# Need a service like cafepress that doesn't require using a website. Please help!



## eriaac (Sep 5, 2007)

I'm looking for a fulfillment service that will let me make my own store and just fill orders from my store. I would like to be able to create orders by specifying picture, picture positioning, picture size, shirt color, size, and shipping address. I basically want a cafepress store without using their ordering system... I'd like to do ordering a more old fashioned way, such as sending a standardized format email or something like that.

Do any services like this exist?

Thanks!
Eric


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## AustinJeff (May 12, 2007)

eriaac said:


> I'd like to do ordering a more old fashioned way, such as sending a standardized format email or something like that.


Do you want people to send you their credit card numbers via email?!?


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## eriaac (Sep 5, 2007)

Heh no, I'm not that naive. I would handle customer billing on my own site, and I would pay the fulfillment service myself, profiting from the difference between the two prices. 

I was just hoping that I could submit individual orders in that way or something similar. Basically the issue is that I want to be able to send one-off orders automatically when people order them on my site. It doesn't have to be email, but I want to be able to have my computer send them an order, including the graphic, the positioning and size of the graphic, and the shirt details. It's like what their website does, but I want to be able to generate those orders, because I want to have more control over the front-end and how it works.

So if anyone knows of any tshirt companies that can take automated orders, it'd be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Eric


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

eriaac said:


> Heh no, I'm not that naive. I would handle customer billing on my own site, and I would pay the fulfillment service myself, profiting from the difference between the two prices.
> 
> I was just hoping that I could submit individual orders in that way or something similar. Basically the issue is that I want to be able to send one-off orders automatically when people order them on my site. It doesn't have to be email, but I want to be able to have my computer send them an order, including the graphic, the positioning and size of the graphic, and the shirt details. It's like what their website does, but I want to be able to generate those orders, because I want to have more control over the front-end and how it works.
> 
> ...


Well, I did a little research some time ago and I believe that it was Printmojo that I was interested in. With Printmojo I send the artwork and have a certain no. of shirts printed for a certain price. They warehouse them for me and ship them when I have orders. My website promotes the shirts and then the customer comes to my site and places the order. The order button is linked to my printmojo store and the customer puts all of the info into Printmojo's secure database and sends out the orders and cuts me a check for the difference.

You may be wanting cafepress. With cafepress you will more than likely have less profit per piece, but you have no up front costs to deal with. They take care of the whole process and you just upload artwork and promote your site. When you have sales, you get a check. Printmojo has decent pricing per piece and although you initially pay for the shirts you want printed, you get more from each sale than you would from cafepress.

If you have the money, I would have a professional print my shirts, another professional build my ecommerce website, and ship them out yourself.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

eriaac said:


> Heh no, I'm not that naive. I would handle customer billing on my own site, and I would pay the fulfillment service myself, profiting from the difference between the two prices.
> 
> I was just hoping that I could submit individual orders in that way or something similar. Basically the issue is that I want to be able to send one-off orders automatically when people order them on my site. It doesn't have to be email, but I want to be able to have my computer send them an order, including the graphic, the positioning and size of the graphic, and the shirt details. It's like what their website does, but I want to be able to generate those orders, because I want to have more control over the front-end and how it works.
> 
> ...


If you have programming skills (or can hire a programmer), then CafePress can do that for you using their API.

But honestly, for what you're trying to do, it sounds easier if you just used the website to place the order.


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## eriaac (Sep 5, 2007)

Rodney said:


> If you have programming skills (or can hire a programmer), then CafePress can do that for you using their API.
> 
> But honestly, for what you're trying to do, it sounds easier if you just used the website to place the order.


Thanks Rodney! This is basically what I wanted to know... which fulfillment service would provide a direct API. I wasn't sure if people would understand that, but I guess this is probably a more tech savvy crowd than most.

I asked cafepress' customer service, but I probably asked it the wrong way because they said they couldn't help me. Printfection said that they're developing a beta API currently.

I'm looking into this because I need a bit more flexibility than is available through their store. 

Thanks everyone for your answers! You all have been very helpful... much more so than most forums. I think I'll stick around


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## eriaac (Sep 5, 2007)

tim3560 said:


> Well, I did a little research some time ago and I believe that it was Printmojo that I was interested in. With Printmojo I send the artwork and have a certain no. of shirts printed for a certain price. They warehouse them for me and ship them when I have orders. My website promotes the shirts and then the customer comes to my site and places the order. The order button is linked to my printmojo store and the customer puts all of the info into Printmojo's secure database and sends out the orders and cuts me a check for the difference.
> 
> You may be wanting cafepress. With cafepress you will more than likely have less profit per piece, but you have no up front costs to deal with. They take care of the whole process and you just upload artwork and promote your site. When you have sales, you get a check. Printmojo has decent pricing per piece and although you initially pay for the shirts you want printed, you get more from each sale than you would from cafepress.
> 
> If you have the money, I would have a professional print my shirts, another professional build my ecommerce website, and ship them out yourself.



Thanks for the info Tim. I'm looking into cafepress and printfection right now. The type of site I'm developing probably wouldn't be well suited to any sort of company that requires a per-shirt inventory, just because of the sheer number of different shirts I want to offer.

I need to figure out if the printing quality of these two sites is acceptable, though : - ) I don't have much experience with print-on-demand shirts, so I don't really know how well they come out. I'll probably buy a sample from each with the same, complicated graphic and see which does better.

Thanks for the input!


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

eriaac said:


> Thanks Rodney! This is basically what I wanted to know... which fulfillment service would provide a direct API. I wasn't sure if people would understand that, but I guess this is probably a more tech savvy crowd than most.
> 
> I asked cafepress' customer service, but I probably asked it the wrong way because they said they couldn't help me. Printfection said that they're developing a beta API currently.
> 
> ...


hehe, I almost didn't mention "API" because I thought it might be too techy.

The info you need is here: CafePress Developers Network

They have a pretty developed API that people have used in all sorts of neat ways. The email address on the CafePress Developer's Network site will be more helpful.


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