While we live in a society where everything has to go fast, where the consumer wants EVERYTHING right away, manufacturers and distributors must take up the challenge of responding to this new mode of consumption, which is more commonly known in the fashion world as fast fashion.

This implies rapid production, often in large quantities, in order to minimise costs.

Nevertheless, this storage of products generates additional costs and can sometimes be destined for destruction if no buyers are found. This is a real problem that needs to be addressed.

This economic model of "blind" production is no longer as profitable and, above all, is not environmentally friendly: these products, which are produced and stored unnecessarily, have required a lot of energy from humans and the planet. Resources such as water and electricity have been used not only to manufacture them but also to store them.

After a few months of storage, these unsold goods will unfortunately be destroyed in most cases, which again results in the consumption of energy and resources.

In recent years, society has begun to reflect on the best ways to save our resources in order to protect our planet. But now it's not just about thinking, it's about taking action.

New methods of eco-responsible production and consumption are already being implemented and this works if everyone plays the game, and especially if the necessary financial means are committed.

For example, we are seeing an increase in the number of electric cars on the road, an acceleration in the installation of solar/photovoltaic panels on roofs, more and more people going to local producers to buy their fruit and vegetables, waste sorting has become an increasingly common practice...

All these actions contribute to the protection of the environment and make both citizens and companies more responsible.

Our generation must act and propose solutions to preserve our resources, hence the emergence of new modes of consumption and production.

Customer-demand manufacturing is one of the solutions now available. This method, which is becoming more and more common, is becoming one of the leading business models in the world.

Production on demand: an emerging business model

A new means of supply is of increasing interest to many international brands: manufacturing on demand of the customer.

It aims to avoid the destruction of unsold goods (which will soon be banned in France, from 2022) but also to respond to a more reasoned consumption and an eco-responsible approach.

As a result, some brands have decided to partially change their replenishment method. As everyone knows, storage is expensive and it is essential for manufacturers to make production profitable.

A reasoned but reactive production

Brands must constantly renew themselves to meet the demands of customers, whose buying behaviour is increasingly volatile. It is therefore important to reduce the quantities of parts produced while quickly anticipating sales successes and then putting the product in question back into production.

When manufacturing on demand, it is essential to be ultra reactive to avoid stock-outs and long delivery times. However, if the brand succeeds in the challenge of on-demand manufacturing, then success will be achieved and profitability will be maximised.

Inspired by the principle of Crowdfunding campaigns, some brands offer event-based sales, mainly relayed to their target audience on social networks. This allows them to define a minimum target of pre-orders before launching the production of the product.

This new approach results in lower storage costs for manufacturers, eliminates overall losses and unsold products and minimises their environmental impact. So they have everything to gain.

The success of customisation

Producing on demand therefore allows the manufacturer to reduce certain costs such as storage, but this mode of operation is also an advantage for the end customer, who will now be able to buy a personalised product. This is a strong demand from consumers today, who no longer want to look like their neighbour.

While we are certainly living in the apogee (perhaps soon the end) of mass production where everything is standardized to allow mass production, we have noted a major turning point in recent years, as the consumer no longer has the same needs or the same desires.

Today's demand is for personalization: the customer absolutely wants to stand out from the "other".

As customisation has become an important element of fashion, brands must take into account this new customer demand and renew themselves quickly to follow this new trend.

Printing on demand

Today, brands can be created quickly and easily through Print On Demand.

Platforms offer a catalogue of customised products and users simply add their logos or visuals.

Once this customisation work has been done and the products have been put online on their shop, the creator of the brand only has to launch his advertising and communication campaigns via the various communication channels in order to reach potential buyers.

Print-on-demand fits perfectly with the new market trends of minimising storage, making production cost-effective and limiting its environmental impact.

TPOP: the Eco-logical Print On Demand

A greater commitment to the environment

Print on demand is inherently more environmentally friendly than traditional production.

However, we are convinced that it is possible to do better than the traditional model.

This is how our platform was born, based on printing on demand of eco-friendly products and the cleanest possible marking / shipping chain.

Ethical and eco-responsible products

The textile industry is known to be polluting and often has little regard for the working conditions of its employees.

There has been a real awareness in recent years and some manufacturers have decided to take matters into their own hands by moving towards sustainably produced products.

Organic cotton is the most striking example of this: it requires much less water and is much more environmentally friendly than conventional cotton.

In order to offer the most coherent platform possible, we at TPOP have decided to offer you only ethical and organic products.

Offering your customers durable, quality products is an undeniable sign of seriousness for your structure and a simple communication lever to display on your shop.

Beyond the ecological aspect, we also select our products according to their printability: as passionate printers, we look for quality items adapted to our printing techniques (DTG, sublimation) in order to obtain a top result.

We make it a point of honour to ensure that the products we send out are shiny and dazzling. The "Whaouuuu" effect is expected when your customer opens the package.

For the record, before starting the TPOP adventure, we were a couple of geeks with a passion for new technologies and computers, and when we discovered the world of printing, we launched our own online shop for personalised products.

Today, thanks to this highly rewarding experience, we know our wonderful printers inside out and cherish them every day by giving them only premium quality products.

Water-based inks

As you will certainly have understood, at TPOP, we don't mess around withSustainability and we love above all our beautiful blue planet (we intend to stay there for a long time to come): when we had to choose our printers, we opted for equipment that only uses water-based inks.

These are certified by the OEKO-TEX® ECO PASSPORT and the GOTS 5.0 label.

The icing on the cake: they are labelled VEGAN. Isn't that beautiful?

0 plastic shipping

At TPOP, we don't like plastic, not at all, not at all, not at all!

We then took a radical and innovative decision: to remove plastic from all our packaging.

This, we assure you, is not an easy task.

For the shipment of our textiles, we have chosen two types of eco-responsible packaging:

1 / Cardboard pouches made from 100% recycled and recyclable paper (these are certified by the FSC program and the factories are ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 50001 (energy management) certified.

2 / Ultra-resistant and recyclable kraft paper pouches. They are certified by PEFC, an international NGO that promotes the protection and sustainable management of forests around the world. This label provides the consumer with a guarantee that the product he buys comes from responsible sources and that through his act of purchase, he participates in the sustainable management of forests.

For the rest of our shipments, we use cardboard boxes of various sizes.

In all of these cases, we use kraft paper adhesive; much more environmentally friendly than its (nasty) plastic cousin, it is highly robust and adds the finishing touch to your shipments in the most environmentally friendly way.

We have also managed to remove the bubble wrap from our mug packaging by using specially developed cardboard boxes that are resistant to the various shocks during delivery.

We sort and recycle our waste (paper, cardboard, ink), and we have even decided to reuse our suppliers' cardboard boxes by modifying them so that they can accommodate our intermediate textile preparation stocks.

A little extra: the paper on which each order form is printed is 100% recycled and comes from sustainably managed forests.

A 100% carbon neutral shipping service

Every day, we are working hard to minimise our environmental impact while improving our print on demand service.

We ship thousands of items every day, so it was clear to us that we also had a role to play in this area.

We solved this problem by working 95% with the French Post Office, which is the world's leading carbon neutral postal operator.

100% of the emissions from the group's activities are measured and offset.

A hosting company committed to environmental protection

We have chosen the innovative company Scaleway to host our network infrastructure as well as the data you send us every day.

Why this one rather than another? Simply because it clearly states its intention to drastically reduce its environmental impact by 2025.

Worldwide, 205 billion kWh are consumed by data centres and 30-40% of energy (millions of cubic metres of water) is wasted just to air-condition the energy-intensive equipment.

According to Scaleway, the digital industry has an environmental responsibility and it is essential that it commits to controlling its energy and water consumption, so as not to undo all the benefits of the digitalisation of the world.

Scaleway is spearheading the ecological transition and has already begun its transformation by setting up various initiatives:

• Reducing its energy consumption by using natural cooling systems, modernising its infrastructure and using energy efficient equipment.
• Creation of a circular economy by recycling the components used: Scaleway aims to extend the life cycle of its equipment up to 10 years while a standard life cycle is between 3 and 5 years.
• 100% of their data centers' electricity consumption has been supplied by wind and hydropower since 2017. That's more than 300,000 customers in 160 countries.

It is thanks to innovative digital players like Scaleway that we can move in the right direction. It is now essential for professionals to take stock of their environmental impact and then put in place ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

You may have noticed that at TPOP we play the sustainability card to the hilt and it's not just to look good.

We love our planet, we love to smell the sweet scent of lavender fields, we love to hear the bees buzzing, we love to taste a good omelette made with free range eggs, we love to stroke the soft organic cotton of the t-shirts, and most of all, but ESPECIALLY, we love to see your brands develop in an eco-responsible way.