As a European artist, how should I handle print fulfillment and shipping?

Intelligently route your orders based on geography. For European-based orders, route them to yourself and fulfill them with your local print shop. You can sign them, do whatever you want, and shipping will be terrestrial within Europe — much faster and cheaper. For North American orders, use a North American print-on-demand vendor, because it’s hands-off, automatic, and those large vendors get insane shipping rates from FedEx, UPS, and DHL because they ship such high volumes. Also know that printing has become commoditized — all the big shops use the same printers, same color calibration, same media suppliers, so quality is nearly identical across vendors. You go with the ones that ‘buy by the barrel’ for better pricing, faster processes, and those bulk shipping discounts. This geographic routing gives you the best of both worlds.

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Asked by an Irish photographer living in London · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-08-24