Gary Pageau 0:01
Hello again, and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau. And today we're joined by Ilze Folkmane, who's joining us from Latvia. She is the communication manager of Printful, which has become one of the most well known personalized product companies in the world. They've been experiencing tremendous growth over the past few years, and Ilze is going to be sharing with us some insights into the Personalized Products market, especially going into the holiday season. Hello, Ilze, how are you today?
Ilze Folkmane 0:34
Hi, thanks. I'm great. How are you?
Gary Pageau 0:37
Good, good. Well, everyone has kind of heard of Printful as a white-label supplier of some tremendous growth over the last few years. As a white-label provider, you get some insights into retail behavior, and how consumers are responding. So what are some of the shopping behaviors that you think are going to impact the holiday shopping season this year?
Ilze Folkmane 1:05
Yeah, definitely, since we mostly work with small- and medium-sized businesses, we see how the trends are developing. And of course, unfortunately, COVID-19 changed a lot this year, people were forced to shift online, even if they were in such fans of e commerce before. So I think that's the biggest change that this year, a lot more people are buying online, which of course is impacting ecommerce all over the world. And it will definitely impact the holiday season. And not only Black Friday, Cyber Monday, but I think the holiday season is gonna be more spread out this year, people will start shopping early and they will finish shopping a bit later than usual.
Gary Pageau 1:51
Are you seeing new customers who may have never even considered becoming a Personalized Products Company, you know, kind of approach you and say, "Hey, we need to we need to start a shop, right? Because we need what's easy to do, and we hear it's as profitable. And we'd like to start." How fast can you get someone on board? Do you think?
Ilze Folkmane 2:14
Actually, it's really fast. And we definitely saw a surge of new customers joining printful when the pandemic started, because we've been long saying that printful one of the ways to use printful is as a side hustle when you have a main job, and then you want to do something in addition, and when a lot of people lost their jobs, they needed a way to make money. So they turned to printful and started their own stores. And if you're really dedicated to that, it can be a very quick process. There are a lot of resources out there both on printful blog and YouTube and on the internet as a whole. So it doesn't take that much time. And some people were worried that I don't even have like design experience or anything like that. But there's so much out there nowadays that that's not even a reason not to do something anymore. So yeah, it's definitely doable.
Gary Pageau 3:07
You know, what's interesting is you kind of touched an interesting point: Shoppers have moved online, and also kind of the side hustle has moved on to as well.
Ilze Folkmane 3:16
Yes, exactly. And, and I think it might not be voluntary at first, but I think people are enjoying it as well.
Gary Pageau 3:25
So it's one of the things as competition heats up. You know, shoppers tend to shop around. Are you seeing any indication of this holiday season will be more price sensitive than past? Because of COVID? Or because there are just so many vendors out there? And what can retailer do? regarding that?
Ilze Folkmane 3:50
I think one of the trends that we're seeing is that people are not necessarily looking for, like super cheap stuff, but rather they are looking for affordable quality products. Which means that if you have a store, you don't have to necessarily have the cheapest alternatives out there. But you have to have that reasoning, why your product is made of quality materials, why it's sustainable, why it matters that they buy from you, not from some cheaper place. So yes, definitely people are more price sensitive. It's just the economy that we're currently in. But it doesn't mean that they'll be buying the cheaper stuff, they might buy something that's perhaps a bit more expensive, but the day we'll know will last longer.
Gary Pageau 4:40
Well, one of the things printful is known for is garment printing, printing on different garments, and I think that's probably a way you can make a distinction between different products as you've got different materials. And I'm sure you know in traditional photo printing, it's the same way you can print on you know photo paper acrylic, ceramic, you know, different substrates. So, so that's something you guys have really focused on, I think is is you offer a wide variety of styles, if you will, you're not just printing, you know, a design on a T shirt. And that's that.
Ilze Folkmane 5:16
Yes, definitely. And here, we're just trying to follow what our customers are asking for most honestly, because we've seen a demand for more organic materials, or for lighter or heavier fabrics. So we try to follow those trends and try to give our customers what they want. But it also goes not only for apparel, because printful actually, we're known mostly for our apparel stuff, but the first product we printed was a poster. So we started with posters, and we also try to offer that range in different direction. For example, we recently introduced a biodegradable phone case or different types of posters. So it's we try to expand in all the categories that we have.
Gary Pageau 6:02
You mentioned sustainability a couple times. And that's something that the industry I think is really coming to grips with is the idea of personalized printing, reducing inventory, and reducing unsold merchandise because you're basically printing on demand.
Ilze Folkmane 6:20
Yes, exactly. Um, to give a bit of a context, perhaps the way it works is that when a customer has a store, and they connected with printful, we will only print your product when an order actually comes in, which means that we don't have like excess stock that we later have to get rid of, we actually print only when an order comes in, and ship it out as well, only when an order comes in. And which means that we are the more sustainable choice in comparison with traditional retail shops. And it's very important for us to emphasize that. And I think we also always ask for customers to emphasize that on their stores, because it is an important issue. And we have to work together on it. Right? Of course, we'll we're not able to get to an ideal solution how to solve the sustainability problem at the now but I think the more we talk about it, and the more we work with it, the better it will get.
Gary Pageau 7:21
One of the other concerns that is kind of facing the industry right now is the concern over shipping delays, hearing a lot of industry chatter right now about late deliveries, deliveries just basically sitting in warehouses. Not pointing out a specific delivery service. I think it's it's sort of an industry wide issue. Is this something you're experiencing? And what do you think can be done about it?
Ilze Folkmane 7:52
Yes, we definitely see shipping problems a bit less. Now, of course, there were more excessive in spring and summer. But we expect them to pick up right now. Since people are buying more. But we actually today announced our holiday order deadlines, which is the dates by which we recommend that people order their stuff to get it on time for the holidays. And unfortunately, there's not much that we can do about the shipping delays. So we're just communicating with our customers. And what I would suggest is rolling out your campaigns earlier, so people would shop earlier, there's more time for the deliveries. And also just being very honest and communicating with your customers. Tell them the dates that you know, tell them that there might be delays. And I think people really appreciate honesty. And everyone knows the situation we're in. So people are mostly very, very supportive and very understanding.
Gary Pageau 8:52
Yeah, but I think one of the challenges you have is, for years, at least in the US. They've been training customers that extra delivery item delivery times are actually getting shorter, right. I mean, I know, people were placing orders on December 21 on some of the major photo sites and getting the order in time for Christmas. It was it was kind of miraculous, actually. And that's not going to happen this year. Right. And I and that and for a retailer or brand or shop who is facing that issue, they've got a huge communication challenge. Right.
Ilze Folkmane 9:31
Yeah, it is definitely a challenge. Um, because I think that at the same time, I think that people are aware of the problems a bit more this year since they're so widespread. So I hope there will be more understanding of any delays. But yeah, it is definitely a challenge for any commerce owner. And that's why I said it's very important to be honest and open about the dates and not set expectations that are to high basically,
Gary Pageau 10:02
yeah. Well, I think that's I think customer communication, I think is going to be more important this year than probably any other just because of those issues. Because actually, sir, no, please continue.
Ilze Folkmane 10:12
No, I just wanted to say that usually, when we talk about creating, like holiday marketing campaigns for the Black Friday, Cyber Monday, we always say, set a week, after the Black Friday in your calendar just to answer your customers questions and concerns, etc, because and this year, I think it's going to take even more time to answer all the incoming questions.
Gary Pageau 10:36
So let's talk about printful. Specifically for a few minutes. You've experienced, you know, double digit growth for several years, relatively new company, and, you know, growing pretty rapidly, what's really been driving that growth, is it, you know, just sort of the is it product innovation? Because it, you know, things that have never been offered before, although I think people have had posters for a while and, or is it? You know, just the fact that the awareness of that consumers can obtain these products very easily. What do you think is driving that growth?
Ilze Folkmane 11:17
I think there are probably several factors. One of them, of course, is that people are shifting online more, and they're looking for new solutions, how to start their business and ways in which they can started without upfront costs. So clearly, print on demand is one of the ways to go. So we've gotten a lot of organic traffic and more intentions just because of tap that, but also for printful. Specifically, as a print on demand company, I think what drives us is that we're an IT company at heart. So we develop our own solutions, and we constantly work on the tech side of things. So everything would be as automated and as easy for customers as possible. So so you wouldn't have to sit at your computer for 10 hours just to understand how to connect your store. So it would just be two clicks to do that. So I think for printful, that that's one of the keys to our growth and listening to our customers is definitely another
Gary Pageau 12:25
Can you kind of describe the printful infrastructure cuz you're you're you mentioned you're, you know, you're based in Latvia, but you're your biggest market is actually the United States. So how many plants do you have? And where are they located and kind of your service areas?
Ilze Folkmane 12:43
Pretty close, actually founded by Latvians, one day had moved to US. So that's why I think we started with the US market, but it's a Latvian company at heart. So at the moment, we have two fulfillment centers in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and one in LA. And then we also have one in Mexico, one just opening up in Canada, and then to running fulfillment centers in Europe, one opening up just now literally in October, November. And we have also fulfillment partners in Australia, in Japan, so we try to cover the globe, more or less. Mm hmm.
Gary Pageau 13:28
So as an IT company, I think it's kind of interesting. Your years. So what it do you Does, does printful have that is different? Is it the ease of use side? Is it the UI side? Because, you know, frankly, people have been doing white label fulfillment for years on the internet for different personalized photo products, etc. And, you know, haven't experienced that kind of growth. So what's kind of, if you don't mind divulging what the secret sauce is?
Ilze Folkmane 13:59
Well, I can divulge some of the parts of the secret sauce I think, um, I think it's because printful started as a problem solution. Because why our founders realized that we need printful is because they starting started printing posters for startups. And they tried to find a solution that would do print on demand shipping, drop shipping, but they couldn't find a solution that would be automated and that would be easy to use. So they created printful.
Gary Pageau 14:30
Wasn't that Startup Vitamins? Wasn't that what that was? Okay.
Ilze Folkmane 14:34
Yeah.
Gary Pageau 14:35
yeah. So what do I remember those posters? Those are like the hot thing for a while all the startups had to have them because it was like, "break things" and yes, you know, all the slogans. Yeah. Okay. So from there printing slogans for for startups. They have evolved that into a more full-featured printer.
Ilze Folkmane 14:54
Yeah, exactly. And we still have that approach that we look for a problem that our customers have Now, and then we try to implement it on printful. So it's always customer driven. And it's always it driven. So for example, one of the things that didn't allow us to use any of the existing print on demand companies was the fact that there's no automated fulfillment, that you have to go and click Confirm button on every incoming order. So we got rid of that for printful, etc. So that sort of grew from that and still going forward.
Gary Pageau 15:25
Okay, so you're adding plants you're growing? What is on the horizon for 2021? Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty with COVID. But I don't think the trend towards Personalized Products and garments is going to go away. In fact, it's going to accelerate so kind of what is the the outlook for hopefully a healthier? 2021?
Ilze Folkmane 15:53
Yes, well, we are all hoping for a better 2021 in terms of going to at least, but I think our aims are to continue growing to continue helping small and medium business owners to expand their stores and to build their ideas into brands basically. And to do that there's a lot of like, smaller goals that we have to reach, of course, it's expansion, but it's also educating our customers talking about e commerce talking about print on demand, and about all the options that are out there for them to succeed. And, again, our sustainability efforts are a big part of our 2021 plans. Because I think the fashion industry at the moment isn't talking as much about print on demand as a solution for the overproduction problem. So we want to just raise awareness about that and drive people towards trying it out at least.
Gary Pageau 16:48
Yeah, that's kind of interesting. I'm not a fashionable person. But I've always thought that was it was a strange sort of business model where you you overproduce things, certain patterns and designs hoping to make a hit. And when they're not, they just kind of move downstream into the discount channels until they end up at Goodwill or something. And it's not very efficient. And it's basically relying on whims and trends as opposed to actual customer demand.
Ilze Folkmane 17:22
I think it actually goes together with what you said about people expecting an order to arrive in a couple of days, because for a very long time, it's been about this urgency that you want something immediately. So that's how fast fashion was born. And that's why we have all those overproduction problems. And that's why people expect something to arrive in a day. But I think we're on the verge of changing that altogether and up in the world that people are a bit more patient about everything. And in turn, that's better for us and for divorce for the world.
Gary Pageau 17:55
Well, speaking of patience, you've been very patient with me on this call. So thank you very much. Where can someone go for more information to learn about printful and explore what your company has to offer?
Ilze Folkmane 18:09
You can definitely go to printful.com. All the information is there. We also have a very good blog, printful.com slash blog. And if you're more oriented towards the video format, then you can definitely search for printful. on YouTube. There's a lot of educational videos out there.
Gary Pageau 18:27
You have customers, like our audience are primarily you know, retail service providers and that kind of thing. Do you have your customers who may use printful for some portions of their fulfillment, and maybe another wholesale provider for a different port? Can you do that fairly easily?
Ilze Folkmane 18:45
Oh, yes, that's not a problem. We have a lot of customers who do that. And we actually also have a lot of customers whose main business isn't even selling online, they just using print on demand to sell their merchandise basically. So there's loads of options how to use on demand business for your needs.
Gary Pageau 19:04
Great. Well thankIlz you for your time today, Ilze, and I wish you well and hope you have a great holiday season.
Ilze Folkmane 19:12
Thank you and thank you for for having me.
