Bulk order-Individual shipping

Printing the shirts is the easy part. Handling the data is an entirely different matter. We have some customers that give us exactly the info we need in a useable format and then never make changes.

And then there are the other customers.

The first real question is - how are they going to pay you for this? Will you print all the shirts and bill them up front? Invoice every time you ship? Who pays for shipping? Will you be able to buy all the shirts at once and get the best price, or will you have to buy as orders and sizing come in? What is the total time frame of the project?

The mechanics of the deal are what will determine what the real costs are, and what you need to charge to make it a workable deal.

Watch out for scams. Are these order coming in from Africa?
There were postings in the Forum some years ago which may still be here.

Based on the information you gave it sounds like a scam. Have you worked with this customer before? If you haven’t worked up to doing this type of order with this customer then I would be very careful.

This is what Merch By Amazon and the various PODs do, right? And they take most of the end customer's money for the bother, too. If it is legit, make damn sure you are actually paying yourself for all the busy work involved with the shipping and fulfillment end of things ... and assume that someone will on occasion put the wrong shirt in the wrong package and that you'll have to eat the costs to make that right. And what happens when an end customer decides it doesn't fit right and sends it back? Is that your problem and expense?

Lots of potential gotchas in a deal like this. Make sure you workout these details in writing with your customer. You might find it useful to look over the terms and conditions that some of the fulfillment/POD houses use.

Sounds like it could be good business, if they are willing to actually pay for the work involved, and if you can get setup to effectively do that sort of work.

It is not a scam but one of my best customers. I am looking for some advice/help on the shipping part of this deal. Best way to handle this type of volume. All orders will be folded/bagged and label attached and shipped.

Nobody can give you good advice without knowing the details.

We'll need to print, fold, bag & ship over 5,000 packages/polybags to said number of locations.
I am looking for best way to implement a way to bag & ship.

All one art? All one Shirt? All one size? All packages same # of shirts, styles, sizes?
How is info being transmitted to you?
Is this a one time job or do you want to invest in equipment to automate?

On the web go to
USPS .. Look up FLATE RATE envelopes and boxes. They are not usually kept in the brick & mortar branches. These are available in certain sizes only and the shipping irrespective of weight is sent all over USA at one price. For Continental USA only. You need to register with them and get account. Orders are in bulk and sent n/c to your address. You mail them stamp free because you prepaid for them.
Labels. Get your customer to enter the full mailing address with the order which you can send to a label printer. This can be done by cut and paste or if you set up a label printer that gets addresses directly from email.
Envelopes will take about three shirts. Boxes will take more. Get both.

the reward better match the risk

i can envision hundreds of scenarios where you are left weeping in the corner