Online Fulfillment House

July 5, 2004 2:54 PM

Does any company at all do online fulfillment? I'd love to sell t-shirts, photographs, and eventually my own books, but I don't like shipping stuff and cashing checks, etc. I've looked and looked and can't find anyone that just holds inventory, sends it out when requested, and takes a cut. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a few bucks per item to someone doing this. It must exist, but I can't seem to find anyone doing it.
posted by mathowie to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

You probably already know about Cafepress's Corporate Solutions Plan since you have a MeFi store there. (And cafepress also does print-on-demand books now - good quality too.) There's an outfit called PrintMojo that will screen print t-shirts, keep inventory, do fulfillment, and send you a check. And there's DeviantArt (Their Prints Service) that's a great place for getting photo prints - a graphics friend has said great things about the quality. I don't know of anyone who does ALL of these things off hand though, just thought I'd share what I do know. If I come across anything else I share that too. Will be interested to see what others come up with here!
posted by thunder at 3:10 PM on July 5, 2004

K10K used to use MadMerch. You should check out the design scene for options.
posted by riffola at 3:30 PM on July 5, 2004

Amazon? shouldn't you be able to do this with Amazon.com?
posted by darkpony at 3:58 PM on July 5, 2004

Our company kind of has a deal like that with Standard Register. They warehouse our promo items and sales collateral, and then ship it out when our local offices need something. I'm not sure what it costs or if they can handle on-line orders.

I can't tell. Does anybody know if the Yahoo Store thingie does fullfillment, or do they just process the credit card payments and host the shopping cart software?
posted by willnot at 4:14 PM on July 5, 2004

Response by poster: I think amazon takes a 40% cut. Yahoo seems to handle all the transaction stuff, but you need to still ship stuff out yourself.

I basically want something that works like cafepress, but lets me sell anything that I can get custom made somewhere else.
posted by mathowie at 4:23 PM on July 5, 2004

I'll do it!

Note: I'm not a business at all. I have no website. I'm not entirely serious.
posted by ajpresto at 4:48 PM on July 5, 2004

This is interesting. I'm in the middle of building a warehouse and fulfillment system for a startup. I'll keep the idea in mind as I move forward.

I also saw a storefront in my neigborhood of Capitol Hill the other day that appeared to be a third-party listing and fulfilment service for eBay - can't recall the name, something like 'bidoo.com,' at any rate something that made me cringe.

But I sure think the idea is interesting, and will be dropping by to investigate.
posted by mwhybark at 6:27 PM on July 5, 2004

I know of a company in Buffalo NY: The Buffalo Marketing Group.

One of their specialties are online fulfillment. They will warehouse your stuff, take the orders, and ship it all for you.

I'm not sure of their terms or whatnot, but you can always give them a try.
posted by punkrockrat at 7:55 PM on July 5, 2004

I think the guys who started despair.com decided to branch out, and make the fulfillment part of the gig their main business. Copernica is the place - they take orders, do customer service, warhouse, pack and ship, and all that stuff. They're good guys - a couple of them live next door to me. Not sure what their pricing/commission deal is, though.
posted by majcher at 4:02 AM on July 6, 2004

Piro / Fred at Megatokyo got so annoyed at the various stores he'd tried that he (and his wife) rented some officespace and are going to be doing it all themselves. Maybe you could sweet-talk him into handling the MeFi stuff as well...
posted by humuhumu at 4:44 AM on July 6, 2004

Airborne Express used to do fulfillment for outpost.com back before AirEx got bought by DHL and Outpost got bought by Fry's (shudder). I got the impression it was a service they offered to businesses.

Perhaps poke around the DHL site and see if they can still do this.
posted by majick at 6:58 AM on July 6, 2004

FedEx has fulfillment services. I don't know anything about them, however, other than what's on the website. Looks like it's the right kind of idea, although I wouldn't be surprised if they're looking for customers with higher volume than the average Cafepress store.
posted by blue mustard at 7:07 AM on July 6, 2004