In business, higher risks mean higher gains - or higher losses. That’s why in the here and now, entrepreneurs mostly dive into opportunities with minimal risks. Most would prefer to engage in business that requires small start-up capital and zero inventory cost.
Yes. Just like dropshipping.
Only this time, the dropshipping category is Print-on-Demand (POD).
With the world becoming more open about individuality, more buyers crave for products that are unique to their taste. They look for brands that offer refreshing experiences. According to Epsilon market research, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy because of personalized experience. Additionally, Google’s marketing and measurement survey also shows that 90% of marketers believe that personalization significantly contributes to profitability.
Print-on-Demand answers this need by printing custom products the consumers bought from the seller’s store. POD platforms like WC Fulfillment integrate with the seller’s eCommerce store to offer tailor-made experiences for the buyers. They do this without the need for the seller to handle inventory or shipping, which is the essence of the dropshipping business model.
Table of Contents
- What is WC Fulfillment?
- How Does WC Fulfillment Work?
- What is WC Fulfillment Pricing Like?
- What Types of Products Can Sell With WC Fulfillment?
- Does WC Fulfillment Have Good Print Quality?
- What Are the WC Fulfillment Shipping Times?
- Does WC Fulfillment Provide Customer Support?
- Does WC Fulfillment Accept Returns?
- What are the Best WC Fulfillment Alternatives?
- WC Fulfillment Review Summary
What is WC Fulfillment?
WC Fulfillment is a Print-on-Demand App that sellers can integrate with their Shopify stores. As of the moment, it is a plugin solely functional to Shopify. However, it works well with other app integrations in your Shopify store like Oberlo, Dropified, and many others.
The WC Fulfillment POD supplier company was launched in 2018. Made and managed by Nate Andreshak, it successfully joined the Top 10 list of POD Fulfillment apps on Shopify App Store. It allows eCommerce shop-owners to publish customized and personalized products to their store. It also offers a wide variety of Print-on-Demand products that customers will surely find uncommon and freshening.
Shop-owners can add the WC Fulfillment app through the Add App button found on their Shopify stores. This app is 100% free to use.
Furthermore, we have established that POD is a form of dropshipping. So, payment for the WC Fulfillment app will also only happen after an order from the store has been made.
How Does WC Fulfillment Work?
The WC Fulfillment app offers many outstanding and competitive features that improve website conversion and sales. Below are the considerations and steps you must follow to enhance your customer’s experience using this app:
1. Decide on a niche.
Niche is the specific kind of product or service you sell to a targeted segment of the market. For a Print-On-Demand business, you have to consider products that can be printed on and customized. The most common type of niche in the POD industry is personalized T-shirt prints. To be honest, the likes of these are already saturated, so, if you can, you must do away with this. Of course, you have to remember that a product category may still branch out to several divisions. You’ll have competitions regardless, so you must think of your product’s unique selling point.
If, for example, your niche is customized hoodies, you should look into the printing technique used by your POD supplier. It can be a selling point. Or maybe you chose the customized woven blankets niche. What are the kinds of weaves, or how many of this kind is offered by the suppliers? That can be your unique selling point.
Furthermore, your designs will also be a factor for your store to stand out. If it’s too plain and generic, customers may probably find multiple of such on AliExpress listings.
You may use tools such as Google Trends or EtsyRank (eRank) to search for POD products. It is also very much helpful in analyzing the current market trend.
2. Prepare and gather designs in advance.
One of the most vital parts of your business is your design. It sets you apart. It also brings your store closer to your customers because your products feel more personal. Yet, designs take time to make. You should have the design variations for each product ready. You will need it in doing the mockups for your store. WC Fulfillment company will also need it as your supplier.
Print-on-Demand is ideal for artists because you can showcase your craft while generating sales. But it works just as well for non-artists. Not being able to design the products yourself is not a problem. You can hire designers and artists to do it for you. Resorting to this method will incur additional startup costs on your end, though.
Additionally, you’ll be able to get access to dozens of product mockups after uploading your designs to the WC Fulfillment dashboard. The mockups will be available from the app’s Seller Resources Site. You’ll get them in PSD format, so you’ll be able to make additional edits and customization.
After editing, you can publish the mockups curated with your designs on your store. With these, your customers will be able to view the final products from your store. It will help set their expectations.
3. Create an eCommerce store.
To be able to sell products online, of course, you need an online store. There are numerous reputable Ecommerce website builders where you can set up your store. There’s WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Volusion, and many more.
Most of these have trial periods. You can take advantage of these promotions, especially when you’re working on low capital. You’ll be able to test and identify the ones that have fewer competitions and higher profit margins. However, WC Fulfillment only works on Shopify. Therefore, you need to set up your Shopify store.
How to create your Shopify eCommerce store:
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Go to the Shopify website.
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Input your email address at the middle blank bar then click on Get Started.
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Fill out the empty field with your email, password, and Store Name. Then, click on Create Store.
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It will open to a field that asks for your reason for creating the store and basic information. Make sure to fill out the field with the appropriate information.
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Click the cog icon located at the bottom left corner of your Shopify store homepage. Then, click on the Select a Plan button that appears at the bottom of the page. When you select a paid plan, all the work you did at your store during your free trial will not be lost. A Sign Up for a free trial will only be available for new members.
4. Choose a theme for your store.
Great news! Your Shopify store can be modified and customized. It means that you’ll be able to choose a theme that is related to your niche. Shopify provides a diverse selection of themes that you can apply in your store for free. Plus, you can alter presets to add plugins and integrations that your store needs to make a sale.
However, you can set up a booster theme for your Shopify store to increase conversions. Conversions mean that visitors of your website carried out certain actions leading ultimately to sales. A tutorial on setting up these booster themes is available at the WC Fulfillment website.
5. Add the WC Fulfillment App to your Shopify Store.
When it comes to apps and integrations, the WC Fulfillment app can work side by side with the others. It won’t hinder the work of Print on Demand apps or any dropshipping apps. Hence, you’ll be able to sell other products not offered by WC Fulfillment using the other apps. It can work alongside Custom Cat, Pillow Profits, teelaunch, Printful, Printify, etc.
Here’s how you set up your WC Fulfillment app on your Shopify store:
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Go to the Shopify App Store and click on the Categories tab.
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Select Finding Products from the drop-down list.
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It will open to another dropdown menu. Select Print on Demand.
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Print on Demand apps will appear in the results page. Look for WC Fulfillment App then click on it.
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Click Add App from the resulting WC Fulfillment app page.
You can also add the WC Fulfillment app by simply searching for the app from your browser or going to the app’s website.
When you go to your WC Fulfillment App dashboard, you’ll be able to create your POD products by uploading your custom images to the Create a Product tab on the dashboard. Doing this will allow you to publish a product using the app to your store. Moreover, you’ll be able to view your order reports once customers order from your store.
You’ll be able to know how many of the orders are pending, on hold, in production, and with errors. You’ll also get access to their product listings and buyer niches targeting data. WC Fulfillment also offers free designs and design videos. It gives ideas and mockups complete with PSD files that you can use for your store.
Most importantly, you’ll get access to lots of learning resources and audio-video tutorials. It will help maximize the use of the app in your store. You also get free email scripts to answer customer queries. So, handling concerns is also made easy by this app.
From here, you can already do various actions to customize your store further. You may add other Shopify apps to help you conveniently manage your store and attract more customers. You may also set up marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools to promote your business.
Lastly, you may add more products from other Product Research apps.
If you’re still unsure about what unique products might make a profit in a POD business, you can get more ideas here.
What is WC Fulfillment Pricing Like?
The WC Fulfillment App is free for beginners in the POD business. Yes! You’ll even get access to helpful resources for free. But of course, the product’s pricing is another conversation. Here are some of the bestselling products from WC Fulfillment POD App and their corresponding prices:
Wallet Phone Case
- Product cost: $12.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $2.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $2.99
Custom Watches
- Product cost: $22.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $2.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $4.99
Hooded Blankets
- Product cost: $42.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $0.00
- Shipping cost (INTL): $0.00
AOP Front Pocket Hoodie
- Product cost: $33.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $4.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $4.99
AOP Cloak
- Product cost: $45.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $4.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $4.99
AOP Crop Hoodie
- Product cost: $28.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $4.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $4.99
Sherpa Blanket
- Product cost (Adult): $32.49
- Product cost (Youth): $30.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $2.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $2.99
Mug
- Product cost: $8.49
- Shipping cost (USA): $5.99
- Shipping cost (INTL): $7.99
However, for those who want to scale their business and haven’t installed the app yet, it costs $9.99/ month as a Premium Plan. By subscribing to Premium Plan, you get to buy all the products at a lower price.
What Types of Products Can You Sell With WC Fulfillment?
With WC Fulfillment, you’ll be able to offer customized products to your customers using your designs or personalization requested by your customer. You can submit custom-made artworks and designs for the WC Fulfillment team to print on the products. Customized prints of photos of pets or loved ones are also popular requests from customers. You’ll be able to sell customized or personalized:
- Wallet Phone Cases
- Pocket Shirts with Peeking Image of Pets or other characters
- Mugs
- Hooded Blankets
- MacBook Case
The WC Fulfillment team prints the designs on the products and fulfills the orders of customers. The print designs are either made by you or requested by customers. In any case, you’ll have to make the necessary editing before sending it to the team. You can use either Photoshop or Photopea as your photo editor. You have to make sure that the photos are not blurry. WC Fulfillment accepts TIFF, jpeg, and png image file format. You’ll see this from the Product Specs Page of the app.
Does WC Fulfillment Have Good Print Quality?
WC Fulfillment provides high-quality products with good print quality. Even customer reviews from several channels show that the products they received were of fine print quality. It uses the Print on Demand standard printing technology. This technology is dependent on two things: the kind of cloth material used and the type of ink used. The good thing about this is that WC Fulfillment uses light-fast and durable color pigment on top-end materials. It ensures quality print when products arrive at the customers.
WC Fulfillment can handle even the most colorful designs. Finished products turn out great thanks to the meticulous printing process it follows.
Some reliable POD companies, on the other hand, use direct-to-garment (DTG) printing technology. Some prefer sublimation printing, and some do both depending on the product.
What Are the WC Fulfillment Shipping Times?
Up until recent backlash, WC Fulfillment committed itself to deliver products in the span of 2 to 5 weeks. Some parcels, however, take as long as 3 to 6 weeks, depending on the country of destination. These shipping intervals do not include the production time yet. Manufacture time may take about 2-7 days, depending on the product.
However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, WC Fulfillment encountered backlash from customers. Many of its negative reviews are due to late shipping, unknown status of orders, and lack of communication. The support seemed to have encountered problems as well in providing aid to the customers’ concerns.
Meanwhile, the WC Fulfillment team bills the shipping cost and wholesale price of the product directly to your Shopify store. Custom duties, tax, and other charges are also not part of the base price. The customer will have to pay for the product’s additional charges because it varies by country. It’s up to you to compute and adjust your profit margin when you bill your customers. Depending on the product, WC Fulfillment ships orders from Europe, China, or the US.
There is a difference between how Shopify and WC Fulfillment compute for the shipping rate. Shopify considers the destination and weight, while WC Fulfillment considers destination and quantity. Though this might be a bit confusing, WC Fulfillment sets published products to weight to help you deal with changing the shipping settings.
When orders are shipped, customers receive their tracking number directly from the app. The order is also automatically marked as fulfilled in your Shopify store. But you can also find your customer’s order’s tracking number from the All Orders page of the app’s dashboard. With the tracking number, you can monitor the status of your orders. You’ll be able to update your customers and assist them with their order inquiries. You can use 17track.net as a monitoring tool for you to send updates to your customers.
Does WC Fulfillment Provide Customer Support?
WC Fulfilment provides customer support through various channels. First off, you can contact the App developer himself, Nate Andreshak, from the Live Chat Button on the app’s website. Once you click on the blue chat icon at the bottom right corner of the website, you have the option to either message Nate or any other person from the support team. You can also send your message to both. Your queries will be answered by the support in under two hours.
Another way to reach the WC Fulfillment support team is through its Facebook page. If your concerns involve making choices or big decisions, the FB page seems to be the ideal support channel. There, it’s not only Nate or the support team who can help you. You’ll be able to receive help and valuable insights from entrepreneurs like you who have faced the same questions or issues as you.
In addition, you can reach the support team through the Contact Us section of their website. You can send a message on the website for issues still unresolved by the free email script the WC Fulfillment team provides on their website. The support will then contact you through your email address.
But recently, the WC Fulfillment app review rating dropped to 3.3 due to problems in communication from the support team. Sellers are complaining about the lack of communication which results in problems in shipping management and updates. This problem also started during the onset of coronavirus. Before this problem, it was one of the most praised POD fulfillment apps. Hopefully, it goes back to the competitive app it once was.
Does WC Fulfillment Accept Returns?
WC Fulfillment does not accept returns for the reason that the products are custom-made. It’s understandable, though. They might deal with so many items to produce from other POD partners. It would also be hard to resell a product already personalized for another customer. Naturally, who would want to buy a product with some random photo of a pet or person printed on it? Or maybe it has some random name woven on it or other modifications. Lucky you if the buyer has the same name or preference.
On the brighter side, WC Fulfillment offers to replace damaged items and poorly-made products. The seller only needs to send photos of the damaged or low-quality item on the support team’s email address, support@wcfulfillment.com.
What are the Best WC Fulfillment Alternatives?
Believe it or not, it’s not a bad idea to look into other Print-on-Demand companies. They might be able to give you an idea about other products that would go well with the apparel and phone accessory niche of WC Fulfillment. They might also help you align your priorities with specific POD criteria. For example, WC Fulfillment is currently in a bind with their support. Other POD companies might excel in this area. Some Print-on-Demand apps are actually great alternatives in terms of the following considerations:
Shipping: how long does it take for the product to reach the customers?
Cost: how much is the pricing of the products? Does it allow for a good profit margin?
Quality of Products and Print: will my customers be satisfied with the print of the product as well as the product quality?
Variety of Design: does it offer a wide category of designs? What about free designs? Will I be able to choose from various design ideas?
Availability of Support: will I get help if shipping issues or other incidents regarding the product arise?
1. Printful
One of the most reliable POD companies is Printful. It is known for its in-house printing. It uses DTG machines that carry out the direct-to-garment printing method. It is considered the most reliable in the industry and it is justified for various reasons.
Printful, just like WC Fulfillment, is a free-to-use app that you can integrate with your Shopify store. But unlike WC Fulfillment, it can be integrated with some other eCommerce stores like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Etsy, and a few more. It also allows sellers to customize products that they can list in their store. When buyers purchase the product, it also manages the shipping and order fulfillment. The seller would only need to track the items and update the customers.
It offers a wide variety of products as well as designs. In terms of product quality, it prides itself in following a meticulous printing process. The prices are slightly higher, though, compared to WC Fulfillment or other apps. It also has a built-in mockup generator which you can use for free. Printful also provides learning resources and creative services to help sellers. Their extra services include designers for hire and producing actual photos for design.
In terms of shipping, it offers reasonable shipping rates. It takes a maximum of 5 days for orders to be shipped by Printful to its logistics partners. But it takes 3- 4 weeks for the orders to reach the customers, depending on location. It has five fulfillment houses located in the USA, Europe, Latvia, Barcelona, and Mexico. It doesn’t do outsourcing.
As to support, store owners can contact the Printful support team via phone, Facebook group, or Live Chat.
Furthermore, it helps stores market their brands. Sellers may add their brand’s logo, labels, and other pack-ins to the packaged products.
2. Printify
Printify is a POD fulfillment platform that also allows stores to create custom print products. It is also free for first-time users but offers a premium plan for those planning to scale their business. It integrates seamlessly with Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Prestashop, and BigCommerce.
It partners with third-party suppliers who fulfill the orders and handle the shipping. It outsources partners from the UK, US, Australia, China, and Germany. It runs its operation in more than 90 printing facilities. One of its unique features is that you can choose your location and printing service provider. Because of its diverse partnerships, it also offers a selection of products in varied categories coming from different suppliers. It’s also because of this that the product quality is not consistent. That’s why it’s vital to try sample products first before publishing a list in your store. Printify offers up to 20% discount for sample orders.
The manufacturing time for ordered products takes 1-2 days. But this is only for certain suppliers of Printify like The Dream Junction. It does not apply to all. So, the same with product quality, Printify’s turnaround time is also inconsistent. So is its delivery time which, in turn, affects shipping cost. It’s hard to rely on this data when giving updates to customers.
However, its products have very competitive pricing. It’s much cheaper compared to Printful. It also offers a free mockup generator to help sellers with publishing customized items.
Support from Printify is accessible through the Help Center on its website. Sellers can embed Printify to online marketplaces like Etsy and eBay. It makes product sourcing easier for the store owner.
3. Pillow Profits
Pillow Profits is a competitive POD fulfillment app that introduces sellers to various unique selections of products. It offers a 30-day trial period after installing the app. Then you will be asked to pay the monthly fee of $29.99. Interestingly, only a 7-day trial period is given to sellers when you install it from its website.
Just like WC Fulfillment, Pillow Profits only integrates with Shopify.
It offers more than 10,000 free designs that you can use to customize products. The mockup generator is also free. Customers can choose from a growing list of products because new ones are being added constantly to the item list. The product pricing is low for all the unique, good quality items. It makes it one of the best POD fulfillment apps around.
The fastest lead time is from 2-5 days. On average, its manufacturing time falls on 5-6 days. Meanwhile, customers receive the products shipped from countries in Eastern Asia. Countries with EMS Delivery have an estimated shipping time of 10-25 days. On the other hand, International Delivery time is within 2- 4 weeks. If EMS country bag orders did not arrive within 45 days, Pillow Profits gives a refund of the item’s cost. The same goes for International country bag orders that haven’t arrived in 60 days.
Sellers may send their inquiries or concerns in the pop-up contact button of the app’s website.
These are just a fraction of the best Print-on-Demand sites out there. Other POD companies can still provide you with more varieties of unique products at competitive prices. You can explore more Print-on-Demand companies to identify which fulfillment app would bring the most benefit to your business.
WC Fulfillment Review Summary
Despite the existence of tools that help manage your Print-on-Demand business, it will still not guarantee success. Finally, everything will depend on how much you badly want your business to flourish.
Fulfillment apps like WC Fulfilment may not solve your every need as a seller. Nevertheless, more than the automation tools, it gives you resources. An extensive collection of resources tried and tested by the ones that come before you. Learn as much as you can and maximize the use of these resources. Soon enough, you’ll find your way into learning how you’ll succeed.
But for now, you can check this list below to help you decide whether WC Fulfillment will be advantageous to your Print on Demand business’ fate.
Pros:
- Provides PSD files of mockups that you can edit on Photoshop
- Sellers not familiar with Photoshop have the option to use Photopea
- The app is free for first-time users
- Product Pricing is low
- No minimum order required. You can go for single orders
- It has lots of available resources and easy-to-follow audio-video tutorials
- Creative services like video mockup creation are available at an affordable price
- Low shipping rates
- It showcases a unique range of products
- Free mockup generator
- Free designs
- The website FAQ is very detailed
Cons:
- It experienced backlash from customers due to lack of communication and shipping delays. These issues started at the onset of the pandemic
- Support takes a long time to answer
- The app does not integrate with other eCommerce platforms.
- No return policy
- Shipping takes longer than when it began its operations
- Minimal product range, although unique, compared to other apps