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GENERAL BUSINESS AND PRINT-ON-DEMAND TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW

February 25, 2022
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The print-on-demand world is large and complex. It pulls aspects from both the business and art world together to create a whole new way to make money. It’s wonderful, but also full of technical terms that can confuse new sellers and veterans alike. We decided to create a list of general business and print-on-demand terms for you to keep nearby.

General Business Terms

Average Production Time

This is how much time a business takes to make a product without any unexpected delays.

an illustrated assembly line and people and working it

Brand

A brand is a specific image of your business you portray to your customers. You create a brand with voice, personality, a logo, and themes. By doing this, you make your business more recognizable.

Conversion Rates

Conversion rates are the number of conversions (people buying) divided by the total number of visitors to your store.

Copyright

Copyright protects original intellectual properties by artists like writers, photographers, visual artists, and so much more.

Cross-sell

Cross-selling is when you encourage customers to buy additional or matching products. For example, you can create an entire bathroom collection that includes towels, a shower curtain, and a bath mat.

DNS Records

DNS (domain name system) records are instructions that live in DNS servers.

Domain

A domain is an Internet address or name of a website. It also refers to the location of the website. Domain and domain name are often used interchangeably.

Domain Registrar

A domain registrar is a business that officiates the domain name of a website. It reserves the name that way there are no doubles.

A computer with the world behind it and a list of domain name ends in front of the computer

E-Commerce

This is the shortened version of electronic commerce, which is buying and selling things online.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual property is a creation of the mind. What that means is artwork, symbols, writing, inventions, etc. are counted as intellectual property.

M-Commerce

Similar to e-commerce, m-commerce stands for mobile commerce. Buying and selling things online using your phone instead of a computer.

A smart phone between a man and a woman who are shopping online

Multichannel Selling

This is when you sell your products in more than one place. Like when you sell in online marketplaces or on social media.

Niche Market

A niche market is a small, specific part of a broader market. Sometimes going into niche markets is easier and more profitable than going for a broad market.

Let’s use pets as an example. Pets is a general term and therefore makes it a broad market. If you narrow it down to cats you’ll have a smaller market. If that’s still too big, you can be even more specific and focus on black cats.

Online Marketplace

An online marketplace is a place online, separate from your website, where you can sell things. Many different people can sell within this one space, think Etsy, Amazon, and eBay.

Production Rate

Production rate is how many products can be made in a certain amount of time.

Profit Margin

This is the amount of money you make with each sale. GearLaunch takes a small fee for the product and printing and the rest is yours! So make sure you include our fee when setting your price for customers.

Green bag of gold with green and gold arrows pointing up surrounding it

Quality Control

This is testing an item’s quality to see if it meets a company’s standards. It minimizes any mistakes or the wrong products being sent to customers.

Return on Investment (ROI)

A way to measure if you gain a profit from different investments you make. These investments can include trying a new product, different marketing strategies, and different designs.

Royalty-Free

This is a term for IPs that are free to use without any fees or consequences of using it.

Sales Channel

A sales channel is a way to go to market through direct or indirect means. They include a manufacturer, supplier, distributor, and retailer.

There are four different types of sales channels:

Retail

Retail is when businesses sell directly to customers. Retail includes physical stores and online stores.

Wholesale

Wholesale is when manufacturers sell their products in large amounts. They usually sell to retailers who then sell it to customers.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)

DTC is when a manufacturer sells directly to customers. This is especially easy to do online.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

B2B is when businesses sell to other businesses. It’s similar to wholesale, but the difference is that B2B is when the other business is seen as the customer.

Shipping Rates

This is the rate you charge a customer to ship a product to them. There are a variety of rates that you can charge depending on the situation (type of product, number of products, destination).

Delivery truck and man carrying parcel to woman door, world map with location pin,

Social Commerce

This is the selling of your products directly on social media platforms.

Supplier

Suppliers provide the materials for sellers. For your business, we are your supplier.

Trademark

A trademark is a word, symbol, phrase, design, or a combination of these things that is unique to you or your business.

Upsell

Upselling is a sales tactic used by sellers to recommend a slightly higher-priced item or better quality product to customers during the sale, like our premium sweatpants are a slightly better version of our classic sweatpants.

Print-On-Demand Terms

Digital Printing

This is the process of printing a digital image on any type of product.

Direct to Garment Printing

Direct to Garment Printing (DTG) is printing on textiles using specialized inkjet technology, this allows the ink to be absorbed into the garment’s fibers, making the print look its best.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is the other part of the model that allows you to sell products to customers without having any physical stock. Essentially combining this with POD is what allows us to print a product and ship it to your customer without you having to do a thing.

Fulfillment

This is the entire process of an order being made, the product being printed, and then is packaged and sent to the customer.

Full Bleed

This refers to when a design is bigger than the art dimensions. This ensures there are no blank spaces within your design.

Personalization

Creating a design or product specifically for an individual, for example, using a specific name in your design.

Image of a tree with curling branches with random names on the branches in off white ovals

Pretreating

This is when a liquid solution is put on a design so that ink stays on the product.

Print-on-Demand

Also known as POD, this is the entire system that allows you to create custom products without having a ton of merchandise lying around. The process is literally you or a customer putting in an order and GearLaunch prints it on your demand.

Sublimation Printing

This is a method of printing, where heat is used to transfer a design from paper to fabric, allowing all over printing.

2 pillows, one yellow and one white, with brown, pink, and red doughnuts with frosting dripping off them with a pink background

White Label

This refers to a product that is a blank slate, free of any sort of branding, that way you can customize it with whatever design you want. White label products are sold by retailers with their own branding and logo, but the products themselves are manufactured by a third party.

White t-shirt with no brand names

This List Will Make Learning Easier

By knowing these basic business and print-on-demand terms, you’ll be able to learn more and enhance your store! This means you’ll be able to make more money, work faster, and be an even better business owner. Make sure to keep this list nearby so that you can always have it to look to.

Master Print on Demand
with GearLaunch

Unlock Print on Demand potential with GearLaunch's ebook! Perfect for beginners and pros, it covers everything you need. Get practical insights and step-by-step guides to boost your business. Access your free copy now!



























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