Get Started
Printful Blog logo
Creative services
Photography services

Blog / Beginner's handbook / What You Can Expect from Printful in 2021

Beginner's handbook

Printful Blog

Master the art of ecommerce

Launch your own print-on-demand business

Sign up with Printful

No upfront fees • No order minimums • 373 premium products

Printful Blog

Blog / Beginner's handbook / What You Can Expect from Printful in 2021

Beginner's handbook

What You Can Expect from Printful in 2021

What You Can Expect from Printful in 2021
Ilze Folkmane

By Ilze Folkmane

6 min read

2020 confirmed that time is an entirely relative concept. With the pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement, and elections in the US, the year simultaneously flew by and dragged on, making some days feel like years… while some months were gone in a blink of an eye.

2020 was also the year when people shifted to online shopping. This shift started as a reaction to the pandemic, but it’s clear that the new shopping habits are here to stay, meaning more eyes on the ecommerce stores out there.

But now that 2020 is over, we’ve turned a new page and are in 2021. As all of us continue our ecommerce journey together, we at Printful want to give you a little sneak peek at some of our main priorities for this year!

Printful logo
Customer with received custom jacket
Printful logo
Create and sell custom products online
Lets go

Upgraded product catalog

We’re very proud of our Product Catalog which features more than 265 products. Every product is hand-picked and tested by our teams to ensure consistent quality throughout all our fulfillment centers. Learn more about how we add new products to our catalog in the video below.

preview play-button

We’re even more proud to see all those products on your online stores, featuring unique designs. So in 2021, we’re optimizing our existing product base, making sure out-of-stock situations are as painless as possible, and adding new products that are bound to become bestsellers for your store.

Giving customers more options

We’re constantly updating our Product Catalog to improve your experience. With the embroidery technique becoming more and more popular, we’ll add embroidery to more existing direct-to-garment (DTG) products, as well as introduce centered embroidery placements to more products.

Our all-over print products are also constantly evolving. Based on your feedback, we regularly improve product patterns to ensure the best possible fit. We’re also always on the lookout for new quality fabrics that yield vibrant prints and are soft to the touch.

Maintaining our existing product base also means discontinuing some items that are unpopular or have quality and stock issues. Discontinuations allow us to free up space in our warehouses for new quality items and gives us room to focus on the most popular products.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, many manufacturers had to close down several factories and their supply chains were disrupted, leading to industry-wide stock shortages. These stock problems will impact our suppliers and us in 2021 as well. We’ll keep informing you about any stock issues and also work on further developing our Product Alternatives so you’re protected in case of any unexpected out-of-stock situations.

In 2020, we added more than 850 mockups that you can now feature on your store, social media, and other channels.

And in 2021, we plan to add even more mockups for various target audiences across all product categories, making sure you can show off your products and designs in the best possible way.

Adding eco-friendly products, activewear, and more

We’ve been busy preparing to launch new products—a task that involves doing lots of research, predicting trends, and testing the items to make sure they fit our quality standards. Here are a couple of our 2021 product previews to get you as excited as we are.

Eco-friendly products were one of the defining trends in 2020, and 2021 is going to be no different. That’s why our New Product Development Team is actively looking for more products that are made from organic, recycled, or biodegradable materials.

With the sportswear trend still going strong, we’re also expanding our activewear collection. Two of the items we’re especially thrilled about are our new sports leggings and sports bras.

The new Sports Leggings will have the upper part made from a black compression fabric. It won’t be customizable, but we selected the squat-proof fabric to ensure a comfortable fit with a slimming effect. The bottom part of pants legs (also made from a compression fabric) will be fully customizable with your designs.

Together with the new Longline Sports Bra that will feature a longer cut perfect for high-intensity workouts, these leggings will make a great workout set for your most active customers. Start preparing unique pattern designs now to be ready when these products launch (stay tuned)!

This year, we’ll also pay more attention to your furry little friends. The new Engraved Pet ID Tags are bound to become a customer favorite as soon as they land in the product catalog.

There are more products across all categories coming your way. The first three months of 2021 will already bring some new product highlights, including additions to the trending loungewear collection. So make sure to subscribe to our update emails to never miss out on your next bestseller. 

Realistic sustainability goals

In 2021, we aim to learn more and become better when it comes to caring about our planet and its people. By default, on-demand production creates less fabric waste than traditional manufacturing because a product is fulfilled only when someone has bought it. But when it comes to sustainability, there’s always more we can do!

Printful’s Speckled Phone Case

One of our main priorities is improving our production processes. We don’t want to make any big promises we can’t keep, so we’re taking sustainability one step at a time. Last year we reduced our fabric scrap waste and found new ways to recycle what we can’t use. This year, we’ll continue calculating our carbon footprint and overall waste across all Printful facilities and offices.

Measuring our impact with precise numbers will help us make realistic and sustainable production goals.

Transparency is another important aspect of being a sustainable print-on-demand partner for you. We’ve already started adding downloadable eco and ink certificates to our sustainable products, noting the country of origin in each product description, and posting fabric safety tests. The goal for this year is to make product-related sustainability information more accessible and visible.

Organic Cotton T-Shirt Dress description

We want to make it easier for you to speak to your customers about sustainability. This means more content about the topic, such as educational blogs, videos, and downloadable copy templates. With all this info, you’ll be able to position your brand better and explain to your customers why they should shop with you.

Global ecommerce presence

At the moment, Printful is available in 6 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese). We have  locations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Latvia with partner facilities in Japan and Australia. And this is only the beginning!

In 2021, we’ll add new languages to our page so it’s easier for customers to get started with Printful in their native language. Next up—Italian! The pre-written product descriptions you can push to your store with the Product Push Generator are also available in several languages with more to come this year.

You can also expect new fulfillment centers! Being where your customers are is important to us—it allows us to deliver your orders quicker, leading to happy customers and 5-star reviews on your stores.

It also aligns with our sustainability goals since the shorter distances from our facilities to your customers mean that there are less emissions from shipping.

For you, the new languages and fulfillment centers also open up a possibility to explore new markets you might not have previously considered. Ecommerce is booming across the globe, so make 2021 the year you conquer the international online retail world!

Here’s to a successful 2021

More and more people are taking their shopping trips online, so 2021 is going to be a big year for ecommerce store owners.

Throughout Printful’s plans, our main focus remains making you, our customers, happy and satisfied with the service you receive, allowing you to turn your passion into a successful business. This means having reliable fulfillment speed, premium quality products, as well as open and honest communication about the good stuff and the bad.

So here’s to a successful year in ecommerce together! Leave your suggestions for Printful in 2021 in the comments.

author

By Ilze Folkmane on Jan 8, 2021

Ilze Folkmane

Blog author

Ilze is dedicated to creating great content, be it a blog, social media post, or video, that allows customers to bring their stores to the next level.

Ilze is dedicated to creating great content, be it a blog, social media post, or video, that allows customers to bring their stores to the next level.