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Originally Posted by A Family Affair |  | | | | | | | | | Hello all,
Does anyone use one of those online shops (spreadshirt, printmojo, etc) to try to sell their tshirts? If so, what is your opinion? I've read some negative info about them and I am wondering if they are worth "setting up shop" so to speak. If someone could let me know if they've been successful in selling their tees on one of those shops and the steps you've taken, that would be wonderful.
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A.D., there are threads about these types of shops. they can be really good, but you have to market. and you can't just put some stuff in there and expect to do well. i've been working with spreadshirt (SS) for a while now. i wish i had known when i began what i know now. i'm learning slowly but surely. and things are always changing. they add more shirts and stuff. (that's great. i LOVE that, but it makes more work for me because i want to use the new items.) SS worked well for me because i couldn't buy stock up front and i think that's what you have to do with print mojo. also, with the vector printing SS does, the quality of the shirts is really good. i've sold a few shirts and i've done some custom shirt for gifts for my mom and her friends. i also did a custom job for someone with a business. everyone says they love the shirts. but it is a struggle to get enough people to the shop and then trying to get them to buy. i work hard trying to put good stuff in the shop, but marketing is WAY more challenging for me.
i had pretty much decided not to use SS a few years ago, but i posted on the forum and rodney suggested that i give SS another try. i did and i love being able to do a lot of stuff myself since i'm a writer and not a designer. i think PM is a good company, too, especially because they silk screen (i think), but i couldn't buy the stock up front. so it depends on what you want to do and can do. but, as rodney told me a while ago, you still have to market.
the different companies offer different things. cafe press has more variety re: items (tees, mugs, calendars, etc.). SS offers mostly t-shirts and they have a lot of colors and styles of tees. i think cafe press does mostly digital printing; SS does both digital and plot printing. print-on-demand services are great if you don't have much cash, but you need to figure out which method of printing works for you and what you want to offer. i think PM does silk screening exclusively, but it is not a print-on-demand service, so that's why you have to buy stock. i know of at least one shop that started small with PM and then, after a while, a boutique found the online shop and the shop started selling to stores. now it's kind of a big shop. so it IS possible. but for me it's a constant struggle to let me people know i'm around.
i hope this helps.
veggie
Re: Getting Retailers to Buy. 
