Dropshipped POD: Amazon Print on Demand Sales Review: 2019

Amazon Print on Demand Sales Review: 2019

By Ryan Hogue on January 16, 2020

Today I'll be reviewing my Amazon FBM print on demand sales over the past year via the Printful integration & I'll share my revenue, profit margins, and tips.

Selling print on demand products on Amazon is a great & relatively safe way of adding a passive income stream to your repertoire.

It's different from selling FBA products, because the products are print... on demand!

Meaning, we don't have to pay up-front for inventory.

Instead, we outsource the production + order fulfillment to a print on demand production partner. I highly recommend checking out Printful.

(I also used a second production partner that really only specializes in coffee mugs & shot glasses called Gearbubble, but I don't recommend them because they charge you a monthly fee to use them)

In using a production partner, we're allowing this business to be truly passive & scalable. They integrate with our Amazon Seller Central (Prof. seller) account & are able to automatically see new orders, which are then automatically fulfilled.

How easy is that?

PS. I have a full course on how to successfully start your print on demand business from the ground up called Ryan's Method: Dropshipped Print on Demand.

In this article I'm going to break down my success selling FBM print on demand products on Amazon through Seller Central.

Sales Breakdown

First, let me warn you: understanding your true profit margins on Amazon is NOT easy!

There are quite a few variables to consider...

Product base-cost: Variable by product & by production partner (+ if you have a Printful volume discount)
Amazon fee: Variable because Amazon doesn't let us sell on their platform for free! Varies by product cost
Advertising costs: Variable

Case & point... pretty much each cost in the "profit" equation is variable.

To solve this problem & ensure I actually understand how my business is doing, I pay $19/mo for Amazon profit analytics software called Fetcher.

To be up front: I started using Fetcher initially to stay on top of my FBA profit margins, which have even more variables to account for.

I wrote an in-depth Fetcher review you can check out here, but in short, you input your product base-cost + inbound shipping cost ($0 for print on demand) and it takes care of the rest by integrating with your Amazon seller account.

I felt the need to share this because too many people simply show a screenshot of their Seller Central sales in an attempt to impress people...

This is REVENUE (Not profit!)

Part of why I wanted to become an influencer in this space was to be one of the (seemingly) few people that makes a point of distinguishing one from the other!

Even this, below is not a full representation of true profit...

Printful is only able to account for their fulfillment & shipping cost - what they can't account for are the fees each third party marketplace charges us on a per-sale basis.

It's extremely important to understand these if you're taking running your business seriously.

Now... onto my true profits! (from Fetcher):

Amazon FBM Print on Demand Sales (2019)

This chart represents my total # of sales on Amazon through Seller Central using the Printful & Gearbubble integrations:

Total: 2,152
Printful: 1,744
Gearbubble: 408

Amazon FBM Print on Demand Revenue (2019)

This chart shows my revenue generated in 2019:

Total: $49,337.89
Printful: $43,824.10
Gearbubble: $5,513.79

Amazon FBM Print on Demand Profit (2019)

This chart shows the most important number - how much profit I kept from my Amazon FBM sales in 2019:

Total: $11,566.59
Printful: $9,515.01
Gearbubble: $2,051.58

Amazon.co.uk FBM Print on Demand Sales

Unfortunately, my Fetcher free trial expired with my EU Amazon Seller account (which btw is a separate $39.99/mo fee + a separate Fetcher account monthly fee).

Without Fetcher it's tough to know the exact profit, but it's roughly ~16% lower than the number Printful is reporting below.

I wasn't running ads on Amazon.co.uk to FBM products - only to FBA products while I was selling them through Amazon's Pan-European program.

Here's my sales analytics from Printful's statistics tab:

How to Download Sales Analytics Report From Fetcher

Here's how to grab your sales from Fetcher so you can drill down into your data:

Log into Fetcher & click "Sales & Expenses" on the sidebar
* click to expand
Make sure your date range is set (the default is the past 7 days)
* click to expand
Click "Export to CSV"
* click to expand
*** Don't forget to set your Expenses! ***
* click to expand