# SGIA storefront?



## csquared (Sep 8, 2006)

has anyone tried the SGIA storefront? seems like a steep price so I was wondering how the quality of shirts was.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

I just got the e-mail about it from them (we are members, so the price isn't as steep). They appear to have teamed up with Expert Logo. It looks interesting, but I am not sure of all the details. Debz and I will look it over more in detail over the weekend.


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## csquared (Sep 8, 2006)

ha that is were I read about it too, just got an email and was curious


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

LOL ... yeah, they must be really excited about this offering, cause they hammered every e-mail addy my wife has!


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## debz1959 (Jul 29, 2007)

Even my personal hotmail account (I don't know how they got that one)

And Called!!!


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## csquared (Sep 8, 2006)

same here..... hmmmm

ps. you and michael have a really nice website


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## pmarikelly (May 10, 2007)

I called and spoke to them and took a tour from the administrator's view. The concept and design seem to be pretty good. 

In a previous life I managed several database driven web tools for a large corp.

They don't produce the shirts, the order is sent to your for your production. The art is vectorized and you log in and download the artwork. 

You can set each individual item for front, back, both, etc. You can mask areas you don't want a customer to put a design on. An example would be something that already has a design and you don't want them to try to print over it.

The system will handle clothing and static items. It does not currently support embroidery, but they are producing a module for that next year. It does allow you to set minimum orders, add st up fees and so forth.

It was my understanding from SGIA that it came preloaded with clothing templates, but this is not the case. It does come preloaded with some designs for your customers. But you must do all the uploading of shirts, sweats, so on and you must complete all the metadata, pricing, descriptions, etc for each item. Pretty much like setting up any other ecommerce site.

The cost SGIA shows is for a very, very limited version of the tool. If you buy it as an SGIA member at the lowest cost, you can set up 10 items. That's it. You can add a few additional designs and I don't remember all the other limitations. The next level lets you put up 30 items and a few more designs and the SGIA price is over $1k to set up and over $100/month. The unlimited items/designs version costs over $2k to start and over $200/month. 

It is a nice product and the guy who answers the phone is really helpful and willing to show it all to you. If it were just the $2k start up and not an additional $200/month, I'd probably bite


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Yeah, and the fact that so many other printers wanna have these custom shops online, it would be very difficult to stand out. We are only considering it as an add-on wayyy down the road.

Thanks for the detailed info!


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## pmarikelly (May 10, 2007)

By the way, it is Expert Logo's product... 

You know, if enough of us got together and came up with a spec for this type of tool, we might be able to convince a developer to make it and sell it as a "no host" product. Like other shopping carts that you can buy, personalize with your own look and feel and put on your own already-hosted site. 

I know a very good developer I could pitch this to. If I could prove to her that there is a real market for this type of product, she might be willing to take on the development with the understanding that she would get back her investment in the sales of the product. 

Furthermore, we could possibly convince the garment manufacturers to provide their templates as free plug-ins. I mean many of the larger garment suppliers already have templates you can use, so they already exist.

There's another company few have heard of but they have a fantastic shopping cart at a very low price and great customer service. I would be willing to approach them as well.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

From discussing this with others on these boards, I know there is a lot of interest. I believe cost is the only real issue for printers, so finding a developer who can wrap up a nice, easy no host product would be ideal.

I like the SGIA/Expert Logo turnkey solution, but the supplied template graphics are just awful ... can't imagine anyone wearing those on a tee, no matter how the customer could jazz it up with text.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

pmarikelly said:


> By the way, it is Expert Logo's product...
> 
> You know, if enough of us got together and came up with a spec for this type of tool, we might be able to convince a developer to make it and sell it as a "no host" product. Like other shopping carts that you can buy, personalize with your own look and feel and put on your own already-hosted site.
> 
> ...


There are already a few "no host" versions of the product on the market.

There's a couple linked to in this thread: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/ecommerce-site-design/t26023.html

I think I've seen the harboarts version already used on one screen printing site.


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## Rask (May 23, 2008)

And with regards to banding together and make an online t-shirt designer, the big problem is that it may not be that easy and straightforward. In worst case you may end up with a programmer who takes your money and wastes your time but produces no value for yourselves. The benefit of the off-the-shelf solution is that they’re right there and you can see for yourself if it’s adequate and acceptable to your operation. The prices that Melco, Online Storefront Solutions and we have come up with are not something that we’ve pulled out of a hat. They pretty much reflect the costs we have all had and are still having on developing these products for this industry. 


So, again, my recommendation will be to go with an off-the-shelf solution and have it hosted.

Anders Rask


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## azballbusters (Jan 8, 2008)

The above is well stated. Anyone who thinks they can go out and grab a programmer and recreate one of these solutions for less then they are commercially available will suffer the most expensive lesson one could learn. Software applications such as these are the work of years and 1000's of hours of professional programming time. The amount of time invested to create the product then to maintain and enhance the product to meet ever changing market changes is enormous. To those thinking about such an endevour I would suggest buying a boat as it will be a lot less of a black hole then a custom development project.


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## Chrisatexpert (Jan 9, 2007)

The reoccuring theme that I hear from most of my storeowners is, " I don't want to reinvent the wheel." Wise words.


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