u/Fazzeroni — reddlx

Hey everyone. So I did print on demand for a few months on both Shopify and Etsy. I got a few sales but nothing significant.

I'm also a woodworker and have my own CNC + laser engraver. I was doing market research and saw how the markets where traditional POD was available were way more competitive and had worse margins. So I just started buying products online and personalizing them myself. Nothing too crazy - just like custom cutting boards and mugs etc.

Just want to let people know that this is an option and at least for me it's been way more successful.

I do it two ways depending on lead time:

a. When i get order, I order product off amazon, engrave when it arrives, then ship to customer

b. I order a bunch of items ahead of time, engrave as they get ordered and ship

why don't more people sell more unique personalized items like this? I feel like I see nothing about this online.

Hi! I reached 1000 sales! This is my first etsy post on reddit and the goal to maybe provide some motivate for other people to keep trying!

I started off selling wood items w CNC + Glowforge, but eventually I found that personalizing existing product was the way to go. I do wallets, cutting boards, glasses, jewelry boxes.

It's not hard to make laser cut mockups and so I made mockups and list. I try to do one listing a day.

Next up: 10,000 orders! I'm going to try branching out to personalizing for other niches.

If I were starting another store, I'd say:

Try personalized or customized items - they've worked out much better for me and tend to have much higher items. if you're willing to do the work and laser cut it pays off
Try try try. At first I just created a few designs and tried advertising them and it didn't work. I've optimized my system to let me pump out tons of designs so i can quickly see what is and isn't working
Double down on what works! I had this one laser cut cutting board doing well. I put ads on it. I create a few alternative cutting board designs. I took the design I had and put it on other items.

I'm working really hard and I hope you are too. Not trying to brag. Just want you to know its possible!