# Is there a fulfillment service that let's you brand



## breakaway (Jun 26, 2008)

What I mean is I don't like how many of the ones today have their website address plastered all over the place. When a customer buys from me I want them to think of it as being from ME, not from a generic online store. Being able to use my own Internet address, no advertisements, no mention of what the fulfillment service is would be ideal.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Until someone comes with a better idea, let me throw this out. Set up your own site and shopping cart (paypal is easy). Use the fulfillment house's pictures/graphics of your designs. But process everything through your site. Then, we you get an order, YOU place it with the fulfillment house. 

The only drawback is when the item reaches your customer it will have the fulfillment's packaging. But it's worth thinking about. 

The major advantage, to me, is you keep control of your customers. Not sure about all of them, but I know with spreadshirt, you don't even know who your customer is. No name, no email address, nothing. So forget about emailing your customers when you have a sale or promotion. Incredible.


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## breakaway (Jun 26, 2008)

That is rather strange that Spreadshirt would not tell you what your customer's email addys are. Do other places like Cafepress tell you them?

Your idea is pretty cool. I guess the downside is that it would take some time before finally reaching the customers.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

breakaway said:


> I guess the downside is that it would take some time before finally reaching the customers.


Understand, i am not saying to have the item shipped to you and then you ship to customer. All your profits would be eaten up in shipping costs 

If you place your order with the fulfillment house the same day, or the next day, you get it from your customer, there is no time lag involved.


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## badtuna1 (Mar 15, 2007)

Not knowing the customers who are buying your stuff is obviously a concern. But do you really want the headaches of being the middleman (between the supplier and customer)? As long as my supplier produces high quality products with our brand name on it, delivers on time, and provides reasonable returns when warranted (i.e, defects, wrong size/color, etc.), we're good to go. That leaves us to focus on the design and marketing aspect of the business and try to capture volume instead of 10 / 20 t-shirts being sold per month. And to do that, we need to focus on our marketing and advertising strategy. If we build it, they will come attitude simply does not work. Eventually, as we grow the business perhaps there would be at some point that we could bring back the work in-house. 

BadTuna Bob


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## breakaway (Jun 26, 2008)

splathead said:


> Understand, i am not saying to have the item shipped to you and then you ship to customer. All your profits would be eaten up in shipping costs
> 
> If you place your order with the fulfillment house the same day, or the next day, you get it from your customer, there is no time lag involved.


Okay, so if I understand this right, the customer pays me? And also gives me their address? Then I buy in the fulfillment store to send it to them.


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## breakaway (Jun 26, 2008)

badtuna1 said:


> And to do that, we need to focus on our marketing and advertising strategy. If we build it, they will come attitude simply does not work. Eventually, as we grow the business perhaps there would be at some point that we could bring back the work in-house.


I agree that one of the strong appeals of fulfillment services are that I don't have to deal with all the stuff with ordering and customers, and I could spend my time on other things like marketing and designs.

But I guess my reservations is that maybe my niche is different from yours. I just don't want my logo/designs on a shirt if the customer knows it's a generic shirt that I got from an online store service. (They can even easily go to that site to see exactly how much I marked it up etc) 

Imagine if a brand like American Eagle, Paul Frank, Calvin Klein, Hollister etc started their clothing line on one of these services. I think it would be hard for them to gain credibility as a brand of clothing when the customers clearly see that the clothing isn't even theirs, and is actually freely available to anyone who wants to start a free online store.


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## badtuna1 (Mar 15, 2007)

breakaway said:


> Imagine if a brand like American Eagle, Paul Frank, Calvin Klein, Hollister etc started their clothing line on one of these services. I think it would be hard for them to gain credibility as a brand of clothing when the customers clearly see that the clothing isn't even theirs, and is actually freely available to anyone who wants to start a free online store.



If your goal or vision is to create a brand name similar to Hollister, Paul Frank, Quiksilver, Billabong, etc. then by all means, do it in-house. However, when these brand name companies started their business and became popular, web technology was not even close to what it is today. For some, it did not even exist yet. So, perhaps some of them would have started using an online service in today's world instead of selling their products from their garages. But in my opinion, I think it's really the designs and their story behind them that makes the brand of a company. They can have their brand name on any cheap t-shirt and they still sell. 

BadTuna Bob


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## badtuna1 (Mar 15, 2007)

badtuna1 said:


> They can have their brand name on any cheap t-shirt and they still sell.
> BadTuna Bob



To not get anyone too excited. I' m referring to well established brand names. If you're in the infancy of marketing your brand, high quality should be the top priority. So if you going to use an online service (SS, PF, Zazzle, CP), the best way is to buy a couple products from them with your logo on it to check the product quality and print.


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## AdamandBen (Jul 9, 2008)

splathead said:


> Understand, i am not saying to have the item shipped to you and then you ship to customer. All your profits would be eaten up in shipping costs
> 
> If you place your order with the fulfillment house the same day, or the next day, you get it from your customer, there is no time lag involved.


I've been looking for a vendor to do this and am having no luck. I know you aren't allowed to recommend companies or anything, but do you have a good way I could search for one, or if you are allowed, give a few different ones that perform these tasks? Thank you thank you.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

AdamandBen said:


> I've been looking for a vendor to do this and am having no luck. I know you aren't allowed to recommend companies or anything, but do you have a good way I could search for one, or if you are allowed, give a few different ones that perform these tasks? Thank you thank you.


Try posting in the recommendations/referrals section of the forum here: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/referr...t-your-t-shirt-printing-design-requests-here/


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