# Budget startup, asking for your wisdom



## Redbelt (Mar 2, 2013)

Hello everyone.

I've been lurking and reading the forum for a couple of years. The forum reminded me that I haven't posted anything yet so I thought I'd reach for your collective wisdom and get some advice from you.

I live in the middle east. Been always wanting to get into ecommerce of some sort. A couple of years back, after studying several options, I thought there is a gap in the market here for locally designed apparel by local and regional artists. That and the investment upfront should be low if I go with DTG and dropship on demand.

A little about me, I've been in ecommerce since 2003. Started one of the first online stores at the time (selling comics and DVDs) but the supporting services and governmental regulations weren't really helping me much. Long story short, I folded 10 years ago. But I still want to go online.

Back to now, I know I want to get into T shirts and apparel. I am not a designer, but I am a business developer. I got some artists ready to go and willing, got draft paperwork done, etc.

What my main concern is: the fulfillment service.
Being in the middle east, American T-shirt fulfillment companies are expensive, take a long time in transit to ship to this region, shipping cost to this region is too high for me to be competitive and will take a long time (around 6 weeks) to reach here.
That said, I signed up with Artsnow (Cow Cow). Yes yes, I know. Hear me out. I am aware that most of you hate them. To be honest, I am not too happy with the quality. But the price of the items and the shipping is right. I still will have long waiting times to ship and the quality, while not bad per se, could be much better.

Ideally, I'd print in bulk, ship to a fulfillment centre in Dubai and my items can reach customers within a couple of days. For now I need to prove my concept which would make investors happy to put in some cash into this.

What I am looking for is a print on demand service with good quality, cheap prices, and can ship to GCC & MENA regions in as little time as possible.
I'll either end up sticking with them if it works well enough, or go bulk once I feel there is constant demand.

Again, I've been reading for a couple of years, so I am fully aware that what I am asking for is a bit of a stretch. But you guys are in the business and you're the experts, I'm sure you'll have brighter ideas than mine.

Thank you in advance.


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## ChinaDivision (Dec 30, 2015)

Hi, there are many order fulfillment company in US, Such as shipwire, fulfillmentservices and so on. All of them have warehouses and shipping service in the middle east. You can compare with them


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