How to Find the Most Profitable Print on Demand Niches in 2024?

Table of Contents

Examine last year statistics

Competitors research

Check the best selling products

Check reviews, ratings

Bring second life into available products

Experiment with new products

Try PodZa service to expand

Conclusion

As an entrepreneur, it’s vital to keep an eye on the competitors and find ways to set yourself apart from others in your industry. Brands don’t want to jump on any old bandwagon without an excellent reason to do so, and this year, they’ll once again be seeking affordable and profitable solutions to reach their strategic goals.

When developing your print on demand Shopify business, rule number one is to know who your customer is. You also have to work hard on the brand’s concept and define what makes it unique. In addition to business planning choosing the right strategies and tactics, the entrepreneur must assess the state of the industry and be well-versed in trends. For example, by using irrelevant advertising tricks, there is a high probability of losing the battle with your competitors. Giving in to the temptation to broaden the audience, an unfortunate outcome called “spray and pray” is quite possible. Sending out irrelevant offers is usually ineffective and aimed at deriving money from the business. Accordingly, the firm goes lame-duck, referring to “bad math.” A more reliable approach is niche marketing, focused on a particular audience segment, a specific strategy, and, of course, distinguished by a unique product. Here are five steps a newbie or established business owner should undertake to find niches for print on demand.

Examine last year statistics

1. If you’re racking your brain trying to think of your first product idea, analyzing the market and the events that affect it is a great place to begin. When the Covid-19 pandemic began in late 2019, everything was turned upside down: the world was drowning in uncertainty, prompting radical actions. After last year's summit in Glasgow, it was clear that there is a great demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly products. According to statistics, 56% of consumers have become more aware of the environmental impact of products. About 67% of those surveyed would be willing to pay more for environmentally friendly goods. 
2. Today, an effective business model must include ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) principles, which the world is beginning to follow.
3. The ambitious plan to reduce emissions by 2050 and transit to clean energy by 2030 promises several legislative initiatives. In addition, society will require evidence of sustainable practices and ethical reporting standards. "Nontraditional approaches will enable the next rebound of innovation and efficiency," said VP Analyst Daryl Plummer at virtual Gartner IT Symposium/Expo® 2020. He also points out that traditional computing technologies will successfully replace neuromorphic ones by 2025. So, they will become increasingly available and more affordable for businesses to begin experimentation. In the meantime, you should focus on conversational marketing. According to Sulaiman Bashir, the former Shopify Consultant, use chatbots, voice search, and various artificial intelligence tools.
4. The “right” time for the product's release also depends on the vectors of eCommerce. For two years, most business leaders have had to adjust to a world that no one could have imagined a year ago. The period from 2020 to 2021 was a kind of frontier when the market share of eCommerce grew by 45.8% in just two years. The increase will continue and reach 21.8% by 2024. According to eMarketer, online retail sales will reach $6.39 trillion.
5. Three countries, China, the US, and the UK, are the parts of the Asia-Pacific region and the backbone of the eCommerce market, accounting for 62.6% of all online sales. So, first, it’s worth understanding where to sell: traditional pillars of open markets are wobbling. 

According to Harvard Business Review, “China is positioning itself as globalization’s staunchest defender.” It also has the world's most digital buyers, with 33.3% of the global total. The U.S. and Canada have something to learn from the global giant: it is worth changing and supplementing sales locations based on the demand data. By the way, South Korea and Japan round out the top five eCommerce markets. As of July 2021, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications estimates that over 50% of Japanese order products and services online. International shopping here is expected to grow 18.3% in 2022. User penetration from South Korea will be 77.0% in 2022. In addition, eCommerce market revenues are forecast to reach US$124,177 million. So, to correctly assess the market, you should analyze last year's events and study the predictions. And this section is just a push to learn the business of POD from the inside.

Based on an analysis of the economies, we can determine which products are worth selling. The most popular print on demand niches in 2022 are animals, families, relationships, activism, humor, hobby-related dropshipping, events, etc. And what will define the market in 2023? We’ll unpack that quote and more below.

Competitors research

In a saturated market, it's vital to stand out with a solid personal brand. To beat competitors in print on demand, you must determine why your products are unique, who will be interested in them, and how profitable they will be. There’s a pretty common belief that it’s terrible to have a specific focus because it doesn’t allow the business to grow and drives it into a particular framework. Accordingly, to become more successful, you need to expand your audience and offer a wide range of products. However, I believe the opposite is true.

First, you need to start with yourself: assess your skills. An area in which you are knowledgeable and well-versed can probably be a starting point for identifying a niche. In this case, your experience can make your business stand out from the crowd. In addition, narrow specialization can become quite profitable. 

So, once you have a preliminary idea of the niche, it’s worth studying the target market. To do this, be sure to research tendencies in social media. What problems do buyers face? What is the demand for the products you are interested in? 

So you have a business concept. Next, it is necessary to test its viability. The profitable print on demand niches are in high demand and unique. Thus, create a Meetup group to communicate with your potential target audience. Don't forget about surveys - use SurveyMonkey or Surveygizmo (Alchemer) for this purpose. These tools will be a helpful adjunct when creating a portrait of the demographic group you will work with. It's essential to understand the attitudes, ethnicity, and income of the people who will become your potential clients!

Next, it’s worth examining your possible competitors. One of the best ways is to use Google search, Keyword Planner, and Google Trends. Of course, you can also use Bing or Baidu - but they have much smaller market shares (that's where statistics finally came in handy!). So, start typing any word that describes your niche. It should be relevant to the needs of the possible target audience that you identified earlier in the social media.

Give answers to the following questions:

1. Can your proposal stand out from the crowd?
2. What characteristics will be the hallmark of your brand?
3. Which keyword has the most significant influx of traffic and little competition?
4. What are your key competitors?
5. How valuable is their content?

Conduct an accurate analysis of your competitors' audiences and estimate their business's profitability. It’s worth calculating the markup on goods, production costs, and logistics to do this. Please pay attention to how environmentally friendly their products are. 

Check the best selling products

To define your niche in print on demand, evaluate the potential profitability of products. Make an accurate keyword search and see if any terms result in 10,000 searches per month. That is a good indicator of profitability. 

Next, pay attention to well-known marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Clickbank. Carefully analyze product libraries to identify the most successful sellers and their advantages in the market. So you can get an idea of whether people are willing to pay for a particular product and how popular it is. Also, some services can track the price changes of the desired product. That will help you know how much your future clients are ready to pay. A clear focus means concentrating your targeting strategy on a specific segment. 

Check reviews, ratings

While researching the chosen niche, it is essential to monitor the information field. For example, you decided to create tie-dye T-shirts with the company logo or inscriptions. You should pay attention to the ratings and reviews of such clothes on large shopping platforms. Trending items are usually at the top of product libraries.

Identifying and Implementing Quick Wins in POD Business Growth

Bring second life into available products

Humanity has been using a particular set of tools, improved over time without changing essence for many centuries. Of course, technology is an exception, although its functionality involves simplifying human activity. The light industry is typically overflowing with various goods, and it seems that there may not be room for beginners. But that's not true. 

In everyday life, humanity uses the same things, but with a different cutting: there are countless T-shirts, which, for some reason, are preferred by the retirees, and there are jeans that are adored by youth. It's all about the uniqueness and personalization of goods selected by different people. If your target audience is women from 18 to 30, they are likely interested in green products. In addition, the pandemic has made humanity more nature-conscious, which means a growing demand for such products appears. The evergreen niches for print on demand include clothing made from eco-friendly cotton, reduced carbon footprints during shipping, shorter delivery times, and the use of ESG approaches. So today, this value inspires millions of people around the world. 

Among the countless print on demand product ideas, it's not easy to find one that's right for your business. For example, unisex T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, all-over print yoga pants, posters were trendy in 2022. Apparently, in 2023, they will also be popular (although sports suits will probably go out of fashion.) As the world recovers from the coronavirus, the requests change as well. Restaurants are opening, travel abroad is becoming more accessible, mass events are taking place, which means people will need jewelry, dresses, shirts, and tote bags. So, make your predictions about the products that have all chances to become popular this year. By analyzing and understanding the market, you can understand what to test. 

And while the top print on demand niches usually have high search engine rankings, you should look for something just gaining popularity. These positions are often breakthrough and can be viable. For instance, the meme which has recently conquered the Internet will likely appear on T-shirts. Your task is to get the print done!

Experiment with new products

More than ever, managers use large-scale randomized controlled trials to guide decisions. This impressive technique makes it possible to determine the public's interest in a short time and assess the probability of success. 

For example, among the popular print on demand niches, you can choose any and run them as add-ons in different target markets. So, randomize the separate URLs to include new items, thereby isolating their effect on search engine traffic. So you can determine how profitable these products are. Try to run them on other similar sites. 

If you want to test niches for print on demand:

1. Decide which metrics are most important to you.
2. Try to make hypotheses about how they would behave in reality.
3. Make a plan of the risks and possible ways of solving them to understand the difficulties.

When conducting experiments, it is worth monitoring the impact of new products on existing products. Aren't they displacing other products? 

One of the best ways to test the viability of print on demand niches is to create a landing page that aims to promote a free information product. Use the Leadpages tool to do this. Next, attract traffic with AdWords, in your guest posts, in relevant groups of social platforms, or with Google Surveys. That will help to analyze how attractive your offer is to users.

Best Print-On-Demand Dropshipping Services in Canada

Try PodZa service to expand

Once you have decided on a niche and confirmed your choice by creating a site, you should consider the interactions with the relevant marketplaces. For example, Etsy and Shopify focus on selling print on demand products. A particular segment interested in such goods can probably buy new items.

You will have the first orders that need to be managed appropriately, and some processes should even be automated. For these purposes, a unique platform PodZa was created to simplify labor-intensive operations, from sending invoices to logistics.   

By integrating PodZa, you can also increase brand awareness, improve UX, and, most importantly, increase profits. After all, an essential aspect in today's online business is a flexible user interface, fast site operation, customer attraction, and retention. 

Whatever the format or size of your project, PodZa will be able to systematize all the processes so that you can open up new horizons for your business.

Conclusion

The best niches for print on demand are the most common items: clothing, mugs, animal, and lifestyle products. But why do some entrepreneurs selling such things get rich while others lag behind? It's all about uniqueness, authenticity, and the personalization of goods. Of course, conscious consumption is also worth mentioning with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has become the watchword of environmentalism. This article was about how to identify breakthrough products and the best print on demand niches to secure your place in the infinitely enormous eCommerce industry.