Welcome to the first edition of my print on demand income report for the first month of this new decade. To document my own progress I will from now on share a monthly overview of the development of each platform that I am using.
At the moment, I do not use any kind of advertisement to promote my shirt designs on any platform. Therefore all sales are organic.
Let’s get into it.
Merch by Amazon
Overview of my sales on Merch by Amazon in January 2020
Contrary to my own expectations, January was another record-breaking month for me on Merch by Amazon.
In January I reached a total of 321 sales on Merch by Amazon. This corresponds to an increase of +74 % compared to the previous month, which reached 185 sales.
Those sales together generated roughly 776,77 € in royalties. This corresponds to an increase of +31 % compared to the previous month, which reached 594,74 € in royalties.
I’m currently Tier 1000 with 1000 slots filled, divided into 870 products on the German marketplace, 79 on the US marketplace, and 51 on the UK marketplace.
This increase was driven by one particular set of shirt designs that performed exceptionally well. I received a couple of bulk orders with 10 or more shirts per order, which never happened before.
Spreadshirt.de
Chart of my sales on Spreadshirt.de in January 2020
On Spreadshirt.de I clearly saw the difference between the Christmas season in December and the following first month of the new year.
In January I reached a total of 14 sales on Spreadshirt.de. This corresponds to a decrease of -74 % compared to the previous month, which reached 53 sales.
Those sales together generated roughly 100,28 € in royalties. This corresponds to aa decrease of -74 % compared to the previous month, which reached 383,95 € in royalties.
I currently have 971 designs published on Spreadshirt.de.
I am still very happy about the more and more consistenly coming sales on this platform and the high royalties that seem to work on it. Looking forward to close the white gaps in the chart as the year progresses.
Spreadshirt.com
Chart of my sales on Spreadshirt.com in January 2020
Spreadshirt.com hasn’t really gained any traction so far. I only upload to it since it fits well into my workflow of uploading to Spreadshirt.de. Since most of my designs focus on the German market though, I only upload designs that work anywhere in the world to this platform.
In January I reached a total of 1 sale on Spreadshirt.com. This equals the previous month, which also reached 1 sale.
This one sale didn’t even generate any royalties, as I had forgotten to set a price for the design that sold. But to keep this income report complete — this corresponds to a decrease of -100 % compared to the previous month, which reached $ 8.46 in royalties.
I currently have 255 designs published on Spreadshirt.com.
I will keep uploading the designs that make sense, but don’t have any expectations for a big increase in sales on this platform for this year.
Total Sales and Royalties
Adding the figures from all above platforms together amounts to a total of 336 sales. This corresponds to an increase of +41 % compared to the previous month, which reached 239 sales.
All sales together generated roughly 877,05 € in royalties that I earned. This corresponds to a decrease of -11 % compared to the previous month, which reached 986,24 € in royalties.
As mentioned in the beginning, at the moment I don’t have any expenses that would need to be deducted from that amount. I am creating all designs by myself and do not pay for advertising, neither on social media nor on the Amazon platform.
Considering the fact that my sales increased by a good amount, while my royalties only decreased slightly compared to December, I am very happy about those results. Especially since January is said to be the beginning of the weakest quarter of the year for print on demand in general.
You can check out all my print on demand income reports to track my progress.
Looking forward to hear how you started into the new year in terms of print on demand in the comments below!
Hey man! Great reports! I recently got into POD about 6 weeks ago. I currently have as of today 900 listings across a couple platforms. I’m wondering how you had 255 listings on Spreadshirt.com and only 1 sale? What do you think is the reason for this? Since you had about 3x the amount on the German site, but made so much more. Let me know your thoughts as Spreadshirt.com is one of the sites I’m using. I just started using it 2 days ago, but need to know if it’s worth my time. Another things, Spreadshirt.com has a limit… Read more »
Hi Zane and welcome to the POD world! ! ? Spreadshirt is a lot more popular in Europe and especially Germany, than in the US. Therefore, for most the sales on Spreadshirt in the EU are much higher. Personally, for me Spreadshirt.com is not really worth the effort so far. I don’t really focus any time on it and only upload when I got nothing else to do, which happens rarely. Spreadshirt is usually having a limit of 50 uploads per day, but due to the Coronavirus situation they currently limit to 5 uploads. This should go back to normal… Read more »
Thanks for the response! Good to hear about the upload limit that might go back to 50 then.
Okay so you’re saying spreadshirt.com is not even worth it and that the German version is way more popular. The question is, can I upload to the German one from my country, South Africa? Let m kenos if you think I’d be able to earn more with that?
Thank you for your comments! ? No, I wouldn’t say it this way. Spreadshirt.com seems to be working for many also, I’m not really sure, but I am quite certain that the European market is bigger for Spreadshirt though. They have more competition in the US. If you create English designs it would be best if you could upload to both platforms. With tools like LazyMerch you might even be able to automate the process. More platforms, more traffic, higher chance to get a sale. That’s the simple math behind it. But I will say one thing. If spreading on… Read more »
I also don’t have access to Merch By Amazon in my country. Is there a way around that? Maybe amazon.de or something?
MBA is one platform for all marketplaces, it is not seperated.
I never heard that South Africa was excluded. Are you sure that you cannot apply? If the issue is having a bank account, consider a service like TransferWise or Payoneer to get a US bank account number.
Yeah no our country is literally not on the list of countries when applying.
PS. Could you give a link to one of your stores, I’d like to take a look
Ah, okay, didn’t know that.
As others, I don’t really share my specific designs and niches directly. It’s a fast-moving business and copycats are everywhere.
But I can tell you, it’s no magic what I’m creating and selling.
Okay cool, let’s add each other on Facebook or something and chat there? I’ll show you what I’m doing, I don’t mind
Did you have a good start with sales into 2020 or are you feeling a big difference between Q4 and Q1? Which platforms are working well for you? ?