In at present’s Contrado evaluate, I’ll be taking a behind-the-scenes take a look at one of many high print-on-demand alternate options to Printify and Printful for UK sellers.
Contrado is a improbable answer for artistic entrepreneurs and people who need assistance designing distinctive materials, clothes, equipment, and even house and wall artwork.
Alongside providing speedy manufacturing instances of simply 1-2 days, Contrado additionally produces sustainable and moral items, that align with the priorities of at present’s shoppers.
Right here, I’ll information you thru what you possibly can accomplish with Contrado as a print-on-demand enterprise, the pricing for its services, and extra.
Fast Verdict
I contemplate Contrado to be a superb print on demand answer for creators within the UK. It gives greater than 450 merchandise to select from, an easy-to-use design instrument, and distinctive high-quality materials.
Plus, it guarantees speedy manufacturing and supply instances, making it straightforward to thrill your prospects. The most important draw back is its restricted integrations with ecommerce platforms.
What’s Contrado and How Does it Work?
Contrado is a print on demand firm that permits creators to design customized materials, house merchandise, clothes, and equipment, and outsource manufacturing and achievement to their UK-based crew.
Like most POD corporations, Contrado doesn’t impose any minimal order portions on creators. All merchandise are produced “on demand” when your buyer locations an order.
At present, Contrado has greater than 450 merchandise to select from, together with sustainable and eco-friendly gadgets, and it gives entry to a superb, easy-to-use design instrument. It could additionally supply speedy manufacturing and achievement instances, getting some merchandise to prospects in round 5 enterprise days.
With Contrado, you don’t need to pay a month-to-month charge and even join an account to make use of the service. You possibly can merely select the product you wish to customise from the corporate’s assortment, and click on “begin design” to start customizing your product.
Notably, though Contrado is predicated within the UK, it does supply worldwide supply to a variety of nations, together with the USA. Plus, there’s an “artist market”, the place customers can record their merchandise alongside different gadgets from impartial creators. This implies you don’t essentially have to create your individual retailer to start out promoting.
How A lot Does it Price?
Contrado doesn’t cost any month-to-month charges to creators. You don’t even want to enroll in an account to start out creating merchandise. All you pay for is the bottom worth of your merchandise, any customization prices, and the delivery charges (if you happen to’re not charging these to your prospects).
From what I may see, Contrado’s costs are a bit of larger than what you may count on from most print on demand corporations. I feel the explanation for that is that Contrado makes a speciality of “throughout print”, which suggests you get extra “premium” trying gadgets.
The value of a t-shirt, for example, begins at round $38.95, though Contrado does commonly supply reductions on a few of its merchandise. Moreover, there are quantity and wholesale reductions out there, in addition to the choice to get 20% off if you happen to’re a scholar.
Supply costs additionally differ relying on the place you might be on this planet. Should you’re based mostly within the UK, costs begin at £2.49 for tracked, customary delivery (1-3 days). There’s additionally the choice for next-day supply, Saturday deliveries, and click on and accumulate.
In case your prospects are within the US, nonetheless, customary supply begins at $9.95 (2-4 days), or you possibly can improve to specific supply for $15.94.
Making a customized product with Contrado is fairly simple. All you want to do is go to the web site, and click on on the merchandise you wish to customise. Nearly all of Contrado’s merchandise are sustainably printed, and may embody a customized label for branding.
When you click on the “Begin Design” button on the product web page, you’ll robotically be taken to Contrado’s easy design instrument. You possibly can select the match of your product, packaging choices, design choices, thread colours, and even add your individual label:
There’s additionally some useful design instruments, together with a library of clip artwork and sample choices to select from. When you’ve chosen your design, you possibly can experiment with textual content and placement, then preview your design and add it to your cart.
Notably, there’s not a lot of a “mockup generator” out there right here. You possibly can see a 360-degree picture of your product, however you possibly can’t see it in “life-style” pictures such as you’d be capable of with one thing like Printful.
When you’ve accomplished your design, you possibly can add it to your procuring bag, and select your supply choices. It’s so simple as that.
Alongside easy design instruments, Contrado additionally gives entry to a couple additional options, equivalent to:
- Normal and categorical supply choices.
- Customized packaging and label printing
- A revenue calculator that can assist you select the appropriate product costs
Product Choices and High quality
When it comes to product choices, Contrado gives round 450 merchandise to customise. There’s even the choice to print your individual materials if you wish to create merchandise from scratch your self. With material printing, you even have a variety of printing strategies to select from, equivalent to reactive printing, pigment printing, and sublimation printing.
You may also design customized labels, swatch packs and coloration charts, leather-based and card swing tags, switch paper designs, and extra. A few of the common merchandise provided by Contrado embody:
- Wall artwork and wallpaper (framed prints, canvas prints, and steel prints)
- Kitchen and eating merchandise (cookware, glassware, kitchen equipment)
- Dwelling furnishings (bedding, blankets, rugs, curtains, and stationery)
- Girls’s clothes (Tops, t-shirts, clothes, footwear, swimwear, and extra)
- Males’s clothes (T-shirts, jackets, footwear, sportswear, and button-up shirts)
- Child’s equipment (Child sleeping luggage, blankets, teddy bears, and bids)
- Girls’s equipment (purses, wallets, leather-based luggage, socks, and scarves)
- Males’s equipment (Ties, wallets, suitcases, pocket squares, cufflinks)
Contrado truly gives a big selection of distinctive merchandise you gained’t discover from extra print on demand distributors, making it a superb solution to differentiate your self within the rising market. Nonetheless, the costs for these merchandise are fairly excessive.
From what I can inform, Contrado makes use of distinctive high-quality supplies, and sustainable inks for all of its merchandise. It additionally has wonderful critiques for crisp, clear, and exquisite prints.
Nonetheless, there’s no choice to order a reduced pattern of your merchandise, which makes it troublesome to confirm the standard for your self.
Contrado Promoting Choices and Integrations
Sadly, I couldn’t discover some ways to really join your Contrado merchandise to third-party marketplaces and ecommerce platforms. The one integration I may discover was one for Shopify, which lets you robotically add the merchandise out of your Contrado account to Shopify, and use the answer for automated dropshipping.
Outdoors of utilizing Shopify with Contrado, the one solution to order and promote merchandise is to buy them by Contrado immediately and ship them straight to your buyer. This implies you’ll want to put each order manually, which will be time consuming as what you are promoting begins to scale.
Notably, nonetheless, you should buy merchandise wholesale, or in bulk, for a reduction, so there may be an choice to buy extra merchandise your self, retailer them and ship them to your prospects manually, however this won’t be an interesting alternative for individuals who need the simplicity of the usual print on demand expertise.
Alternatively, you possibly can at all times use the Contrado market to showcase your merchandise alongside different creators, however this does imply you’ll need to compete for consideration in opposition to different sellers.
Contrado Buyer Assist
Like most print on demand distributors, Contrado gives a number of choices for buyer help. First, there’s a fundamental help center the place you could find some details about connecting Contrado to Shopify, managing merchandise, and automating sure features of your POD enterprise.
You may also join with the crew immediately by their stay chat characteristic, verify your order standing on the web site, and attain out through cellphone, between the hours of 6pm to 2:30am EST.
Sadly, there’s no 24/7 help possibility, which is perhaps an issue, significantly if you happen to’re positioned exterior of the UK, the place the opening hours are a bit of uncommon. Nonetheless, if you happen to do handle to catch the crew on-line, then it is best to count on a solution to your questions fairly rapidly.
Professionals and Cons
Professionals:
- Straightforward to make use of and intuitive design instruments
- Big selection of distinctive product choices
- Distinctive printing and manufacturing high quality
- A lot of printing choices
- Loads of branding options (equivalent to customized labels)
- Fast achievement and supply instances
Cons:
- Costly pricing for many merchandise
- Transport choices can differ exterior of the UK
- Restricted buyer help exterior of the UK
- Not many integration choices
Contrado Assessment: The Verdict
In the end, I feel Contrado is a superb answer or print on demand sellers within the UK that need entry to high-quality and distinctive merchandise, produced and delivered quickly to prospects. It additionally has wonderful design instruments and assets that make it straightforward to launch your POD model.
Nonetheless, it does have some downsides, equivalent to costly product pricing, and restricted integrations with platforms exterior of Shopify.
Should you’re positioned exterior of the UK, otherwise you wish to promote your merchandise on a variety of various channels, I’d advocate contemplating choices like Printful or Printify as a substitute. These corporations may supply barely cheaper merchandise, though it’s price noting that the product high quality for any POD supplier can differ.
