pillow covers, crew socks, and cloth tote bags. Others may take 4 to 7 days, such as handbags, leather tote bags, canvas shoes, and sneakers. Delivery times are estimated between 10 to 25 days, while international deliveries may take 2 to 4 weeks. For Express-Line products, the delivery time may take 4 to 5 days only.
All deliveries have EMS tracking, except for other international deliveries because China Post doesn’t provide final destination tracking.
Returns
Customers can cancel orders within 24 hours or as long as the status is pending or on-hold. That’s sufficient time for them to review their orders and ensure that everything’s okay. Still, it’s nearly unavoidable for mishaps to happen. So, what happens when they want to return their order or if they’re unhappy with what they received?
If the customer received a poor-quality or damaged product, they must send a photo as proof. Pillow Profits will replace the product for free. However, it’s not responsible for damages incurred during the shipping.
If the customer received a wrong product, they must send proof that it was different from what they ordered. Pillow Profits will replace it with the right one at no additional cost.
Likewise, if the customer is unhappy with the design, they must send photos along with the complaint regarding the designs. Pillow Profits will investigate the claim and it’s their discretion to give refunds, credits, or reprints.
Pillow Profits also offers one free size exchange per order in case the customer is unhappy with the size and fit of the shoes they receive. You have to provide the following information:
- Why the shoes didn’t fit
- The new size that the customer is requesting
- Customer name
- Order number
- Store name
The POD company will send a new pair, and the customer doesn’t have to return the first pair they received. Well, isn’t that nice? This one-time free exchange is limited to:
- high tops
- low tops
- sneakers
- boots
- casual shoes
- flip flops
- faux fur boots
- slip-ons
Other products on Pillow Profits’ catalog are not eligible for free size exchange. So, if your customers are unhappy about the sizes they’ve ordered, Pillow Profits can’t refund or replace them. Now, that’s the challenge for you to resolve your customers’ dissatisfaction.
Customer Support
You, as the merchant, are responsible for handling end customer support. As a seller though, you can contact Pillow Profits via the “Click here for help” button at the bottom-right corner of its website. You can also contact the support team through the app dashboard, and you can expect a reply in 6 to 12 hours. This is one downside of working with Pillow Profits because you have only one option to seek support.
Paying for products
When the customer places an order and pays you, the order is automatically forwarded to Pillow Profits for fulfillment. Pillow Profits then auto charges you for the amount of order they’re able to fulfill.
Pillow Profits accepts debit cards, PayPal, and major credit cards. You need to set up two auto-payment methods to ensure that your payments are collected on-time. Otherwise, you’ll be banned from the app.
If any order needs to be refunded, Pillow Profits will only provide you with store credits, which you can use for future purchases. It doesn’t give a monetary refund credited to your debit or credit cards.
What Products Does Pillow Profits Offer?
While you might think that Pillow Profits sells pillows only, that’s not the case. As you can see on its logo, it’s main focus is footwear. Even so, it also offers a range of products. See some of the products in the list below, along with their fulfillment costs.
- Cozy winter boots - $36.99
- Door socks - $24.99
- Belt buckles - $16.99
- Shoe organizers - $24.99
- Mouse mats - $16.99
- Hydro tracking bottles - $23.99
- Stair stickers - $15.99
- Travel bags - $37.99
- Mailbox covers - $21.99
- Laundry hampers - $16.99
- Classic caps, mesh-back caps, 5-panel caps - $16.99
- Jigsaw puzzles - $24.99
- Aqua barefoot shoes - $17.99
- Premium face masks - $17.99
- Tumblers - $19.99
- Face masks - $11.90
- Grocery bags - $20.99
- Chunky boots - $34.99
- Sleeve blankets - $27.99
- Bandanas - $13.99
- Winter sneakers - $37.99
- Polar boots - $55.99
- Bedding - $38.00
- Blankets - $23.50
- Quilts - $23.99
- Hooded blanket - $34.00
- Leather boots - $39.99
- Faux fur leather boots - $41.99
- Quilt bed sets - $42.99
- All season boots - $52.99
- Lampshades - $20.99
- Sporty sneakers - $34.99
- Chunky sneakers - $34.99
- Sneakers - $31.99
- Low-top shoes - $31.99
- High-top shoes - $31.99
- Round or rectangle coffee table - $119.99
- Slide sandals - $21.99
- Boho bags - $27.50
- Pet seat covers - $42.99
Pillow Profits Pricing
To sell print on demand products with Pillow Profits, you’re going to pay a monthly premium membership fee of $29.99. Then, you’ll pay for the base prices of products they’re able to fulfill on your behalf.
We like that Pillow Profits has made the shipping costs quite simple by including them in their product pricing. That way, the costs become predictable on your end, unlike with other POD providers with varying shipping costs, depending on the delivery companies they hire and the locations of the end customers.
Pillow Profits vs Printful
Printful is one of the best print on demand fulfillment service providers, and you probably heard about well before you even know about Pillow Profits. Here’s a quick comparison between the two:
- It’s free to sign up for an account with Printful and it doesn’t have a monthly fee, unlike Pillow Profits that charges $29.99 every month.
- Both have a wide range of products.
- Both can be integrated with Shopify, but Printful has other integration options, such as Etsy, WooCommerce, and Amazon.
- Printful also offers warehousing services for non-Printful products you sell in your store.
- Printful’s fulfillment centers are strategically located across different countries, while Pillow Profits’ fulfillment hub is in Asia.
- Printful offers flat rate shipping fees.
- Like Pillow Profits, Printful also offers free designs that you can use to design your products.
Pillow Profits vs GearBubble
GearBubble is another place where you can sell your designs using the company’s products. Here’s how it compares with Pillow Profits:
- It’s free to sell products on GearBubble, but there’s also an option for a GearBubble Pro account, which is $97 a month for startup e-stores and $297 a month for growing e-stores.
- GearBubble doesn’t have Shopify integration, but you can sell on Amazon, Etsy, and more.
- GearBubble has a faster delivery estimate at 7 to 12 days, compared to Pillow Profits’ 10 to 25 days.
- Both provide order tracking, which will let customers know where their packages are.
- GearBubble handles end customer support. All you have to do is to design and market your products.
- With GearBubble, you launch a campaign to sell products that you designed. When the campaign is over, you can already request to get your profits. It may take up to 14 business days to receive your money.
Pillow Profits vs Printify
Probably Printful’s biggest competitor, Printify has its own edge when it comes to print on demand fulfillment. Here’s a quick comparison between Pillow Profits and Printify:
- While Pillow Profits prints its own products, Printify works with a network of print providers and connects sellers with them.
- Printify is free, but it also has a premium plan for $29 a month and an enterprise plan that costs depending on your business needs.
- Both can be integrated with Shopify, but you can also connect Wix, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and PrestaShop with Printify.
- Printify has varying shipping costs, considering that it works with different print providers that are located in various places.
- Both leave the end customer support to the sellers.
- Both have a wide range of products.
- You can use Printify even without an eCommerce store hosted by major platforms. You can use your Instagram or Facebook page to promote the products and place the orders manually to Printify.
Pillow Profits Pros and Cons
Well, like everything, selling with Pillow Profits comes with both good and bad sides. It’s necessary for you to weigh them so that you can make an informed decision about selling POD with this platform. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using this POD service:
PROS
- It has a wide range of products you can choose from and continuously add new ones. So, even if you’re starting with a small niche, you can easily expand your product offerings later on.
- It has lots of good reviews regarding product quality and professional service. Before the pandemic, it had an average rating of 4.8 stars on Shopify. Pillow Profits’ COVID-19 rating dipped to 3.5 stars now amid the delays in shipping.
- Its prices are relatively lower compared to other POD providers.
- It has free shipping worldwide.
- You won’t run out of resources to help you navigate through the platform and how to sell with Pillow Profits.
- It has 10,000+ free designs you can use on your products.
- It offers replacements and refunds for damaged and poor-quality products.
CONS
- It has a monthly recurring fee of $29.99, which can be hefty for beginner sellers. However, if you’re serious about your business, it’s a worthy investment that you can easily cover once you start earning profits.
- Its seller support is through emails only.
- It can only be integrated with Shopify. So, even when you already have a store from other platforms, you still have to create a Shopify store to sell POD products fulfilled by Pillow Profits.
- Shipping takes quite a long time compared to other POD providers.
- It automatically charges you for orders.
Pillow Profits Review Summary
Pillow Profits is a good platform to start selling print on demand products, especially if you want to begin in the footwear niche. It doesn’t have much competition when it comes to footwear, and it receives generally good feedback on the quality of its products. That’s quite important because much of your customers’ satisfaction depends on the quality of the products they receive.
While Pillow Profits charges a monthly subscription fee to access its premium products, it’s a reasonable price, considering what it has to offer. Free shipping, 10,000+ free designs, quality products, and more. Its website can benefit from a facelift, though, for user-friendliness and easy navigation.
In conclusion, print on demand is an excellent way to kick off your eCommerce business, and Pillow Profits is one of the best places to start.