# Shopify + Printful + Custom Cat a good combo?



## Bougie

Do you guys think this is a good combo? I just started learning about the new t-shirt selling options yesterday (After using Spreadshirt for years, they are no longer a good option). I could have shopify as my storefront, and then use Printful to print my premium t-shirts, and Custom Cat to print my regular t-shirts. And probably I would link to Amazon also. What do you think of this?

I don't know much about promoting t-shirt stores. The only time I did it successfully was when I paid adwords to promote a t-shirt store. I made $500 in gross profit, but then I had to pay about half of it to adwords. What are the good ways to promote a shopify store?


----------



## Rosie13

To use the plugins with shopify you will be paying a monthly fee for each plugin
Not sure if you can implement selling on Amazon via the plugins though

Im sure to sell on Amazon will cost more

I use wordpress with woocommerce and the plugins are then free

Most are using Facebook ads to sell their shirts

You could try ebay, instagram adwords and Facebook groups (if you can build a following for a popular niche)

It is not an easy Gig


----------



## Maxcat

I'd research custom cat both here and Google. While I've seen positive printful reviews I've never read anything good about custom cat. I've never used them myself.


----------



## Rosie13

Maxcat said:


> I'd research custom cat both here and Google. While I've seen positive printful reviews I've never read anything good about custom cat. I've never used them myself.



There are a few shockers out there aye.Thanks for the reminder to research first

I bought an adult family member a tshirt from SunFrog and when it arrived, he put it on and his hand went through the material... I was pissed off because after the currency conversion and shipping that $25US shirt became $48AU tshirt 
They did replace it without any issues, apart from me wanting to upgrade the shirt and pay the extra (They wouldn't allow it and that annoyed me too)


----------



## Bougie

Maxcat said:


> I'd research custom cat both here and Google. While I've seen positive printful reviews I've never read anything good about custom cat. I've never used them myself.


Custom Cat is the low cost option. I heard one video on youtube where a guy recommended them because their shirts are by far the cheapest. I think it's $6 before you add on your own profit margin. An article said Printful has excellent quality, but their shirts are $19 + your own markup. So I'd save them for the really special designs. Lastly I heard Print Auria has bad quality, so I'm not going to use them. 

My initial research makes it seem that Printful, Print Auria, and Custom Cat are the top 3 fulfillment houses right now. 

Spreadshirt has far more competition than it did back in 2005. Maybe that's why they're resorting to draconian tactics that take a lot of sales away from their own marketplace sellers.


----------



## djque

Bougie said:


> Custom Cat is the low cost option. I heard one video on youtube where a guy recommended them because their shirts are by far the cheapest. I think it's $6 before you add on your own profit margin. An article said Printful has excellent quality, but their shirts are $19 + your own markup. So I'd save them for the really special designs. Lastly I heard Print Auria has bad quality, so I'm not going to use them.
> 
> My initial research makes it seem that Printful, Print Auria, and Custom Cat are the top 3 fulfillment houses right now.
> 
> Spreadshirt has far more competition than it did back in 2005. Maybe that's why they're resorting to draconian tactics that take a lot of sales away from their own marketplace sellers.


 the cheaper you sell you shirts for means the less money you make. I think I saw that same person say that but when I went on it the shirt was actually $10.50. plus you have to sell a shirt for $25.00 to make money since they take the most money.I could never us a fulfillment company but that's cuz I have my own equipment.


----------



## Bougie

djque said:


> I could never use a fulfillment company but that's cuz I have my own equipment.


I could never do my own printing because that would take way too much time and be too much work. I have other things to do. Plus you can't have passive income if you're printing your own shirts.


----------



## tzar

I am researching too about which POD provider to use. There are a lot of them Printful (probably the best, but has the highest prices, but not 19$+, a B+C 3001 t-shirt goes for like 13$ and the shipping is 4$), Print Aura (I heard a lot of bad things about them), Printify (good option, but their pricing is confusing), Teelaunch (good quality at good prices and good customer service, but they don't have a lot of products to choose from and the turnaround time can go up to 10 days), Custom Cat (not sure about them, they have the cheapest Gildan t-shirt, but I heard about people receiving their orders about 2 business weeks) etc


----------



## Rosie13

Tzar, 2 Weeks for delivery is not too bad, you need to remember it is custom made and not off the shelf and that takes time.

Check out GearBubble they have good prices and good customer service


----------



## ThinkArt

Most newbies start their dropship shopify site thinking they would mint money with it, but their hopes fade away soon, when they burn money in Facebook ads.

If you do not want that to happen, first research your niches carefully and create designs which are similar to the hot selling designs.

Second, invest in learning Facebook advertising and viral marketing. That will keep your ad costs low and profit margins higher. Good luck.


----------



## raitispurins

About month ago Printful lowered price, now their cheapest tee is just $8.95: https://www.printful.com/custom/t-s...unisex-softstyle-t-shirt-with-tear-away-label


----------



## jdub0022

I've read a lot of comparisons in "pricing" but I'm actually more interested in the following right now: 

1) Print quality
2) Reliable (reasonable) turnaround time 

Can anyone speak on Printful, Teelaunch, Prinitfy, or any others in regard to: 1) print quality 2) turnaround time 

Thank you!


----------



## LuluBean

I'm currently using Printful in my Shopify store. Unfortunately, the quality has been sub par. I've had a few customers complain that white garments fade a great deal after one wash. I've also had them ship me samples and found the designs were distorted. 

The other problem is turnaround time. It takes about 3 -4 weeks to receive an order, unless you pay for expedited shipping. That's longer than I'd like. 

Lastly, I ordered some hoodies and was shocked by the thin, cheap feeling hoodies I received. For the price, I expected better quality.

They work well with Shopify, but the price is high, the quality is low, and the turnaround is long.

I'm currently testing out other solutions.


----------



## ladybadone

Interesting thread. I design shirts, mostly for a non profit cat sanctuary as fund raisers. Now I am going to try to start my own business along with my designs with the cats. Have been looking at Amazon, Spreadshirt, Design by Humans, Teespring, threadless. I am just trying to get going with a couple online stores first. I was wondering where people were getting their own articles designed to have their own stores online. After reading this, now I know. You get a fulfillment service, you design and they print and ship basically. The website is no problem as my husband has his own web/graphic design company doing WP, woo commerce ect. 
Now its just to see where to start first and then what fulfillment service to use
Amazon only does Tshirts right now and they do have alot of guidelines. However to just sell Tshirts with them would probably be a good idea. 
Anyone have any input or experience with any of the above that they could give me? 
Thanks so much for any advise in advance


----------



## islk

LuluBean said:


> I'm currently using Printful in my Shopify store. Unfortunately, the quality has been sub par. I've had a few customers complain that white garments fade a great deal after one wash. I've also had them ship me samples and found the designs were distorted.
> 
> The other problem is turnaround time. It takes about 3 -4 weeks to receive an order, unless you pay for expedited shipping. That's longer than I'd like.
> 
> Lastly, I ordered some hoodies and was shocked by the thin, cheap feeling hoodies I received. For the price, I expected better quality.
> 
> They work well with Shopify, but the price is high, the quality is low, and the turnaround is long.
> 
> I'm currently testing out other solutions.


While I'm not associated with Printful, we have used their services, and I hate to read bashings without detailed reasons for the bashing. It makes it sound as if you are not a real customer but a competitor. If you are a real customer, why not provide better details of your ordeal, such as:

1. Which white garments did your customer buy? Printful sells multiple brands, so if this really happened, which shirt brand was it.

2. Why don't you show us photos of the shirts with the distorted photos, and show us the original design. If this is true, is it possible that your photo was not at the proper quality for printing?

3. Which cheap feeling hoodies did you purchase? Are you saying that American Apparel hoodies feel cheap, because AA is one of the brands Printful sells.

And did you just create an account so that you could bash your competitor on this forum in the hopes that Printful will lose customers and those customers might move over to whomever you are? That's extremely tacky.

Just my rant on "potentially" fake reviews which diminish the positive and useful reviews written by real t-shirtforums users.

Tomas


----------



## Skyblue111

Lulubean, http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-fulfillment-services/t799801.html#post4204769,

What have you discovered so far in your research into other options?


----------



## highbids

Any news on a reliable supplier for t-shirts i'm thinking of using gooten


----------



## TABOB

They are all horrible...that's the truth.


They all seem to have some connection with shopify, and this on it's own is a bad sign. 



Why do they want you to make the sales, from your own website, and they don't sell directly like spreadshirt and other similar companies do? 



Some even admit you will have white stains from the DTG pretreatment, which indicates they cannot even do this right.


Some offer cut-and-sew items, but have no advice or system in place to warn about incompatibilities. They may make you a red top with black stitches, so it will look horrible. White dots show through stitching done over dark colors, like black, or Navy Blue, etc.



Then there are the imperfections in the all-over sublimation, and although there are many companies selling them directly as well, I don't know which type of customer is going to be happy wearing such a thing out in the public.
[media]http://media.threadless.com.s3.amazonaws.com/dtgimperfections.jpg[/media]


If you stick with white or light colored shirts, they are OK...but the price!!!!


----------

