Discuss the various t-shirt fulfillment services in this general fulfillment forum. Newer companies like RedBubble, etc can be discussed in this main forum.
Companies that have been around 2+ years (CafePress.com, Zazzle.com, Spreadshirt.com, PrintMojo.com, PrintFection, etc), may have their own separate subforums below (as demand permits).
I've never used a fulfillment company, but to my understanding their are two types.
1. POD fulfillment sites that use Digital Garment Printing for one offs and etc (Cafepress, Zazzle, Spreadshirt.) They offer drop shipping directly to your customers.
2. Warehousing fulfillment which a screen printer like raw talent & store envy screen prints your apparel, creates an online store for it, stores it, then drop ships to your customers.
Is this correct? Whenever I contact a fulfillment company, they never directly tell me how much it costs. I am interested in #2 type of warehousing where a printer prints the shirts, then drop ships it. Does anyone know the cost for this service? Is it a percentage + shipping?
The costs will vary depending on the fulfillment company. Basically you are dealing with the cost of the printed garment + postage & handling + service charge. They can't tell you a lot of times the cost until you tell them how many garments you are printing up.
The costs will vary depending on the fulfillment company. Basically you are dealing with the cost of the printed garment + postage & handling + service charge. They can't tell you a lot of times the cost until you tell them how many garments you are printing up.
Printmojo charges $3.50 for their fulfillment service. But do you know if that is per shirt sold or per month?
Well I specifically ask how much their fulfillment services are, and they respond with "let's get started." Then they send me information about banner sizes I should make and descriptions of each product. But I didn't want to start without more information about warehouse fees and transaction fees! They keep dodging the fee question, and I am asking very straight forward about the fees. Weird.
If I'm searching for a company that does only the both buying in blank t-shirts and the printing (not hang tags, site, webshop etc.) is it counted as fulfillment?
If I'm searching for a company that does only the both buying in blank t-shirts and the printing (not hang tags, site, webshop etc.) is it counted as fulfillment?
You are just looking for a screenprinter? You will sell/ship your own t-shirts? If so, that is not considered fulfillment.
Just pull our your yellow pages, call several screen printers and have them give you a quote based on what you need printed.
As far as printmojo is concerned, their site and fees are pretty straight forward and spelled out. The only thing that is not there, and it can't be there until you tell them exactly what garment and how many colors you will need, is the cost per shirt. Just shoot them an email with that info and they'll tell you price.
If I'm searching for a company that does only the both buying in blank t-shirts and the printing (not hang tags, site, webshop etc.) is it counted as fulfillment?
No, this is not considered "fulfillment".
This is just getting t-shirts printed What you described is pretty much the default offering of any screen printer, DTG printer, etc that you talk to.
You send them the design, they order the blank t-shirts wholesale and print your design and ship you the printed t-shirts.
Fulfillment is when you include:
warehousing (they don't ship you the finished garments, they warehouse them for you)
order packing (when someone orders one t-shirt, they pull the t-shirt from the warehouse, package it and ship it to that one customer)
ecommerce (they usually host an online store for you to help you accept orders. Like example.com/yourstore sometimes you can just send them orders through your existing ecommerce site)
payment processing (if they are hosting an online store for you, they will also process credit card payments through their merchant account)
inventory management (if they aren't printing on demand, they also help you manage your inventory levels)
customer service and returns (when a customer needs to make a return, they will ship it to the fulfillment center and the fulfillment center will handle customer service, returns, restocking, etc)
There are some fulfillment companies that don't do any printing at all. They just handle warehousing, order packing, shipping, returns.
For the purpose of this post, I'm talking about "tshirt fulfillment companies" that do printing (either printing on demand via a DTG printer, heat transfer or dye sublimation process or requiring the order be printed in advance with minimum orders by screen printing or embroidery)
Confused about the word Fulfillment 
What you described is pretty much the default offering of any screen printer, DTG printer, etc that you talk to. 
