[This article was originally published by Espresso Capital]

Print-on-demand (POD) sits at the intersection of ecommerce enablement, personalization, and digital manufacturing. It is the business model behind, and the digital printing process for, creating a multitude of made to order products like books, apparel, home goods, and accessories. Although print-on-demand has been around since the 1990s, rapid improvements in technology coupled with the proliferation of new online retail channels such as TikTok and changing consumer tastes are now driving tremendous growth in the sector.

In fact, while the value of the global print-on-demand market was estimated at US$10.2 billion in 2024, it is projected to reach nearly US$103 billion by 2034. That implies a compound annual growth rate of 26% over the next 10 years — nearly double that expected for ecommerce over the same period according to some estimates.

What’s driving print-on-demand’s rapid growth?

The growing popularity of on-demand production models has been underpinned by very material advances in printing technologies in recent years. These technological advances have not only allowed a growing array of products to be created on demand, but also at a quality level that matches traditional production techniques and at price points that make print-on-demand profitable for merchants. Today, retail quality printing techniques (eg, direct-to-film, direct-to-garment, sublimation) as well as embroidery and engraving are readily available on demand. Beyond this underlying technological shift, there are also several other important trends at play.
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With today’s ecommerce platforms you can start a business in minutes.

Mathijs Eefting, Mayzing

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“Consumers are increasingly interested in highly personalized products that reflect who they are and what they stand for, which print-on-demand can deliver,” says Mathijs Eefting, the Co-founder and CEO of Mayzing, a UK company that provides print-on-demand services for entrepreneurs and brands to create and sell custom merchandise. “Social media also plays an important role since it gives people a way to connect with others who share their interests. That, in turn, can drive demand for custom, made to order products that speak to those interests.”

Another key growth driver according to Eefting is the rise of ecommerce platforms like Shopify and TikTok Shop, which have enabled a new generation of entrepreneurs with a large social media presence to launch businesses. “With today’s ecommerce platforms you can start a business in minutes,” he notes. “And with print-on-demand, you can start selling products just as quickly and get them in your customers’ hands in a matter of days.”

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Comparing print-on-demand to legacy print production

Historically, printed products had to be created in bulk before they were sold. A retailer with an idea for a new t-shirt, for example, would have to partner with a factory in China, Bangladesh, or some other low-cost manufacturing hub to produce thousands of shirts up front before ever selling a single one.

There are several obvious shortcomings of this approach. First, the retailer has to guess how many t-shirts it should produce in various sizes and colors based on forecasting that typically isn’t very accurate. The retailer also has to invest up front to pay for those t-shirts many weeks or even months in advance, allowing time for them to be produced and shipped before it can start selling them, tying up working capital for weeks or months. And, when the t-shirts finally do arrive, they either have to be distributed to stores or warehoused until they are purchased online, adding to overhead costs and operations complexity. The retailer also has to manually create visual representations of the product for their website and advertising.

Even after all of those challenges are solved, a much bigger one often emerges: running out of certain products while not being able to sell others. In a model where restocking can take months, not having enough of a particular item can mean missed financial opportunity for the retailer. Meanwhile, products that fail to sell either need to be discounted until they do or, in the worst case scenario, be disposed of. Having to ship additional products to catch up with demand or throw unwanted ones away simply isn’t sustainable.

“It’s not a great business model for segments like creators and entrepreneurs who don’t have the funds to put down up front,” says Eefting of traditional printing, who notes that a key difference with print-on-demand is that you only produce a product after it has been sold. That results in less risk for the retailer, who no longer has to rely on forecasts to decide what to buy, and leads to less waste overall. Another important aspect of print-on-demand is that it eliminates minimum order sizes. “Instead of having to buy tens, hundreds, or even thousands of items at once, you can order any product as a one-off,” he says. “That allows for a lot more experimentation among retailers and entrepreneurs, and gives them the ability to test demand for products before committing to them.”

For merchants, retailers, entrepreneurs, and others, print-on-demand brings a number of other advantages. Only producing an item once a sale is made eliminates inventory risk and the need for upfront capital expenditures. Meanwhile, demand-led pricing avoids margin erosion and waste, resulting in much greater certainty around ROI. For those who partner with the right print-on-demand service provider, the approach can also increase speed to market and make it easier to access global markets. The best print-on-demand platforms also use AI to drive efficiencies across the production process and even to automatically generate the visual representations needed to sell products.

Where is print-on-demand on the rise?

Retail is the most obvious use case for print-on-demand. Going forward, Eefting envisions kiosks installed in stores that allow customers to design custom products that are available for in-store pick up the next day. Such an approach would not only increase foot traffic to physical stores, but also allow retailers to optimize a key performance metric: the number of designs they offer per square foot of retail space.

On the B2B side, corporate gifting is another area that’s seeing considerable growth as businesses increasingly look to give personalized items to customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Meanwhile self-publishing is another growing area because it allows authors to print their books as they sell, one copy at a time, rather than being on the hook to sell thousands of copies that were printed in advance.

While all of these areas are interesting use cases for print-on-demand, an even more exciting one is content creators. The number of content creators — influencers, artists, gamers, live streamers, musicians, and digital entrepreneurs, among others — has exploded over the last few years. Market data suggest that there were as many as 200 million of them at the end of last year, up from an estimated 50 million in 2021. “These people are active online, have a large number of followers, and an extensive digital footprint,” says Eefting. “Many of them are also looking for new ways to monetize what they’re doing.”

Today’s content creators increasingly recognize the risk of building a business on the back of algorithms that can change at any time. As a result, they are diversifying the channels they use to connect with their followers, while also looking for additional income streams beyond social media ad revenue. In fact, content creators who earn more than $100,000 a year often have five different revenue streams or more. Those additional streams might include offering exclusive content or one-on-one coaching. For a growing number of creators, that also includes selling personalized merchandise.

“Merchandise has been an underutilized income stream among creators because of how complicated it is to set up on your own,” says Eefting. “But it’s also an incredibly exciting one because of its high potential. Print-on-demand allows creators to convert their relationship with followers into something tangible, while also sidestepping the headaches of figuring out payment solutions, finding a manufacturer, shipping products, and everything else associated with traditional print.”
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It’s a transformative time for print on demand. Those who embrace it early will be best positioned to thrive in today’s economy.

Mathijs Eefting, Mayzing

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Imagine a yoga influencer who wants to sell custom yoga mats with inspirational quotes inscribed on them. That influencer may have followers all over the world, which would make getting those yoga mats to them a logistical nightmare. Although setting up an online store can be done in just a few clicks, setting up the infrastructure necessary to produce and sell products globally is a much more complex undertaking. Selecting the right print-on-demand platform is essential for removing that complexity and making it easy for creators to start selling their merchandise straight away.

What to look for when deciding to partner with a print-on-demand platform

If you’re a retailer, entrepreneur, or creator looking to start selling print-on-demand products, you have two choices. You can either partner directly and deal with the headaches that come with that, or with a software-enabled print-on-demand platform that makes your life easier by removing the complexity. Key examples of how they remove that complexity include:
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• Helping you create a better customer experience. If you already have an online store to sell digital assets, you will want to make sure to add the physical products you’re selling to it to create a one-stop-shopping experience. A good print-on-demand platform will integrate with your existing store, syncing data between both systems to ensure a timely, efficient, and seamless customer experience.

• Ensuring you’re set up to sell globally. Any print-on-demand platform should be able to give you access to the store and payment solutions you’ll need to start selling if you don’t already have them. But, if you want to sell your products globally, your store will need to be localized to not only use the correct language, but also accommodate local tax requirements and payment systems. The right print-on-demand platform will be able to do this for you, allowing you to instantly sell in dozens of different countries from a single store without having to go through the hassle of setting all of this up manually yourself.

• Enabling you to produce goods and fulfill orders on a global scale. Relying on one printer to fulfill global orders is both costly and slow. To succeed, you need printers on every continent where you do business and, in some cases, multiple printers with different specialties. Finding and managing those resources adds a lot of complexity, while working with a print-on-demand platform gives you access to the right partners to not only fulfill orders anywhere, but also ensure that your products are consistent no matter where they are produced.
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Relying on a single printer for global orders is inefficient and slow. Leading print-on-demand platforms solve this by managing distributed networks of specialty producers, ensuring quality, speed, and consistency. For example, Eefting notes that Mayzing is integrated with 15 production sites across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, enabling them to not only produce tens of thousands of SKUs but also ship them within just 1.5 days of an order being placed.

Looking ahead

It’s a transformative time for print-on-demand. Companies like Mayzing are leading the way by investing in proprietary technology and global fulfillment infrastructure. As demand for faster, leaner, and more personalized commerce grows, print-on-demand is quickly becoming a foundational strategy for retailers, brands, and especially creators. Those who embrace it early — and partner wisely — will be best positioned to thrive in today’s economy.

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