Discuss the process of getting your t-shirt line into brick and mortar stores and selling offline. Topics include industry tradeshows, events, line sheets, sales reps and other retailing tips and advice.
Just wondering if there's anyone out there with a CafePress shop who has successfully sold their stuff to a retail store. If so, how did you do it? Did you just do a bulk order from CP and sell those to the store? or did you have to go out and get your shirts done outside of CP in order to keep the cost low?
If you're going to be doing enough quantity to sell to a retail store, you'd likely be better of outsourcing to another printer (ideally local to save shipping costs) than to go with CafePress and their high markup.
I've sold some of my cafepress products to a retail store at wholesale.
Some products that were CP specific, I bought through cafepress at bulk (like printed journals), other items I just shopped around for prices since I knew that the CP bulk price would be way too high (like coffee cups and printed t-shirts).
Just find the best pricing you can get. Sometimes that might be CP, sometimes that might be a promotional products printer or a screen printer.
I've sold some of my cafepress products to a retail store at wholesale.
Some products that were CP specific, I bought through cafepress at bulk (like printed journals), other items I just shopped around for prices since I knew that the CP bulk price would be way too high (like coffee cups and printed t-shirts).
Just find the best pricing you can get. Sometimes that might be CP, sometimes that might be a promotional products printer or a screen printer.
so when you went outside CP, did you try to use the same printing method and same type of shirts as offered on CP? or should i just look at it as a completely different thing?
so when you went outside CP, did you try to use the same printing method and same type of shirts as offered on CP? or should i just look at it as a completely different thing
Similar shirts, but not the same printing method. With cafepress, the printing and pricing method is geared for print on demand printing.
If you get a wholesale order for a lot of t-shirts of the same design, it's likely that you'll find a better price with a screen printer - a printing/pricing process geared for larger runs like that.
I use the same or a comparible t-shirt. Coffee mugs I found a place that sold the same size (coffee mugs are incredibly cheap to get printed in bulk and sell for a decent markup).
well i guess i'm going to have to find a local screen printer so that when these orders arise, i can just get them printed as opposed to having to find someone first to do them.
CP shop selling at retail? 
