How to Create a Powerful Year-End Review for Your Print-on-Demand Business
December 30, 2025
Print-on-demand kept proving its superpower in 2025: low upfront cost, fast design-to-market cycles, and enormous appetite from shoppers who want something personal, local-feeling, or niche. Below, we recap the biggest POD winners of 2025, call out where stickers, posters, gift wrapping paper, and cards fit in today’s market, and offer some guidance for POD sellers in 2026.
Winners of 2025 (Best Sellers)
These are the product categories that dominated POD storefronts and marketplaces in 2025.
1. Apparel (T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts) — Still #1 for a reason: repeat purchases, low unit cost, and huge audience reach via niche designs. Apparel remains the backbone of most successful POD brands.
2. Stickers & decals — One of the breakout, high-margin items for creators. Cheap to produce, easy to ship, and perfect as add-ons (bundle them with apparel or prints). Stickers are repeatedly listed among top sellers and are a common impulse purchase on marketplaces.
3. Home decor & wall art (posters, prints, canvases) — Demand for customizable wall art stayed strong in 2025 as people refreshed home and office spaces. Posters and art prints are a go-to for affordable personalization and collaboration with illustrators. Whether in traditional or sitcky-back format, custom POD posters are a timeless, versatile medium for businesses, brands, and individuals.
4. Drinkware & small gifts (mugs, tumblers) — Timeless gift items that sell year-round and convert well in gift seasons.
5. Phone cases, accessories, and hats — Consistent mid-tier sellers that pair nicely with social campaigns and niche communities.
6. Stationery & paper products (including greeting cards, posters, and notebooks) — Not headline smashers like tees or stickers, but steady and profitable, especially when positioned for occasions or specialty niches. Print-on-demand providers leaned into cards as a low-risk way for artists to sell their designs as cards, postcards, and posters.
7. Gift wrap — Within the gift wrapping space itself, personalization and custom printing were key themes. Shoppers looked for unique wraps with names, monograms, or bespoke artwork, especially around holidays and special events, giving POD gift wrap offerings an edge in the broader market. At the same time, eco-friendly and sustainable materials like recyclable or reusable papers and furoshiki-style fabric wraps gained traction, aligning with wider consumer values in 2025.
Trending Year-round
A clear “must have” for many POD stores. They’re inexpensive to produce and ship, work as upsells, and are beloved by collectors and fans. Many sellers use stickers for promotion, branding, and seasonal lines. If you’re building a POD catalog, stickers are an efficient way to increase average order value.
Posters and prints are among the higher-value, lower-return-rate items in POD. They’re a strong way to showcase artist collaborations and to target home-decor buyers who want affordable wall art. If you want to scale beyond apparel, posters are one of the fastest routes.
Not always listed in “top product” roundups, but widely available across major POD platforms (Printify, Prodigi, specialty art printers) and growing as brands look to control the unboxing experience. Branded or artist-designed wrapping paper is especially attractive around holidays and for DTC gift bundling such as premium gifting sets with custom wrap. Consider this an additional product that enhances perceived value and increases margins during peak seasons.
Cards (greeting cards & stationery)
Greeting cards and boxed-card sets are a viable niche within POD: margins can be slim but lifetime value is real for customers who buy for repeat occasions (birthdays, holidays, thank-yous). The physical greeting-card industry has headwinds in traditional retail, but POD enables targeted, niche card lines (dark humor, micro-niches, local themes) that sell well on Etsy and independent stores. Treat cards as a complementary line, great for cross-selling and as a subscription offering.
Quick market context (why this matters)
The POD market is expanding rapidly: market reports show high projected CAGR and strong growth in personalized product demand. That backdrop makes experimenting with product mixes (e.g., adding stickers, posters, gift wrap, cards) low-risk and potentially high-reward.
Actionable Product Mix Ideas for POD Sellers
- Core+Attach strategy: Keep apparel or posters as a core high-ticket item; add stickers and cards as low-cost attachments to increase average sales.
- Seasonal bundles: For holidays, bundle posters + wrapping paper + a card = higher perceived value and easier to market as gifts.
- Limited artist drops: Use posters and premium wrapping paper in limited releases to create urgency and collectible appeal.
- Subscription box: Monthly sticker packs or seasonal card sets build predictable revenue and loyalty.
- Sustainability angle: Offer recycled or FSC-certified paper options for cards and wrapping paper to appeal to eco-conscious buyers.
- Custom gift wrap: From branded gift wrap for complimentary, in-store gift wrapping to custom options for special order or resale, offering personalized gift wrap is an easy way to grow margins.
Predictions for 2026
(These are informed by 2025 marketplace signals and market growth data.)
- Personalization becomes table stakes. Buyers will expect at-least-semi-personal options (names, dates, local themes) on posters, cards, and gift wrap. Personalization tools at checkout will reduce friction.
- Packaging & unboxing = marketing. Branded wrapping paper and a designed card will move from “nice to have” to “differentiator” for DTC and independent brands. Merchants who own the gifting experience will win higher LTV. Whether offering custom POD gift wrap in store, by special order, or via complimentary gift wrapping, retailers offering personalized gift wrapping and card options are sure to elevate their brands and heighten the gift giving experience.
- Sustainability and provenance matter more. Demand for eco papers, low-waste packaging, and transparent supply chains will push POD providers to offer greener SKUs and local production options.
- Local fulfillment & faster ship windows. Customers increasingly expect quick delivery; POD brands that layer on localized printing/fulfillment nodes will outperform on conversion and returns.
- AR & interactive print experiences. Expect more QR/AR integrations on posters and cards (scannable animation, playlists, or video messages) as sellers seek to blend digital and physical gifting. (Prediction based on product innovation trends across DTC.)
- Stickers morph into collectible ecosystems. Brands will launch sticker series, limited runs, and membership/collector drops that mimic trading-card scarcity tactics. Stickers become loyalty hooks, not just freebies.
- Cards pivot to niche and premium. While mass market cards face headwinds, niche, artisanal, and designer card lines (plus boxed sets and subscriptions) will hold and grow in POD because they target buyers willing to pay for specificity and craft.
Final takeaways
- POD Sellers: keep apparel and wall art as anchors, add stickers today (they’re cheap, high-margin, and convert), and add posters to increase sales volume.
- Consider gift wrap and cards as strategic value enhancers. They’re not only great for holiday seasons but also bespoke gifting, and unboxing experiences, even if they’re not #1 volume sellers across the entire market.
- For 2026: focus on personalization, sustainability, faster/local fulfillment, and product experiences that connect physical items with digital extras.
