Print On Demand | The Print Bar

This is our own full-featured website builder and secure eCommerce platform that doesn't require any custom code. You can create unique products, tell your story and make sales, and our platform is 100% free.

If you scroll down past the 'Frequently Asked Questions' below there are some video tutorials to get you started too!

Top Tip: This is all best done on a computer or desktop, not a mobile phone, as it will require some fine editing.

While we don't offer any set-up services for your dropshipping store, its once the orders are placed by your customers when we get involved.

Unfortunately as this is a stand-alone platform, it doesn't integrate with any existing websites.

Use our domain or customise it with your own; e.g. something.theprintbar.com or BYO; e.g. theprintbar.com.

To learn more about our internal Print-On-Demand platform, keep scrolling or get started here !

Available for: Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay, PrestaShop, BigCommerce & Wix Stores.

Our integration with Printify allows you to sell custom-printed products from a limited selection of our printable range through any of the platforms listed above.

This option has to be set up via Printify here

As we are the print provider who receives order numbers to print from Printify, unfortunately we do not have any details of specific orders in advance.

And as they are a separate company, you can reach out to the Printify customer service team directly as they may be able to troubleshoot any issues you may be having. You can do this from the Printify website here.

For more info on Printify, click here.

When and how do I get paid?

The Print Bar has an automated system for handling store commissions. It works like this:

The system will calculate commissions that you earn from every sale your store makes (you determine how much this is by setting your sale price)
Payments are held by the platform for roughly 10 days after being shipped out from us (in case there are any issues that we need to fix)
After the 10 days has elapsed then the payments will automatically clear
All payments that have cleared are paid to your PayPal account on the 1^st of every month
You'll see a tally of your sales and outstanding commission payments when you log into the dashboard of your online store

To make sure you receive your commission payments you need to set up a PayPal account and enter the details into the store by following the below steps

Click commissions
Click PayPal commision settings
Enter your PayPal address*

*you must have a PayPal address to set up a dropshipping account with us as this is our only secure commission payment method

How long does it take until my customers get their products?

Your clients will have their items in approximately 14 days + shipping from placing their order. Or if you have created SAME DAY decorated products, these will be printed and shipping as a priority.

How do the garments get shipped out?

We ship our products out in plain, unbranded and eco-friendly packaging.

Will my customers know it's from The Print Bar?

No, because we ship our products out in plain packaging your customers won't know that it came from us.

Who handles customer service?

As the store owner and administrator for your dropshipping site, you are responsible for the customer service for your shop, however we are always here to help if you require assistance, for example assisting you with organising reprints if necessary. In these rare cases, you can reach out to us in the customer service team via the email address [email protected] and we can work with you to find the best solution for your customer.

What if I have an existing website?

Our system is a completely free hosted website platform with ecommerce. But you are welcome to keep your existing website and there are 2 ways to do this.

Embed our store into your website using an iframe (note we do not integrate with Shopify yet but we are working on this!)
Use a subdomain for the shop. ie. shop.yourdomain.com.au - See the how-to guide below!

Having trouble logging into your store?

To log into your dropshipping store, you need to head to your store's URL and log in from there (not via The Print Bar website anymore).

Head to your store URL (eg: "www.__________.theprintbar.com") and use your admin username and password to log in.

~ Before trying to log in again, we recommend closing all existing tabs that may be open to try and avoid sending the system in a loop ~

Can I sell other items in my store that I've already made?

Unfortunately, we don't offer this service for the time being.

Do you offer free shipping?

We used to, but we've restructured our POD pricing recently to be lower, with shipping at a constant rate.

Can you do custom promotions for my store?

Yes we can create a 10% coupon code for you to do a promotion. Just email [email protected] and let us know your store name and what you would like the coupon code to be.

Do you do samples or prototypes?

The way to order prototypes is to place and pay for an order through your store by temporarily making your store markup $0. That way you pay for samples at cost price.

What happens when Print Bar is out of stock of an item?

We take items that are out of stock off the website. In the rare occasion an item is out of stock it is typicaly out of stock for 2 - 6 weeks, but as soon as it is availabe again, it will magically reappear on your store again.

Go to decorated products

Click on create decorated products
Choose a product to start with
Click Save and Continue.
Click Add Design and upload your artwork. (see here for artwork recommendations and tips)
Ensure your artwork is the size you want it printed at. It's best to use a ruler in real life on any garment that you have to double check the measurements ie.
- left chest pocket designs are usually best at 8.5cm wide
- standard centre chest prints are best at 25cm wide
- large designs are best at 32cm wide
Click Save and Continue.
Type in a name for your product

# there’s an option called Append Product Name which will automatically add the name of the product next to the name you gave. We would advise against this, perhaps naming your product "my design name mens tee" or “my design name unisex tee” for example.

# there’s an option to allow users to customise the design or not. We recommend selecting ‘do not allow users to customise the design’ for retail stores.

Add a product description talking about the design and also the material and size info of the product you chose.
Choose a category or make a new category. Some examples could be; new arrivals, winter, popular, mens, womens or anything you want. You can edit and change this later.
Click Save and Continue.
The next page lets you choose if you want to have multiple colours available for this design you’ve created. Leave it as if you want to allow all the colours available or if you want to only have 1 colour available just untick the all colours box and select the colour you want.

# Be careful that your design looks nice on all colours, i.e a white design will look good on a dark garment but might not look nice on a white t shirt.

Click Save and Continue
Next check your pricing and you’re done!

#you can edit your pricing by unticking use store markup and typing in the sale price you want (see How to set your selling price for more detailed information)

Repeat this process for each of your designs.

The key to getting a quality print is your design file. It needs to be high-res and crisp. The way to check this is to zoom in on the design on your computer monitor so the design is as big as you want it printed in real life. If it looks neat and crisp (not pixelated) then it will print well. Make sure your files are at least 300dpi, and if that doesn't make sense to you, ask a Graphic Designer to help prepare your files. If you are ever unsure if something will print well or not you can always email the design in to us to check here.

300dpi png files
a transparent background
Cropped / trimmed to the image
Make the image size the size you would like it printed in cm and use a ruler to double check this (you can always call us for advice once you've saved the product)

1. Register a custom domain name with a hosting provider

2. Point the domain to our server using the below DNS settings

Using www.herenowwherenext.com.au as an example:

Record Type	Hostname	Value
A	@	65.39.250.34
CNAME	www	store.deco-apparel.com

Make sure to add your domain twice onto your site, once with www and once without. So that both herenowwherenext.com.au and www.herenowwherenext.com.au work when they are typed into a browser. You should then set the one with www as the primary.

Once you've done this, log back into your website and;

click domain settings
Type in your domain name and click add

Now your custom domain is all set up and ready to go.

If you already have a website and just want to create a subdomain on your current website such as shop.herenowwherenext.com.au then you can follow the below steps instead.

Sub domain DNS records

When setting up a subdomain for a site, you'll need to add a single DNS record with your desired subdomain set as the hostname.

Record Type	Hostname	Value
CNAME	shop	store.deco-apparel.com

Once you have done this, then log back into your website and;

click domain settings
Type in your domain name and click add

Now your custom sub domain is all set up and ready to go.

The templates have all Print Bar's selling options on by default when you start your website. You may want to remove some of the options such as; allowing customers to upload their own designs, swithching off Print Bar's default design gallery, hiding pages, etc. See this video and the below instructions for turning off some of the features if you want your website to have more of a retail label focus.

To delete the default designs the Print Bar has available

Click on Store Designs, then go to the category you want to delete and click 'delete' or 'make private' if you want to keep it available for the future. Also if you want to only show decorated products and not show the designs separately you can go to the 'edit website' section and navigate to the Designs Page and turn off this page.

To turn off or hide menus

To hide menu options and pages such as 'Quick Quote, Designs, Create, Designer, etc' you navigate to the page in the 'edit website' section and then untick the 'Show in menu' button.

To switch off the custom design app

Click on Designer Settings, then navigate to 'Allow Online Designer', select 'No'.

You can set a default markup storewide by going to Price Settings, most of our stores set this at a fixed amount of $17.04 which makes the AS Colour branded t shirts sell for $40 each automatically. But you can also override this price on a per product basis. This is the final step you go through when you create a product. To change the price you untick use store markup and type in the “ex gst” price. If you want to sell for $40 you need to make sure the ex gst price is $36.36. There’s a handy calculator here to help.

To change the price of a product you need to follow these steps:

Log into your website

Click decorated products
Find the product you want to change the price of
Click manage
Click configure
Click costs

Change the retail price to what you would like to sell the items for.

Or you can change all the pricing for your store products at once (unless they have a custom price) by changing the default markup. You can do that by following these steps:

Log into your website
Click Price settings
Change the default markup to what suits you

Our platform is 100% free. Whenever you make a sale, we deduct the cost of the garment and production from the sale price. Simple. You set your own prices on each item, and our costs don't scale, only your profit margins.

Scalable commissions means the sky's the limit! Let's say you sell a digitally-printed tee with our Print-on-demand platform. Our production costs to cover the garment and printing are discounted for POD stores, so for example, if you're selling a digitally-printed tee, you'll only pay $18.75, which means everything else is profit.

Gather your ideas, create some designs, and get your products in front of your immediate networks; your friends, colleagues, family and of course, your target market. Putting yourself out there is the first step, and research, refining and honest feedback are crucial elements in the growth of your online business or fundraising platform.

This can be pretty fruitful as a side-gig, but the more time and energy you put into creating unique products with strong concepts, networking, marketing and social media, the more potential you have to develop a formidable online income. We've got some Dropshipping clients making well over $3000 per month.