In years past, Quadra’s own John Sanders and Brian Rueckert have hosted Q4-focused challenge events aimed at engaging sellers and helping attendees make the most of the holiday selling season.
In 2023, Quadra is bringing back this classic Quadra event with a new look but the same valuable content. Introducing The Quadra Ornament Print-a-Thon!
The Quadra Ornament Print-a-Thon is a live event, streaming at 7 p.m. ET on October 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2023. You can learn more and sign up at learn.goquadra.com/printathon!
So, what is a Print-a-Thon? A Print-a-Thon is an event organized by Quadra aimed at educating participants, especially beginners, on the best practices for selling print on demand.
This year, we’re returning to our roots by focusing on ornaments. John Sanders insists that ornaments are one of the most profitable products during Q4 because the demand and creative options are high, but the market is less saturated than apparel and other products.
The Quadra Ornament Print-a-Thon will be a valuable resource for individuals looking to enhance their knowledge of ornament sales and provide a platform for learning, networking, and a chance to win prizes and scholarships.
We’ve put together an incredible lineup for this year’s event, with a different key to successful ornament sales every night.
On night one, we’re talking about winning ornament designs. We’re kicking off by telling you how Quadra got started and showing off some of our successful ornaments. If you’re looking for a reason to come, just know that we’ve got the numbers to prove our success.
Night two will be more technical, focusing on pricing and discount strategies. John Sanders is also sharing the process that’s made him a 7-figure print on demand seller.
For our third night, we’re discussing the barriers that you’ll need to overcome as a print on demand seller and sharing insider solutions to help you kickstart your print on demand career.
Lastly, we’re wrapping up by talking about automating your traffic. In this, we’ve got the evidence to show how generating traffic through ads can change the course of your business.
In addition, we’re giving away products, scholarships, and more every night during the Print-a-Thon! You’ll want to attend for a chance to win a Quadra tech bundle, a Kitchen set, and other big-ticket prizes.
This event might not be for everyone. This year, we’re looking for sellers who are strong-willed, proactive, patient, relentless, and ready to take action! If this sounds like you, then you’re the perfect fit to join us!
Again, we’re going live on October 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2023. Are you ready to sell some ornaments? Learn more and sign up at learn.goquadra.com/printathon!
Halloween offers a fantastic opportunity for creative entrepreneurs to offer unique and spooky-themed products from Quadra. Whether you’re already in the print on demand business or considering starting, here are 9 unique products to consider selling for Halloween.
1. Aprons
Halloween-themed aprons can be a hit for those who enjoy cooking or hosting Halloween parties. Offer aprons with designs featuring ghosts, pumpkins, witches, or other spooky motifs. These can add a fun and festive touch to the kitchen during the holiday season.
2. Candles
Halloween candles come in various shapes and scents, creating a cozy and eerie atmosphere. You can offer candles with Halloween-themed labels, such as jack-o’-lanterns, black cats, or haunted houses.
3. Pet Bandanas
Don’t forget our furry friends! Halloween-themed pet bandanas are a charming way to dress up pets for the holiday. Designs featuring skeletons, bats, or candy corn can make your customers’ pets look adorable and festive.
4. Exterior Decor
Halloween decorations for the exterior of the home are always in demand. Consider offering products like garden flags and doormats featuring spooky and fun Halloween designs. Help your customers transform their homes into Halloween havens.
5. Gift Bags & Tote Bags
Offer Halloween-themed gift bags and reusable tote bags that can be used for trick-or-treating or as party favors. These bags can be customized with fun and spooky designs, making them a practical and festive accessory for Halloween festivities.
6. Prints
Prints featuring Halloween-inspired artwork can be a versatile addition to your product lineup. Customers can use these prints to decorate their homes or offices during the Halloween season. Offer a variety of designs, from cute and whimsical to eerie and haunting.
7. Kitchenware
Expand your Halloween product range with kitchenware items like themed cutting boards, utensil holders, and other items. These can add a touch of Halloween spirit to cooking and baking activities.
8. Towels
Customized Halloween-themed tea towels can be both practical and decorative. Design towels with spooky graphics or humorous sayings related to Halloween. They make for great kitchen decor or gifts.
9. Drinkware
Halloween-themed drinkware, such as mugs, tumblers, and glasses, can be popular choices for those looking to enjoy their beverages in style. Offer designs that incorporate classic Halloween elements like skulls, witches, or bats.
As Halloween approaches, the demand for unique and themed products grows. By offering these 9 unique print-on-demand products for Halloween, you can tap into the holiday spirit and provide customers with creative and personalized options for celebrating this spooky season. Remember to promote your products through social media, email marketing, and online marketplaces to maximize your sales during this festive time of year.
When selling online, there are several profitable online marketplaces. Previously, sellers who wanted to sell their Shopify listings on these marketplaces would have to use multiple different, often expensive integration apps. However, Shopify Marketplace Connect solves this problem by allowing sellers to list products on Amazon, Etsy, and other marketplaces from one dashboard.
What are the benefits of selling on other marketplaces?
Before deciding if Marketplace Connect is right for you, you need to understand the impact that selling on other platforms can have. Unlike Shopify, marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon list all products in one catalog. This means that your products are shown to users alongside competitor products.
Below, we’ve provided some statistics to highlight the amount of traffic that these marketplaces receive:
Etsy had 96,300,000 active buyers in 2021.
Amazon accounts for nearly 40% of all ecommerce.
Walmart reported $73,200,000,000 net ecommerce sales in 2021.
eBay is the second largest online ecommerce marketplace behind Amazon.
What is Shopify Marketplace Connect?
Formerly Codisto, Shopify Marketplace Connect is a Shopify app that allows you to sell products on Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Walmart from one dashboard.
Previously, Shopify merchants had to rely on multiple integration apps to expand their reach onto different online marketplaces. This not only increased the complexity of managing their business operations but also added up the costs associated with using these various apps. The process was often time-consuming and required significant effort to keep inventory and product information updated across different platforms.
However, with the introduction of Shopify Marketplace Connect, all of these challenges have been streamlined into a single, powerful solution. This innovative Shopify app empowers sellers to effortlessly list and manage their products on some of the most prominent online marketplaces, including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Walmart.
How does Shopify Marketplace Connect work?
To simplify the process, Marketplace connect only has a few steps to get started:
Become a Verified Seller: Initiate by becoming a verified seller on the desired marketplaces. This entails setting up accounts on platforms like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Walmart, each of which might entail its own verification procedure.
Set Up a Marketplace Connect Account: Once verified, establish a Marketplace Connect account within your Shopify dashboard. This serves as the hub for managing product listings across various platforms.
Create Product Listings: Create product listings within your desired Marketplace. Maintain consistency with your existing Shopify listings and ensure that product details, images, and descriptions align with each platform’s prerequisites.
Matching SKUs: Ensure coherence across platforms by maintaining your Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) between your Shopify store and the marketplaces. This fosters seamless inventory management and mitigates discrepancies.
Connect Listings: Link your Shopify listings to their corresponding listings on diverse marketplaces. Shopify Marketplace Connect facilitates this synchronization, ensuring that any updates to product information, pricing, or inventory manifest accurately and instantaneously.
Simplify Management: Once listings are connected, you can manage them directly from your Shopify dashboard. This centralized command center empowers you to concurrently update product details, inventory levels, and prices across all linked marketplaces.
While it does get more complicated, it is very simple compared to other integration apps.
In conclusion, Shopify Marketplace Connect has revolutionized the way sellers expand their presence across various online marketplaces. With its user-friendly interface and streamlined processes, the app enables sellers to tap into the vast customer bases of platforms like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Walmart without the hassle of managing multiple integration apps.
If you’re looking to grow your business and reach a broader audience, Shopify Marketplace Connect could be the game-changing solution you’ve been waiting for.
Nutrition and ecommerce are often perceived as being connected, but would you believe that they’re more similar than you think?
Quadra recently hosted Robyn Mons, a mindful eating coach, on the Ecom Life Podcast. During the episode, Robyn spoke with Quadra founder John Sanders about how nutrition and ecommerce involve many of the same values and strategies.
Although many factors to success with both nutrition and ecommerce were mentioned during the episode, John and Robyn repeatedly returned to one single common denominator: Mindset. It all comes down to mindset.
When it comes to health, it’s no secret that going to the gym offers physical benefits. In fact, many people have been able to achieve their physical goals in this way. However, Robyn estimated that only 5% of people who hit their physical goals maintain them over an extended period of time.
Similarly, John made the estimate that around 90% of ecommerce start-ups fail. Both Robyn and John attribute mindset as the biggest factor in determining whether or not success will stick.
Robyn attributes this to the difference between physical and mental change. If someone doesn’t have the proper mindset for growth, it will be difficult for them to maintain long-term change.
“The way we show up in eating is reflective of every other area of our lives,” Robyn said.
Mindfulness needs to exist in every area of our lives. If you struggle with mindfulness when it comes to eating, you’re also likely to struggle with areas such as ecommerce.
So, what can you do to create a growth mindset?
The first step to making change is building a growth mindset. Be prepared to break patterns in your life that will make it difficult to maintain your mindset and find success.
In the example of nutrition, Robyn uses the example of waste. If you tell yourself you cannot waste food, you are telling yourself to ignore when your body is full and to continue eating. If you want to maintain long-term success, you have to first break your harmful patterns of thought.
If you want to be a successful ecommerce seller you must first create a winning mindset. If you enter into something new without properly conditioning yourself to succeed, you’re significantly more likely to succumb to the hardships associated with it.
For example, starting a print on demand store might be easy. However, it may not be the “quick money” solution that you might expect. Finding true success in print on demand requires time and effort, and if you don’t have the mentality to sustain that before beginning, you’ll have a more difficult time committing long term.
However, once you’ve accomplished a growth mindset, you’re going to be on the right path to finding success wherever you’re looking. Remember, it all comes down to mindset!
View the full interview with Robyn Mons at: https://youtu.be/w0fvarjjgdI.
In the digital age, shopping isn’t the only online activity. In fact, since the launch of Facebook in 2004, social media activity has risen every year. Currently it is estimated that over half of the global population log on to a social media platform daily.
Within the scope of ecommerce, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even TikTok can be used to help promote products, raise brand awareness and engage with the consumer on a more interpersonal level.
Using these platforms can help smaller online stores market to a larger audience and locate members of their niche from around the globe. While social media platforms offer paid advertising opportunities, certain algorithms will show unpaid (organic) content to millions of users for no ad spend.
It’s important to know how these platform’s algorithms work for creating social media strategies. Below we’ve outlined benefits and tips for several major social media platforms.
Facebook
If you’re looking to launch a paid-ads campaign, i.e., you pay for your content to be promoted, Facebook is your place. Here’s why:
Facebook ads reach 33.3% of the global population over age 13
The average price per ad decreased 18% in Q3 2022
37% of Facebook users will make a purchase on the platform in 2023
19% of U.S. consumers start their online shopping search on Facebook
The average Facebook page in the retail industry sees 974,000 impressions per month
Additionally, Facebook allows you to reach a diverse audience. Reach specific generations, religions, races and nationalities with simple targeting. That’s because Facebook has a huge, diverse range of users.
70% of US adults use Facebook
56.6% of Facebook’s ad audience are men
49% of Americans say that they visit the social media platform several times a day
Facebook usage is an even split between Democrats and Republicans
Facebook is the favorite social platform of the 35-44 demographic
7% of Gen Z users plan to quit Facebook in 2023
Instagram
Being owned by Meta (Facebook’s dd company), Instagram shares a lot of similarities to Facebook. In fact, if you’re using one platform, you should consider using both as the platforms allow for cross posting of posts, stories and reels. Both platforms also allow advertising through Meta Business Suite.
However, they have a fair amount of differences. Instagram is considered to be more visual, with a greater emphasis on photos’ graphics and reels. While running paid ads is still an option, this algorithm caters more to organic content than Facebook.
Instagram also has a different expected user base than Facebook, and tends to appeal to a younger audience. With that, one can expect the use of social media trends to play a significant role in content performance. Below is some more information about Instagram’s users:
47% of American adults use Instagram.
52.2% of Instagram’s audience identifies as male
Instagram is Gen Z’s second favorite social platform
61% of 12-to-17-year-olds use Instagram weekly
Instagram accounted for 17% of the time U.S. adults spent on social media in 2022
Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging site that boasts more than 300 million users; however, it functions differently than any other major platform. Twitter highlights trends and shows users tweets based on what the accounts they follow are engaging with.
There are several strategies to improve post performance on Twitter. Some accounts maintain their brand voice while focusing on engaging content, while others, such as Wendy’s, use a completely different approach, using humor to build relatability. Below are some different ways to market using tweets:
Have an engaging profile, unique bio and eye-catching header image
Show personality when engaging with your audience
Run a Twitter poll
Retweet relevant content, and add a personal touch
Develop and use creative hashtags
Content isn’t the only way Twitter stands out as a platform. Twitter also has a different user base than other platforms. A breakdown of Twitter’s user demographics is below:
Most Twitter users are between the ages of 25 and 34
56.4% of Twitter users identify as male
1/4 of all American men use Twitter
The number of teens who use Twitter has decreased
TikTok
TikTok has taken off in recent years due to its algorithm, which allows any video to be promoted and “go viral.” It’s because of this that, while paid TikTok ads are a great option, a business can find organic success with no ad spend.
Additionally, TikTok is a powerful app for social media marketing. Here’s why your brand could benefit from creating TikTok content:
TikTok is the top app for consumer spending
67% of users say TikTok inspires them to shop
TikTok ads reach 17.9% of all internet users aged 18+
TikTok boasts the highest engagement rate of any platform, with an average user session of 10.85 minutes
Lastly, as the user base for TikTok continues to grow, so does the demographics of its users. With more than 3 billion downloads, here is the rundown on TikTok Users:
TikTok has over one billion active users
TikTok is now more popular than Instagram among Gen Z users in the US
In the U.S., 61% of TikTok users are women
As you can see, social media is a powerful tool for marketing brands of all sizes and industries. Social media could be just the resource you’re looking for to grow your business’s audience and get more sales than ever before.
If you want to learn more about using social media for print on demand or ecommerce, check out learn.goquadra.com for hours of video training.
