- 3d Printing Servicesturn Your Idea Into A Productive
- 3d Printing Servicesturn Your Idea Into A Production
- 3d Printing Servicesturn Your Idea Into A Product Key
With Mercedes-Benz announcing last year that it is now selling 3D printed spare parts for its cargo trucks, 3D printing is gaining momentum as a commercial strategy for large-scale manufacturers.
Blaze through product improvement with rapid prototype revisions. Reduce lead times and IP theft exposure by keeping everything in-house. Then get your tested and proven product into market before the competition knows what hit it. Learn how altering thinking around the design process can benefit your business. Download the white paper today. 3D printing already is a great asset for shortening New Product Introduction (NPI) cycles and accelerating time-to-market for a range of products. The aerospace, dental and medical markets have benefited from early adoption while most other sectors are just beginning to consider 3D printing for tooling or making products in small quantities. Idea #2: 3D Printed Promotional Goods. Advertisers remain ever-vigilant for the next creative and interactive way to reach their target audiences. 3D printing has turned into the ideal cross-over that works well for both brands and customers, and a clever 3D printing idea could be something that wins you thousands of dollars in business because advertisers see how good you are.
But what does 3D printing mean for non-enterprise businesses and entrepreneurs? Can 3D printing really offer ordinary people the chance to change their lives?
As the technology becomes more widely available, 3D printing is set to revolutionize the home business world. 3D printing enables people to embrace the world of product design and run manufacturing, ecommerce, and design businesses from the comfort of their own homes.
Interested? Let’s explore how you can 3D print your own products and sell them online in a world where 3D printing is set to fundamentally change eCommerce.
Looking to design and sell a 3D product for a community project? Check out our previous post on how you could get yourself some free promotion.
3D Printing and the eCommerce Opportunity
“When I first discovered 3D printing several years ago, I instantly knew it was magical. My mind was blown by the technology: an almost infinite amount of shapes can be “grown,” layer by layer, just by using a printer. This is going to be disruptive, I knew. It would empower entrepreneurs, freeing them from the constraints of traditional manufacturing.” (Brian Palacios).
3D printing is an amazingly democratic technology: it works for the small time business owner, as well as the enterprise company. It presents a unique opportunity to cut out ‘the middlemen’ like manufacturers, letting business owners go straight to the source and take control of the product design progress. Instead of huge manufacturing machinery, business owners only need 3D printing facilities or 3D printers to run their business.
Using automation and easy personalization, 3D printing is able to offer people cheaper and better products, as well as products that are completely custom and unique. 3D printing allows for easy on-demand commerce: a more streamlined business model that gets rid of the traditional problems of holding inventory and stock.
3D Print and Sell Product Designs
In order to make the most of 3D printing, you need a novel idea or product that leverages 3D printing in a strategic or creative way. Think about how printing your product could potentially disrupt an industry or offer consumers a better way to do something. Product design is an art form, so spend time refining your ideas and designs.
New to design? Start by learning from free Computer Animated Design (CAD) tools such as Blender, Sculptris, TinkerCAD, Fusion 360, Onshape or SelfCAD. You’d be surprised by how quickly and easily you can teach yourself and conjure a professional-looking design after just a few tutorials. By making use of free online resources and putting the time in to teach yourself, you can create customizable designs or moving parts to sell online.
Remember: not all products are meant to look ‘good’ — some are practical solutions to common problems.
Here are some high-demand product niches with reasonably healthy profit margins that are easy to fulfill using a 3D printer:
- Nerf gun accessories
- Customized shoes and flipflops
- Architectural models
- Movie-style props and memorabilia
- Drone accessories, such as camera holders
- Decorative ornaments and vases
Give yourself the means to create a multitude of different 3D printed products – that way, you can stock new products as soon as you notice a gap in the market, or when a particularly high-demand product goes out of stock on Amazon or Ebay.
Importance of Market & Value Research
In order to create and sell successful products, you need to understand the mindset of your target audience. Get to the crux of what makes them tick by identifying as much as you can about their aspirations, desires, and challenges. You need to get into the mindset of a particular demographic in order to create something they’ll want to buy. Do market research on platforms like Quora, niche forums, reddit, social media, and blogs to get an unvarnished view into their world.
If you’re looking to get more precise data, use Google Trends and conduct your own keyword research to find out exactly what your customers are searching for online.
Top tip: Speak to people in the industry to find out what solutions and products they’ve been waiting for, and see whether you can help solve their problems.
3d Printing Servicesturn Your Idea Into A Productive
Finding your markets
Setting up your own online store is a great way to get your business off the ground and grant you greater autonomy over the look, feel, and functionality of your business. But as well as your own store, you should get your products and designs in front of the 3D printing community. By leveraging the power of an existing audience, you can fast-track product sales and business growth.
Whether you print the products yourself, or leave that to a 3D printing and fulfilment company, make sure that you have healthy margins and remain financially in control. Don’t get so carried away by an idea that you forget to make some money out of it!
Here are some popular ecommerce options to consider:
- I.Materialise 3D print store
- Shapeways (the ‘Amazon’ of 3D printing)
- Marketplaces like Etsy, Ebay & Amazon are good for spare parts, memorabilia, and B2C goods
- WordPress has loads of free ecommerce themes
- Shopify has a purpose-built online store that scales from entrepreneur to enterprise.
The Best eCommerce Advice?
Our best advice to get started is simply stated. Embrace the multi-channel approach and sell wherever and whenever you can. Make the most of seasonal trends and spikes in consumer interest, and diversify your sales platforms to stay ahead of the competition.
Leverage the practical and technological advantages of 3D printing, and create a business that’s as future-proof as
Setting up your own store to sell 3D products? Tell us what you’re up to in the comments.
Read more about 3D printing at Fabbaloo!
3d cad3d printingbusinessfabbaloo0AuthorFabbalooFabbaloo tracks developments in the amazing technology of 3D Printing, publishing news and analysis daily. Whether from a manufacturer’s press release, onsite coverage of events or just some crazy ideas we thought up, our material will keep you up to date.3d Printing Servicesturn Your Idea Into A Production
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The use of 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has moved well beyond prototyping, rapid tooling, trinkets, and toys. Companies such as GE, Lockheed Martin, and BMW are switching to it for industrial production at scale. More companies will follow as the range of printable materials continues to expand. Already available are basic plastics, photosensitive resins, ceramics, cement, glass, numerous metals, thermoplastic composites (some infused with carbon nanotubes and fibers), and even stem cells. In this article the author makes the case that additive manufacturing will gain ground quickly, given advantages such as greater flexibility, fewer assembly steps and other cost savings, and enhanced product-design possibilities.
3d Printing Servicesturn Your Idea Into A Product Key
Managers, D’Aveni writes, should now be engaging with strategic questions on three levels: Sellers of tangible products should ask how their offerings could be improved, whether by themselves or by competitors. Industrial enterprises should revisit their operations to determine what network of supply chain assets and what mix of old and new processes will be optimal. And leaders must consider the strategic implications as whole commercial ecosystems begin to form around the new realities of 3-D printing.
Many of the biggest players already in the business of additive manufacturing are vying to develop the platforms on which other companies will build and connect. Platform owners will be powerful because production itself is likely to become commoditized over time. Those facilitating connections in the digital ecosystem will sit in the middle of a tremendous volume of industrial transactions, collecting and selling valuable information.
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