[Guide] Selling Custom POD Drinkware

If you’re interested in selling POD drinkware, you’re in luck. Research shows that the global drinkware market was estimated at nearly $26 million in 2020 & is slated to exceed $36,490 million by 2027. Beyond its growing revenue potential, drinkware is also versatile, easy to customize, & both fun & functional for your customers. 

Ready to get started? We put together a guide to take you through the process of creating & selling your own custom POD drinkware.

Choose Your Drinkware Style

One of the best parts about selling POD drinkware is the array of styles you can choose from. You can serve multiple segments of your audience, whether they’re active adventurers or beer lovers. Here are some of the options to choose from:

• Color Changing Mug
• Accent Mug
• Beer Stein
• Stainless Steel Water Bottle
• White or Black Mugs
• Travel Mugs
• Enamel Camping Mug

In addition to picking the best drinkware style for your online store, you can also add accessories like coasters. 

If you can’t settle on just a few drinkware styles, choose them all. POD allows flexibility to experiment & create multiple designs & products. Just upload your artwork to your CustomCat library & apply to it all of the products you want. There’s no upfront investment, & you earn money when your drinkware sells. We also fulfill & ship everything for you to help you keep operating costs low & your ecommerce business thriving.

Learn more about how to get started with CustomCat here.

Consider Your Drinkware Materials

You may think about the materials of clothing you wear or bedding you purchase, but people don’t always consider their drinkware options. The materials you choose make an impact on how easy they are to clean & the type of POD design styles you can use. Here’s where to start:

• Ceramic
• Ceramic stein with gold trim
• Stainless steel

Many of CustomCat’s options are lightweight & dishwasher & microwave safe. We also offer innovative options, including Color Changing Mugs decorated with a full wrap. When hot water is added, the graphic is revealed & delights your customers.

Consider Your Audience

Your audience should help guide your selection process of which products & designs to choose. If you cater to travelers & adventures, water & travel bottles are an excellent choice. Foodies & anyone who loves a good craft beer will love beer steins. Quirky, customized mugs are also a winner on gift-giving occasions.

The best way to figure out what your audience really wants is to ask them yourself. Send out a poll, survey, or get into a discussion on your most engaged social media platform. Remember to ask about everything from the type of drinkware to customizations.

Choose Your Designs & Drinkware Colors

Once you’ve collected your audience’s feedback & narrowed your product selection, it’s time to choose your designs & drinkware colors. CustomCat makes it easy to customize your drinkware products in minutes. Select your favorite colors, choose uploaded designs, & apply them to mugs, cups, & steins. You’ll probably find some designs look better on specific colors or products, but with POD, you can experiment without the financial investment.

Think About Cross-Selling Products

There’s always room to earn more revenue by cross-selling products, especially when it comes to drinkware. There are plenty of apps that will help automate the cross-selling process by showing customers related items. For example, if you use the Shopify platform, you can try the app Cross Sell & Cart Upsell.

However, you don’t necessarily need to cross-sell drinkware with other drinkware. Look at your audience to get started. If you’re selling to outdoor enthusiasts, your cross-sell could be water bottles & activewear. Or you could try cross-selling customized artwork & inspirational quotes targeted to your adventure traveling audience.

Supercharge Your Marketing Strategy

Sales don’t happen without a marketing push, but we have plenty of resources for you to get started:

• The Best Way to Test New Products & Marketing Strategies
• How to Fire Up Your Marketing Engine
• Guide to Instagram Marketing
• Guide to Marketing on Facebook

If you’re just getting started with your marketing efforts, don’t spread yourself too thin. Instead, focus on one or two outlets where your customers are already hanging out. Look for Facebook Groups, TikTokers, & cater to your Instagram content to attract your ideal buyers.

A/B Test Your Results

There’s no need to stumble around in the dark to figure out what’s working in your online business. Instead, you can A/B test your results to reveal valuable insights. Also known as split testing, you can take two different versions of various aspects of your business to see which works best. Here are a few things you can A/B test:

• Product copy
• POD customizations
• POD product type
• Email marketing copy
• Instagram Stories
• Facebook Posts
• TikTok videos
• Text message marketing

Study Your Analytics

Once you’re seeing a stream of sales come in & have a few months of business behind you, it’s time to study your analytics. Look to see where your organic traffic is coming from, your conversions, & where visitors are dropping off. For example, if everyone is leaving during the checkout process, user-friendliness may be an issue. Again, do some A/B testing to find the solution.

Grow Your Online Store

A big part of success is trial, error, testing, & consistency. Keep focusing on what’s working, tweak what’s not, & repeat. Over time, you’ll see your POD drinkware sales grow as you refine your efforts & keep building on those small wins until they gain momentum & your products start selling themselves. 

 

What’s your favorite custom POD drinkware? Let us know by leaving a comment below!