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kidjou · April 21st, 2007

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here. Previously a forum lurker.

I'm going to start a new label of clothing starting with t-shirt. i'm positioning my label as a high-end fashion brand. Artistic, edgy and unique look and feel.

i'm still deciding between the retail fulfillment route or going by my own route via my own site.

Retail fulfillment will be a low startup, low risk route. This way i'm able to test the market, keep my present job and only quit when i know there's really a potential of growing.

One of the concern i have about fulfillment programs is whether its possible for companies to under declare your sales e.g reporting your sales as 50 pieces whereby actual sales figures reaches 100pcs.

Is there a foolproof way of knowing your exact sales figure?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Rodney · April 21st, 2007

Welcome to the T-Shirt Forums!

Quote:


	One of the concern i have about fulfillment programs is whether its possible for companies to under declare your sales e.g reporting your sales as 50 pieces whereby actual sales figures reaches 100pcs.

That's almost like the customer at home not knowing if you will ship them your shirt after they buy from your website

On your end, you think, "of course I'll send you the shirt. I'm a trustworthy business and if I didn't, I'd be out business pretty quick".

On their end, they have no real reason to trust you other than by what your website looks like and how easy you make it to contact you in case of problems.

The same sort of goes with fulfillment companies. For one, it's all pretty automated, so you get an email or some type of notification as soon as a sale comes in. Second, they would go out of business pretty quick if they were "hiding" sales. Third, they really don't have a reason to do that. They aren't in the business of "selling" designs, they are just their to print/fulfill your orders. Whether you have 1 or 1,000 sales, it's all the same to them.

Also, if you have printed 100 pieces, and they only report your sales as 50, but you've really sold 100 pieces, then you'll be out of inventory. So it's also a matter of numbers. It doesn't benefit them to undercount your sales because they'll be accountable when you've run out of inventory but they've only reported sales of half of that.

This is not to say that fulfillment is the best route for everyone. Some people like to do more of the work themselves and be more hands on when it comes to printing their designs, taking online orders, handling customer service, shipping out products, etc.

kidjou · April 21st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodney


	Welcome to the T-Shirt Forums! That's almost like the customer at home not knowing if you will ship them your shirt after they buy from your website On your end, you think, "of course I'll send you the shirt. I'm a trustworthy business and if I didn't, I'd be out business pretty quick".

Hey Rodney, thanks for the response. While its almost the same, i think it's totally different. Simply because if someone was to not ship, after an order is made, a customer will know that he's being cheated. Do this often enough, and soon with the power of the internet the whole world is bound to know. Also with the knowledge of being cheated that someone can take legal recourse.

On the other hand what i've mentioned, well there's simply no way to know if the companies are doing these. I mean we won't even know we are being cheated. I mean softwares can be manipulated right? It might just be me but is there's a real possibility of it happening?

And if nobody know that these are happening how can they be out of business. Instead they be increasing their profits.

i'm not accusing of any companies of doing this.

Rodney · April 21st, 2007

Quote:


	On the other hand what i've mentioned, well there's simply no way to know if the companies are doing these. I mean we won't even know we are being cheated. I mean softwares can be manipulated right? It might just be me but is there's a real possibility of it happening?

I explained above how it couldn't happen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodney


	if you have printed 100 pieces, and they only report your sales as 50, but you've really sold 100 pieces, then you'll be out of inventory. So it's also a matter of numbers. It doesn't benefit them to undercount your sales because they'll be accountable when you've run out of inventory but they've only reported sales of half of that.

In my almost 8 year experience working with different fulfillment companies, I can say that there's just about zero chance of it happening.

Solmu · April 21st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodney

I explained above how it couldn't happen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodney

if you have printed 100 pieces, and they only report your sales as 50, but you've really sold 100 pieces, then you'll be out of inventory. So it's also a matter of numbers. It doesn't benefit them to undercount your sales because they'll be accountable when you've run out of inventory but they've only reported sales of half of that.

That doesn't stop it from being able to happen at all: all they've got to do is also misreport your inventory as well, or (if they're making so much money pirating your work) print up some more at their expense (they still end up in front). If someone is paranoid enough to believe their fulfillment company is cheating them in one way, there's no reason they can't be cheating them in every way.

It is, however, a paranoid fantasy. First off, it's simply not necessary. Fulfillment companies make plenty of money by running their businesses legitimately - there's no need for them to break the law to make a living. Fraudulent companies are the exception, and yet so many people act as if they were the rule.

More importantly, there's checks and balances in place. One is the fact that they'd be sprung by the IRS. Their bookkeeping wouldn't add up. Two is that you can verify for yourself they're reporting accurately. If people believed that sales were being under reported they would set up a controlled experiment where they knew exactly how many t-shirts were purchased in a certain timeframe, and compare that to what the company said. Had that ever happened, we'd have heard about it.

kidjou · April 21st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solmu


	That doesn't stop it from being able to happen at all: all they've got to do is also misreport your inventory as well, or (if they're making so much money pirating your work) print up some more at their expense (they still end up in front). If someone is paranoid enough to believe their fulfillment company is cheating them in one way, there's no reason they can't be cheating them in every way.

Hi Solmu,

Yes, that's what i meant. But not entirely sure whether it remains a valid possibility hence the question raised.

Well actually this concern was raised up by a friend of mine who's running a successful graphic design firm. I've been running off to him for advices on setting up a new label and of course the design aspect of the products as well.

He hates the idea of not being able to control many aspects of the business by going through the retail fulfillment route.

Well i guess i have a decision to make which route to take. In the mean time it's all paper work, registering a an LLP (i think it's LLC in some countries), registering domain, trademark my brand and so on.

Hope to update you all once everything is up and live on the net.

Solmu · April 22nd, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by kidjou


	not entirely sure whether it remains a valid possibility hence the question raised.

I don't personally think it's a possibility. Hopefully I won't have to eat my words one day

Quote:

Originally Posted by kidjou


	He hates the idea of not being able to control many aspects of the business by going through the retail fulfillment route.

I'm a control freak, so I can understand that. There are some really boring aspects to fulfillment it would be/is nice not to handle yourself. On the other hand you might like handling everything from top to bottom.

At some point if you succeed you're going to have to take that leap to trusting someone else to carry out business on your behalf, whether you like it or not.

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