Print on Demand Income Report: March 2020

As seemingly everything else, the coronavirus pandemic has been dominating the print on demand industry during the last month.

Print on demand platforms are facing limitations in their production facilities to keep their employees safe and customer demand has dropped significantly.

Let’s see the results in my third print on demand income report.

Merch by Amazon

Overview of my sales on Merch by Amazon in March 2020

I saw a huge drop in sales in March on Merch by Amazon, driven by both the coronavirus pandemic and also the fact that the events that have been fueling my sales in the first two months of this year were over.

In March I reached a total of 47 sales on Merch by Amazon. This corresponds to a decrease of -83 % compared to the previous month, which reached 279 sales.

Those sales together generated roughly 122,63 € in royalties. This corresponds to a decrease of -43 % compared to the previous month, which reached 216,44 € in royalties.

I’m currently Tier 1000 with 704 slots filled, divided into 576 products on the German marketplace, 110 on the US marketplace, and 48 on the UK marketplace.

Amazon had to take drastic measures in the Merch by Amazon department to react to the coronavirus situation.

On March 19, they informed all merch sellers on the platform, that there will be delays in fulfilling customer orders.

One week later on March 25, they informed everyone that merch listings on the US marketplace will be deactivated until further notice, as they had to shut down their manufacturing sites. They also completely disabled the option to upload and create any new products on all three marketplaces.

On March 30, they activated the function to save new uploads as drafts. At least that allows to keep preparing for the time when things return to normal again.

Let’s see how long that will take. 

Spreadshirt.de

Chart of my sales on Spreadshirt.de in March 2020

Spreadshirt probably also didn’t expect the global economy to collapse right when they decided to change their pricing model.

I was curious to see whether or not the decreased prices would lead to increased sales and if those will be able to make up for the reduced royalties. But now is probably not a good time to measure sales growth against previous months.

Given the situation, I am actually happy about the results.

In March I reached a total of 14 sales on Spreadshirt.de. This corresponds to a decrease of -18 % compared to the previous month, which reached 17 sales.

Those sales together generated roughly 54,50 € in royalties. This corresponds to a decrease of -55 % compared to the previous month, which reached 121,32 € in royalties.

I currently have 1221 designs published on Spreadshirt.de.

You can see the heavily decreased royalties, although I only had four sales less than the previous month. Sad.

Spreadshirt.com

Chart of my sales on Spreadshirt.com in March 2020

Against all odds, Spreadshirt.com came back alive during a month where I would have expected it the least.

In March I reached a total of 3 sales on Spreadshirt.com. This corresponds to an increase of +∞ % compared to the previous month, which reached 0 sales.

Those sales together generated roughly $ 15.33 in royalties. This corresponds to an increase of +∞ % compared to the previous month, which reached $ 0.00 in royalties.

I currently have 346 designs published on Spreadshirt.com.

Total Sales and Royalties

Adding the figures from all above platforms together amounts to a total of 64 sales. This corresponds to a decrease of -78 % compared to the previous month, which reached 296 sales.

All sales together generated roughly 191,07 € in royalties that I earned. This corresponds to a decrease of -44 % compared to the previous month, which reached 337,77 € in royalties.

Still, 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.

With the global economy being in turmoil for the foreseeable future, I am using that time to work and improve many aspects around my approach to the print on demand business. I have already made some great improvements to some of my processes, really drilling down deep into the fundamentals. It’s exciting and only shows me how much I still have to learn and do in this business.

While everything is on hold globally, I want to make big steps forward to be ready for when the economic situation relaxes again.

Winners are born during a crisis, right?

You can check out all my print on demand income reports to track my progress.

How are you holding up during this crisis? Share your thoughts in the comments below!