Printful sees revenue rise 80% amid e-commerce boom

Printful saw its revenue rise 80% in 2020 amid the e-commerce boom. Printful CEO Davis Siksnans joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss.

Video transcript

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- The growth in e-commerce has led to a big boom for startup Printful. The printing on demand company saw an 80% pop in revenue last year. Recently raised $130 million as well. The company, we should point out, allows customers to print everything from t-shirts to home decor, as well as promotional gear. And we are joined by the CEO of Printful, Davis Siksnans.

Davis, it's good to talk to you today. Certainly a lot of growth over the last year as you have integrated with the likes of Shopify as well as Etsy. What's the outlook look like for you right now?

DAVIS SIKSNANS: It looks-- looking good. I mean, the last year was exceptional. But this year we're expanding the capacity. You know, actually in our business, which deals with physical stuff, we couldn't meet all the demand we saw last year.

So this year we're actually trying to double up our capacity by launching new facilities in California, Texas, and in Europe and UK to sort of address all that pent up demand that exists.

- No, It's a phenomenal business. I've used it before through Shopify, and it's just really easy to upload your designs, and have everything handled on the back end, to just say, all right, we're going to have them. Printful's going to ship it out, print everything. It's all going to be handled.

When you look at people using it, though, what are you seeing in terms of return rates and people actually continuing to use Printful? Because I would imagine some people might turn to you to get a business off the ground, but then if they get large enough, they might want to bring that production in-house. Or maybe if they just don't succeed, they would just want to stop all together. So I mean, what are you seeing in terms of how many people turn to you guys, and then also stay working with you over the longer term?

DAVIS SIKSNANS: There's no doubt that launching an online business and building it into a sustainable business is really hard. But actually, most people tend to stay with us, because it's not only that would be very difficult to build out the capacity. We invested almost $50 million. So you know, not all businesses who do apparel can invest that money. But you know, they can continue to scale with us. And actually, most of them do.

But our business, we just want to offer them more services. So recently we launched more custom branding options. So the business, if you want to offer things like custom packaging, can do that. With Printful they don't have to look elsewhere for help.

- So if we're talking about something like an 80% pop in revenue from last year, how sustainable are those kind of levels?

DAVIS SIKSNANS: Well, it's definitely a COVID bump, right? And our partners as well, is like Shopify and Etsy are reporting like, yes, last year was exceptional. This year is going to be softening. It's very difficult to predict what this year's going to be. But it's going to be elevated levels as well.

And you know, it's not going to be 80% likely. But it will be more than two years ago.

- Yeah, when it comes to what platforms you're seeing the best growth on, I mean, we talk so much about Shopify and the way that you guys have integrated there. But Etsy as well. I mean, is there one that really stands out right now as one that's not giving up that COVID bump as things reopen that you're still seeing engagement on?

DAVIS SIKSNANS: I think that Shopify is still the leader. We saw a phenomenal success on Marketplaces, especially Etsy. And Etsy was for quite a bit now and last year, that that is where you went to shop for handmade face coverings.

All the demand for face coverings have really come down. But a lot of those people who started selling face coverings, and that was sort of their first steps into online e-commerce, now have switched and expanded into new other products. And they are selling-- with us, it's t-shirts, and phone cases, and other products. But they are trying out all kinds of things over at e-commerce. But we're seeing really good results with Shopify now.

- Yeah, it's pretty impressive, the way you can build that out, and just go from one design, to having all these things printed, and handled, and shipped. But appreciate you coming on here to give us the update. Keep us posted as we move farther and farther along. Davis Siksnans, Printful CEO. Appreciate you taking the time here with us today.