Print-on-Demand Guide
Design custom merchandise. Printful prints it, packs it, and ships it. You never touch inventory.
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What is Print-on-Demand?
Print-on-demand (POD) is a business model where you create designs, and a fulfillment partner like Printful prints those designs on physical products only when a customer orders them. There's no upfront investment, no inventory to manage, and no trips to the post office. You focus on the creative side; Printful handles manufacturing, packing, and shipping.
This is perfect for teachers who want to sell branded classroom merch, school spirit wear, teacher appreciation gifts, or fun educational products without the headache of inventory management.
How it works in one sentence
A buyer orders a mug from your store. Printful prints your design on the mug, packs it in a branded box, and ships it directly to the buyer. You never see or touch the product.
Setting Up Printful
Create a free Printful account
Go to printful.com and sign up. It's completely free — you only pay when an order is placed.
Get your API key
In your Printful dashboard, go to Settings → API and generate a new API key. Copy it.
Connect Printful to your SchoolHouseStock dashboard
Go to Dashboard → Print-on-Demand. Paste your API key and click Connect. You'll see a green success message when it's linked.
Create products in Printful
Use Printful's mockup generator to upload your designs and choose products. Once you save them in Printful, click Sync Products in your SchoolHouseStock dashboard to pull them in.
Set your retail prices
After syncing, each product appears in your SchoolHouseStock catalog. Set your retail price (what the buyer pays). Printful charges a base cost; you keep the markup minus the 10% platform fee.
Products You Can Sell
Printful offers hundreds of products, but here are the most popular categories for teacher-sellers:
- T-shirts & hoodies — School spirit wear, funny teacher quotes, subject-themed designs
- Mugs — "World's Best Teacher" mugs, subject-themed mugs, end-of-year gifts
- Posters & wall art — Classroom rules posters, inspirational quotes, educational infographics
- Tote bags — Library bags, teacher bags, book-themed designs
- Phone cases — Fun teacher-life designs
- Stickers — Reward stickers, motivational stickers, subject-themed packs
How Pricing Works
There are three components to a POD sale:
- Base cost — What Printful charges to make the product (e.g., ~$8 for a basic t-shirt)
- Your markup — The difference between your retail price and the base cost
- Platform fee — SchoolHouseStock takes 10% of the retail price
Example: You sell a mug for $18.00. Printful's base cost is $7.50. SchoolHouseStock fee is $1.80. Stripe processing is about $0.84. Your profit: $7.86 per mug. Not bad for a product you never have to print, pack, or ship!
What Happens When Someone Orders
The entire process is automated. When a buyer orders a POD product from your store:
- The order is automatically sent to Printful via our API integration
- Printful prints your design on the product (typically 2-5 business days)
- Printful ships it directly to the buyer with tracking
- The buyer receives a tracking notification
- You earn your profit automatically via Stripe
You can monitor all your POD orders from your Dashboard. If there's ever an issue, Printful has excellent customer support, and we're here to help too.
Tip
Order a sample for yourself first! Printful gives you a discount on samples so you can check the quality and take real photos for your listing. Listings with real product photos convert much better than mockups alone.