Why Print on Demand (POD) is Better than Ali Express Dropshipping for New Entrepreneurs

I'm sure I'm not the only person who's noticed that two of the biggest, most talked about, and most popular Entrepreneurial ventures today are Print on Demand and/or Ali Express Dropshipping.

Yes there's a million and one other ways to make money online, there's service businesses you can start, you can build apps, you can be a content writer, a content creator, etc.

But it seems alot of people want to get into eCommerce. Because POD and Ali Dropshipping are very low barrier to entry ways to get into ecommerce they tend to attract a lot of new entreprenurs.

In this video I make the argument that if someone is on the fence between these two business models, I think POD is the better way to go.

Print on Demand Pro's

1. You have unique products.
2. Products from POD sites ship faster than Ali Products/China
3. You have more control over product quality and shipping times.

Print on Demand Con's

1. Quality varies between POD partners.
2. Everyone is starting a POD business these days

Ali Express Dropshipping Pro's

1. Low barrier to entry, cheap to start, no inventory.

Ali Express Dropshipping Con's

1. You have no control over product quality.
2. Product quality tends to be bad.
3. Shipping takes forever.
4. ePacket and China Post tracking numbers often don't work.
5. Everyone is selling the same products
6. Packaging looks bad
7. Packaging customs info shows what you paid

I'm not saying a print on demand business is the absolute best business to get into. It does have it's negatives and because of the low barrier to entry there's a lot of competition and it can be challenging. That said it has fewer challenges and negatives than Ali Express Dropshipping and also because the designs are your designs nobody is going to be selling exactly what your selling.