Print-on-demand looks like easy money until you do the maths. A £25 t-shirt sounds great until you realise £16.45 goes to Printful, £2.19 goes to Etsy and HMRC (VAT on Etsy fees), leaving you £6.36. That’s 25% margin — fine, but tighter than most beginners expect.
The calculator above models the full cost stack: Printful base cost + Printful shipping + sales platform fee + UK VAT on the platform fee (for non-VAT-registered sellers). Plus quantity scaling and a breakeven price for any product/platform combination.
Why hoodies are hard
The base cost economics:
| Product | Base | Shipping (1st item) | POD cost | Typical sale | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic T-shirt | £8.95 | £4.50 | £13.45 | £20-£22 | 35-40% |
| Premium T-shirt | £11.95 | £4.50 | £16.45 | £24-£28 | 30-40% |
| Hoodie | £22.95 | £5.95 | £28.90 | £35-£40 | 5-15% |
| Mug | £6.95 | £4.95 | £11.90 | £14-£18 | 30-45% |
| Tote Bag | £9.50 | £4.50 | £14.00 | £16-£20 | 15-30% |
| Phone Case | £13.95 | £4.95 | £18.90 | £22-£28 | 10-25% |
| Sticker 3-pack | £4.95 | £3.95 | £8.90 | £8-£12 | 10-25% |
| Poster A3 | £8.50 | £5.95 | £14.45 | £16-£24 | 10-30% |
Mugs, t-shirts, and tote bags consistently produce the best POD margins. Hoodies, phone cases, and posters tend to be tighter. Stickers can work at scale but per-unit margin is small.
The platform fee + VAT trap
For non-VAT-registered sellers (most under £90k turnover), Etsy’s fees attract UK VAT:
- 6.5% transaction fee → 7.8% effective (after VAT)
- £0.20 listing fee → £0.24 effective
This catches people who price products against the headline 6.5% number and find their actual margin 1-2pp lower than expected. The calculator above includes this automatically.
Quantity matters
Printful’s first-item shipping is £4.50-£5.95. Additional items in the same order are £1.50-£2.95. A 2-item order has shipping cost £6 vs 2× single-item shipping at £9 — significant per-order improvement.
Practical implications: - Bundle deals (2 t-shirts, get 10% off): margins on bundled orders are often dramatically better than singles - “Add another for £X off” upsells: cheap to fulfil because of additional-item shipping discount - Set-style products (3-pack stickers): Printful effectively pre-bundles for you
When Shopify beats Etsy
| Channel | Per-sale fee | Monthly cost | Traffic source | When it wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etsy | 6.5% + £0.20 + VAT | None | Etsy search + Offsite Ads | 0-100 sales/month, no marketing budget |
| Shopify | 1.5-2% (Shop Pay) | £25/month | Your own ads + SEO | 100+ sales/month, willing to do marketing |
| eBay | ~13% + £0.30 | None | eBay search | Heavily price-driven categories |
| Custom | 1.5-3% (payment) | Variable | Your audience | You have a list/social presence |
Most POD sellers start on Etsy (cheap to test, built-in traffic), then add Shopify when volume justifies the £25/month + own-marketing cost.
What the calculator doesn’t include
- Marketing/ad spend — typically 10-30% of revenue for active POD sellers using Etsy Ads or Facebook/Instagram ads
- Design time/cost — your hourly time creating designs (or licensed graphics costs)
- Etsy Offsite Ads — 12-15% commission on attributed sales for sellers who aren’t opted out (and below £10k/year can’t opt out)
- Income tax — see side hustle tax calculator for the post-tax view
- Returns and chargebacks — typically 1-3% loss rate on POD; build into your pricing
Putting it all together
For a sustainable POD business: aim for 30%+ gross margin per product, 25%+ after marketing costs, and prepare to pay 20-40% of net profit in tax (depending on your other income). That means: a £25 t-shirt with £16.45 Printful cost + £2.19 platform fees → £6.36 gross profit → £4-£5 after marketing → £3-£4 after tax. Sustainable, but you need volume to make it meaningful.
Aim for the right products (mugs, premium t-shirts), the right platform (Etsy initially, Shopify at scale), and the right pricing (15%+ above breakeven) for genuine economics.