Custom t-shirt (etc) printing/fulfillment house recommendations
November 25, 2018 3:07 PM Subscribe
I've got a few ideas for t-shirt designs, and I'd like your recommendations for a print/ship fulfillment house where I can earn a commission on sales.
I can produce camera/print-ready art; I don't need help with design. I'm also not interested in having boxes of shirts in my condo, or mailing things around the planet. I do understand that marketing my work will be my own responsibility. I also understand that I'm not going to retire based off shirt sales. Making a few bucks while creating something people might find fun to wear is the goal.
If you have experience doing this, please recommend places to check out, and places to avoid. Thanks.
I can produce camera/print-ready art; I don't need help with design. I'm also not interested in having boxes of shirts in my condo, or mailing things around the planet. I do understand that marketing my work will be my own responsibility. I also understand that I'm not going to retire based off shirt sales. Making a few bucks while creating something people might find fun to wear is the goal.
If you have experience doing this, please recommend places to check out, and places to avoid. Thanks.
Printful?
I don't have experience using them (yet), but I am at this very moment integrating with them through programming (for a site that generates custom apparel). They offer everything you're asking for -- printing, international shipping, a variety of product types.
I researched apparel printing / fulfillment alternatives by going to this page: Shopify Print on demand partners (Printful is the highest rated there). You'll find many options there -- some are made specifically to integrate with ecommerce stores, while others do offer print on demand as a service.
You can also take a look at this page which lists alternatives to CafePress, the classic print on demand platform (not that there's anything wrong with CafePress).
Finally, you might also want to consider whether you'd like to setup a custom ecommerce shop (using Shopify, or similar), open a "shop" page on a site such as Etsy, or sell directly from a WordPress blog (for example). This is a separate problem, of course.
posted by vert canard at 3:52 PM on November 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
I don't have experience using them (yet), but I am at this very moment integrating with them through programming (for a site that generates custom apparel). They offer everything you're asking for -- printing, international shipping, a variety of product types.
I researched apparel printing / fulfillment alternatives by going to this page: Shopify Print on demand partners (Printful is the highest rated there). You'll find many options there -- some are made specifically to integrate with ecommerce stores, while others do offer print on demand as a service.
You can also take a look at this page which lists alternatives to CafePress, the classic print on demand platform (not that there's anything wrong with CafePress).
Finally, you might also want to consider whether you'd like to setup a custom ecommerce shop (using Shopify, or similar), open a "shop" page on a site such as Etsy, or sell directly from a WordPress blog (for example). This is a separate problem, of course.
posted by vert canard at 3:52 PM on November 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Amazon Services lets you sell thru them & they handle logistics & fulfillment, from what I understand.
posted by yoga at 4:51 PM on November 25, 2018
posted by yoga at 4:51 PM on November 25, 2018
Seconding Printful as someone who uses it for my own store. I did a ton of research and proofing before deciding on it.
The quality of their products is phenomenal. I mostly offer shirts and prints for now, but both are super high quality and there is a lot of variety to choose from in terms of product. I have a few of the shirts myself (Bella Canvas) and the inks haven't even been touched a bit after several washes (compare this to the now terrible Threadless and, to a lesser extent, Design by Humans, which seem to fade almost instantly). You can upload your designs in multiple formats, create mock-ups, and use the API to sync automatically with your products on a storefront (I use Big Cartel). When a customer purchases something from my store the payment goes to Paypal which Printful then deducts the printing cost from automatically (and the profit remains in my Paypal). You can essentially lean back and let them take care of everything from printing to shipping. You can also track and manually edit the fulfillment process.
I will say one thing, however, the turn around time for order fulfillment varies in a way that doesn't make sense to me. I had three orders come in on the same day and one took a week to fulfill while another took 3 days. I really have no idea why, but given the quality and the prices/options it seems to be tolerable.
posted by Young Kullervo at 4:59 PM on November 25, 2018 [6 favorites]
The quality of their products is phenomenal. I mostly offer shirts and prints for now, but both are super high quality and there is a lot of variety to choose from in terms of product. I have a few of the shirts myself (Bella Canvas) and the inks haven't even been touched a bit after several washes (compare this to the now terrible Threadless and, to a lesser extent, Design by Humans, which seem to fade almost instantly). You can upload your designs in multiple formats, create mock-ups, and use the API to sync automatically with your products on a storefront (I use Big Cartel). When a customer purchases something from my store the payment goes to Paypal which Printful then deducts the printing cost from automatically (and the profit remains in my Paypal). You can essentially lean back and let them take care of everything from printing to shipping. You can also track and manually edit the fulfillment process.
I will say one thing, however, the turn around time for order fulfillment varies in a way that doesn't make sense to me. I had three orders come in on the same day and one took a week to fulfill while another took 3 days. I really have no idea why, but given the quality and the prices/options it seems to be tolerable.
posted by Young Kullervo at 4:59 PM on November 25, 2018 [6 favorites]
I use Society6 myself, and have bought many things from a similar site, Redbubble. Both have high-quality products and printing, and quick turnaround times.
posted by ananci at 1:03 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ananci at 1:03 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jeoc at 3:14 PM on November 25, 2018 [1 favorite]