What a print-on-demand order does
What happens after a fan clicks buy?
The store takes the money and passes the order to a print network, where one factory prints the item, packs it and hands it to a carrier, typically two to seven working days after the sale. Where that factory stands decides most of what can go wrong, because an order printed in the buyer’s own country avoids the long-haul postage, the customs charge and most of the wait.
One order, in six steps
A print-on-demand store holds no stock. It holds a product page and a print file, and nothing is made until somebody has paid. From that moment the order passes through companies the fan never sees: a print network, one of its factories, and a carrier.
The steps are much the same on every network. What differs is who chooses the factory. That one choice sets the postage, the delivery time, and whether the parcel has to clear customs.
- At the checkoutOrder
The fan pays the store. The store passes the order and the delivery address to the print network.
- Straight awayRouting
The order goes to one factory. Where software chooses, it is the nearest that stocks the blank and has the right press.
- 2 to 7 working daysPrint
The file is checked, and the item is printed and inspected. One item, made once.
- When it is packedDispatch
It is packed and labelled, and a carrier collects it. The label creates the tracking number.
- A day or two to showTracking
The number goes back to the store, which emails it to the fan.
- Weeks later, if at allReturns
A parcel that cannot be delivered goes back to the network by default, not to the artist.
Filed or disclosedTwo networks’ own published times. · Source: Printful, Shipping, Printify help, What are Printify’s production times like?, Printful help, Why can’t I see any tracking info? · checked
The order: two sales, not one
Every print-on-demand order is two transactions. The fan pays the store the retail price, with postage and tax. The network then charges the store for the product, the postage and the tax. What is left between the two is the store’s margin.
Printful, a print network, says in its own help pages that it never receives money from the buyers of a seller’s own store, only their delivery details. So a refund is two actions as well. The network may refund the store, if it approves the store’s claim. The refund to the fan is the store’s to make, through its own checkout, whatever the network decides.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, How do I accept payments for my orders? · checked
The order reaches the printer because the store sends it. On Shopify, a store’s settings decide whether a paid order goes to the printer automatically or waits for somebody to release it. A product is sent only if the printer is set as the place it is stocked. For a Printful product, Shopify shows 9,999 in stock. The figure is a placeholder, and it drops to zero when Printful runs out.
After that, the time for changes is limited. With Printful, an order can be changed or cancelled until it enters production. Once it has, only the address and the delivery method can still be changed. Once the parcel has been posted, Printful cannot change the address, redirect the parcel or recall it. An order made at one of its partner sites cannot be changed at all.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Order processing and fulfillment in Shopify, Printful help, Can I change or cancel my order after submitting it? · checked
Routing: which factory gets it
A network with several factories has to pick one for each order. Printful names four of the things its software weighs: the delivery address, where the product is in stock, where the right printing method is available, and how busy each factory is. Usually the answer is the factory nearest the buyer. If the product is not available there, or demand has surged, the order may go somewhere else. The seller cannot choose the factory.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Can I choose where my products are fulfilled? · checked
Two things follow. The same shirt can come from different factories in different weeks. And an order of two products can become two parcels, because each is sent from wherever it is made. Printful says an order split this way costs more to post than one sent whole. Some products are packed on their own and charged as separate parcels: hats, mugs, posters and stickers among them.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful, Shipping · checked
Printify is built the other way round. It is a network of separate print providers, and the seller picks one for each product when the product is set up. The order then goes to that provider wherever the fan lives, and a provider with several sites uses the nearest where it can. An optional setting, Order Routing, moves an order to another provider when the product is out of stock. It also moves an order for a single product from abroad to a provider nearer the buyer, when that costs no more.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printify help, What is Order Routing, and how does it work?, Printify help, Are Print Providers switched automatically? · checked
So there are two kinds of network. On one, software chooses the factory for each order. On the other, the seller chose it when the product was listed, perhaps without knowing it was a choice.
Print: made once, to order
Production takes days, not hours. Printful gives an average of 2 to 5 business days to make an order and send it out. Printify says most orders are shipped within 2 to 7 business days, and that production cannot be hurried, except by an express service it runs inside the United States. Both call their dates estimates and not guarantees.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful, Shipping, Printify help, What are Printify’s production times like? · checked
Printify lists what makes an order late: the garment is out of stock and has to be ordered in, the print failed its quality check and has to be done again, or the order holds twelve items or more. A store that prints on demand cannot sell out, but the network can run out of one variant, a blank in one size and colour, and then the order waits.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printify help, What are Printify’s production times like? · checked
Each item is checked. Printful describes three checks: of the artwork before printing, of the product during printing, and of the finished item before it is packed. It says 0.24% of its orders are sent out a second time. A machine still has a tolerance. Printify allows half an inch in where a print sits, and does not treat a print inside that margin as a fault.
Filed or disclosedEach company’s own figures for its own orders. · Source: Printful, Quality, Printify help, How does Printify handle refunds and returns? · checked
Dispatch and tracking
The delivery date a fan is shown is two estimates added together: the time to make the item, and the carrier’s time to deliver it. Printful gives 3 to 4 business days for standard delivery inside the United States and Canada, and 5 to 20 for an order going abroad. Added to its 2 to 5 days of production, that is 5 to 9 business days for an order made and delivered inside the United States or Canada, and 7 to 25 for one sent abroad.
Filed or disclosedPrintful’s published ranges. The two totals are this chapter’s sums. · Source: Printful, Shipping · checked
The tracking number is created when the factory prints the postage label. The network passes it to the store, the store marks the order as fulfilled, and the store’s own email goes to the fan, if its notifications are switched on. An order split into two parcels gets two tracking numbers.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Where can I find the tracking information for my orders?, Printful help, How does Shopify know when my Printful orders are shipped? · checked
Then nothing appears to happen. Printful gives up to 24 hours on one help page, and up to 48 on another, for a carrier to show a parcel that has been labelled, and longer for one going abroad. An order made at Printful’s factory in Mexico is taken to San Diego before it is posted, which can add a day. In that gap a fan holds a tracking link that shows nothing, and Printful suggests saying so in the order confirmation.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Why can’t I see any tracking info?, Printful help, Orders fulfilled in Mexico · checked
Returns: the part nobody plans
Nothing printed to order can go back on a shelf, so the networks do not take returns. Printful and Printify say the same thing in almost the same words: no return and no exchange for the wrong size, the wrong colour or a change of mind. An item that arrives damaged or misprinted is reprinted or refunded, if it is reported within 30 days of delivery with a photograph. The faulty item does not have to be sent back. Printful makes one exception to the rule on returns, for orders sent to Brazil, where the law gives a buyer seven days to cancel.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Return and refund policy, Printify help, How does Printify handle refunds and returns? · checked
That is the network’s policy towards the store. It is not the store’s policy towards the fan, and the law may not let it be. In the UK, somebody who buys online can cancel within 14 days of receiving the goods, without giving a reason, and the refund includes standard delivery. Personalised and custom-made items are an exception. The government’s guidance gives curtains as its example, and does not say whether a stock design printed after the order counts. The store is the merchant of record, the seller in law, so the question lands on the store.
Official sourceThe rule and its exception are the guidance’s. That the store is the seller follows from who takes the payment. That the guidance leaves print-on-demand unsettled is this chapter’s reading, and not legal advice. · Source: GOV.UK, Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law · checked
The network will not take the first shirt back, so a store that agrees to swap a size pays for a second shirt and a second parcel.
A parcel that cannot be delivered is a different case. By default it goes back to the network, not to the artist. Printful has a return address for each region, and in some cases lets a seller use an address of their own in the United States instead. It lists the usual reasons: an address that cannot be delivered to, a parcel the buyer refused, one never collected from a locker, and one left unclaimed at customs. It says a parcel can take 4 to 6 weeks to come back and be processed. The store then has 30 days to have it sent again. It pays the postage a second time where the address was wrong, the buyer sent the parcel back, or it went unclaimed at customs. After 30 days the item is given to charity.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, My order is being returned to sender, Printful help, Return and refund policy, Printful help, Where are returns sent? · checked
Where the networks print
Networks differ most in who owns the presses. Printful owns seven factories and gives the address of each. Prodigi owns factories in the UK, the United States and the Netherlands, and adds more than 100 partner printers. Gelato and Printify describe networks of partners: Gelato counts more than 250 production hubs in 32 countries, and Printify 141 facilities.
- Printful’s own fulfilment centres
- Prodigi’s own manufacturing sites
The places
| Place | Run by | What it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Charlotte, North Carolina, United States | Printful’s own fulfilment centres and Prodigi’s own manufacturing sites | For Printful, US orders, the East Coast first |
| Dallas, Texas, United States | Printful’s own fulfilment centres | US orders, nationwide |
| Tijuana, Mexico | Printful’s own fulfilment centres | US orders, taken to San Diego and posted from there |
| Toronto, Canada | Printful’s own fulfilment centres | Orders for Canada |
| Birmingham, United Kingdom | Printful’s own fulfilment centres | Orders for UK addresses only |
| Alton, Hampshire, United Kingdom | Prodigi’s own manufacturing sites | Not stated |
| Venlo, Netherlands | Prodigi’s own manufacturing sites | Not stated |
| Barcelona, Spain | Printful’s own fulfilment centres | Mainly Western Europe |
| Riga, Latvia | Printful’s own fulfilment centres | Clothing |
Each place is set at the city its network names. Printful’s Dallas, Toronto, Birmingham, Barcelona and Riga centres are in Coppell, Mississauga, Wolverhampton, Sant Climent de Llobregat and Marupe. Printful also uses partner sites in Brazil, Japan and Australia for some products. Gelato names no cities, and Printify’s sites are its providers’ own, so neither is on the map.
Filed or disclosedEach network’s own published list of its sites. · Source: Printful help, Where are the Printful fulfillment centers located?, Printful help, Orders fulfilled in Mexico, Prodigi, About · checked
Three details on Printful’s list say a good deal. The factory in Tijuana prints for the United States: its orders are taken over the border to San Diego and posted from there at US rates. The UK factory takes orders for UK addresses only because, in Printful’s words, of high international shipping costs from the UK. And the Toronto factory is there to cut delivery times and import costs for buyers in Canada. Each one is placed to keep an order on one side of a border.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Where are the Printful fulfillment centers located?, Printful help, Orders fulfilled in Mexico · checked
Printify publishes a different kind of list: every print provider, with its country. On 6 October 2026 the list had 74 entries, and 48 of them gave a location in the United States. Six were in China and three in Australia. The other 17 were spread across Europe, Canada and India, or were listed as worldwide, Printful and Prodigi among them. A seller who picks from that list without looking at the country will more often than not pick an American printer.
| Network | Its own factories | Partners | How the factory is chosen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printful | Seven: three for the United States, one for Canada, one in the UK, two in mainland Europe | Sites in Brazil, Japan and Australia, for some products | By its software, for each order |
| Prodigi | In the UK, the United States and the Netherlands | More than 100 print partners | By its software: the centre closest to the delivery address |
| Gelato | None named | More than 250 production hubs in 32 countries | Not stated. It says 90% of its orders are produced locally |
| Printify | None named | 141 facilities; 74 entries in its list of providers | By the seller, product by product. Optional settings can move an order |
Each network’s own description of itself, not an audit. Gelato gives its partners as “250+” on one page and “over 140” on another.
Filed or disclosedEach network’s own pages. The count of Printify’s list by country was made for this chapter. Two of its entries are Printify’s own services. · Source: Printful help, Where are the Printful fulfillment centers located?, Printful help, Can I choose where my products are fulfilled?, Prodigi, Global print network, Prodigi, About, Gelato, The power of local, Gelato, Shipping and delivery, Printify, Printify, Shipping Rates, Printify help, Are Print Providers switched automatically? · checked
Why a US order printed in the US costs less
Three costs change when an order is printed in the buyer’s own country: the postage, the border and the time.
Postage
Postage is the plainest. Each of Printify’s providers publishes a rate card in dollars, so the same shirt can be priced from two places.
A t-shirt posted to an American address costs $4.75 from Monster Digital, which prints in North America, and $25.79 from T shirt and Sons, which prints in Europe. That is 5.4 times as much. Each provider’s cheapest parcel is the one that crosses no border: Monster Digital charges $9.39 to reach Canada and $12.49 to reach Australia. The dearer parcel is also the slower one. The cards give 2 to 5 business days inside the United States, and 10 to 30 for every route here that crosses a border.
Printful’s flat rates are set by where the parcel is going. Its card charges €4.69 for a t-shirt to the United States, €4.49 to Europe and €4.39 to the UK, the places six of its seven factories serve. To Canada the rate is €7.99, and to a country outside the regions it lists, €10.99.
Filed or disclosedPrintful shows prices in the visitor’s currency. These were read from mainland Europe, so they are in euros. · Source: Printful, Shipping · checked
The border
The second cost is customs. Until 2025 a parcel worth $800 or less entered the United States free of duty. That exemption has been suspended since 29 August 2025. US Customs and Border Protection made the suspension indefinite in a rule of 24 June 2026 for parcels carried outside the post, with a second rule for the post alongside it. An Act of Congress ends the exemption altogether from 1 July 2027. Chapter 07 sets out who collects what.
Official sourceSource: Federal Register, Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Merchandise Arriving Through All Modes Other Than the International Postal Network (US Customs and Border Protection, 24 June 2026), US Customs and Border Protection, E-Commerce FAQs · checked
What that did to a single t-shirt is on record. Printful told its sellers that foreign postal services now had to collect the duty before a parcel could enter the country, that many were not ready, and that parcels were being delayed or could not be delivered. It began accepting orders from its European factories for American addresses again on 11 September 2025. Its notice, still posted in October 2026, says that for the time being a US order for products it does not print in Europe is held when they are out of stock in the United States, and is not sent to another factory.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, What should I know about the new import tariffs? · checked
An order printed inside the country meets none of this. Printful’s Mexican factory makes the point. Its orders are taken across the border and posted as domestic parcels, and Printful tells sellers that no customs fee applies to them.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Orders fulfilled in Mexico · checked
The same holds in the other direction. Goods bought from abroad and sent to Great Britain carry VAT at any value. Where a parcel is worth £135 or less, the seller charges that VAT at the checkout. Above £135, the delivery company collects the VAT and any duty from the buyer before it hands the parcel over. It normally holds a parcel for about three weeks, and then returns it to the sender.
Official sourceSource: GOV.UK, Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad · checked
Who pays has to be settled before the sale. Printful’s default is that the buyer owes any customs charge on delivery. For orders to Canada and the UK, some stores can instead have duties and taxes added at the checkout. For an order sent into the United States from abroad, Printful says it now always uses that method, with duties paid before the parcel arrives.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printful help, Who pays the customs duties and taxes?, Printful help, The Delivered Duty Paid shipping option · checked
Time
The third cost is time. A parcel sent abroad spends weeks in transit where a domestic one spends days. If it is refused at the door over a charge nobody expected, it can take 4 to 6 weeks more to return to a factory in another country, and the store pays to post it again.
Filed or disclosedTransit times from the two rate cards above. The time a returned parcel takes is Printful’s. · Source: Printify, Monster Digital’s rates, Printify, T shirt and Sons’ rates, Printful help, My order is being returned to sender · checked
Gelato, whose whole offer is local printing, says that 90% of its orders are produced locally, and that over 90% are produced and delivered within five days. Those are its own figures, and nobody else has checked them.
Filed or disclosedGelato’s own claims for its own network, not independently measured. · Source: Gelato, The power of local · checked
What print-on-demand cannot do
Everything above takes days, and that rules out one use. Nothing printed after an order can be on a merch table when the doors open, so stock for a tour is printed in bulk beforehand. Chapter 05 covers how that works. The two help each other: a store that has run for a few months has recorded which designs and sizes sell, which is what a bulk order otherwise has to guess.