Sticker Mule Stores Review: Simplifying Custom Merch Sales

Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/sticker-mule-stores-review

If you hadn’t noticed, print on demand is a pretty big deal these days. I’ve been raving about the simplicity and potential of the POD business model for years now, but it seems like I’m not alone.

Already, analysts say that by 2031, the POD market will be worth around $45.6 billion.

Sticker Mule Stores is a relatively new addition to the print on demand space, focused specifically on empowering content creators, influencers, and brands with a straightforward way to sell custom merch.

The question is, should you be using this tool to sell your own custom merch?

Since I love testing out new print on demand platforms and tools, I decided to put the Sticker Mule Stores solution to the test, to bring you this hands-on review, and help you make the right choice.

Quick Verdict: Pros and Cons

Overall, Sticker Mule Stores definitely delivers on the promise of giving merchants an easy way to sell custom merch online.

Just like any print on demand provider, it handles all of the headaches of packaging, and shipping goods to customers for you.

Plus, you don’t even need your own ecommerce platform or marketplace storefront to take advantage.

Anyone can create a “Store” and showcase their goods to the community on Sticker Mule’s online marketplace.

Alternatively, you can share a direct link to your store with customers across social media and messaging channels.

The trouble is, so far, the platform doesn’t offer much scope for scalability. You can’t integrate your store with other sales channels, for instance.

Plus, there are limitations to how many products you can actually sell. As the company’s name might suggest, StickerMule mostly offers access to basic products like Stickers, labels, badges and magnets.

However, it does offer some unique extras, like custom packaging, and temporary tattoos.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Interesting range of unique product options
Excellent reputation for product quality
Easy Store setup and management
Straightforward and fast fulfillment
Brilliant collection of design tools
No initial setup costs

Cons 👎

Slightly limited number of products
No integrations for standard sales channels
Basic branding options for “Stores”
Lots of competition on the marketplace

What is Sticker Mule Stores? An Overview

Sticker Mule Stores is a new offering in the “merch on demand” space, introduced by the POD company, Sticker Mule in November 2024.

Although Sticker Mule has allowed companies to buy and sell custom products since 2010, the Stores solution is brand-new.

It’s essentially a full-service solution for brands, creators, and influencers who want to create and sell custom merchandise, directly from an existing marketplace.

With this solution, creators can customize various print-on-demand products, like stickers, t-shirts, and buttons, add them to a custom “storefront” on the Sticker Mule website, and promote them across social channels.

Whenever a customer purchases one of the custom products available on a “Sticker Mule Store”, the Sticker Mule team produces, packages, and ships the item to the buyer.

That means you get a way to earn profits without dealing with the headaches of fulfillment.

It’s a lot like the experience you’d get from a competitor like Spring (previously TeeSpring) or Redbubble. However, Sticker Mule has some unique advantages to offer creators that other platforms lack.

First of all, the brand has a fantastic reputation for consistent product quality (that definitely isn’t the case for companies like Redbubble).

Plus, aside from allowing companies to earn profits directly from the products they sell, Sticker Mule Stores gives creators a 10% commission when customers purchase products for up to one year after the initial referral.

Already, dozens of high-profile figures, including Mike Tyson, or Henry Cejudo have built their own Sticker Mule Stores, and nearly 15,000 other creators have joined in the last few months too.

Sticker Mule Stores Review: The Core Features

Creating a Sticker Mule Store isn’t the same as launching a business with an ecommerce platform, or even a marketplace like Etsy.

There aren’t a huge number of advanced features to explore. You can’t, for instance, create an entire ecommerce site complete with a blog and a unique domain name.

However, the solution does give creators all of the tools they need to create unique products, and get them shipped directly to customers in regions worldwide.

Here’s a quick run-down of the key features that make Sticker Mule Stores stand out.

The Sticker Mule Storefronts

The “Storefront Builder” you get with a Sticker Mule Store is pretty straightforward. It basically allows you to create a single page website, complete with a profile picture, a banner, and a specific name and @tag.

On that page, you can share a bio, links to your social media pages, and list all of the products you want to sell through the platform.

On a broad scale, the storefronts you can create with Sticker Mule are similar to the one-page sites you can design with tools like Printify’s “Pop-up Store” tool. However, they do look and feel a little more “social media” in style.

For instance, customers can choose to “Follow” a specific store on the Sticker Mule website, and even see how many followers creators already have (and how many people they’re following).

Plus, there’s the option for customers to “like” listed products too. The store experience feels a lot more interactive than those offered by most POD marketplaces.

Sticker Mule Product Variety and Quality

As I mentioned above, Sticker Mule doesn’t offer as many products as some alternatives (like Printify for instance).

However, it does give creators quite a few unique products that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

For instance, alongside the basics, such as labels, stickers, magnets, badges, and t-shirts, you can create options like:

Acrylic charms, keychains and pins

Wall or floor graphics

Temporary tattoos

Custom posters and flyers

White label hot sauce

I couldn’t find any information on the exact printing methods that Sticker Mule uses on the website, but they do offer high-quality, full color prints.

From a quality perspective, almost all of the reviews I’ve read about Sticker Mule products are very positive.

Countless customers rave about how durable and comfortable the t-shirts are, as well as how crisp the prints look on virtually every type of product.

If you’re looking for consistently incredible quality, Sticker Mule seems to go above and beyond virtually every other POD marketplace.

Customization and Design Tools

Customizing your products on Sticker Mule Stores is very straightforward. All you need to do is log into your account, and click on the “Studio” tab to start creating products.

There are hundreds of pre-made templates and art options to choose from, if you want to customize an existing design – saving you a lot of time on the creative process.

However, you can also choose to upload your own images and create a custom design from scratch.

Sticker Mule’s drag-and-drop editor is very user-friendly, and it takes no time to browse through available graphics and template.

Plus, unlike some alternatives, Sticker Mule allows companies to create full brand kits they can upload and share with colleagues.

There are also numerous unique design tools you can access for free through Sticker Mule’s website. For instance, the “Trace” tool allows you to remove backgrounds from any image in an instant, with no design knowledge.

There’s an “Upscale” tool, which immediately enhances the quality of your image, turning low-resolution art and photos into HD images with AI.

Plus, there’s a vectorizer, which can redraw any image and turn it into a high-quality graphic in seconds. However, you do need to pay for this feature (it costs about $14 per graphic).

Shipping and Business Management

Sticker Mule is one of the few print on demand marketplaces that has a truly fantastic “shipping” service. It doesn’t just handle fulfillment on the behalf of creators.

The “Ship” tool allows you to choose shipping companies to partner with based on pricing, or how quickly they can actually get products to your customers.

You can also access exclusive discounts, and track shipments in real-time from your Sticker Mule dashboard.

Beyond that, Sticker Mule gives every user a comprehensive dashboard, where they can track and manage orders in real-time, re-order products and samples directly with a couple of clicks, and even create their own referral campaigns, rewarding customers who send new products to their store.

Plus, there’s a fantastic “Commissions” section, where you can join Sticker Mule’s own referral product, and earn 10% on the purchases each referred customer makes for up to one year.

You’ll even be able to give your referred customers discounts, such as $10 off their first order.

Beyond all that, Sticker Mule allows you to customize the notifications you get about your orders, deals, and new discounts on the platform.

Plus, you can collect reviews on the platform too, which makes it easy to generate social proof for your marketing campaigns.

Sticker Mule Stores: Pricing and Fees

Like most print on demand marketplaces and platforms, Sticker Mule doesn’t charge creators anything to get started with the platform.

Anyone can sign up for free, create a store, and start promoting and selling products without any monthly subscription costs.

All you need to pay for is the base cost of the products themselves, which are pretty affordable. For instance, a sticker will cost you around $7 for 10.

You can even access volume discounts when you buy products in bulk directly from the platform. Plus, Sticker Mule offers free delivery for most countries, particularly for customers who buy in bulk.

That gives you a brilliant way to potentially increase conversions, by keeping costs low for your customers.

Notably though, there are “additional fees” for some services. For instance, you’ll need to pay $14 per image to vectorize graphics (as mentioned above).

On top of that, you might need to account for fees for things like marketing and using your own design tools.

Ease of Use and Customer Support

I’ve already noted throughout this review that I think Sticker Mule Stores is incredibly easy to use. It really doesn’t take any time to create your account and start designing custom products.

Every part of the platform is streamlined, clean, and intuitive, from the home dashboard to the design tools.

Even if you have absolutely no experience running your own store, you’ll be able to handle everything with ease on Sticker Mule.

If you do have any issues, the website comes with a huge help center, packed with FAQs and guides about every type of product you can sell, and every feature on the platform.

The biggest downside I could see, from a customer support perspective, is you really only have the option to get in touch with the team via email.

There’s no live chat option or ability to call the team directly, since phone support was discontinued in 2013, the rationale was explained here.

Sticker Mule Stores Review: The Verdict

Usually, I advise most creators to avoid “marketplace” style solutions for print on demand, simply because it’s hard for them to make their brand stand out, and the structure of these platforms makes it harder to scale your business.

Sticker Mule does suffer from those downsides to a certain extent, but it has a lot of unique features and capabilities that other marketplaces don’t offer.

I can definitely see why so many major creators have flocked to this platform in a short space of time.

With its cutting-edge design tools, range of unique product options, and fantastic backend environment, Sticker Mule Stores definitely stands out from the crowd.

If you’re looking for an easy way to set up a store and start selling products with virtually no upfront costs, Sticker Mule is excellent.

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