# Bulk Order Fullfillment Via Data Feed



## BaggaDonuts (Mar 11, 2008)

My small business is interested in working with an online order fulfillment company to process orders in bulk. We have our own e-commerce system that handles all of our orders. I am looking for a printer that can recieve a product feed of all of our images available for print on a daily basis and then fulfill batch orders for those products from another data feed that we can provide on some interval. 

The reason we are seeking this solution is because ideally, we would like to retain our customers on our site for the bulk of their experience, rather than referring them to a third party to order a single product or browse products we've configured on that third party site. There is an awesome CD printing company called "Custom CD" that does this exact thing for software distribution.

We are after this solution for t-shirt printing. Does anyone know if there is a printing company out there now that supports that business model?


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

What country are you in?


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## BaggaDonuts (Mar 11, 2008)

I'm in the United States


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I don't know of any company doing this yet via a datafeed. 

I think the cafepress API used to allow something like this, but they've stopped giving out access to their API.


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

Not really Rodney, the CP Content API allows you to create designs (SVG) and products, not place orders for the products you've created. I wish it did though!

The datafeed to fulfillment idea is one I'm highly interested in as well, so if anyone wants to set up that arrangement I'd be interested too.


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## BaggaDonuts (Mar 11, 2008)

i'm actually suprised no printers support that feature.. i contacted pretty much all of the ones on this forum and no one does it. might be a good business idea


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## BaggaDonuts (Mar 11, 2008)

FYI, PrintFection is implementing this feature. Here's a reply that i got from their customer support:

"This should be possible sometime this year using our API. Please email [email protected] to get on our mailing list. We'll let you know when this functionality is available."


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

Sounds cool. Although a lot of things are apparently going to happen at PF. I'm already on that mailing list. I'll believe it when I see it


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## Darla (Mar 21, 2007)

so what your asking is if there is anybody who when somebody orders from your site can do the order and ship to that person kinda somebody "behind" the scenes sort to speak? am i on track here?


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

Yes - somebody who will print and send out orders, plain i'm taking it.

What Bagga wants to do is send you a datafeed daily, which could be something as basic as a text file, or a CSV file it'll contain all his order details. He will also send across all images needed for the printing, they'll correspond with some unique reference within the datafeed.

Yes, you'll be behind the schenes, just the printer. He'll retain his brand and customer base, he'll be your customer and pay you for the orders you fulfill.


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## Darla (Mar 21, 2007)

thanks adam that is what i figured it was about


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## pokerman (Nov 7, 2007)

What kind of volume are talking about because there are several ways to do this.
Are you thinking 10 shirts a day, 100?, 1000?


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## BaggaDonuts (Mar 11, 2008)

We're still in the planning phase at this point in time, so i can't accurately gauge our numbers. 100 orders per day would indicate a good level of success in my opinion, but as this is a new business, it may take some time to get going. Honestly this venture is an experiment with the potential to be moderately successful.

But yes, Darla and Adam are correct, I am looking to provide an order feed for printing. The feed would contain the following per order: an ID, a link to the image, shipping info. I am looking for a company that will then be able to ship the orders accordingly. We may also need a reconciliation step for accounting purposes by sending notification that the order has been shipped. This can be accomplished in a number of ways: updating the status per order via a web service, providing a report, or another data feed on some interval.


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

If, I understanding you correctly what you want has been around a long time, not just for shirts. When we shipped to Academy and Galyen’s we would receive and email we had orders. We then would go to EDI, EDI Solution, EDI Software, EDI Compliance, SaaS EDI Software enter our password and there would be the complete purchase order with shipping, due date, sizes, packaging requirements etc.
There is a monthly fee, but the UPC hangtags were also generated from there.
There are other company’s that do the same thing.
Is this what you mean?
Sounds to me like you should just fax the orders you get to your supplier that has you art on file they print and ship.


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## BaggaDonuts (Mar 11, 2008)

Faxing orders is not a viable option to us. But EDI is definitely a worthwhile solution.. If a printer can accept some standard EDI document, then that's what I'm after. Thanks for the link, i'll research it a bit more.


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

That EDI thing is interesting. Thank you very much. There are also EDIs in the UK.


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## scorpolicious (Feb 1, 2008)

Please don't laugh at me but I cannot figure out how EDI works? Can someone please please please explain it to me. Is this a way of starting your line without having to actually purchase anything before a order is placed? Or am I way off?


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## scorpolicious (Feb 1, 2008)

Uncle John said:


> Sounds to me like you should just fax the orders you get to your supplier that has you art on file they print and ship.


Is this really possible?


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## Darla (Mar 21, 2007)

yes it is possible to do it that way


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

EDI is not a way to start a business without a product or supplier, it’s a way for two or more company’s to use the same format to talk to each other.
It’s a 3rd party where you fill in the blanks on there site and the other party can see exactly what you have entered.
If I wanted my supplier to ship x to whomever I would work with the EDI provider to make a form with the information I needed along with any information I required, like when shipped, backorders and the like. I could then get a report that you filled out showing this.
It’s for high volume not for one or two shipments a day. That’s why I said find a printer that you can give your artwork to and fax over the order to print and ship.
We have a lot of our shirts on other websites, when they sell one they fax us the order and we ship. We stock our designs and have there credit cards on file so its done most times within 72 hrs.

I hope this helps.
John


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## scorpolicious (Feb 1, 2008)

Thanks, I understand EDI better now. I wonder how easy it is to request that a supplier keep your art on file and print and ship whenever you need. I know most don't like giving up their contacts but if anyone can refer me to a printer that does business this way I would greatly appreciate it. Or is it a just ask and see what they say kind of thing? 

I also wonder if you do it that way will they also place the labels on the shirts?
Labeling is what I am having the hardest time with right now. How the heck to find someone to relabel the shirts.

Any info will help


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Or is it a just ask and see what they say kind of thing?


Yes, that's the best way to find out. Screen printers don't normally do this, but you may be able to find Direct to Garment printers that do this by looking in the Referrals section of the forum.



> I also wonder if you do it that way will they also place the labels on the shirts?
> Labeling is what I am having the hardest time with right now. How the heck to find someone to relabel the shirts.


If you use the search box at the top of this site, you'll find LOTS of information about how to relabel garments and find relabeling companies. We have a whole section of the forum about relabeling.

The search box can find answers to all of your questions


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## skibum (Feb 19, 2006)

BaggaDonuts said:


> FYI, PrintFection is implementing this feature. Here's a reply that i got from their customer support:
> 
> "This should be possible sometime this year using our API. Please email [email protected] to get on our mailing list. We'll let you know when this functionality is available."


BaggaDonuts, we launched the Printfection Platform & API yesterday. I do believe this is the most powerful, open API of any POD company at the moment so you may want to check it out. Just thought I would let you know it's out there in the wild now (well, alpha testing 'wild'). We are looking for developers to help us test the platform.


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