Printfection Blog

Drink Up... Coffee Mugs, Aluminum Water Bottles, and Can Coolers Launched!

2009-10-07T18:44:53-06:00

From collapsible can coolers to aluminum water bottles (and every type of mug in-between), Printfection’s new line of drinkware is brewing with possibilities. Starting today, partners can add these six new products to their store(s). Consumers can customize & buy these items too.

We’re proud to offer a wide variety of the most popular styles at prices easy on the wallet. From the classic 11oz mug to the new, trendy aluminum water bottle, our expanded mug assortment also includes a larger 15oz café mug, a stainless steel travel mug, and a sturdy frosted glass beer stein. Prices for a single, full-color drinkware item range from $4.99 to $17.99, the lowest in the industry. Bulk discounts are available on all items.

To celebrate the launch, we’re offering $5 off any drinkware purchase using coupon code DRINKLAUNCH. This is a fabulous opportunity to order an 11oz mug for only $4.99 (normally $9.99) or pickup a can cooler completely FREE! (normally $4.99). Order your own products or promote the coupon code in your store(s). Don’t miss out—this is an incredible deal.

Our lawyers say you must enter coupon code DRINKLAUNCH before completing checkout. Discount is applied to the subtotal and does not include shipping, taxes, or additional charges. Offer valid from 10/07/09 to 10/25/09 11:59 PM MST. This offer may not be combined with any other Printfection promotional or discount offers. Orders placed with this discount may be delayed beyond normal estimated ship dates, no refunds or discounts will be given for orders delayed under this promotion.

AddMerch - The One Button Merchandise Solution

2009-02-05T17:37:30-07:00

Once we finished developing the Printfection API, our thoughts turned to new and interesting ways to use it. When we launched the API we gave you a few ideas how it could be used. From store management to website integration, anything was possible, as long as you had the development skills.

We set out to build something to not only showcase what the API can do, but also give the non-developers among us a way to sell Print-on-Demand merchandise from websites, blogs and especially user generated content sites.

For example, you may have a number of images or photos on your blog that would look great on custom printed merchandise and apparel. This used to mean uploading the images to your Printfection account, setting up sections and products, and finally inserting links back into your blog. Kiss all of these manual steps goodbye.

We just put the finishing touches on our brand new service, AddMerch.

With AddMerch, you can turn any website or blog into a complete Print-on-Demand store by adding a couple of lines of Javascript to your pages or posts. AddMerch automatically puts a button on the page for your visitors to click to buy merchandise with your images. Everything happens right there on your page. The shopper never leaves your store until they are ready to check out, which happens on your own private label checkout pages. Click the "Buy This Merch" button above to try it out.

AddMerch works anywhere you can use Javascript (even right here on the Printfection Blog) and takes less than 2 minutes to get up and running.

AddMerch has not been designed to replace a current Printfection store, but to provide even broader reach for your Printfection sales efforts. You can use it in conjunction with an existing store, or start a new store just for use with AddMerch.

You can learn all about AddMerch and how to get started using it by watching the video below or visiting AddMerch.com

State of the T-shirt Economy: No Bailout Required

2008-12-19T13:02:20-07:00

As we approach the end of the year, a lot of us are reflecting on 365 days unlike any in recent memory—an unprecedented election, bank bailouts, hundreds of thousands of job cuts, and the worst economic downturn in decades. Being in frequent contact with other business owners, one of the first questions I’m often asked is “How’s the T-shirt Industry nowadays?” My first reaction is always “Well, what do you mean exactly? The normal T-shirt industry or us Print on Demand merchandisers?” What follows next is typically a blank stare.

I go on to explain how the Print on Demand (POD for short) merchandise industry is booming, and how comparing POD to typical t-shirt retailers is like comparing Ford to Toyota. Sure—we both technically sell t-shirts (cars) but we’re nothing alike. One of us needs a bail-out, while the other is rapidly gaining ground winning over new customers.

Sure, times are tough. Nobody can deny the economy is in a recession. Everyone has to work a bit harder for the sale, but things are still good over here on the POD side of the fence. Even in these tough economic times, the POD industry is still growing like a weed. Our little ecosystem has some mighty fertile soil. I believe this can be attributed to the fact Print on Demand merchandise is reasonably priced and has an extremely high perceived value. The one-two t-shirt punch!

First, people still love to buy things. I have no idea why, but people just can’t seem to put their credit cards away (one in seven Americans carries 10 or more of them) and cash still burns holes through the pocketbook—even when the economy is underwater. I know all of the armchair economists out there are calling me out on this right about now. “How can you be in a recession if people are still buying things? Isn’t the definition of a recession basically the fact people have stopped purchasing things? If so, POD must be hurting, right?” Well, not exactly.

People are still buying things, they’re just buying less. Less of what, you ask? Big-ticket luxury items. In these troubled times, it doesn’t make much sense for most of us to buy a new sports car or go on a lavish vacation. We’re cutting back, but we still want to feel good about ourselves and our lives. Quite the predicament, considering shopping is one of the most popular feel-good activities around. If I can’t afford the new sports car, what am I to do? How about buy a personalized t-shirt with my dream car plastered on the front of it in perfect detail. My exact custom color scheme, the wheels I picked out, everything down to the last detail. This is possible with POD, and is a great example of why our industry is booming. People are trading in the actual sports car for a picture of the sports car plastered on a T-shirt.

Putting a representation of your favorite hobby, item, or activity onto clothing is nothing new. Sports car t-shirts have been around since the cars themselves were invented! What’s different about Print on Demand merchandise is the extreme level of customization and personalization baked in for free. It doesn’t cost anything extra to print the purchaser’s exact car configuration, even if there are 500,000 sports car combinations possible! When you combine POD machinery with a layer of computing technology on top, the result is a piece of merchandise with a much higher perceived value to the purchaser with no additional cost to the seller. If anyone in our industry needs a bail-out, it’s going to be the traditional printing companies stuck in their analog ways, printing the same-old sports car t-shirts they’ve always been printing, selling to the same-old wholesale accounts.

The one-two t-shirt punch of a reasonably priced product with a much higher perceived value is the main reason Print on Demand merchandisers are rapidly gaining ground over their traditional counterparts. In these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re providing your customers with heaps of value at a reasonable price point. You can’t afford to be like everyone else. Differentiation is one of the keys to survival. Just because Detroit did it one way for the past 100 years doesn’t mean you should follow in their footsteps. Sweeping changes are happening everywhere we look. Car companies, banks, and yes—even our little world of custom merchandise is being transformed. When we emerge from, and look back on The Great Economic Downturn of 2008 I can assure you a Print on Demand bailout will not be on the record books.

Last Chance Holiday Deals

2008-12-18T16:18:47-07:00

Today is the last day to take advantage of the Two Day shipping for the price of Standard. For the last few days of the Holiday Shopping Season, we are offering 20% off all orders over $25.00. To take advantage of this promotion make sure to enter in coupon code 08HOLIDAY at time of check out. This promotion will run from December 19, 12:00 am to December 21, 11:59 pm. Happy Shopping!

Holiday Shipping Deals

2008-12-15T16:39:14-07:00

We ended our FREESHIP08 coupon yesterday, December 14 and extended our Standard shipping deadlines until tonight at midnight. Starting tomorrow, December 16 through December 18 we will be offering our Two-Day shipping option for the price of Standard shipping. This discount will automatically be calculated, all you need to do is select Two Day shipping before checking out. We're eliminating the coupon code for this deal for some last minute shopping for the Holidays.

Printfection Design Tips - Making good color selections

2008-12-05T14:38:52-07:00

At Printfection.com we offer over 212 unique color combinations across our product range. With all those choices, it can often be a tough decision for product creators to answer the question: "What colors should I offer my designs on?" The simplest thing to do is to select all color options, but the truth of the matter is not all images look good on all colors. Even some of us here at Printfection are guilty of feeling overwhelmed by the color selection. Placing our logo on a black shirt is one of our very own bad design decisions, the Printfection logo is hidden somewhere on the this shirt to the left.

Some designers can get confused about the difference between dark classified products and light classified products. The big difference is that our light printing process does not contain any white ink. If you place an image containing white on a light classified shirt, the white does not print, the color of the shirt shows instead. This is great if you just have a white box around your image that you do not want to show up, and less than spectacular if the majority of your image is white.

The printing process that we use injects the the ink directly into the fibers of the shirt, therefore the color of the shirt can greatly influence the end look of your product. A great example is the orange shirt containing the Printfection P Logo below. The logo is usually blue with a white t-shirt in the middle, but place it on an orange t-shirt and you get an orange tint and an orange t-shirt. A great rule of thumb is that what is represented on the preview is a good indication of what will be printed.

One of the common reason items are returned by customers is that the customer ordered a t-shirt, not expecting it to be tinted orange or have almost invisible writing. Therefore selecting good colors for your products can have a great impact on your sales success.

While at first, the decision may seem daunting regarding color selection, those few extra moments evaluating colors can often make the difference between an okay product and a spectacular one.

New and improved Checkout for even better conversion rate

2008-12-03T16:13:32-07:00

As part of our ongoing improvement program, Printfection has launched another advancement to our service-- a greatly improved checkout process.

Starting right now, customers will find it much easier to checkout:

We no longer require visitors to create an account prior to making a purchase
The first checkout page visitors see contains all of the information for their order, including the following new features:
- Shipping options and the price of each shipping method
- Complete summary of the shopping cart contents
- A place to enter a coupon code
General usability tweaks and implementation of various e-commerce shopping cart best-practices
A new checkout progress bar so visitors always know where they are and what to expect next during the checkout process

When you put this together with Printfection myBrand, we are able to offer our partners one of the best Print-on-Demand eCommerce solutions available today.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve the way we do things for our partners. Our primary goal is to help make things easier and more profitable for our thousands of partners, as well as give our partners the greatest chance of developing a profitable revenue stream through the sales of custom Print-on-Demand merchandise and apparel. Why not subscribe to the Printfection Blog via RSS or get updates via e-mail to keep up to date with our advancements? There’s more to come shortly!

Holiday Order Deadlines

2008-12-02T13:46:05-07:00

Below are the order deadlines for domestic shipping to receive your package in time for the Christmas Holiday, December 25:

Shipping Option	Order Date (Place By)*	Estimated Transit Time
Super Saver	December 9	5 to 6 Business Days
Standard	December 14	1 to 5 Business Days
Two-Day	December 18	2 Business Days
One-Day	December 21	1 Business Day

*Must be placed by 11:59 pm

If you have questions or concerns regarding your order please feel free to contact our customer service at support@printfection.com or call 866-459-7990.

Coupon Updates

2008-11-26T11:41:53-07:00

To kick off our Holiday Season with a bang, we are currently offering FREE Super Saver and Standard shipping on all orders of $40 or more, excluding taxes and shipping. To take advantage of these savings add the coupon code FREESHIP08 to your shopping cart at time of checkout.

This coupon will be available from Saturday, November 15 to Sunday, December 14, 2008. This offer is only available for addresses delivering within the United States. After much use and love we have discontinued the GrandOpening5 coupon as of November 15. For all of our store owners, please make sure to update your banners and store fronts.

Introducing Printfection myBrand - total control to grow your brand

2008-11-24T22:56:27-07:00

We promised you exciting things were brewing here at Printfection, the latest innovation being Printfection myBrand. Using myBrand, any Printfection partner can white-label their entire store, checkout, and delivery experience. This is the most powerful and feature-rich solution in the Print-on-Demand industry for building your brand and improving your conversion rate—in turn making you more money! Printfection myBrand gives our partners complete control over the customer experience in three main areas:

In-Store Experience

Ability to remove the Printfection header bar from your store, including the Printfection logo
Easier for customers to contact the partner/ store owner directly with the new custom Contact/ Help URL for general inquiries
Revised in-store Help Center
Contact forms carrying your branding

Checkout Experience

Customize the logo, background image, and color scheme
Choose your own font
Return customers to your own URL after checkout

Delivery Experience

Send order confirmation emails with your own “From” name and your business/ store name displayed prominently in the email body
Add your own footer to the emails
Display your logo on packing slips and shipping labels

FAQs:

Q: Why is this important?
A: Simply put, myBrand provides your customers with an improved shopping experience. Customers will never know you’re using a third-party fulfilment company. Besides the superior overall experience, one of our main goals in developing myBrand is to increase your conversion rate, giving your customers the confidence to buy from you and your brand. Solid branding will also mean a better chance of repeat business. When the customer receives their merchandise with your branding and logo on the packaging, you are sure to make a lasting impression.

Better yet, when you combine myBrand with the Developer Platform & API, you can create your own completely customized experience from your own URL.

Q: How much does Printfection myBrand cost?
A: Right now, there's no cost to use Printfection myBrand, which makes myBrand a terrific value and a fantastic opportunity to build your brand. Printfection myBrand is available to all of our partners.

Q: How can I get started with Printfection myBrand?
A: Existing Customers: Login to your Printfection account & click on your Store Name > Store Settings > myBrand. If you don’t see the myBrand option on your store settings page, enable a custom theme first.

New Customers: Create a Printfection account free of charge. After you create your account, create a store, select a custom theme, and now you’re ready to configure your myBrand options!