How to Start a Custom Pillow Printing Business

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How to Start a Custom Pillow Printing Business
A few years back, digital technology wasnt
advanced and easily accessible. As it evolved
with path-breaking innovations, a plethora of
trends saw the daylight. One such sector that
witnessed a flood of advancements was eCommerce.
One of the trends that became the talk of the
town was product personalization. Unlike earlier
when only a few big businesses were aware about
product personalization, it has become
inevitably popular today. Rising to the
occasion, a number of online businesses started
offering customization of products. If you have
a knack for creativity, a pillow cover business
can be a good choice for you. In fact, the
pillow market last year (in 2019) was valued at
approximately 15.6 bn USD globally. To stand out
among competitors, you can also include making
customizable pillows as a part of your pillow
cover business plan. Custom pillows wont only
add an edge to your business but also make you
stand out. However, selling customization
requires creativity and technology both. So,
lets walk you through the guide to kickstart
your custom pillow cover business and soar
heights of success.
Create a Business Plan
A robust and well-thought business plan is a must
for success. Therefore, before you venture into
a pillow cover business, there are a few points
you should consider. To start with, decide
whether you want this pillow cover business to be
full-fledged, part- time, or just as a hobby.
You may also need to think how much you can
invest to start your pillow cover business and
afford losses (if any). Also consider designs,
sizes, and price ranges that you would offer as
your business expands. Alternatively, you can go
for only a fixed design or two but make yourself
the masters of those designs. Also speculate
about the possibilities in the future. For
instance, if you succeed in maintaining good ROI
over a few years, what would you do? Would you
still sell only custom pillows or expand your
pillow cover business to include other items like
blankets, mats, etc.? All these considerations
together will help you have a success-driven
business plan.
Understand the Market
When out in a battle, you must be watchful of
your competition!
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Though metaphorically, this statement applies in
any business the pillow business too! Lets
see how. There may be a number of competitors out
there selling hand-made or readymade decorative
pillows. Hence, observing them, checking out
their offerings, designs, prices and marketing
strategies is of utmost importance. Only when you
have a full idea of what your competitors have
to offer and how they cater to the current
demands and expectations of customers you can
actually get the hang of the market trends.
Calculate Estimated Budget
Money is a primary deciding factor in any
business performance. Get a full picture of all
the investments you would need to make in
advance. It will save unprecedented issues in the
future after you launch your pillow
business. For pillow printing, you need to
consider a number of things to calculate the
estimated costs. Mode of Business The very
first factor to consider is the mode of your
pillow business. Would you keep your business
online, offline, or hybrid? I suggest going for
an online store first to minimize overhead costs
and expanding to offline mode later as per needs.
Most of the start-ups generally follow this
practice as it is cost-friendly and safer. Cost
of Materials, Equipment, and Supplies Calculate
the cost of raw materials you would need for
manufacturing like blank pillows, printing
equipment, packaging material, etc. Your printing
equipment will also depend on the printing
methods you will use to print on pillows. Some
printing methods like dye sublimation may need
special equipment and cost more than some others.
Contact your nearby wholesale suppliers who deal
in these raw materials and settle for a
reasonable bulk price. Shipment Costs Coming
to shipment of final products, choose a popular
shipment partner worth relying upon to ensure
streamlined deliveries. There are a few popular
names like FedEx, AusPost, Royal Mail, etc. that
you can consider for shipment. You can also pick
a local delivery partner in the initial phase
when you dont ship internationally. However,
before you choose a shipment partner, ensure
that it has a good and proven track record of its
delivery services. Cost of Resources and
Promotion Consider the costs of labor and
resources you employ for various operations while
calculating your estimated budget. Also estimate
the marketing and advertising budget
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you would set aside for promotion of your pillow
business. Advertising and marketing budget to
promote your pillow business is a must to
estimate in advance as you need it on a regular
basis. To start with, you can focus on organic
SEM strategies ideally. As your traffic and sales
start growing, you can expand to the other
capital-intensive marketing strategies. They can
be paid advertising, display advertising,
influencer marketing, etc. Sum up all these
costs to arrive at your total estimated start-up
budget. To help you get a better understanding
of your start-up costs for various aspects, we
are right there by you. Our strategy consultants
who can help you segregate your start-up costs
based on your investment potential. This way, you
can get the best store set up for you at the
best feasible costs to suit you. So, why to
wait? Get in touch with our industry experts
right away to get the best advice for your
business. Decide on Places to Sell Your
Products Where to sell is a valuable
consideration to make. This is because it
influences other aspects like business licenses
you need and products you can offer. You have a
lot of options when it comes to deciding on the
places to sell. You can sell your decorative
pillows and cushions directly to customers from
your online store (your own print website).
While building a website from scratch may be
cumbersome and costly for startups, you can
always go for a web-to-print storefront. A
web-to-print storefront can help you launch your
site at minimal costs and you can start making
profits in a short span. There are some other
ways too that you can use in addition to your
website. You can also partner with local
interior designers to create tailored pieces
specifically for their projects. One more option
is associating with Amazon, eBay, Etsy, to sell
your products on their sites and grow your
pillow business. While you can think of a place
or two to sell your pillows you can diversify
your places to sell further. For instance, you
can also collaborate with local boutiques,
showrooms and garments stores. There, you can
display the best samples to a larger audience and
get their traction. You can also go for
community events where you can rent a booth and
put your samples on display. When people find
them good and attractive, they can buy them from
you. So, think well before you do
that! However, taking these steps can be a bit
costlier. The reason is the high charges a
boutique owner may ask for to allow for your
product display. Similarly, you may need a good
amount to rent a booth in such community
events. So, think wisely before taking these
steps.
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Types and Designs to Sell Deciding on the types
of cushion designs plays a great role in hitting
the right chord with customers. Before starting
your pillow business, analyze your competitors
types and designs. Research the in-trend pillow
designs. Accordingly, you can decide what to
sell. With the right cushion material with the
right design, you can hit the mark easily and
speedily. If you intend to sell ready-made
pillows as a base and create only decorative
covers, you may face certain limitations of
sizes and shapes available. may face a
restriction in the sizes and shapes available for
you. But it can save your time as you dont have
to sew them manually.
Instead, if you think you intend to sell
hand-made pillows you can get virtually any
size and shape you want. As you only are
manufacturing them! Further, you can also try out
selling eco-friendly covers filled with plastic
beads, bamboo, organic cotton, etc. The only
thing is you may need to spend more in
manufacturing hand-made pillows. If you cant
spend much and want to start with minimum
investment, selling a factory- made pillow with
custom covers can be an ideal choice. Moreover,
you can take your business to the next level by
giving the customers freedom to customize their
pillows themselves. Surprised? Well it is
possible today. Through an online product
designer tool that you can integrate with your
store.
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There are a number of online product design tools
available today that you can choose from. Our
Brush Your Ideas Product Design Software is also
an online product design tool that you can
integrate. Talking of text features, it offers
font manager, quotes, custom text and messages,
Coming to image features, it offers edit effects,
personal image upload, watermarking,
etc. Moreover, it offers clipart manager
including free clipart library, clipart
customization, smart search, SVG support, and
object handling features that include object
handlers, layer management, object grouping, and
positioning, etc. Summing up, its got all the
cutting-edge text features you seek to offer
varied engaging customization options. Want to
check out our Online Product Designer to explore
its functionalities. Stay tuned. Tips to Choose
Material (Fabric) When starting a pillow
business, choosing the right fabric is a must.
Not all fabrics can suit pillow printing. So,
the very first thing to consider is the strength
of the fabric. Choose the fabric that can
withstand the pressure of someone sitting on it
and doesnt tear apart. Next comes the fade
resistance. Ensure that your fabric is resistant
to fading over time. Otherwise, the design on
the pillow will fade over several washings and
the beauty of the printed design will go away.
In general, woven acrylic fabrics are more
resistant to fading and have high
longevity. The third factor is water resistance
or repellence. If you include selling pillows and
cushions for outside purposes, use outdoor
fabrics for your pillows. Outdoor fabrics come
with protective coating that makes the pillow
resist water, moisture, mold, and mildew. Also
consider cleanability code. Some fabrics come
with Microban that guards the fibers against
stain and odor-causing bacteria. Pick these
fabrics especially for outdoor-purpose
cushions and pillows.
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Types of Printing Methods There are several
common printing methods for custom pillow cover
business. Here are a few common ones. Stamp
Printing Stamp printing uses a stamp to imprint
onto the pillow fabric. First, you cut the design
into the stamp and dip it into the ink.
Following it, youll need to apply even pressure
to transfer your design onto the textile. It is
a traditional method that you can use for small
print runs and without machines. The major
drawback is that it doesnt suit more intricate
designs and the quality is inconsistent. Transfer
Printing Transfer printing uses a transfer
paper to print your design onto it and transfer
it the fabric using a conventional, household
steam iron. While this method is great for short
runs and requires no special equipment, it has
some downsides too. First, you cannot get
high-resolution prints with it. Second, it is
more prone to cracks, peels, and fades. Screen
Printing Screen printing is a more professional
printing method that uses a stencil and nylon
mesh to print designs. A waterproof material
blocks out the spaces to print the design on and
then you flood those blocked out spaces with
ink. Though you can use only color per screen,
it still produces fantastic replications.
Feasible only for large runs, it produces
long-lasting designs. Dye Sublimation Dye
Sublimation employs a thermal transfer paper you
print designs on. You use this paper then to
transfer the design onto the fabric. Under both
heat and pressure, ink changes into gas and
bonds permanently with the fabric. It helps in
producing amazing replications, is eco-friendly,
and ideal for all size print runs. The drawback
is its high cost due to special equipment and
sublimation dyes and non- usability on natural
fabrics. Launch Your Online Store If you are
done with all preparations, it is time to launch
your online pillow business. For that, you will
need to build a site where you can sell all your
products. Again, there are two ways to do that.
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Go for the traditional method of buying a domain,
hosting provider (or e-commerce platform),
hiring a developer, and getting your site ready.
This method may sound exciting but can be costly
and cumbersome especially if you have no prior
experience in online pillow business. The other
way is opting a ready-to-launch customizable
web-to-print storefront solution. Our Brush Your
Ideas team has developed a SaaS-based W2P
storefront solution that can help start your
print business in no time. You can get all
front-end, back-end, payment and security
features, and domain and hosting services on
top. So, invest less, grow more! If you want to
know in detail how our storefront solution can
help kickstart your pillow business, well be
pleased to guide you through. Market Your Pillow
Business Well Once you launch your pillow
business, the next important step is to market it
well. You can focus on organic search engine
marketing strategies, email marketing, paid
marketing, display advertising, etc. You can
also sell your products outside your store on
various e- commerce giants like Amazon, Etsy,
eBay to make the audience notice your
brand. While all the social media sites are
great for marketing and engagement, Instagram
marketing has emerged as a viable marketing
option of late. In fact, 39 of people admit
they take more interest in a brand or product
after they see it in Stories. Especially for
creative businesses like a pillow business, home
decor business, etc. Instagram can go a long
way towards engaging modern-day audiences. So,
set up a business page and profile on Instagram.
Note that you must have an active Facebook page
prior to that. Keep posting regular updates, new
launches and additions, discounts and offers,
etc. on your page. You can also set up your Ads
manager, choose your ad objective, target
audience, ad format, and publish the ad. You can
also promote your previous posts for better
outreach and traffic. If you want to get tips on
how to market your pillow cover business, we can
help you out. Our Brush Your Ideas has a pool of
seasoned industry experts who can help set up
your online pillow business in no time. Our
marketing consultants can help you choose the
right promotional strategies and take off your
business in no time. You can book a consultation
with our industry experts. We assure you that our
consultation will give you in-depth knowledge
and best industry tips for your pillow
business. So, dont wait any further and book
your consultation with us right away.
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Ready to Cash In On the Creative Opportunity of
Pillow Business? To venture into pillow cover
business requires the creative mindset, right
technology, and marketing strategies. We have
got you covered on all three fronts. Your
creativity, our technology, and mutually planned
marketing strategies the trio can be a great
start for you. We, at Brush Your Ideas, have
got 13 years of experience in tech integrations.
In addition to that, we have been instrumental
in helping small businesses launch their stores,
promote them, and offer customization to their
customers for over 4 years. With a great track
record of over 80 customers retained, you can
stay assured of your success. We are there with
you at the beginning and ahead when your business
takes off. Our web-to-print storefront solution
can grow as you grow. It is a scalable
custom-made solution you can add more advanced
features to as your business expands. You can
launch your site with minimum investment and
enhance it as your business expands. Coming to
us, we are there by your side right now and will
stay with you in your journey ahead. To know
more about our ready-to-launch web-to-print
storefront and integrate it, book a personalized
demo with us.
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