Profiting from On-Demand Fulfillment With Automation

ABOVE PHOTO: Team buyers used to order by the hundreds, companies stocked merch closets, and economies of scale made sense. But today, bulk-buying hesitancy exists.

WALK INTO ANY screen-print shop these days and you’ll hear the same refrain: “We’re used to doing 300+ shirts in one run. Switching to one-off orders just kills efficiency.”

For decades, screen printers and apparel decorators built their business models on bulk runs. Teams ordered by the hundreds, companies stocked merch closets, and economies of scale made sense. But today, much of that has changed for our customers. Bulk-buying hesitancy exists in the current economy. Everyone feels margins tightening, tariff pressure, and many customers want something different for how they purchase company swag, spirit wear, team wear with smaller batches, personalization, product selection, and faster turnaround.

That shift has left many shops caught between two worlds: the bulk jobs they’re built for and the fulfillment work their clients now demand. Without the right systems, that tension shows up in lost margins, inventory headaches, workflow breakdowns, and unmet customer expectations.

One pain point that shops face is space. With real estate and shop space at a premium, it’s simply unrealistic to stock shelves with every size, color, and style customers want.

Where Margins Disappear

Margins shrink when fulfillment is managed manually. “There’s no economy of scale. Every job feels like it costs more than it should,” I recently heard a shop owner say.

The issue isn’t print on-demand, it’s the inefficiency and systems around it. Every extra touchpoint erodes profit, from printing out each work order to sorting through boxes to find the right blank. That’s why tools like digital scan-to-print workflows are a true game-changer. A simple QR code scan instantly can recall the correct art, size, placement, and even thread colors or correct transfers. Systems like Fulfill Engine have shown how those details, when automated, transform one-offs from a distraction into a repeatable process.

Decoration on demand isn’t broken. Bad systems are. Fix the systems, and fulfillment shifts from obstacle to opportunity.

The Inventory Illusion

Another pain point that shops face is space. With real estate and shop space at a premium, it’s simply unrealistic to stock shelves with every size, color, and style customers want.

Stocking shelves for unpredictable orders always has been a losing battle and rife with a lot of financial risk. A smarter approach is tying store inventory directly to supplier feeds so that if an item is out of stock, it can’t be ordered. No backorders. No late-night scrambles for replacements.

Fulfill Engine’s integrations connect with every major supplier’s live inventory. That means shops can say “yes” without gambling on risky stock or making more room and customers get what they want, without surprises. It even batches orders together and places the order with your supplier for you, removing the time to manually place PO’s (and the human errors that come along with data entry) along with completely simplifying receiving. The system knows exactly what’s in the box before UPS drops it off at your dock. That’s a bottleneck for almost every decorator I talk to.

The Tech Gap

Technology often js the missing link. Too many shops lose opportunities because they can’t support clients asking for online stores. Imagine if every order from Shopify or a league store flowed automatically into production. Imagine spinning up unlimited white-label stores for customers without extra cost or staff. That’s the type of eco-system between ecommerce, suppliers, equipment and production that the software was built to enable.

As one shop owner told me, “We’re not set up like Amazon. Switching garments and designs all day doesn’t fit how we run.” Technology changes that equation.

Bulk runs still have their place, but customers don’t want closets full of shirts that never get worn. They want flexibility.

Rethinking Identity

The hardest part isn’t the equipment, it’s the mindset. “We’re screen printers. This whole fulfillment game feels like a different business,” I heard on a recent industry podcast.

But fulfillment isn’t a different business anymore. It’s the natural evolution of the same one. Bulk runs still have their place, but customers don’t want closets full of shirts that never get worn. They want flexibility.

The shops that thrive are those that stop seeing fulfillment as a burden and start seeing it as growth. With the right systems in place, whether homegrown or turnkey platforms, fulfillment becomes not just manageable, but profitable.

Because of the standardized product setup, the connection to other decorators is built through a vetted fulfillment network. Want to staff and stay focused on the bulk work you’re built for? Easy. With the click of a button, you can outsource the on-demand work and scale your revenue while meeting your customer’s expectations. All without investing in labor, training, or equipment.

I know we’ve all tried print-on-demand services before and that’s why we set out to build one a little different. With a coast-to-coast network of trusted, quality decorators hand selected shops meet the standard of quality while also meeting your customer’s expectation of speed. Orders intelligently are routed to a specific shop based on a variety of real-world factors. This includes the customer’s location (to cut down shipping costs) and the decoration methods needed and of course, the shop’s capacity. From screen printing to DTF, DTG, embroidery, laser engraving, dimensional decorations, and even UV printing, any way you need to put ink on over 12,000+ products can be done with automation that lets you do what you do best.