Blog

Last time on the blog, I introduced you to production partners on Etsy. Today, I’ll walk you through creating a Printful store. I chose to use Printful as it is a popular Etsy production partner. However, Printful is also available for Shopify, WooCommerce, SquareSpace, Amazon, and more.

How to Create a Store on Printful

1. Create an account at Printful.com and log in.
2. From your dashboard, scroll down and click ‘Create your store’.
3. Choose where you sell and follow the provided instructions on Printful to connect your shop.
4. After connecting your shop, head to the ‘Design products’ link. 
5. Click the ‘Add’ button to start your first product.  
6. Choose a product. 
7. Choose your colors, sizes to offer, and upload your design. Your design should be 300 dpi resolution. Click the ‘Proceed to mockups’ button when you are finished.
8. Create your mockups and click the ‘Proceed to description’ button. 
9. Add your description and tags and click the ‘Proceed to pricing’ button. 
10. Set your pricing. The first column is how much the shirt will cost you, the second is how much your customer will pay, and the third is your profit. Finally, click the ‘Submit to store’ button. 
11. After you’ve designed your first product, set up the billing. You can connect a credit card or Paypal account.
12. Last, but equally as important, add your logo, tax rates, and shipping. After these three are set up, Printful will automatically sync your listing Etsy’s draft section. You can log into your Etsy account and publish it.

What Happens When a Customer Places An Order?

While the process differs from platform to platform, here has been my experience using Printful during a test run:

1. Set up the listing in the Printful dashboard and sync it to Etsy as shown in the tutorial above.
2. Customer places an order.
3. Customer’s order is sent directly from my Etsy Shop to Printful.
4. Printful creates the order and white label (using my branding rather than theirs) ships the order to the customer.
5. Customer receives it (and loves it)!
6. Here’s a close up of the print quality of the shirt from Printful. To write this tutorial, I set up a dummy Etsy shop. So, if you’d like to order one of the shirts in the tutorial click here.

That’s it! Using a print on demand service like Printful is a great way to complement your existing products. And remember, Printful is way more than tee shirts – they also carry mugs, leggings, backpacks, hats, phone cases, and more.

Was this walkthrough helpful? Save the image below to Pinterest.

Have you ever heard of production partners on Etsy? If not, they are Etsy’s way of allowing you to outsource work in your craft business – but still sell on Etsy. And, I love them because they are a great way to expand your product line with related products that you cannot/do not make yourself.

Put simply, production partners are companies/manufacturers that you’ve teamed up with for product creation. Let’s take a look at how you can use production partners to expand your Silhouette or Cricut based Etsy shop.

Production Partner Examples

• If you sell planner stickers and goods, find a production partner to create a few planner related coffee mugs or tee shirts with planner related sayings.
• If you sell tee shirts, find a production partner to make custom printed leggings.
• If you sell cards, find a production partner to offer high quality prints or canvas.
• And so on. The key here is to expand your current Etsy shop by finding products that complement your existing ones.

How to Set Up Production Partners on Etsy

Setting up production partners is easy:

1. Log into your Etsy account and navigate to ‘Settings’ on the left hand side, then ‘Production partners’.
2. Click the ‘Add a new production partner’ button.
3. Fill in the information on the pop up screen by adding your production partner name and basic information. In this example, I’m using Printful. 
4. That’s it! When creating new Etsy listings, you’ll choose your production partner when creating the listing. 

Who Can Be Your Production Partner?

You can add anyone who does manufacturing for you as a production partner. After following the steps above, Etsy may reach out to you for additional information about your partner. Most importantly though, Etsy wants to make sure that your production partner follows their Ethical Expectations and that you design the products.

Off the top of my head, Printful, Art of Where, and Gooten are popular Etsy production partners.

This post is just an overview of what production partners are and how to set them up in your Etsy shop. On Wednesday, I’ll go through an example showing you how to create your first listing using Printful.

Was this post helpful? Save the image below to Pinterest.

Looking for creative email subject lines for Christmas? I’ve got you covered.

I’ve said it over – and over – and over again: Email newsletters are a great way to get (and stay!) in front of your customers. If you haven’t read my previous posts on email newsletters, go check them out:

Why You Need an Email List for Your Craft Business and 3 Ways to Build an Email List without a Website.

25+ Creative Email Subject Lines for Christmas

The most wonderful time of year… Coupon inside!

Our Ultimate Gift Guide Enclosed

The best stocking stuffers? Handmade ones!

Don’t show up empty handed, hurry and grab a hostess gift.

Open this email for holiday savings!

GIFT-MAS is here, check out our recommended gifts.

Looking for a Unique Gift? We’ve got you covered.

Hurry in for handmade gifts!

50% (or 40%, 30%, and so on) off everything! Coupon code inside.

Forget the Fruitcake! Grab our (name of best selling product)!

Yule love our holiday products!

Better than Christmas cookies? Our holiday sale!

Our Sale is so Big, Santa’s Coming!

Picked the perfect tree? Put the perfect gift under it.

We wish you a Merry Christmas (with these special deals!)

Stay in your pajamas and shop our sale.

It’s too cold to go out! Cozy up with these deals.

Psst, Santa says he shops at (name of shop)! Get an exclusive offer inside.

Make a new holiday tradition: Shopping our website!

Free Shipping, Free Gift Wrap, and a Coupon Code!

Santa Approved! New Products are Now Available.

Don’t be a Grinch, shop early and save!

Our elves are working overtime! Last minute gifts available.

‘Tis the Season – To Save! Sale details inside!

The Best Christmas Gifts? Personalized Ones!

Announcement: Our Biggest Holiday Sale Starts Now!

How’d I come up with these sayings? For many of them, I used this ‘formula’: Catchy saying/Pun + Deal. The first half is a cute, creative, or catchy play on words to get the customers attention in their inbox. The second part is a deal/coupon/sale/new product announcement. After you’ve gotten their attention in their inbox, you give them a reason to open the email.

So, get out there and try it! Need more help getting your shop ready for the holidays? Read this article on how to get your business ready for the holidays.

For many small business crafters, December’s holiday season is the busiest time of year. Between all the orders, the craft shows, the holiday parties, shopping for your own family, and so much more – things can get overwhelming.

But, I think I can help.

I put together a list of 15 things you can do today, before the rush, to help get your craft business ready for the holidays.

15 Ways to Get Your Craft Business Ready for the Holidays

1. Sign up for holidays fairs, shows, and markets. I hear it all the time – ‘I wanted to do some craft fairs, but they are all full!’ Want to know why the shows are full? You waited too late to sign up. So, get to it. Need some help finding shows? Head to this link.
2. Arrange for extra help. If you think your craft business will be out of control busy this year, get some help lined up. Whether you call on friends and family or hire an employee – get to it – early!
3. Plan your promotions now. Right now, sit down and determine your best selling products. Choose a handful of them and get marketing banners, ads, and sales ready to focus on the things you know will sell.
4. Write out your holiday email newsletters. Email newsletters remain a great way to get customers to your shop and get your products bought. Of course, there’s no need to send them now, just save them as a draft or schedule them to be sent later. Need ideas for your emails? Anything related to gifts works great, and there are more ideas in this post.
5. Plan a holiday giveaway or contest. It’s pretty obvious – but customers like free. Even the opportunity to get something for free. Before you start planning a giveaway or contest though, understand the legalities of it. Read more in this post.
6. Make stock now. The holiday season is often a chaotic time in our lives – from the kids being out of school, to our personal shopping, and family events – there is so much going on. Take time now to make ready to ship items to sell during the holidays. I shared an easy way to stock up ahead of time in this post.
7. Get your shipping methods in order and set order by deadlines. Do the research you need to find out the best methods to ship your products to your customers. Price out expedited shipping and decide on your cutoff date for holiday orders to arrive in time for Christmas. In an ‘Amazon fueled world’ free shipping is best if you can swing it – just build the shipping price into your product price.
8. Figure out gift wrap. If you don’t currently offer gift wrapping services in your craft business, sit down and take the time to figure it out now. Order the supplies you’ll need and add the service to your shop. If you can offer gift wrapping services for free – it’s a great promotion!
9. Give your shop a holiday theme. Create an overlay for your website to get shoppers in the holiday season or a new banner for your Etsy shop. There’s no need to upload it until later in the season. If you need some stock images to help you, head to this post.
10. Plan to do good. People like to do good around the holidays and love when businesses also spread joy. Pick a cause to support over the holiday season and, if necessary, get in touch with them. Also, create some marketing materials to show how your business is helping others during the season.
11. Add a gift category to your website or shop. In this section, you can highlight which of your products are perfect for gifting. Consider categories like ‘For her’, ‘For him’, ‘Under $20’, ‘Under $100’, and so on.
12. Make sure your website is mobile friendly. The amount of users accessing websites on their mobile devices continues to grow. If you have a standalone website, don’t miss out on eager holiday shoppers because your site isn’t mobile friendly.
13. Consider offering returns or exchanges. For non personalized or custom orders, get a policy together for returns and exchanges and advertise it to customers. This helps boost customer confidence in your products and small business.
14. Offer gift cards or certificates. I know I’ve got a lot of ‘hard to buy for’ people on my Christmas list. I usually get them gift cards. Don’t forget to offer them in your craft business.
15. Start your own holiday shopping. Without the stress of rushing to get your own shopping done, you’ll have more time to work on your business. Bonus: You’ll probably end up spending less when you shop early and plan ahead of time!

Remember, the time to start planning for a successful Christmas and holiday season is now – not in a few weeks, a month, or when you ‘have time’.