@Mufti_Billal Assalamualaikum. I had a question.
There are two ways to sell on Amazon.
One is the Amazon FBA, which should be halal because even though Amazon fulfills your orders and you never see them, you have to buy the products beforehand and you own the products, i.e., you have capital tied into it. And if you don’t sell them then it is you who will face economic loss, not Amazon.
The second way, is to integrate a third-party company, like Printful, to Amazon’s website. In this case, any order you get on Amazon is made, and fulfilled by Printful. You don’t buy the products beforehand so you don’t have capital tied to anything. You upload a design on a Tshirt mockup, when you get a sale on Amazon then Printful makes the designer T shirt and ships it to the customer. So clearly this follows the traditional form of dropshipping and it seems to be haram.
BUT, my question is, what if I have, on my Amazon listings, a return policy, where if for T-shirt sizing issues, they wish to return the product, then I will personally from my pocket will buy a new (and exact) product with the correct dimensions and give it to them? Then will this whole integration thing become halal?
@Mufti_Billal assalamualikum So there is nothing wrong with selling on teespring redbuble and merch by amazon and its haram to sell on etsy and is dropservicing also haram ?
Wasalam
The answer for Teespring and Reduble is all above. If Merch follows the simple principle as these two then same ruling will be applicable.
I have not looked at Etsy unfortunately.
Ideally, they all need to be reviewed properly again in more details.
For dropservcing please see the following link: Is Drop Servicing Halal?
Kind regards
Thanks for replying I am a little bit confused is teesrping and redbuble halal ?
@Mufti_Billal Thanks for replying I am a little bit confused is teesrping and redbuble halal ?
@Mufti_Billal I understand Printful and other dripshipping are haram, but Please let us know if teespring is halal or not. What are your final thoughts?
Assalamualaikum brother. I am really confused about the teespring/etsy and print on demand system. Is using teespring/Etsy as a site where I sell my tshirt design Haram if I don’t posses the shirt but I am the owner of the design and the shirt is made by any of the print on demand service when I tell them to make it.
As salamu alaikum,
Please guide with references of Quran and Sunnah.
Some info on working of Print on Demand business.
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An individual can become seller on POD (print on demand) platform if he designs something to be printed on the tee-shirts and these platforms (Teespring, redbubble, teepublic, amazon merch) will get these teeshirts printed, manufactured and deliver to the customer. They will get it done by manufacturer who will produce these and send to the customer.
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In terms & agreement, they mention that the designer is actually the seller. And the POD platform (Teepublic, teespring, Amazon Merch) is the AGENT of the seller that will get the teeshirt manufacture, print and deliver to the customer.
3.a. What actually happens is that an individual (seller) will make the design and upload it to the website of POD platform. The POD has its base cost mentioned when uploading the design for specific product. E.g. I make design for a teeshirt that has base cost of $18 and I can add any profit margin, let’s say $3, to it to sell it to the customer at $21. The customer will pay online to POD platform the bill of $21 + shipping fee calculated as per his/her location.
3.b. There is 2nd situation (depends on POD platform how they offer), where the profit margin on the base cost is not set by individual (seller), in fact it is already set by the POD platform, e.g. for a teeshirt that I have made a design, their base cost is $18 and they will sell it to customer at $22 and will give me $4. But the seller is okay with what they have pre-set.
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Some platforms will provide me the earnings on next month, or 15th of the next month of selling. For example, if $50 was my profit in Mar 2023, they would pay me in Apr 2023 (some would pay on 15th of Apr 2023).
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Some POD platforms offer 30-day return policy, other offers 90-day return policy etc and they call it make-it-right policy either they return it or talk to the customer for the issue and its resolution in any way possible etc because that teeshirt was manufactured specifically for that customer after the order received.
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If the order is cancelled, some of these platforms will deduct the royalty/profit they had provided to me.
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Next, I have to use PAYONEER (bank) to get payment online. The PAYONEER provides bank in any country like USA, UK etc.
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For USA, the payoneer will deduct $1 for receiving any amount in my account.
9.a. On transferring the amount from US dollars to local currency in my local country (e.g. PKR in Pakistani bank account), there is No transaction fee BUT there is a fee (that is 2% of the amount) for the currency exchange from US dollars to Pakistani rupees.
9.b. Transferring of amount from Payoneer (USD $) to Pakistani bank account would take 3-6 days (or may be delayed more).
My questions regarding this POD business:
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Is this way of business halal (if products are halal) ? Is it ISTISNA transaction?
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If it’s halal, do I own or posses the product via AGENT ? Agent is getting these products done and DELIVER via manufacturer (Most PODs are engaging manufacturer to do the delivery as well).
Does it fulfill the condition of owning and taking possession of the product? Is My agent getting ownership and posession on my behalf even if it’s getting it done and deliver via manufacturer? -
The product range includes clothes, mugs, stickers, pillows etc. We can select which product we want to make design for.
If we select Teeshirt (we can NOT further select or un-select the gender-wise shirt), it will make our design printing available for Teeshirts (Half sleeve and full sleeve) for both male and female customers.
Is it halal product if half sleeve teeshirts are purchased and worn by female customers in USA, UK, Europe etc? (Female customer could be anyone among Non-Muslims, Muslims)
4.a. If AGENT has pre-set the profit for seller, is it okay in terms of islamically halal transaction?
4.b. Can we consider ourselves the commissioning agent in all these transactions even if the terms and agreement from POD platform say otherwise? Or can we consider that POD platform is selling our design, even if terms and agreement say that the agent is doing production, packing and delivery of teeshirt for the seller?
5.a Do the fee deductions by PAYONEER fall under halal transactions or is there any form of interest/riba in it?
5.b. Does the delay in payment to Pakistani bank from US bank (payoneer) after conversion from USD to PKR, is it halal or haram?
When transaction is done, it says “Your funds are on the way. We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly. Check the email for details on when the funds will reach your bank account”.
5.c. If we get the funds in our local bank after currency conversion within 2-5 mins of transaction, then payoneer transactions would be halal?
Please help me in this guide with reference of Quran and Sunnah.
As salamu alaikum,
Please share response. I have mentioned everything in detail. And the questions are also in detail. I hope that it would cover the questions from most of the people.
@Mufti_Faraz_Adam
@Mufti_Billal
As salamu alaikum!
I am awaiting the response for long. Please guide about it. I have mentioned everything in detail. And the questions are also in detail. I hope that it would cover the questions from most of the people.
Regards,
Ahsan Mehmood
السلام عليكم
What are the rules to determine if a certain website that provides print on demand is shariah compliant or not. I have read the above conversations and other articles on print and demand, however i don’t know how to tell if the provider of the service is shariah compliant or not. So could you please underline the ruling and what points to look at to get the ruling.
رمضان مبارك