5 Best Print-On-Demand T-shirt Dropshipping Services

Print-on-demand, t-shirt dropshipping services can be the engine that drives your online t-shirt company toward success. 

The t-shirt business represents a great opportunity for many entrepreneurs.

The market is huge. Worldwide, shoppers will purchase more than $1 trillion worth of t-shirts this year.

The t-shirt industry is also growing. By 2025, global, annual t-shirt sales may exceed $3 trillion, and according to some reports, t-shirt retailers can expect a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 11.5 percent during this period.

What's more, setting up an online t-shirt business has never been easier. With software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce solutions, like Shift4Shop, you can have a very professional, feature-rich online t-shirt site up and running in less than a day.

In this article we'll cover the 5 best print-on-demand t-shirt dropshipping services for anyone to start selling t-shirts online.

On-Demand Printing and T-Shirt Fulfillment

For many t-shirt businesses, printing and fulfillment represent the most difficult task to execute and the most expensive of the operations. The good news, there are many print-on-demand, t-shirt dropshipping providers you can partner with, allowing you to focus on t-shirt design, marketing, and customer service.

How Print-On-Demand Works For Dropshipping Tees

While there will be some variation from one t-shirt dropshipping service to another, the process will look very much like this:

1. Create a great t-shirt design
2. Upload the design to a t-shirt dropshipping service
3. Make a mockup to use on your site and other sales channels
4. When an order is placed, that order is passed to the dropshipping service
5. The dropshipping service prints, packs, and ships the t-shirt

Notice that at no point in this process does your online t-shirt business need to buy and hold inventory, invest in expensive printing equipment, set up accounts with UPS or FedEx, buy shipping boxes or bags, or pick and pack shipments. The t-shirt dropshipping service you choose does all of these things for your business often without any upfront costs.

So with little or no investment, you can start selling t-shirts online on your own website or on t-shirt marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy.

Look for These Features & Services

As you evaluate t-shirt dropshippers, look for these features and services.

• Printing Methods. In most cases, you want either direct-to-garment (DTG) or screen printing.
• Average Fulfillment Time. You customers will want their tees fast. How long does it take your t-shirt dropshipper to print and fulfill?
• Cost of Low Price Tee. How much do blank t-shirts costs? You can measure the lowest cost shirt, most expensive shirt, or pick a blank and compare across t-shirt dropshippers.
• Product Generator. Does this t-shirt dropshipper offer a free mockup tool or t-shirt design software.
• API Access. Can the t-shirt dropshipping service be integrated with your eCommerce platform and retail marketplaces?
• Branding. Will you be able to brand your shirts labels and packaging?
• Shipping Location. If your customers are in New York, you want a partner that ships from within the region.

Review of T-Shirt Dropshipping Services

Each of the t-shirt dropshipping companies reviewed had all of the most desired features and services available. Although there was variation within each category.

Print Aura, for example, showed the highest t-shirt cost, when you looked at the least expensive tees available for each service. But this was more a reflection of the quality of blanks Print Aura handles than it was of average cost, since for a good quality blank, just about every provider had a similar price.

Branding also tended to vary. Some services allow you to include a branded handout in the shipping package, others went as far as offering a white label customer service call center.

Printful

Printify

CustomCat

Print Aura

Gooten

Every print-on-demand, t-shirt dropshipper on this list is a safe choice for your business, so do a little more research and find the one that best matches your business plan.