News

How Print-on-Demand Makes Charity Fundraising Easier

When it comes to running a charity, the most challenging task is definitely raising funds. Even if a significant number of individuals are willing to donate to your project, your budget is still likely to be tight with all the extra expenses your project involves. So, you need to make sure that return of investment is worth your time. 

Selling promotional print-on-demand items like notebooks, branded bags, and teddy bears is a great way to raise awareness and generate much-needed donations since consumers are more willing to purchase things affiliated with a charity. It gives them a sense of well-being. They believe they have completed their daily act of kindness, while you earn a profit that you may invest into helping the people in need! This is a win-win scenario!

Traditionally, merchandise printing was a tedious and costly procedure, which involved creating branded items and ordering them in bulk from a printing company.  As a result, charity activists used to spend most of their time on processing orders instead of getting their message across, losing millions of pounds in prospective donations.

With the introduction of print-on-demand, charities were finally able to concentrate on fundraising and promotion without having to deal with boxes of stock, and redundant items. Print-on-demand works especially well for charities since it allows you to have a variety of personalised and branded items relevant to your charity's audience that are only produced, packaged, and sent once the transaction is completed.

For instance, if you were selling charitable organisation clothing, you wouldn't have the usual upfront fees associated with acquiring merchandise in all the many sizes and colours that you'd normally need to offer to your customers.

You can try out various designs and launch a wide selection of awareness-raising items to your audience without spending any money of your organisation's finances on inventory up front.

Experts at Urban Planet On-Demand will take care of everything -  we will create and print your goods, neatly packs them, and sends them straight to your customers. Your organisation pays the wholesale price and retains the profit.

What's the best part of working with Urban Planet On-Demand? You don't have to do anything but add designs to items and upload them to your web store.

At Urban Planet on-Demand, we provide affordable on-demand printing of smaller orders/bespoke merchandise.  Create your own items, customise an online shop, and we will take care of all order fulfilment procedures automatically.  You can experiment with alternative designs by posting them on your webpage without investing any money upfront.

As soon as your customer makes an order, we will print the merchandise, pack it neatly, and send it to your client. Your charity pays the wholesale cost, and you keep the profit.

Our objective is to make the process of developing a sustainable brand as simple as possible.  

As a result, you are relieved of the responsibility of stocking, packaging, and dispatching to your clients so there is no risk, no stock, no expense, and no inconvenience for you.

How to Get More Print-on-Demand Sales with Upselling and Cross-Selling

If you own a print-on-demand business, you're constantly looking for methods to increase your profits. Upselling and cross-selling are two sales techniques that can help you make more sales and attract new clients. They allow you to expose your customers to more of your items while also ensuring that they have a great shopping experience on your website. 

In this post, we will look at both of these tactics and give you some suggestions on how to use them to increase your revenue.  

What is Cross-Selling?

Cross-selling is a practise that encourages customers to purchase things that are complementary to the products they currently wish to purchase. For example, if a customer is looking at t-shirts, offer them discounted caps or tracksuit bottoms.

Cross-selling should be approached carefully and you need to make sure that the extra items offered actually make sense and adequately complement the initial item. Alternatively, your clients will turn down cross-selling opportunities.  

What is Upselling?

Upselling is a sales tactic in which clients are encouraged to purchase either the same item with extra features or a more costly, upscale edition of the same brand.

The goal of upselling is to persuade your consumer to spend more money by replacing their existing one with a more expensive one.

Upsells usually occur after a consumer has stated their intention of purchasing a certain product. In the instance of a print-on-demand store, an upsell will often occur after a customer has put an item in their shopping basket.

Best Practises for Upselling and Cross-Selling

1. Understand What Your Customers Want

At Urban Planet On-Demand, we are convinced that understanding your customers’ preferences is crucial for a successful cross-selling strategy. Recommending things that customers don't desire or need will simply reduce your chances of generating a sale. Running social media ads targeting specific groups of customers and carrying out surveys will help you better understand their preferences.

2. Avoid Being Too Pushy

Being excessively forceful or demanding can only drive away your consumers. No one wants to be pushed into buying a product, and making them feel uneasy will make them less inclined to return to you for future business. Always offer an upsell via email, but do it just once. Don't spam your customers with extra offers if they don't respond to your first proposal.

3. Make Your Customers Feel Special

Make the customer feel special by providing a discount or a one-time deal. This will catch their interest and push them to make a quick decision to buy, reducing the likelihood of them declining the offer.

4. Sell Items in Bundles

Bundling products/services can actually increase sales by giving the buyer the idea that they are receiving a bigger discount by purchasing a bundle rather than individual orders for each item. For instance, If you're raising money for a charity, a package that includes items like t-shirts, caps, and personalised mugs would be ideal.

5. Make Exceptional Offers

Offer restricted product releases and send e-mail notifications to your customers. This tactic is focused on your clients' fear of missing out and will allow you to make some quick sales.

At Urban Planet On-Demand, we keep stressing the importance of limited-time deals. They intensify the sense of urgency and make shop visitors see the goods as limited-edition items. These discounts are an excellent technique for ensuring that your clients return to your business for new promotions.

How to Prepare Your Print-on-Demand Store for Summer

If you’re running a print-on-demand store, summertime can be an especially lucrative time of year since it’s an ideal time to sell t-shirts and other clothing items with seasonal themes or bright and colourful prints. If you want to make the most of this season, however, you’ll need to make sure your print-on-demand store is ready for the rush in sales that will surely come with it. Here are some things you can do now to ensure you have everything you need before summer hits.

At Urban Planet On-Demand, we recommend using this hot season as an opportunity to expand your business and attract more customers.

Here are 5 tips on how to prepare your print-on-demand store for summer

Focus on Seasonal Goods

Summer is the time of the year when many people are getting out of work and preparing to spend time with friends and family. Of course, socialising comes with a demand for clothing. This means now is a great time to get new items up on your print-on-demand store in anticipation of warm weather sales. In addition to swimwear, summer dresses and other apparel will do well as temperatures heat up. 

If you have an active lifestyle brand or sell gym apparel, now would be a good time to feature those items as well. You can also use seasonal changes as an opportunity to expand your product offering into accessories like sunglasses or hats—these products tend to fly off virtual shelves during hot months.

Pay Attention to Colour Trends

Make sure that all marketing materials reflect the season's tone and current colour trends. For a harmonised palette, combine pink and orange, and incorporate antique yellows.

Being realistic about what appeals during certain times of year is an important element of setting up your store with summer colour trends in mind.

Offer Summer Discounts

Summer is coming, which means your customers will likely have more free time on their hands. By offering summer discounts, you can entice them to shop with you and help boost sales during the summer season. Summer weather also tends to bring a lot of opportunities for travel and getaways, so offer special deals on certain products or categories that are perfect for summer fun or vacations. Offer limited-time coupons or discounts via your social media channels too. You might be surprised by how well it works!

Add Summer Motifs to Your Goods

Most print-on-demand store owners tend to think of business as usual over summer but experts at Urban Planet On-Demand know that doing so means missing out on a great opportunity to increase your sales, and make more money. Adding some beach or summer motifs is a great way to get people thinking about hot weather, which will lead them right to your goods. A little bit of marketing goes a long way, especially during summer. For example, if you sell t-shirts online, adding patterns that have an ocean/beach theme to them will show up in search results and will really entice people who love summer motifs into buying from you instead of someone else.

Stick to Classical Summer Trends

If you are not sure which summer motifs are currently in demand, we recommend sticking to classical summer trends, such as Hawaiian t-shirts with beaches, tropical trees, ocean and surfing equipment or old-fashioned fruit patterns.

How to Promote Print-on-Demand Products Online

Promoting print-on-demand products online can be challenging due to the increasing competition. However, there are a few tricks that will help you get the word out about your new business.    

1. Get to Know Your Target Audience

Before you launch your print-on-demand store, you need to get to know your target audience and create specific campaigns that this demographic may find attractive. 

Therefore, you should conduct thorough marketing research to have a clear idea of their interests and hobbies. By knowing your target audience, you will be able to offer them a product that will make them happy. 

You can develop a personalised marketing strategy after you know who your target customers are and what they are looking for. When your marketing campaign is tailored to an audience member's preferences, interests, and problem areas, they are more likely to accept your offer.  

In marketing, it is important to pay attention to the problems that your customers are seeking to solve. For instance, consider a young woman interested in yoga and meditation searching for personalised t-shirts. Maybe she wants to get a t-shirt for someone's anniversary, or simply looking for a nice t-shirt for yoga classes, but most importantly she wants this item to be personalised. She hasn't been able to find what she's seeking until now, therefore that's her main concern.

By understanding your audience's main concerns, you can then promote your items, such as custom-printed t-shirts with quotes for yoga enthusiasts.  

2. Run Social Media Ad Campaigns

You will never understand your target audience without promoting your print-on-demand products on social media. Social media ads will allow you to test out various advertising campaigns targeting different groups of people to find out what kind of products your target customers are looking for.

At Urban On Demand, we create customised marketing campaigns for various target audiences to get the most out of your social media efforts.

3. Create an E-Mail List

Another way to promote your print-on-demand store is to create an email list. This is one of the most effective ways to remind customers of new products or sales. Quality content on your e-mail list is crucial to attracting new subscribers. In addition to writing blog posts, you can also host contests and giveaways to build your email list faster.

With the popularity of social media, several platforms have implemented filters and options that make it difficult to read all posts. Therefore, if you are not alerted of a user's social media updates, those posts may no longer be visible to you. As a result, even if you have a large number of social media followers, there is no certainty that they are all viewing your social media postings.

These audience members may lose out on all of your new items, specials, and promotions if they do not visit your print-on-demand business page regularly. An email list can help to bridge the gap, as it allows you to send store updates directly to a user's email.

Additionally, you can create an opt-in form and invite users to subscribe to your e-mail list. These forms are generally posted on your website. When people fill out these forms, they receive an email with your lead magnet. These lead magnets can be anything from a free resource list to an eBook chapter. It is essential to have an opt-in form on your website to ensure that you get the best marketing results. 

Don’t forget to put your website link on your social media profile. This way, your customers will get a better idea about the products you sell, as well as the price range. This will help you gain credibility and increase sales. 

4. Use Customer Reviews as Testimonials

When you start a print-on-demand store, you should be aware of the importance of product reviews. Consumers trust reviews from real people. As more customers start purchasing printed t-shirts, pillows, pens, sweatshirts, mugs, and other items from your print-on-demand company, they will want to share their experience.  Some reviews will be positive, while others will be negative. That is normal and unavoidable. Don't, however, start removing bad reviews, as your customers will notice it, and will be less likely to purchase your products again. Use reviews as guidance to improve the quality of your service and products.   

As per research, 95% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase decision. Thus, product reviews will help you build trust with your target audience.  

5. Optimise Your Store for the Relevant Keywords

Have you ever heard of SEO? SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimisation. In other words, SEO refers to the steps you do to guarantee your shop appears higher on the Google results page. The aim is to reach number one, but just making it to the first page is a great achievement. 

You can optimise your print-on-demand store for the specific keywords that your customers use to make your products rank higher on Google and other search engines.

How do you know which keywords to use? By examining the competition and conducting keyword research using a programme such as Google Keyword Planner.

You begin by entering a term, such as "t-shirt printing," and then let Google suggest other keywords. Make sure you monitor keyword performance depending on their popularity in search engines.

Once you've identified the keywords that are important to your business, include them in your product descriptions.

And most importantly, if you want your products to stand out, you must choose the right print-on-demand company. At Urban On Demand, our goal is to ensure that your products get seen by your target audience.