# Best fulfillment service for Facebook Graffiti?



## fbGraffiti (May 25, 2009)

I've got a pretty unique situation, and I was hoping some of you could give some expert advice. Apologies for the long post!

I run an application on Facebook called Graffiti. Some of you may have actually seen it; it's quite popular with over 11,000,000 total users. Here's a screenshot of the drawing interface:










It turns out many users have stepped up and drawn amazing things, and we want to allow Graffiti to be printed on t-shirts. 

Here's a few incredible examples (not that they would all work as t-shirts, but just to show the kinds of things people can do with such a simple interface):

Graffiti on Facebook

Graffiti on Facebook

Graffiti on Facebook

We store every Graffiti using our own vector format, so we can enlarge them to any resolution. We've gotten posters and a few t-shirts printed on Zazzle and they came out great. 

Essentially, we want to put a "Buy this t-shirt" button under every Graffiti (with artists' permission), or at least ones that might look good as a t-shirt (e.g. transparent edges rather than opaque rectangle drawings). 

The problem with the Zazzle API is we can't automatically track which Graffiti have been ordered, so we can't compensate artists properly. I also don't like that it takes the user so completely off our site and that they have to register somewhere else.

So I've got a few main questions:

1) Which fulfillment services have a flexible enough API that we could handle more of the process on our end (potentially at some point even the payment processing... Facebook is rumored to be thinking about a micropayments platform). We wouldn't want to handle the printing or shipping ourselves obviously. We're not afraid of doing some custom programming on our side. I've seen that Printfection seems to have a more flexible API but haven't investigated fully. 

2) What printers will have the best quality/price for Graffiti? Obviously a graffiti can be quite complex (or very simple). The number of different printing methods is quite intimidating. Which methods will work on both dark or light colored t-shirts?

3) Might there be a possibility of partnering directly with a printer, or is our best bet to use one of the popular services like Zazzle, CafePress, etc?

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give! I might be leaving out some key information, so let me know.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Hey Tim, welcome to T-Shirt Forums!



> 1) Which fulfillment services have a flexible enough API that we could handle more of the process on our end


I think the PrintFection API may have what you need: Home - Printfection Developer Central

I talked to the founder of PrintFection at a tradeshow, and he was telling me how technology and building out the API is one of their focuses for their site.

Have you tried contacting the folks at Zazzle to see if they can work with you?

My guess is that with a facebook app as popular as yours, they may _make_ some time to work with you to see if they can accommodate your needs.

CafePress also has an API, but I'm not sure how in depth it goes.



> 2) What printers will have the best quality/price for Graffiti? Obviously a graffiti can be quite complex (or very simple). The number of different printing methods is quite intimidating. Which methods will work on both dark or light colored t-shirts?


All the fulfilment companies generally use the same printing type for their printing on demand solution for white/dark garments. They all use DTG (direct to garment printing). They may use different machines, but the general overall quality is about the same from place to place.



> 3) Might there be a possibility of partnering directly with a printer, or is our best bet to use one of the popular services like Zazzle, CafePress, etc?


If the printer has an automated solution, it might be possible. But with an app the size of yours, I would think you would want a more established company with an API that's already built out and in use. But different people choose companies to work with for all types of reasons...you may want a smaller company for other reasons.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

I agree with Rodney. Obviously the userbase you have access to brings value to whoever you work with; even if a company doesn't provide what you need now, that doesn't mean they can't after you e-mail them 

As far as print method goes, DTG is basically the only one with the flexibility that you need.


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## fbGraffiti (May 25, 2009)

Thanks guys! That was very helpful. I'm glad to know DTG is the only printing method I need to worry about and that all those companies use it. We did talk to Zazzle by the way, and it was going to be a few months before they could potentially figure something out for our situation.

Anyway that answers the questions in my first post. I'm looking at Printfection and it does indeed seem more flexible.

While I've got you here, I wanted to ask about another potential scenario:

Suppose instead of having a button under every Graffiti, we had a "Graffiti T-Shirt of the week" and people could only buy that one. In that situation we could potentially get them printed in (small) bulk rather than one-off. Would it be feasible and cheaper to get them printed in bulk and then either fulfilled or sent to a separate fulfillment company to mail out the individual orders? If so, do you have recommendations of companies that offer those services?

Thanks again for your help.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

fbGraffiti said:


> Suppose instead of having a button under every Graffiti, we had a "Graffiti T-Shirt of the week" and people could only buy that one. In that situation we could potentially get them printed in (small) bulk rather than one-off. Would it be feasible and cheaper to get them printed in bulk and then either fulfilled or sent to a separate fulfillment company to mail out the individual orders? If so, do you have recommendations of companies that offer those services?


I like your first idea better. The flexibility of getting any drawing I want printed instead of just the ones you decide to offer will certainly result in more sales. Unless members are voting on the designs and the most votes becomes shirt of the week? Voting on which shirts will get printed is a popular model today (Threadless, shirt.woot, etc.)

To answer your question, there are a lot of fulfillment companies that will both print, inventory and ship. I am not sure which ones do dtg though. If you want them silkscreened instead there are companies like http://www.districtlines.com/home and www.printmojo.com


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## fbGraffiti (May 25, 2009)

splathead said:


> Unless members are voting on the designs and the most votes becomes shirt of the week? Voting on which shirts will get printed is a popular model today (Threadless, shirt.woot, etc.)


Yeah that's how it would work. Right now we have a Public Gallery with voting, so this would be an extension of that concept. 

We haven't decided for sure which route we want to take. One worry about the first version is the price seems a little high once you factor in shipping. But you guys know a lot more about all this than I do so I'm certainly open to advice.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Your cost will be much lower printing a design in bulk vs. printing 1 at a time.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Suppose instead of having a button under every Graffiti, we had a "Graffiti T-Shirt of the week" and people could only buy that one. In that situation we could potentially get them printed in (small) bulk rather than one-off. Would it be feasible and cheaper to get them printed in bulk and then either fulfilled or sent to a separate fulfillment company to mail out the individual orders?


Yes, it is less expensive to buy one design printed in bulk than to buy a one-off printed design.

As Joe mentioned though, that comes with some tradeoffs. People can't purchase whatever design they want, even if it's not "vote worthy". Managing a continuous voting process could get time consuming.

However, if buying in bulk in a consideration, it may be possible to do both. Have the "buy this design" under every design AND have a "featured t-shirt" that would be screen printed in bulk based on demand/votes. The revenue from the "buy this design" might actually help to fund the "featured t-shirt".




> If so, do you have recommendations of companies that offer those services?


You may want to post in our *Referrals Area* to get a wider range of referrals for printing services. We generally try to avoid service referral questions in the main forums to avoid self promotional posts since we have so many service providers (printers/designers/etc) on the forums.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> We haven't decided for sure which route we want to take. One worry about the first version is the price seems a little high once you factor in shipping.


Price isn't one of the largest buying factors when people are able to buy a totally custom, unique design on demand. It's not something you can buy anywhere else.

If you look at the t-shirts you see in the various Print on Demand services marketplaces (cafepress/zazzle/printfection/spreadshirt), you'll probably see prices that are much higher...and those products are definitely selling.



> But you guys know a lot more about all this than I do so I'm certainly open to advice.


I think it's worth a test to see if the print on demand via an API works out. See how the users of the app like it. 

Maybe poll them to see if they'd be willing to purchase or pre-order a "t-shirt of the week" that was screen printed instead of printed on demand.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

fbGraffiti said:


> Suppose instead of having a button under every Graffiti, we had a "Graffiti T-Shirt of the week" and people could only buy that one. In that situation we could potentially get them printed in (small) bulk rather than one-off. Would it be feasible and cheaper to get them printed in bulk and then either fulfilled or sent to a separate fulfillment company to mail out the individual orders?


Yes, it would be feasible, yes it would be cheaper.

Because it would be cheaper, you could even do both: have a featured shirt of the week that you screenprint, and have the "Get this on a tee" option on all submissions. I'm not sure how much sales demand there would be for the shirt of the week - I'm guessing people are interested in buying their own works and their friend's works - but not so many random sales of the "That looks cool" variety. But it would at least make it possible to justify its existence: Featured Shirt of the Week for $15, vs. regular on demand shirts costing $20.

From the app owner's point of view (i.e., you) one of the attractions of selling print on demand tees with a link off every submission is that it's all automated. No inventory, another company is handling printing via an API, etc. etc. You setup the audience, you setup the interface between them and the printer, you maintain that link and fix it if anything breaks - but otherwise you do nothing. Despite the huge userbase it's not likely to make a _whole_ lot of money (the click through and sales percentage will likely be astronomically low) but the beauty of it is that it's a totally passive income. A moderate amount of work to set it up, and then nothing more to be done (or you can market it to try and drive sales, but there's no ongoing obligation to you).

Meaning some kind of relationship with a fulfilment company (involving less profit but also less work) seems like a more attractive option than one with risk and effort involved (like screenprinting a shirt each week would mean).

That said you could partner with a printer for the shirt of the week, only print shirts after the orders have come in, etc. etc. The work involved there would be to establish the relationship, and to make sure you get enough sales each week to meet minimums. It's more work, but it could involve more profit without a _lot_ of risk. That depends on just how much demand there is.


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## skibum (Feb 19, 2006)

Tim, I like what you're doing with your Facebook app. Rodney already mentioned our API/ Developer Platform, and I'd love to put you in touch with our director of sales and integration, Gavin. We have the most flexible platform in the POD industry and designed it from the ground-up for situations like yours. I don't want to blabber on about it, so I encourage you to shoot an e-mail to [email protected] and he can answer all of your questions (as I don't have your email to give him). Let me know if I can be of any further assistance. 

-Casey Schorr
CEO Printfection


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

skibum said:


> Tim, I like what you're doing with your Facebook app. Rodney already mentioned our API/ Developer Platform, and I'd love to put you in touch with our director of sales and integration, Gavin. We have the most flexible platform in the POD industry and designed it from the ground-up for situations like yours. I don't want to blabber on about it, so I encourage you to shoot an e-mail to [email protected] and he can answer all of your questions (as I don't have your email to give him). Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
> 
> -Casey Schorr
> CEO Printfection


Thanks for posting, Casey 

Tim, Casey was who I was talking about above:



Rodney said:


> I talked to the founder of PrintFection at a tradeshow, and he was telling me how technology and building out the API is one of their focuses for their site.


Hopefully you'll be able to follow up from here on the various leads to see which works best for your needs.


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