In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have any problems in our daily life. But sadly this is not reality. However, at this stage with most things, we are lucky to be able to sort out our stuff by going through a particular process!

Starting a printables shop is exactly the same.

A common question from people who want to start a printables shop is, “ what will go wrong”? And “Will I be able to resolve it”.

Trying to think of all the problems that might happen can literally keep you stuck in fear mode! Which may eventually put you off the idea of starting your printables shop.

Keep reading and you will see that it is extremely possible to handle all situations in a way that will have a positive impact on your printables shop.

Plus, everything that we experience on our printables shop journey, both positive and not so positive, helps us to learn and grow as people and printable shop owners.

Some things are also preventable. So take control of these things.

Communication is key to keeping customers and potential customers happy. It is easy to do this even in the face of issues and you will gain a great reputation in the process which will increase everyone's trust in you and your printables.

Include a contact email address if you can on your website and orders, as well as having a dedicated contact page on your website, so people can contact you easily.

If you do not have a website yet, you don’t need to worry about this.

You could sign up for a Google Workspace account and create a business email. You can then share this email anywhere you show up online. You can also pay monthly for this and cancel anytime.

So let’s get started. Here are some potential problems that can arise. Some can be eliminated completely and some you can simply plan for, just in case they do pop up in the future.

This is a guide only. You will need to decide what information applies to your products and business. You may need to adapt this information also. At the end of this blog is some useful links where you can access more information on some of the topics discussed. .

Here is a brief list first :

Copyright infringement : people misusing your printables in a way that goes against their license use and terms. Such as selling them as their own or giving them away as freebies.
Marketing and visibility challenges : a lack of marketing experience and money can create feelings of limitation when it comes to getting your products seen and sold.
Customer complaints : complaints about the printable they received, lack of information, vague information, incorrect information in the product description.
Payment issues : customers may not be able to pay or experience some other type of delay or issue with the payment method.
File Download Issues : customers may experience problems when they try to download their purchased file, resulting in them not being able to access their purchased printable. File could become corrupted.
Technical issues with the platforms you are using to sell your printables : Etsy, website platforms, social media, newsletter platforms.

You may also be wondering how you’ll find out about issues : this can be from customers, social media, emails from relevant platforms or you experience the issues yourself with the particular service or system.

And Now, How To Prepare For Them!

No 1 - Copyright Infringement - People misusing your printables :

State clearly in your product descriptions what your printables can and can’t be used for ; for example, personal, non -commercial use only, you cannot claim that you created the printable, no selling, editing or giving away the printable for free.
Use tools like reverse image search to search your images online.
Take appropriate action against infringers like sending cease and desist notices or file DMCA takedown requests.
Always stick the word “sample” or your “ business name” on screenshots of your printables.
Include a note in your license, terms of use and product file that informs people that they are not allowed to share images of your printables online in reviews or anywhere else they could be saved and misused.

No 2 - Marketing and Visibility Challenges - No Money for advertising & difficulty in attracting customers :

Social media is a completely free way to showcase your printables. Keep posting and showing up each day or week and your following will increase and so should your sales.
If you have a little money to spend on ads then you can easily set your budget and ad length on most social media platforms.
Optimize your printables using relevant short keywords and long-tail keywords. Keyword searches can be done on Google, social media platforms, Etsy, Pinterest (check out this YouTube short to use the Pinterest keyword free search tool.
Create eye - catching product mockups for your printables. You can also share these product images on your social pages and newsletter if you have one. Product images can easily be created using your free Canva account. You can also use Google Slides for free to create mockups, Google Slides don’t have a pre-made mockup library but it is still possible to create beautiful product images there.
Engage with your social media following through challenges and other engaging content to build your community and your business exposure. If you don't want to do challenges, simply comment and reply to others pages too.
Create a YouTube channel around your printables, it is completely free and lots of printable shops do this.

No 3 - Customer Complaints - Customers not satisfied with their purchase / Negative feedback and reviews :

Use all customer feedback as vital information to improve your printables and overall service. Encourage feedback so you can learn. You won’t be sorry you did this.
Eliminate spelling and layout errors by thoroughly checking your printable before you upload it for sale. Print it out so you can see what it looks like in real life form.
Make sure the layout makes sense for the type of printable it is : with relevant sections and flow.
Create a printable that allows enough writing space, what’s the point otherwise!
Give your printable a clear and appropriate title that is not misleading.
Product description should be honest and easy to understand with relevant information such as printable size, color, use, number of pages, number of files, digital download only and no physical product is sent. You can always check out other shops for ideas to see what they include in their descriptions for similar printable products too.
Include the same product information on product images if possible - some people are more visual.
Include a brief guide on how to print your PDF printable. You don’t have to be an expert on this either and you cannot give individual and tailored help for specific printing issues. So a brief guide along with the PDF size is a great way to offer that little bit of extra information. You can also get ideas from other shops as to how they word this information. Etsy is a great place to get this information. You can include it on your website and newsletters if you have one too.
Negative reviews on Etsy - if a customer complains about vague information or a lack of information in your product description but it is something that you have already included in your product description but they did not see it, then you can respond with a public response in a kind informative way and guide them to the information and let them know it was always there. Responding to Etsy reviews also stops the reviewer from being able to edit their review. It will also show people that you are happy to help customers and that the information was in fact there and you had it covered.
If there is a lack of information in your product description, then you can simply add in that information so that this issue is resolved in the future.
Encourage questions about your printables too as this may eliminate any confusion customers may have.

No 4 - Payment Issues - A customer contacts you and says their payment wasn’t accepted : A customer says their payment was accepted but they haven’t got their download : A customer no longer has the card they paid with and is due a refund.

If a customer's payment was not accepted - then the first thing you should do is acknowledge their message and ask them what product they were trying to purchase, when and type of pay method. Then immediately go and check with your payment platform online to see if you actually received the payment.

Also check your website's products list and sales reports to see if any sales notifications have been registered for the particular product. If you haven’t received any payment then tell the customer straight away. There really is nothing more you can do on your side. Advise the customer to check with their bank to see if the money was debited from their account.

The bank can advise them further on this issue. As you are only the potential recipient (of no money so far) then you don’t have access to any more information. When a customer's payment is successful, their digital download files automatically become available to them so if this has not been sent to the customer they will need to investigate further.

In case you are wondering if the customer thinks you may be untruthful, then simply know that it is digitally and legally impossible to lie about receiving a payment because should it go further, the information is there in the payment processors sales reports and notifications and your websites sales reports.

Rest assured you are handling this situation in the best way you can. If a customer is pushing you to send on the printable without receiving any payment, then simply advise them that unfortunately, you are not in a position to do this as no money has been received for the product.

A customer's payment was accepted but they haven’t got their download - repeat all the steps from above by checking you have received the payment first and the customer order details. You can also ask for a screen shot of the invoice to their email that shows all the important details you need.

The next thing is to ask the customer if they have access to the email they used to purchase the printable. Some websites have a dual delivery method for digital downloadable files, like Payhip, once the customer's payment is successful the download option should appear on the screen straight-away and it is also sent to the customers email.

Some websites may differ in their delivery system so it is important you know how your website works (or other selling platform).

To know this, you can test out your website purchase process for yourself by making test sales if it allows or creating 100% discount codes and “purchasing” a printable this way. If everything appears to have been completed on the customers side and you have received their payment, then you can offer to send the PDF file manually to their email address.

They may still receive the download later, however, you were able to resolve this for the customer in a timely manner. Your customer will be happy with this. Sometimes glitches happen, it’s no one's fault so don’t worry!

A customer no longer has the card they paid with and is due a refund (refunds only apply if they haven't downloaded the digital product and told you within 14 days of purchase) - if the payment was made through PayPal then the refund should go back to the original PayPal account used to pay for the printable.

If the card/bank is no longer attached to that PayPal account for money transfers then the customer will need to link a new card / bank. If the customer is having problems with this then the customer has to contact PayPal and confirm their next steps.

If the customer paid with an actual card, then the card issuer will handle the refund, the customer will need to contact their card issuer / bank and tell them they are expecting a refund. Generally, refunds are processed to the new cards because they have the same originating bank account. But tell your customers that their bank are the only ones who can guide them further.

Refunds can only be processed to the original pay methods used and this is a system process so you won’t have the option to send refunds to a different PayPal / Card / Bank.

Refunds can take a little while to process sometimes (check with the relevant payment processor) so it is vital to be available to answer questions from your customer. Even if the answer is, you need to contact your bank, you don’t have access to their personal bank account and you don’t work at the bank so you can only advise them from the information you process on your side.

No 5 - File Download Issues : customers may experience problems when they try to download their purchased file, resulting in them not being able to access their purchased printable. File could become corrupted.

If a customer contacts you and says they cannot download their file, the quickest way to handle this is to first apologize to the customer and tell them you will investigate, advise them that in order to investigate further, they need to send you their order confirmation details preferably by email.
You will also need to check that you have received the payment. Once you’re happy that all this is in order then you can manually send the digital file to their email. They may still receive the download but you have handled this perfectly already and they will be happy and grateful and be singing your praises.
File becomes corrupted - below is information I took directly from a website because it is a little bit techy and I’m not that techy. However, I think it is really helpful to even know this information. If your customer's digital download is corrupt, confirm order details as before and check you received the payment, then manually send on the original file you have saved in your folders. Test the PDF is working on your side. Send to another email address. If your customer is still experiencing issues with the file, they may need to seek external technical help from a software or computer specialist. You can offer them a refund if you feel that this is the most suitable resolution.
Check if the issue is with the platform that you are selling on too. You can research this by checking to see if you have any notifications from them to your registered email, or if there are any posts on social media.
Consult this link for more helpful information.

“What Are Corrupted Files?

A corrupted file is essentially a damaged or incomplete digital document that refuses to open or work as intended. File corruption can happen for a wide range of reasons, from hardware malfunctions to sudden power outages, software bugs, and malware.

Unfortunately, almost all file types, from PDFs to SQL database files, are susceptible to corruption. The most common causes of file corruption are a sudden loss of power while the file is open, interrupted downloads, and issues while saving.” quote from secure data 9/6/24.

"What To Do When Your Files Don’t Open

Before we dive into the best ways to address corruption among specific popular file types, let’s go through a universal troubleshooting approach for any file.

Initial Checks

To find out how to address your specific issue, it's important to do some initial file checks.

Start by double-checking the file extension and make sure it’s compatible with the corresponding software. For instance, for a Microsoft Word document, make sure its file extension is .doc or .docx.
Confirm your storage drive has sufficient space to store and open the file.
If possible, re-download your file and try again.
Restart your device to eliminate any transient bugs or glitches that may be occurring.
If none of this helped, move on to the repair process. " Quote from secure data 9/6/24.

No 6 - Technical issues with the platforms you are using to sell your printables : Etsy, website platforms, social media, newsletter platforms.

(Especially if the issue is long-term/serious) The first thing you should do is let your community know that there are technical issues with the platform and how this issue is affecting its service. Depending on the platform experiencing the problem, you may be able to use alternative methods of communication. This is a good reason also to have more than one social media channel for your shop.
You do not have to know how to fix these issues. Also, I do not ever remember any of these types of platforms having serious technical issues. But if they were to have them, they would have a team of expert technical support to resolve these issues.

Useful links:

Free Canva Account.

Pinterest Free Keyword Tool.

Cease and Desist information link.

DMCA Takedown Notice Template.

Corrupt Files Information.

Claim 40 Free listings from my website and save on fees: plrtemplatesstudio.com/free-etsy-listings.

So as you can see, there are a few things to be aware of but when you are, they are not so scary! There is a way to handle everything that happens!

Disclaimer

I do not claim that the information is 100% accurate or error free.

You must do your own research before taking any action,or using any information from this blog post. such as consulting the relevant professionals. The information contained in this blog is from my own research and I do not claim that any suggestions on actions you should take will give you the answer you need.

You agree that I am not liable or responsible for your use or misuse of any information contained in this blog post and useful links section.

Please note that the “useful links” are for your convenience only. These are external links and we have no control over any changes made to them.

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