Ask ten POD sellers and you'll hear everything from 15% to 60%. Both extremes can be right — margin targets depend on the product, the platform, and whether ads are involved. Here's a way to judge your own numbers instead of chasing someone else's.
| Product | Typical margin range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| T-shirts / basic apparel | 20–35% | Crowded, price-anchored by fast fashion |
| Hoodies / premium apparel | 25–40% | Higher price hides fixed fees better |
| Mugs | 15–30% | Cheap product, shipping dominates cost |
| Posters / wall art | 40–60% | Low base cost, buyers pay for the design |
| Phone cases | 30–50% | Small, cheap to ship |
These are working ranges for organic (non-ad) sales, after all platform and payment fees.
A 50% margin on a £6 sticker is £3; a 25% margin on a £45 hoodie is £11.25. If each sale costs you similar effort, the "worse" margin makes you nearly four times the money. Set a minimum cash profit per order — enough to cover a refund or an ad fee without going negative — and treat percentage margin as a health check, not a goal.
A thin margin is survivable on organic traffic, because your marginal cost of a visitor is zero. The same margin dies the moment you pay for traffic: an offsite-ad fee or a paid click can be 15% of the sale on its own. If your margin can't absorb your platform's ad fee, either opt out where you can or price so it fits. And every margin needs headroom for base-cost increases — providers reprice regularly and rarely downwards.