[Bleys]

I'm a web developer, and a graphic designer friend of mine might be laid off from work soon (he's a photojournalist but the newspaper he works for is mismanaged and possibly going out of business)... so we've been toying with the idea of starting a botique t-shirt company (possibly with another friend who has a background in graffiti art).

But none of us really know much about it, and we'd really rather not handle inventory and shipping, etc. We've looked into CafePress, and I have used them for other projects in the past, but I am really not very pleased with their print quality. Perhaps it has improved in the past couple of years, but combined with the high cut they take and a lack of t-shirt colors and choices that we'd want--it's just not for us.

As I understand it, PrintMojo will print your shirts, and handle ordering and fulfillment. Perfect! The only difference is that you have to order your inventory upfront.

My question is, how much customization of my storefront is possible with PrintMojo? As a web designer, I would like to be able to play to my strengths and have as much control over my store front as possible. I'd also rather if my customers didn't know that they were ordering through PrintMojo until checkout (or at all, if possible ). With CafePress you can actually fairly thoroughly control the look of the storefront, store customer orders serverside in a shopping cart and only send them to CafePress at checkout--which is a strength of CP.

How about with PrintMojo, though? Do they offer a developer API or something? Any example PrintMojo-powered stores I could see that have been customized as much as possible?

Thanks.

 

[Bleys]

Just to tack on another question... does PrintMojo support custom coupon codes? (i.e., could I offer coupon codes to my customers if I used PrintMojo?)

 

[T-BOT]

I'm a web developer.

as a web developer, are you not able to set up your own commerce site and simply forward your orders to a manufacturer that can fill one off's or quantity on demand ?

i think that would be a lot simpler and you would be free to set up your site as you would like.

why do you not choose this root ? (your own site and source out's)

 

[Twinge]

Aye, as TBOT said it may be best to simply design your own site (using some shopping cart software most likely, like zencart, cubecart, or osCommerce). You could look around for a printer that you can outsource the printing/shipping to (call local ones, or look online), and you might even be able to get it cheaper than PrintMojo this way.

 

[Bleys]

Sure I could... my original attraction to PrintMojo is that I would not have to do any printing, keep any inventory, or even fill any orders--all of that would be done for me. I could focus on art/design and promotion (my strong points). The attraction is not that they have pre-built ecommerce systems, but that they handle the printing, storage, order taking, and shipping for you.

T-BOT, I think you answered my question by asking it again. You suggest I forward my orders to a manufacturer that can do one-offs or bulk orders and ship those orders for me. Is not PrintMojo such a manufacturer? (And I'm not really interested in print-on-demand--as I said about CafePress in my experience the quality is too low and the cost is too high).

So my question was really, can I do what you're suggesting with PrintMojo? Am I locked into using their storefront software, or can I build my own?

I'd rather not have to manually submit orders to a printer (that can get messy, in my experience--too much room for error when you act as a middleman)--I'd rather be able to automatically submit my orders into their system. Which is what I was asking--does PrintMojo offer that capability?

And/or do you have any recommendations for similar services that would print, store, and ship t-shirts in a similar manner?

and you might even be able to get it cheaper than PrintMojo this way.

Er, why would I do it if it wasn't cheaper?

Thanks.

 

[T-BOT]

T-BOT, I think you answered my question by asking it again. You suggest I forward my orders to a manufacturer that can do one-offs or bulk orders and ship those orders for me. Is not PrintMojo such a manufacturer? (And I'm not really interested in print-on-demand--as I said about CafePress in my experience the quality is too low and the cost is too high).

there are manufactures (plastisol transfers for example) that can fill your orders with high quality goods, you can have 100's of designs at 25% of the cost of pre-printed shirts (screen printed) as your initial inventory investment. I'm talking about screen print and high end materials like vinyls etc. used for your designs. Not photo transfers at all.

I would think this would be cost efective too, since there is no middle man.

sorry if my first post was unclear.

as for the Mojo, well it is a good thing if it fills your requiremnts. The store front is one element of such.

 

[Rodney]

My question is, how much customization of my storefront is possible with PrintMojo?

To answer your questions about PrintMojo, there are various levels of customizations available depending on your skill levels Here's a good example page from the site that explains it in detail:
http://www.printmojo.com/pm/samplestore.php

With CafePress you can actually fairly thoroughly control the look of the storefront, store customer orders serverside in a shopping cart and only send them to CafePress at checkout--which is a strength of CP.

I assume you're talking about through a script like CPShop. A similar type script is available for PrintMojo.com (although not programmed by Marty )

does PrintMojo support custom coupon codes? (i.e., could I offer coupon codes to my customers if I used PrintMojo?)

Yes. You can generate coupon codes for various discount levels.

 

[Bleys]

Awesome, thanks for the help Rodney.

And actually, I've never even heard of CShop (though I just looked it up on Google). I had made a custom solution a few years ago for use with CafePress. I assume it was similar, though I used PHP rather than Perl. If possible, I imagine I'll create something similar for PrintMojo when the time comes.

 

[cam]

To answer your questions about PrintMojo, there are various levels of customizations available depending on your skill levels Here's a good example page from the site that explains it in detail:
http://www.printmojo.com/pm/samplestore.php

^ most of the sights I have seen on Print-Mojo have looked good but seemed like they followed the same format. If I am familiar to website design can I create a site completly from scratch and have it uploaded to the Print-Mojo server and intergrated with the PM shopping cart.

^The other thing I noticed is that when I checked out a store on a website independent to PM and then selected something I was taken to the PM shopping cart. From the cart if I hit the "BROWSE STORE" button it would take me to the companiy's Print-Mojo store (which had a signaficant difference visually) and not to the main website.

^I have found a website that uses PM only for the shopping cart that when you click on "Browse Store" while in the cart it directs you back to the company's nonMojo store, but not before showing you a temporary PM page telling you that you are being redirected.

^Q..Is there any way to cut out that PM page that notifies of redirection?
^Q.. How much can you customize a PM store? Can we make it look like a site that I would build on my own and host at a company other than PM

Yes. You can generate coupon codes for various discount levels.

^Q...What kind of coupons? Flat amount off, %, quantity

^can there be quantity discounts set up as well as various coupons that give % off

^can you have different quantity discounts? Buy 1 get 2nd for % off, Buy 2 get 3rd for free, Buy a certain amount and get a certain # of shirts free

^ can these discounts be combined exp: buy 10 get 2 free and enter a coupon code for a 10% discount on total order

^is there a limit to how many coupons can be available

 

[Rodney]

^ most of the sights I have seen on Print-Mojo have looked good but seemed like they followed the same format. If I am familiar to website design can I create a site completly from scratch and have it uploaded to the Print-Mojo server and intergrated with the PM shopping cart.

You can't upload a website to the PrintMojo server, however you can create a custom website on your own server and integrate your PrintMojo products into it in various ways (see examples above). You can get very creative using the PHP script and HTML if you have the knowledge.

^The other thing I noticed is that when I checked out a store on a website independent to PM and then selected something I was taken to the PM shopping cart. From the cart if I hit the "BROWSE STORE" button it would take me to the companiy's Print-Mojo store (which had a signaficant difference visually) and not to the main website.

It depends on how the merchant is integrating their website with PrintMojo.

^Q..Is there any way to cut out that PM page that notifies of redirection?

Not sure which redirection notice you're talking about.

^Q.. How much can you customize a PM store? Can we make it look like a site that I would build on my own and host at a company other than PM

The PM hosted store currently has a limited amount of customization (custom logo and storefront text). Many merchants just do the customization on their own website.

^Q...What kind of coupons? Flat amount off, %, quantity

Both flat amount and % off options are available.

can there be quantity discounts set up as well as various coupons that give % off

You can setup mutiple coupons. You can also define the minimum order $ amount for the coupon to be eligble (which you could use for quantity discounts).

^can you have different quantity discounts? Buy 1 get 2nd for % off, Buy 2 get 3rd for free, Buy a certain amount and get a certain # of shirts free

By using the minimum $ required for each coupon, you can do something like this. For example, if your shirts cost $20 each, you could set a coupon with a minimum purchase amount of $20 and make the coupon 20% off and then market it as a "Buy 1 get 20% off". You could do the same with a buy 2 get the third for free by setting the minimum purchase to $60 and then making a $20 off coupon (which would give them one shirt for free).

^ can these discounts be combined exp: buy 10 get 2 free and enter a coupon code for a 10% discount on total order

I don't think you can combine coupons.

^is there a limit to how many coupons can be available

No

If you have more questions, feel free to email PrintMojo directly (or post them here...but emailing would probably be best).

 

[cam]

Thanks alot Rodney.