# Online store, how to convince the quality?



## teapeng (Jul 30, 2006)

Hi, if I am selling t-shirt online, may I know how can I convince customer about the quality of the t-shirt is good via the internet? As many may wish to touch the material before they spend money on them. 

Is there any standard that I can rate my t-shirt of?

Million thanks.


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## Vtec44 (Apr 24, 2006)

You can start by detailing the type of cotton used for your t-shirt and weight rating.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Often sellers are using standard brands people would already be familiar with, so in those cases they can point that out.

Some people offer a very generous and reassuring returns policy so that people feel like they can just take the risk, because if they don't like it they can return it.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

One thing that is very important is to have large, high quality photos of the shirts, and also photos of people wearing the shirts. This will really help your customers to see the quality and also know how it will fit.


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## teapeng (Jul 30, 2006)

Appreciate all the advise  Thank you very much.


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## Mathiastheok (Nov 14, 2006)

I always assume my customers have no clue about weight and types of cotton, so it would do you well to have some verry close up pictures of your shirts, AND take some pics of your shirts on people in different poses with different sizes on the same person. This will give a good indication of how it will look on the customer...


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Mathiastheok said:


> AND take some pics of your shirts [...] with different sizes on the same person


I've seen a couple of stores do this, and I always thought it looked really dopey (not to mention amateurish). It's hard to really know whether it would be helping a business or not, but I do wonder if it would create a poor impression more than it would help someone make a decision.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

Solmu said:


> I've seen a couple of stores do this, and I always thought it looked really dopey (not to mention amateurish). It's hard to really know whether it would be helping a business or not, but I do wonder if it would create a poor impression more than it would help someone make a decision.


I guess if you are selling dopey type styles its perfect.

when you are trying to sell to the fashionistas elite with home made photos.... no fantasy there.  

Known Brands help a lot, as mentioned. You can ask them to use their photos too.


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## Mathiastheok (Nov 14, 2006)

Solmu said:


> I've seen a couple of stores do this, and I always thought it looked really dopey (not to mention amateurish). It's hard to really know whether it would be helping a business or not, but I do wonder if it would create a poor impression more than it would help someone make a decision.


Stores such as T-shirt hell ... Zazzle... Cafe Press.. 99 Dogs.. Threadless?? I dont think them taking pics of people wearing their shirts has hurt their business all that much....


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

He was referring to 1 person wearing different sizes of shirts. 

I also think it would look pretty dopey to see somone in a small, medium, large, XL, 2XL, 3XL, etc.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Comin'OutSwingin said:


> He was referring to 1 person wearing different sizes of shirts.


Precisely (and frankly I don't know how that could have been so grossly misinterpreted).

No large store does this (that I know of anyway, and I'd certainly be surprised to learn otherwise).


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## Mathiastheok (Nov 14, 2006)

Well I was assuming some common sense to be applied here....my apologies....of course you wouldnt want to put a small on an Xl guy, but a size up or down might help someone whom would prefer a tighter fit chose the style/size that fits them the best. Disagreeing with this statement means you wouldn't want your customers to be as informed as possible.....


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Disagreeing with this statement means you wouldn't want your customers to be as informed as possible.....


Not really, however people's opinions on "how" to inform customers may vary.

Some may feel (as stated above), that having the same person wearing a size too small and a size too big of the same shirt might give a negative impression of the site because of the way the photographed model would look.

It's not something that is done on many t-shirt stores (using the same model wearing different sizes), and I don't know how much it would help a customer

Just different opinions on how to best help the customer  That method might work for some, but others may decide on a different way to portray the information.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

Mathiastheok said:


> but a size up or down might help someone whom would prefer a tighter fit chose the style/size that fits them the best. Disagreeing with this statement means you wouldn't want your customers to be as informed as possible.....


well, too often on the retail floor fitting room you will hear (mostly from women) that they are a between size. In other words they are between a S and a M for example. So what do you do? recommend the next size up.

If you want to get really specific, do as the hosiery companies do for size charts, include body weight and height.  ... cant miss there.

guys, we are talking about t-shirts right ? i can see it being more complicated with pants etc.... but t-shirts ?

just blabing on here.......


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Mathiastheok said:


> Well I was assuming some common sense to be applied here....my apologies....


Oh, it's common sense to assume I was saying I'd seen "a few" sites use photos of people wearing t-shirts, and that it's a bad idea? 



Mathiastheok said:


> of course you wouldnt want to put a small on an Xl guy, but a size up or down might help someone whom would prefer a tighter fit chose the style/size that fits them the best.


When I've seen it done it was always along the lines of an average sized guy wearing a medium for a tight fit look, and a large for a more relaxed fit look (or similar). I'm not stupid enough to think you were suggesting squeezing an XL into a S, and I _still_ think it looks unprofessional.

You can't really work out what size to wear based on looking at a photo of someone wearing a shirt. "Okay so a medium fits _them_ like _so, _and a large like _so_... I want it to fit like the large... now... how big are they relative to me? Oh, I have _no idea_." Better to make your product photos attractive, and try to show how they look on a range of models. Sizing decisions are what size charts are for.



Mathiastheok said:


> Disagreeing with this statement means you wouldn't want your customers to be as informed as possible.....


I'm not even touching that one.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> You can't really work out what size to wear based on looking at a photo of someone wearing a shirt.


Along these lines, I noticed that CafePress added another "dimension" to their sizing chart by showing a photo of someone wearing a specific size shirt AND giving that model's height and weight to help with a comparison. I don't know how much it's helped (since it seems far removed from the shopping process), but here it is:

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/moredetails.aspx?productNo=56524440&pr=F&showbleed=false&colorNo=6&tab=3


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

Yeah, like Rodney's example, I haven seen different models wearing different sizes shown for comparison with heights/weights (once, I don't remember where), but never really seen the same model with different sizes.


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