The importance of Print on Demand aka POD

In this episode of the Art Business Morning Show, hosts Patrick Shanahan and Nick Friend dive into the world of Print on Demand (POD) and explore how it has transformed the art and photography industries. They start by defining POD and highlight its benefits, such as eliminating inventory and reducing administrative tasks. Patrick offers a historical perspective on the evolution of POD, tracing its roots back to the early days of inkjet printing. The discussion covers the advantages of using POD, including increased marketing time, global shipping capabilities, and the ability to offer various media types and merchandise. The hosts emphasize the importance of POD in achieving scalable success and maximizing revenue for artists and photographers.

Podcast Transcribe

Patrick Shanahan: On today's edition of the Art Business Morning Show, we are talking about POD, aka print on demand. Specifically, we're going to define it, talk about its benefits, and explain why being on POD is fundamental to success in this business. Fundamental. This is normally where the theme music is playing, you know.



Alright, so welcome. Welcome to another edition of the Art Business Morning Show, the show that's going to put you on the path to a six-figure-a-year-plus art or photography business. And boy, is getting POD correct a part of that path. My goodness. So I think we should start out, Nick, broadly, by defining POD. Maybe quick introductions first?



Nick Friend: Yeah, always good. I'm Nick Fran, CEO and owner of Art Storefronts.



Patrick Shanahan: My name is Patrick Shanahan. I run the marketing department here at Art Storefronts. I think the introductions are important because we're going to go back even further into my background and history in particular.



Nick Friend: Print on demand. POD, formally defined, is not having to keep any inventory, not having to deal with any printing, shipping, boxing, fulfillment, or customer service. That's sort of the big picture umbrella it's wrapped in. But what I wanted to do, starting out, is most people don't understand your background or the history you bring to this. And then our perspective will be interesting because, when we were coming up, this didn't exist. It didn't exist fundamentally. Things were much harder back then. I think that piece is important. Then I want to pin it from there and get into a long list of the benefits of print on demand, many of which most people don't know or understand. It's never been articulated at this level. I think you and I could surface a bunch of things, making the broader argument that if you're not on it, you are harming yourself and your business. We'll explain that and articulate it. But why don't you give us a little bit of your background?



Patrick Shanahan: Really quick, I'll also add to that. We say that as people who really appreciate the art of making prints, you know, on various types of printers and doing it yourself. As I talk about my background here, you'll gain a great understanding of that. But anyways, I think I'm going to go even further back to give people a little bit of history of this industry and how print on demand came about.



I've been in the art industry for 20-22 years. When I got into this business, I got in on the printing side, on the fine art printing, specifically on the paper, canvas, and manufacturing side. I founded a business called Breathing Color, which is one of the largest manufacturers of fine art canvas, photography paper, metal, and other materials for high-quality art reproduction and photography reproduction. I started that business in 2003. Today, it is a huge factory in Austin, Texas, selling in over probably 50 countries all over the world to over a hundred thousand fine art printing companies, photo labs, individual artists and photographers, galleries, and so forth. It's in retail stores; you can buy boxes and sheets of it and things like that. I got a very unique perspective from that company. But I'm going to go back a step prior to it because when I got into this business in about 2000-2001, it was right at a time when inkjet printing, i.e., giclée, just started. This was like the beginning of inkjet printing. There was some inkjet printing happening in the years prior to that. 



Those of us who are old enough can remember, you had a computer at home, and laptops were barely around in the late '90s. Hardly anyone had one. You probably didn't want one either because they weren't very powerful. You had to plug in a printer. The first inkjet printers were made, and it was just ridiculously expensive. It still is, but it was way worse back then. You were able to print one-off little things and started being able to print photos on your printer. The big printer manufacturers like Epson—Epson was the originator. Actually, there was one company even prior to that, and they made one big printer. The name is escaping me right now. Maybe somebody in the comments can drop it. It started with a T. It wasn't HP; it's not a big name that anybody would know.



When Epson got into it, they started creating a 17-inch-wide printer. I think it was actually a 13-inch, a 17-inch, a 24-inch, and then a 44-inch printer. That is really what started exploding print on demand. It was empowering new printing companies to form that were offering printing as a service. It also allowed artists and photographers to start printing their stuff at home. To appreciate how big of a tectonic shift this was in the industry, you have to understand how it was done before. Now, if you've ever gotten business cards, folders, brochures, or handouts made, you can appreciate that through commercial printing, you have to order a lot for it to make sense from a cost standpoint. Now business cards are cheap today, but I'm referring to back in the day. The same thing happened with art. You had two choices: lithography, which is essentially mass poster printing, and serigraphy, which was screen printing, no different than screen printing of t-shirts, one color at a time, manually done on a screen printing press. Extremely laborious. There were very few serigraphy print houses. You could count them on one hand, maybe three to five in the entire United States. When a publisher would buy a set of prints from them, they had to pick one image from an artist's portfolio and run 300 of these because you had to run a certain amount to pay for the screens and other inherent costs in doing screen printing or lithography. They had to gamble on 10 images that they thought would be hot in the market. What would happen? Maybe one or two would hit, and the other eight would bomb, leaving them with massive warehouses full of inventory of prints that didn't sell. Inkjet solved that entire problem. Once Epson released these printers and then HP and Canon followed, there was an explosion of little mom-and-pop fine art printing companies all over the country and the world. They could do one print for you of any image you wanted. This ability for artists and photographers to get one-offs of their work out there was now possible. They didn't need publishers or representation anymore. They could buy their own printer, make the prints themselves, or go to one of these fine art printing companies and buy as low as one print. They could believe in themselves, buy a couple of prints, do a local show, and sell them. This happened from about the year 2000 through today. The whole industry just exploded and emerged. New printer models came out, the price of printers kept going down, and it got easier and easier for everybody. Color calibration equipment and workflow management improved, making it more turnkey. 



Here we are today. Over the last three to five years, everything has changed for the individual. As markets mature, consolidation happens. A lot of businesses doing the same thing with little differentiation started consolidating. Printing companies began buying other printing companies, leading to a handful of large art and photography printing companies doing massive fulfillment for large companies and individual artists and photographers. One example is Bay Photo, one of our fulfillment companies. They offer phenomenal quality and can service both high and low volumes with the same equipment. People hear mass fulfillment and think of cheap, imported materials, but the better companies are transparent about using the same Epson printer, ink, and branded media types like Breathing Color or Hahnemühle. They produce state-of-the-art quality, offering various quality levels from premium plus (Ferrari quality) to premium (Mercedes/BMW quality) to more affordable options. For 99.99% of people, premium quality is sufficient, providing extra margin for the artist.



These bigger fulfillment companies achieve massive economies of scale, allowing them to produce high-quality prints at low costs. Small printing companies or individual artists can't compete with these rates. The larger companies have the lowest costs for everything, from canvas and ink to boxes and shipping rates with UPS and FedEx. This makes it pointless to try to do it yourself. Your time has value, and it's better spent on higher ROI activities like marketing rather than printing and fulfillment.



Nick Friend: Fascinating. Can you still hear me?



Patrick Shanahan: Yes.



Nick Friend: It's fascinating because we've watched this technology emerge. The very first inkjet printers empowered small shops and individuals to reproduce art without a high barrier to entry. It was extremely difficult to break in as an artist before this technology. The barrier to entry was lowered, allowing artists to sell their prints with decent margins and without high risk. Over 20 years, the little guys have been crushed, but it has never been better for the artist or photographer. You don't have to visit print shops, do it yourself, keep inventory, or deal with minimums. You can ship globally and focus on bigger revenue generation opportunities for your business. At a macro level, POD is about your time and leverage. The highest ROI on your time is taking back the time spent on admin tasks and focusing on marketing. Making and managing your own prints is zero leverage; it's something someone else can do just as well.



Patrick Shanahan: Yes. There's only one thing that is maximum leverage in an artist's business, and it's marketing. Removing low-leverage tasks allows you to spend more time on marketing, which moves your revenue and changes your life. Every minute spent on marketing brings in new leads and customers. Delegating tasks you shouldn't be doing frees up energy and makes you feel like a new person. These low-leverage tasks drain your energy, and you don't realize how much until they're gone.



Nick Friend: Absolutely. When you have POD, you eliminate all the



 admin work. An order comes in, the printer gets paid, you get paid, the order gets printed, boxed, shipped, and you touch nothing. It's 100% automated by technology and software. You get paid, and the printer gets paid. There's a massive amount of time saved in each transaction, especially when you're doing 30, 60, or 150 orders a month. Having your logo on the box is one of our specialties, making the process professional and seamless.



Patrick Shanahan: There are zero minimums with POD. You can ship one order or 3,000 orders with no difference in cost or effort. This allows you to hit home runs or sell a single piece of art to your neighbor without stress. It's the beauty of this software-technology combination.



Nick Friend: The global shipping rates with POD are incredible. The only way to have competitive global shipping is by working with the biggest and best fine art and photography printing companies. They have localized global shipping rates, making it affordable to ship anywhere in the world. This opens up a global market for your work. We've seen artists sell to customers in Spain, Japan, and other countries without even knowing they were following them. Offering international shipping is crucial for participating in the global market.



Patrick Shanahan: The printing companies with POD have economies of scale that allow them to buy in bulk and negotiate the lowest costs for everything, from canvas and ink to packaging and shipping rates. This makes it impossible for small printing companies or individual artists to compete. The packaging costs alone are significantly lower for these large companies, saving you money and ensuring high-quality shipments.



Nick Friend: POD also allows you to offer a wide range of media types that you wouldn't be able to sell otherwise. Many artists and photographers limit themselves to one or two media types, but customers have diverse preferences. Offering paper, canvas, metal, acrylic, and wood prints caters to a broader audience and increases your conversion rates. You can even offer merchandise like calendars, mugs, shirts, puzzles, and more. These items are impulse buys and make great gifts, providing additional revenue streams.



Patrick Shanahan: The ability to offer all these media types and merchandise is huge. It allows you to cater to different customer preferences and market trends. For example, modern houses with hard edges often prefer acrylic or metal prints. By offering these options, you can participate in markets you would otherwise miss. Merchandise items like coasters and calendars are impulse buys and gift items that customers can purchase easily.



Nick Friend: Using POD also eliminates the hassle of dealing with damaged or lost shipments. The larger companies have systems in place to handle these issues efficiently, saving you time and stress. They offer automatic replacements and handle customer service, allowing you to focus on marketing and growing your business.



Patrick Shanahan: POD gives you the ability to run your business from anywhere. You can work from home, travel, or even move to a different country without worrying about managing inventory or fulfillment. This flexibility is invaluable, especially in today's world.



Nick Friend: The ability to take advantage of new innovations and technologies with POD is another significant benefit. As new products and printing methods become available, you can quickly integrate them into your offerings. This keeps your business competitive and allows you to meet customer demands.



Patrick Shanahan: Finally, using POD allows service-based photographers to offer printing without spending a dime. You can increase your average order value by offering prints from your sessions without the hassle of managing a printer. This significantly boosts your revenue and provides a seamless experience for your clients.



Nick Friend: In summary, POD is essential for maximizing your time, offering a wide range of products, and taking advantage of economies of scale. It allows you to focus on marketing and growing your business, leading to higher revenue and success. Whether you sign up with us or not, integrating POD into your business is crucial for achieving your goals.









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