CustomCat Review (2023): How Does This POD Platform Differ?

As you likely already know, print-on-demand is an attractive business model because you don’t need to purchase or store inventory. It’s a popular option, with predictions that the industry will grow to $7.4 trillion by 2025. 

Instead, once you’ve customized your product, your chosen POD platform takes care of the rest: printing, packaging, and shipping, while you focus on growing your business and selling to as many people as possible. 

So, in this review, I’m looking at one such platform: CustomCat. More specifically, I’m providing the low-down on what it does, the type of products it offers, its prices, and its pros and cons.

However, if you don’t have time to read my entire CustomCat review right now, here are the highlights:

• CustomCat is a Detroit-based POD company with a product catalog of 200+ customizable items, including apparel, wall art, and accessories. 
• You can order sample printed designs.
• There’s no minimum order threshold for printed products.
• There are three subscription plans, one of which is free.
• CustomCat has a basic design tool accessible via its easy-to-navigate dashboard. 
• CustomCat integrates with popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.
• Within the US, CustomCat orders are mostly fulfilled within three days.

That’s enough preamble; let’s dig into the nitty-gritty of this CustomCat review! 

What is CustomCat?

As hinted at in the intro, CustomCat is a print-on-demand website and app with 20+ years of experience in print fulfillment. To date, 50,000 businesses worldwide have used the platform to create custom products. 

Based in Detroit, the US, its website states it ships over 40,000 units a day and offers 231 products for individuals and businesses to customize and sell.

CustomCat integrates with Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, and offers API access. You can also upload data from CSV files. 

Integrations with Amazon and eBay are planned, but no further information was provided about these at the time of writing. 

CustomCat offers three printing options: 

• DIGISOFT™: similar to direct-to-garment (DTG) and direct-to-film printing for apparel and fabric items
• Embroidery: an additional way to customize apparel
• Dye sublimation: a digital printing technique for transferring dye onto plastic, card, fabric, and paper. Typically used for customizing drinkware, blankets, and face masks. 

In a nutshell, here’s how CustomCat works:

1. Upload your high-resolution .png or .jpg file designs onto your chosen POD product. CustomCat also accepts .eps, .ai, and .svg files and images taken from a cell phone at 72 dpi. Its Art Guidelines provide more details for specific instructions for each product type. 
2. Sell the product
3. When a customer orders, CustomCat takes care of order fulfillment; there’s no minimum order. 
4. You keep all the profits. CustomCat doesn’t take a cut, and its website states that ‘you can rest assured that you’re getting the lowest prices in the industry so you can maximize your margins.'

How Does CustomCat Work? 

Building upon the steps I’ve just outlined, let’s take a closer look at how CustomCat works:

1. Create a free account: Click the ‘Start Selling’ button on CustomCat’s home page. You’re then prompted to type in your name, email address and create a password. Once you sign in, you’re asked to choose which of CustomCat’s three subscription plans you’d like (more about these later). There’s a free one, so I went with that. Next, you’re taken to your CustomCat dashboard. From here, you can upload designs, customize products, keep track of orders, place orders for samples, and export products to your online store. 
2. Connect your store: CustomCat has several integrations (see above) that make connecting your store easy. From your dashboard, click the ‘Connect Store’ button. Please note: Although you can play around with CustomCat’s design tool to order product samples before you’ve connected your store (see step five), you can’t create products to be fulfilled by CustomCat until you’ve connected your store.
3. Upload your designs: You can upload designs to CustomCat’s design library.
4. Choose your products: Now, it’s time to look through the hundreds of products you can customize (I’ll go into more detail about this lower down). Once you’ve picked an item, you can customize your product listing to appear on your storefront just how you want. You can adjust product prices, listing titles, tags, and categories. You can also create up to 100 variants when preparing your product for listing. 
5. Customize: Now, click on your dashboard's green ‘Order Now' button to order samples and check out CustomCat’s design function. I opted to order a sample of a G500 Unisex T-shirt. From my dashboard, I could drag and drop or upload my design from CustomCat’s design library. Once happy, I simply went to my basket and inputted my shipping and payment details so that CustomCat could start producing my order. Simple!
6. Export products to your eCommerce store and start selling: As hinted earlier, you can do this via one of CustomCat’s native integrations. CustomCat has a simple set of steps to follow when it’s time to do this. 
7. Order fulfillment: Once an order is placed, the details are automatically sent to CustomCat to fulfill and dispatch (using white-label shipping). Typically orders are processed in three days or less. 

CustomCat Pros and Cons

No CustomCat review would be complete without a quick pro-cons list, so below, I've listed some of CustomCat's most notable perks and drawbacks:

CustomCat Products

CustomCat products fall into the following categories:

• Apparel: T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, hats, jackets, polo shirts, button-up shirts, tank tops, activewear, pants, women’s apparel, men’s apparel, babies and youth apparel
• Housewares: Rugs and mats, drinkware and mugs, blankets, ornaments, towels, and wall art
• Accessories: Bags, footwear, masks, luggage tags, etc. 

The product catalog doesn’t list exactly how many products it offers. Still, I saw plenty of items to choose from and customize. For example, this Bella + Canvas 3001C Unisex Jersey Short-Sleeve T-Shirt in 29 colors and eight sizes cost $11.99-15.99. 

Whichever product you go for, once you click on it, you’re taken to the product page where you can view more details. In the case of my T-shirt, I could see:

• What it’s made from
• The print method used
• Average order fulfillment speed
• Design guidelines
• Shipping rates

Lastly, I think it’s worth highlighting that CustomCat offers branded apparel products, including Adidas, Port Authority, Next-Level, Gildan, Bella + Canvas, Hanes, and many more. 

Unfortunately, CustomCat doesn’t offer custom labeling, so all items bear the original product's brand tags. However, CustomCat’s website says the company is researching this as a future feature – so watch this space!

CustomCat Prices

CustomCat has three price plans: 

• CustomCat Lite: This free plan is aimed at newbies and individuals. You get access to DIGISOFT™, customer support, unlimited product creation, direct order fulfillment with no third parties, and access to a private seller forum. 
• CustomCat Pro: for $30/mo or $25/mo billed annually, you get all the above and a 20-40% discount on products, exclusive/time-limited promotions, and early access to new products. 
• Enterprise: This is a tailored plan with unlisted prices, so you’ll have to contact CustomCat directly for a quote. You get all the above and 30-50% product discounts, custom API access, and a dedicated account manager. 

As for product prices, these depend on which items you’re customizing. But here are a few examples:

• Gildan Unisex t-shirt: $9.58-$15.58
• Eco Tri-blend t shirt hoodie: $29.95-$32.95
• Ladies’ 1/2 Zip Performance Pullover – Sport Tek: $31.49-$35.49
• CANLA75 Landscape Canvas .75in Frame: $10.80-$74.40
• Canvas Tote Bag: $9.08
• 15 oz White Mug: $7.42

Overall, I found prices to be pretty competitive.

CustomCat Fulfillment and Shipping 

When a customer places an order on your online store, it’s automatically sent to CustomCat, who begins preparing it. You can monitor your order’s progress via your dashboard. However, it’s important to note that orders won’t appear there until two hours after your sale. 

CustomCat imports orders every two hours at half past the hour. On your dashboard, your order’s progress will be marked as “Awaiting Production” until then. Once the production process starts, your order status will be updated to “In Production” until a shipping label is printed and the order is ready to ship. At this point, your order status will update to “Shipped,” and you’ll see a tracking reference number. 

All CustomCat orders ship from Detroit. CustomCat uses UPS and OSM as its shipping carriers, and prices vary according to what you’re shipping. As previously stated, all shipping prices and available methods are listed on each product page. You can view shipping rates for individual items, additional products, and according to your preferred shipping option (economy, ground, 2-day, overnight, or international shipping). 

For more details, I found CustomCat’s simple-to-understand shipping guide showed the average shipping times based on where you’re shipping to. 

For example, if you opt for two-day shipping fulfilled by UPS, and if it’s shipped on a Tuesday, your customer will receive it on Thursday. 

For international shipping, times vary between 1-4 weeks, depending on the end destination’s proximity to Detroit. 

CustomCat offers worldwide shipping, apart from the following countries:

• Cuba
• Iran
• Falkland Islands
• North Korea
• Russia
• Ukraine
• Sudan
• Somalia

CustomCat offers order tracking for 32 countries, including the US, Canada, EU member states, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and many more. 

Where full tracking isn’t available, tracking stops when shipments are handed over to the international carrier. CustomCat’s website states it isn't liable for delivery or updates once this has happened.

CustomCat Customer Support

To get in touch with CustomCat’s customer service team via email, there are two options:

1. One for general inquiries
2. Another for order-related questions

Where the latter is concerned, you can also receive order-specific support via the support button on your dashboard next to each order in your ‘processed order’ list. 

There’s also a Detroit-based postal address and a phoneline open from 8 am to 6.30 pm EST, Monday-Friday. 

From your dashboard, you can click the Resources button. This takes you to the CustomCat Knowledge section, where you’ll find selling guides, an FAQs section, and blog posts covering topics like the best social media platforms for selling products, unexplored niches, how to make videos for your ecommerce business, and much more. 

There are also 18 YouTube video tutorials, including how to create a product, get started, connect to a Shopify store, and much more. 

CustomCat Review: My Final Verdict

So, that’s my CustomCat review. I hope it’s provided enough food for thought to help you decide whether it’s the right POD service for your business. 

It’s positive that there’s a free forever plan with unlimited product customization. However, the design tool is pretty basic compared to others I’ve tried. 

But, on the plus side, order processing and delivery times are impressive, as are its product prices and discounts if you sign up for a paid plan. As such, CustomCat is certainly worth a second glance if you already have a Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce store. 

But before diving into the deep end and signing up for a paid plan, I recommend registering for the free option and ordering some samples. This is the best way to see whether CustomCat is a good fit for your needs. 

That’s all for this CustomCat review! Are you ready to give CustomCat a try? Or are you considering a competitor like Printify? Either way, let us know in the comments box below!