In today’s world everything is online. So why shouldn’t we use online stores for custom apparel?

                Ordering apparel for a large or even a small group of people can be difficult. Traditionally order forms are used, and you end up spending more time chasing people down for their order form and money. Sometimes order forms are torn up so bad they are barely legible and even get lucky once and awhile with a nice roll of quarters as a form of payment. With the online custom store front we take all of that out of the equation. We set up your own online store front that allows anyone in your group to purchase apparel. All you need to do is share a link that will be provided to you with anyone that will be purchasing the apparel and let us do the rest.

1. Getting Started. The first stage of the online store is not any different from getting a bulk order placed with WolfDog Printing. You send us what you are looking to have printed and what you would like them printed on. We supply you with a project estimate and continue from there. With our experience in the custom apparel industry and setting up online store fronts we can tell you if a store front will be the best fit for you or if a regular bulk order will better fit your needs.

2. Cost. The online store does take a little more time to set up than a traditional bulk order. All custom apparel orders do have a set up cost and, in this case, we just simply average the set-up costs into the per piece price. No upfront charges are added unless we have added more items/designs than the number allowed in a general setup.

3. Printed designs and line items. There will be a limit to the number of designs and items available in the online store for the general setup cost. Each design will be allowed 4 different items to be available in the online store. (for example) 1 full front design will be available for purchase on t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, crew neck sweatshirts and a hooded sweatshirt. We can add any item you would like in the store and does not have to be the items listed above. However, if the design changes due to the nature of the blank garment, then that item will be considered to have a new design. A flat rate fee of $35 per hour will be added to the setup for any added designs or more than 4 garments getting 1 design. We do offer a more versatile option for online stores that operates on a seasonal/year round basis. However this does require considerable planning to make sure we are offering the best options for your  custom apparel.   

4. Duration of open online store. One thing that is a common misconception with online stores is that we can keep them open all year long and just sell items whenever people want them. While theoretically we are able to keep them open but, doing so will not help the cost per item or get more sales through the year. If you think about it even in retail stores, they try not to keep any items on their shelves for more than a given amount of time. Any real-estate in a physical store needs to make money. That is where we get the phrase in retail business “moving items.” Online stores are very much the same. Although it does not cost anything to keep the stores open and there are no physical items sitting on a shelf, we do still need to keep the items moving. In the world of custom apparel, the more you order the less per piece they will cost. We can do this because the more items ordered the more, we can spread out the costs for producing these items. If we open a store and we estimate there will be 50 items sold. We will give each item a bulk price representing 50 items. If less than 50 items are sold, then the cost of producing these items goes up and WolfDog printing will just be spinning our wheels. Same goes for keeping the online stores open throughout the year. If we sell 50 items in one month, we are able to make up the costs in a shorter amount of time  and keep producing these items. If sell only 2 items in the next month, we are actually spending money to produce the items. We keep online stores open for no longer than 2 weeks at a time. This does include year round options we have for different organizations taking advantage of the seasonal stores but, as mentioned above there is some considerable planning involved when utilizing that optinon.  

5. Fundraising. The online store offers opportunities for programs and or organizations to make money from the sales of their items with the online stores. This is acceptable, and we are glad to provide a check at the end of the sale totaling the profits from each item sold. We will provide a price for the wholesale cost of the item, but you will be responsible for determining the additional profit per item.

6. Fulfilment and branded apparel. Online stores help with reaching and selling your branded items to more people. However, WolfDog stores are not designed for print on demand fulfillment.