Digital Disruption in Ecommerce Isn’t Just For Big Brands Anymore

Neil Lassen

Todor Karlikov

By Neil Lassen and Todor Karlikov, Co-founders of Merch Informer, Book Bolt and Sale Samurai

Digital disruption is often thought of as a “big boys” game, and not for the small business entrepreneur.

Sure, small businesses and startup entrepreneurs could still create products and make their way online where they would need to find a producer, set up distribution, pay high marketing costs, platform fees, and then deal with shipping, customer service, and returns.

More often than not, the high barriers to entry were enough to crush the dreams of these individuals and stop them in their tracks.

This has drastically changed over the last 5 years with a large push into Print on Demand (POD) goods impacting a global audience.

In fact, in 2021, the global print on demand market size was valued at 4.9 billion USD and is expected to compound annually by 26.1% from 2022 to 2030.

With the explosion of print on demand, entrepreneurs can sell high quality goods globally without any of the headache of a traditional startup.

This means no or lower overhead costs, no shipping, no fulfillment, no customer service, and best of all no marketing costs through distribution across the world’s largest marketplaces.

Booming Demand For Ecommerce Apparel

When the largest internet ecommerce platform notices a trend and jumps on it, it’s time to pay attention.

We have seen this first hand when Amazon launched a brand new print on demand platform in 2015 called Merch by Amazon.

This was initially targeted towards app developers to assist in selling quality clothing to their audience.

What soon happened was that aspiring entrepreneurs realized the potential of this platform, and decided to join, ourselves included.

Both myself and Todor were one of the very first individuals to start selling on this new platform that they were calling Merch by Amazon. Neither of us were artists, neither of us had ever sold any print on demand goods before, but we knew one thing…Amazon had a global audience of hungry buyers in this segment.

The platform allows you to publish digital files (PNG images), that they would then display to the world across different apparel items. Once an item was purchased from an Amazon buyer, Amazon would then print the apparel item, ship the item to the customer, and then deal with any customer service. What was left was a royalty that was paid to your business as a content creator.

With a lack of artistic skill, Todor and I were able to see great success incredibly quickly. We managed to start selling products within the 1st week to customers we never knew, never had to find, and never had to interact with at all.

Why?

Because print on demand allows people to test out new ideas, and bring them to market in hours, not days and certainly not months. It all came down to finding where the customer demand already WAS, and building out products.

That turned out to be the difficult part.

Growing Ecommerce Communities

During this time period, many creatives were looking into Merch by Amazon as being another outlet that they could offer their goods on.

The difficult part for these sellers was that they had no way to figure out if there was demand on Amazon for what they had, and how to get those products in front of the right buyers.

This led to large communities being formed where creatives would discuss their ideas and techniques.

What most people were doing at the time was spending hours and hours every day on Amazon making large spreadsheets of products that already existed so that they could find not only what customers wanted to buy, but try and find holes in the market so that they could create new products in those niches that would fulfill customer demand.

We noticed this relatively quickly and decided that we would release a tool that we had been working on for our own Print on Demand business. In 2016, Merch Informer was launched.

We had built a software that would find customer demand on Amazon, help us with creating a listing using the right keywords, and scan data for trademarks to make sure that we were not infringing on any intellectual property. This system had been working incredibly well for us, but it soon become apparent that this is what the entire community needed.

Merch Informer was flooded with requests for features, training tutorials, and graphic design tips.

It was clear that we were not the only ones who wanted and needed a way to quickly scale their business.

99.99% of everyone that has come through the doors at our software company has been individuals, creatives, and entrepreneurs. These are not big brands that have unlimited marketing budgets and costly overhead.

With over 200,000 entrepreneurs coming through our doors at Merch Informer, we have seen individual entrepreneurs compete with large companies that were falling behind the times. They are able to sell thousands of products, build out brands themselves, and expand their businesses in less time that would have been previously possible.

Meet Ken Reil

Through one of these groups, we met an individual that has taken the opportunity laid out in front of him: Ken Reil.

We met Ken about 6 years ago when the print on demand industry was just starting to really take off.

He almost quit in the very beginning because his first product image was a single pixel off. Thankfully he stuck with it!

Ken has since launched thousands of products on Amazon, made hundreds of thousands of dollars working from his Las Vegas home, and has even built up a large specialized brand in the horror niche: Monsters & Martians.

This was all done without the traditional path in Ecommerce but through print on demand, software tools, and expansion.

Rapid Expansion For Ecommerce Entrepreneurs

What many soon realize when they start down this path is that success comes from a combination of great products, and getting those products in front of the right audience.

That right audience, may not just be buying clothing from Amazon, or be buying on Amazon at all!

Throughout the years, we have launched analytic and creative software around the print on demand industry, helping sellers craft and sell products from clothing, to low content books (such as puzzle/activity books), and even expand beyond Amazon to new marketplaces such as Etsy.

We have seen an insane increase over the last 2-3 years as everyone has been stuck at home for print on demand books to fulfill people’s time and overcome bordom.

These are not long form stories, but rather notebooks, journals, puzzle books, etc.

Through our software company Book Bolt, we have seen a large increase in sales across the Amazon platform for these types of print on demand goods, and all of this can be done without actually being an author.

Many creative entrepreneurs are realizing that if they have a digital file that they created, this can be repurposed across many type of goods.

Take our example of Ken above. He has a large brand of Monsters & Martians that he sells as print on demand apparel.

One of the things he is working on is taking those same digital files, and turning them into print on demand coloring books through Amazon KDP. This uses the same asset in his business to expand his customer reach.

Still looking for other outlets to sell his goods, he has also turned to Etsy, where he sells these same files as apparel, but also smaller orders such as stickers to build up his brand awareness (and put more money in his businesses bottom line).

Large Brands Are Starting To Take Notice

You don’t just have to take our word for it that print on demand is a booming industry and here to stay.

Take a look at some of the large brands that are turning to POD (print on demand) in order to drastically cut their overhead costs and increase revenues.

Marvel

Dolly Parton

Disney

These are just some of the brands that have started to take advantage of print on demand through the world’s largest marketplace.

We are seeing this primarily through Merch by Amazon and less so with the low content books and other marketplaces such as Etsy.

This should serve as a great example that not only can you compete with some of the largest brands on the planet, but that you can ACTUALLY compete with them with the use of software, technology, and outlets such as Amazon and Etsy.

Cut costs, increase revenues, and figure out what customers actually want. You are not too late to get started.