If you are an experience 3D printing fan, you’ll be able to quickly sell 3D printed objects or models online. Otherwise, there are many designers, inventors and entrepreneurs who will likely take on your projects as Freelancers.
For now, we would like to share our experiences from monetising 3D printed objects as well as models with you. We hope to save you from the same mistakes or get the same disillusionments by doing so. You will read about our tips and tricks for 3D printing and sell objects in general as well as on shapeways.
1. Idea and Conception Phase
We designed an aid tool called GoThrow for Pokemon Go players, which supports you when throwing a Pokeball. Of course, we had to consider the special features of the game, as well as 3D printing possibilities. We opted for a very simple design, which controls a straight throw without covering up the main screen. Afterwards we realised that a closed ending at the top would have increased the user experience and likelihood to catch Pokemon.
This shows that 2 expertises are necessary to sell whatever 3D designs you choose. On the one hand, you need the 3D printing / design skills for a successful implementation. Or at least a partner/freelancer who is able to model and convert 3 dimensional objects in stl.files. On the other hand, you must have knowledge about your own product industry in order to implement a promising concept. Only when combining both expertise, you will be able to sell 3d printed objects successfully on Shapeways and other platforms.
2. Design and test phase
Although we noticed this improvement only in retrospect, we had met both requirements. In the design process we had created a functional and 3D printed product for sale. There are always improvement potentials when you design and sell 3D printed objects. We want to emphasise that this work is not done within an hour of your evening, because really good objects require a lot of hard work.
Although the time span of a prototype cycle is drastically minimized by 3D printers, it is still the same design work. That’s why the technology was also called Rapid Prototyping and not skipped modelling.
Our biggest challenge was to design a suitable component for attaching to the charging port of the mobile phone. Since the port sizes are in millimetre, it is difficult to find the right balance for fit. In addition, knowledge of layer thicknesses comes into play, since private 3D printers can use different configurations. Therefore we used the smallest layer thickness setting of our device and still had to go through many test cycles. This is no the case if you use a SLA printer from Formlabs which prints in more detail than conventional FDM printers.
Our final product has worked in the practical application and we met all print requirements for Shapeways.
3. How to market and sell 3D Printed objects — the shapeways disillusionment
If you are satisfied with your 3D object or product, you have two options. You can either distribute it yourself in physical form or make it available for download/print online. The latter represents the initial idea of the 3D printing community and is possible through many sites online. The goal is to make everyone at home to their a manufacturer and share designs of objects, as well as ideas in general. Probably the most popular website for downloads is Thingiverse by Makerbot, where you can upload your design and license or download from others.
In case uploading your files is not enough for you, you can sell 3D printed objects and try to monetise on them. We have three possible approaches laid out for 3D printing and design distribution here:
3.1) Only the design
You upload your designs for sale on numerous sites. In doing so, a customer can order the object which is then printed out by the platform provider. This includes pages like Shapeways, which we will discuss in more detail below, or i.materialise. While the platform owners receive most of the pie, they also have most of the costs. In comparison, you as a designer literally do not have do anything except receiving your share and potentially market the objects.
3.2) Both design and 3D printed object
The advantage of this approach is that you get money for the object as well as your 3D printing service. But you also have to draw attention to your product and build create sales channel attracting customers. In comparison, platforms like Shapeways take these tasks over to a large degree. This creates a passive income compared to the relatively active work in this approach.
3.3) Sell 3D printed objects only
Of course, you can also print online designs for other people and earn money by providing a service. This is ideal for anyone who does not want to model 3D products or work with CAD programs in general. Instead, you only handle the 3D Printers and attract customers with own models through pages like 3D hubs.
To sum it up
There is an approach for each person to make money with a 3D Printer or from modelling in 3D. These are 3 different possibilities with own advantages and disadvantages. In the following example, we chose a 3D design we developed and tested with our 3D Printer to later distribute via Shapeways.
Why Shapeways?
As described, we opted for Shapeways based on the mentioned advantages as the large community and qualitative 3D prints without any effort from us. You do not have to worry about the production and delivery and still get your share from the sale. More importantly, you can use Shapeways’s global distribution network and do not have to build it yourself or take care of an international delivery. This results in a much larger audience with less effort while you can still vertically integrate the production afterwards in case of a huge success and demand.
Marketing on social media
Since sales of the Pokemon GoThrow did not developed as planed despite being there at the right time during the hype, we decided to do our own marketing activities. These ran relatively well with some influencers in the social media that advertised the product. The comments made some hope, as everyone was impressed with the design and the usefulness.
Despite the wide influence from the campaign and positive feedback, the results on Shapeways were unfortunately a little sluggish. We were a bit disappointed about to complete the project and turn to other topics. Lessons learned, we realized that the purchase was too difficult for most players, since you sign up on the platform first. The real difference was noticeable when Shapeways users received the companies Newsletter showing off our GoThrow product.
Their newsletter has many subscribers who are actual users of the site, whereby the registration issues vanished. Although we received a lot of attention and visitors through the newsletter, purchases were still relatively small. In addition, shapeways has a set minimum to pay out money to its designers. Due to the low percentage designers receive from sales you have to sell 3D printed objects in large quantities before you are actually get rewarded.
Conclusion
3D printers and CAD software for modeling make it possible to sell 3D printed objects and focus on your creative work. In addition, you can passively earn money online, but you have to consider various factors. However, this market is growing fast and many barriers will be overcome. Who thinks about joining Shapeways to earn his livelihood should reconsider though as there are less customers than designers leaving a lot of competition. Nevertheless, it makes sense to upload your designs from projects which you enjoy anyways and monitor the success. This will result in a strong position for you in the future. As soon as the market volume increases rapidly, you will be one of the first to notice and have already positioned yourself as a brand with various 3D models.
Shapewayslink: http://bit.ly/2pgcupK
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