Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1491555
A W A R D S & C U S T O M I Z A T I O N T here are several areas of the econ- omy where the printing indus- try thrives. We all know about schools, bands, churches, and businesses, but with the growth of print-on-demand (POD), the gift-giving seasons of the year have grown exponentially. e question is how to best capitalize on these times of year and allow our customers to know how we can help them. The mother of all holidays? In our business, the second-most prof- itable gift-giving holiday right behind Christmas is Mother's Day. We see a major uptick in our sales about four weeks prior to this day every year and it's like clockwork. We have several products we typically sell, but this is also a great time of year to test different items since, with the print- on-demand business model, those prod- ucts don't actually exist until the sale comes through. We may have to stock a specific blank, but with quantity limits on different sales channels, we can make sure we only sell what we have blanks for. And if the prod- uct seems to be a hit, we can typically order more blanks and reset our inventory at that point. We've always found that ceramic sub- limated coffee mugs with quality designs sell very well; it's almost like a Hallmark card on a ceramic mug. The gift giver tends to select either funny or intimate sayings that reflect their relationship with their loved-one in a significant way. Since we fulfill on-demand, we're able to test many phrases and pair them with differ- ent images to see which ones sell better. One of the great things about POD is that you're able to take your design assets and use them on other products. for Moms, Dads, and Grads Popular and profitable print-on-demand products for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduations. Travis Ross is the founder of Make Your Mark Design in Broomfield, Colorado. He is also co-host of the Print On Demand (POD) Cast. GIFT IDEAS 7 8 G R A P H I C S P R O • A P R I L 2 0 2 3 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M B Y T R A V I S R O S S (Images courtesy Travis Ross, Make Your Mark Design)