# Confused about the word Fulfillment



## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

Hey guys,

I've never used a fulfillment company, but to my understanding their are two types. 

1. POD fulfillment sites that use Digital Garment Printing for one offs and etc (Cafepress, Zazzle, Spreadshirt.) They offer drop shipping directly to your customers.

2. Warehousing fulfillment which a screen printer like raw talent & store envy screen prints your apparel, creates an online store for it, stores it, then drop ships to your customers.

Is this correct? Whenever I contact a fulfillment company, they never directly tell me how much it costs. I am interested in #2 type of warehousing where a printer prints the shirts, then drop ships it. Does anyone know the cost for this service? Is it a percentage + shipping?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Printmojo is another option to #2. 

The costs will vary depending on the fulfillment company. Basically you are dealing with the cost of the printed garment + postage & handling + service charge. They can't tell you a lot of times the cost until you tell them how many garments you are printing up.


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

splathead said:


> Printmojo is another option to #2.
> 
> The costs will vary depending on the fulfillment company. Basically you are dealing with the cost of the printed garment + postage & handling + service charge. They can't tell you a lot of times the cost until you tell them how many garments you are printing up.


Printmojo charges $3.50 for their fulfillment service. But do you know if that is per shirt sold or per month?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

TshirtGuru said:


> Printmojo charges $3.50 for their fulfillment service. But do you know if that is per shirt sold or per month?


With PrintMojo, the $3.50 is per order that is shipped out for you. No monthly fees.



> Whenever I contact a fulfillment company, they never directly tell me how much it costs.


What do they say when you ask? What exactly do you ask them?


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

Well I specifically ask how much their fulfillment services are, and they respond with "let's get started." Then they send me information about banner sizes I should make and descriptions of each product. But I didn't want to start without more information about warehouse fees and transaction fees! They keep dodging the fee question, and I am asking very straight forward about the fees. Weird.


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## Mindstate (Oct 11, 2007)

I'm a bit confused too,

If I'm searching for a company that does only the both buying in blank t-shirts and the printing (not hang tags, site, webshop etc.) is it counted as fulfillment?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Mindstate said:


> I'm a bit confused too,
> 
> If I'm searching for a company that does only the both buying in blank t-shirts and the printing (not hang tags, site, webshop etc.) is it counted as fulfillment?



You are just looking for a screenprinter? You will sell/ship your own t-shirts? If so, that is not considered fulfillment.

Just pull our your yellow pages, call several screen printers and have them give you a quote based on what you need printed.

As far as printmojo is concerned, their site and fees are pretty straight forward and spelled out. The only thing that is not there, and it can't be there until you tell them exactly what garment and how many colors you will need, is the cost per shirt. Just shoot them an email with that info and they'll tell you price.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> If I'm searching for a company that does only the both buying in blank t-shirts and the printing (not hang tags, site, webshop etc.) is it counted as fulfillment?


No, this is not considered "fulfillment". 

This is just getting t-shirts printed  What you described is pretty much the default offering of any screen printer, DTG printer, etc that you talk to. 

You send them the design, they order the blank t-shirts wholesale and print your design and ship you the printed t-shirts.

Fulfillment is when you include:


warehousing (they don't ship you the finished garments, they warehouse them for you)
order packing (when someone orders one t-shirt, they pull the t-shirt from the warehouse, package it and ship it to that one customer)
ecommerce (they usually host an online store for you to help you accept orders. Like example.com/yourstore sometimes you can just send them orders through your existing ecommerce site)
payment processing (if they are hosting an online store for you, they will also process credit card payments through their merchant account)
inventory management (if they aren't printing on demand, they also help you manage your inventory levels)
customer service and returns (when a customer needs to make a return, they will ship it to the fulfillment center and the fulfillment center will handle customer service, returns, restocking, etc)
There are some fulfillment companies that don't do any printing at all. They just handle warehousing, order packing, shipping, returns.

For the purpose of this post, I'm talking about "tshirt fulfillment companies" that do printing (either printing on demand via a DTG printer, heat transfer or dye sublimation process or requiring the order be printed in advance with minimum orders by screen printing or embroidery)

Hope this helps


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## t-shirt miner (Jan 24, 2010)

what about fulfillment w/o providing online storefront? what if i have my own storefront but want someone to produce, store and ship my shirts?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

t-shirt miner said:


> what about fulfillment w/o providing online storefront? what if i have my own storefront but want someone to produce, store and ship my shirts?


Yes, drop shipping is common. I would ask your screenprinter first, he's the most logical to do it all if he has that set up.


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## Invent Clothing (Jan 8, 2009)

Hi,

to clear this up, im not offering my services here as you are in the us anyway, but what you describe is what we do.

you sell the t-shirts however you want and when a customer orders you send the order to us then we get the order print it pack and send it out.

im sure lots of other companies offer this service.


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## yodude711 (Feb 20, 2010)

Invent Clothing said:


> you sell the t-shirts however you want and when a customer orders you send the order to us then we get the order print it pack and send it out.
> 
> im sure lots of other companies offer this service.


Do you mean you actually SCREEN print the shirts on demand, and then pack and send them out? Or do you do the DTG digital printing for these "on-demand" print jobs?


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## reuvas (Jan 26, 2010)

Yeah i am also confused now, i have tried three or four companies for this propose but they all are having different criteria for that, i dont know what should i do?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

reuvas said:


> Yeah i am also confused now, i have tried three or four companies for this propose but they all are having different criteria for that, i dont know what should i do?


Tell us exactly what your needs are and we'll steer you in the right direction.


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## dk prints (Apr 17, 2010)

We get order from customer, print the shirt for them, and ship it to their customer with their shipping label. We charge for shirt and print, shipping fee. DTG printing

If this is fulfillment, we.ll HELLO


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## zanthetshirtman (Apr 22, 2008)

Hey, I'm considering using these companies for my fulfillment services. They provide warehousing, tagging, shipping, customer service and online websites and everything. It really makes your business automated and leaves you time to worry about other things like marketing and promoting your brand.

Merchspin, Threadspin, StudioAKT, District Lines, Jakprints

The first 3 are all conglomerates, and the latter two totally separate companies. I'm actually looking for similar companies that are located in NY though, I'd like to speak with them directly and see the warehouse, etc.

I hope this helps!


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## iT (Feb 5, 2010)

Rodney said:


> No, this is not considered "fulfillment".
> 
> Fulfillment is when you include:
> 
> ...


Rodney,

Thanks for this information. Do you have a list of the different types of fulfillment companies you described above? 

I wanted to ask you this in a PM, but my inbox is full for some reason with 5 messages. Thanks.


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## shth (Jul 9, 2010)

good info. thanks for the help./


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## Skinbus (Jul 2, 2007)

dk prints said:


> We get order from customer, print the shirt for them, and ship it to their customer with their shipping label. We charge for shirt and print, shipping fee. DTG printing
> 
> If this is fulfillment, we.ll HELLO


There are "fulfillment" companies such as Zazzle. You do the designs on their site; their design tools are really easy to use. They supply everything, so you have no inventory to be concerned with. Also, there are no minimum orders. Order 1 or 100. They also have a major selection of styles to choose from, for kids, adults, toddlers & infants. If you want to check the quality, order 1 & if you're satisfied order as many as needed. Printing is DTG. The only issue is that they don't do full coverage printing, so you are restricted to specific design sizes. That's what I consider "fulfillment." Fulfill your every wish! Hope this helps..


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