Online Designer

[DavidNY]

I'm considering adding an online design page to my website. i have looked at InkSoft and Opentshirts.

I am very interested to hear from those using this type of program.....has it brought you additional work? (if you marketed the design page)

Seems a fair investment, but wondering, feedback, on actual customer usage or new customer acquisition.

Thanks in advance;

[Dottonedan]

I know nothing about them, but I thought Open Shirts was free. No?

[blue moon]

open T has few small issues they are resolving, but should be usable and the cost is minimal. The art available for purchase is a little dated and while there is quite a bit of it, it is not enough. We had it for a while (when it was just released few years back) and in the end there was very little interest so we shut it down.

Inksoft offers much much more, but as of right now I don't know anybody who has had any level of success with it. Few I know shut it down after a year without generating a single sale!

pierre

[Frog]

Inksoft offers much much more, but as of right now I don't know anybody who has had any level of success with it. Few I know shut it down after a year without generating a single sale!

pierre

Always interesting to hear of the lack of actual use along with the constant reports of it being New Mexico's fastest growing company.

[Dottonedan]

I am sure they produce other things, but an online designer is an attractive idea. Just wish people would prefer to use it more often when searching local. My guess is that the % of customers that actuall do go thru the process is very low...like 1 out of 100 customers until you become known as the website for this kind of process. Locally, they may know they can just call you and get it done better directly in their opinion.

Now, I would imagine it's all about how much you promote your online business. Those that do heavily, increase that % greatly. If you don't promote, they don't come.Think of the big names of online custom websites and compare or research what they are doing. custom ink used to do almost 0 tv ads. After their big investment, they boosted marketing to TV.  I'm sure they are still building.  Until the recent major investment by tee spring, I rarely heard of them. They must have been in the top 5 google searches daily. Not to mention another area people are end to overlook is the advertising in other search engines. Everyone thinks Google is the only one to use. Even more so, the small banner ad (side panel) ads. Then, i"m sure they all do other things. In addition to search engine ads.


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[Frog]

Though, I imagine that indeed, Inksoft as a company could also be producing and selling the heck out of products other than their online designer software, my point is more the image in my own twisted brain like the (unlikely) scenario in which Jaguar would be named the fastest growing car company in the US in the '60's, but almost all owners interviewed reported that their cars were in the garage, not running. As if, either the word did not spread, or the appeal was still so great to not be affected by the user reports.

The other possibility of course, is that business growth in New Mexico is almost stagnant.

[Dottonedan]

The other possibility of course, is that business growth in New Mexico is almost stagnant. :-

I'm sure that could be a big factor. Another factor is that the online designer programs are indeed attractive,  just like so many companies that do so well who (cater to the new shops). If you are selling one of the start up items a shop might need, it's a never ending customer base of people ordering things they may not use a few years later. Everyone wants an online program and to do nothing but take in orders with art prepared. So sales might continue and never decrease. If the product is one of the best, and most advertised, then it's not to far to see that it can be Mexico"s fastest growing business.


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[mk162]

there is a ton of setup in inksoft...a ton.  it's by no means plug and play.  I know several people that have tried it but it never worked for them.

we are toying with open-t right now.  I like it so far, we don't have ours ready yet to go live.

there are some decent ones out there for not a huge amount

[DavidNY]

Interesting.
I think that if you did offer the online design program you would want to promote it aggressively.
It would be a mistake to assume that by simple having it would increase sales. If you don't inform people, why bother?
The attraction, for the screen printer, is that possibly people would use it and that might reduce some art time.
However it seems everyone wants things faster if not instantly. So i dont know if they would bother to take the time to work up a design online. It's easier for them to just leave that to the print shop designer.
I was thinking that perhaps offering a pricing discount for orders placed through the online design program might be am incentive.
Hoping others that offer it will comment during the work week.
Perhaps it it's more of a gimmick thing, or at least needs aggressive marketing to get any use from it

[middletownink]

I started with Inksoft in Nov. There is in fact a ton of back end work. We launched the site Jan 1. What I did was just start with the basic Gildan line only because I'm more familiar with the shirt colors and could easily delete the discontinued ones. The work that is involved is no different then starting your own business though. You need to set your pricing, products, turn around time. I did discover some short cuts that will make adding products later much faster.
As far as advertising it we started that back in November. We have had a lot of traffic to the site so far. I did a "beta" release to a group of customers that I picked because they were either computer savy or total idiots. And both groups were about to use the site with out questions. Also what I did for customers that order on a regular bases was upload there artwork and they are now able to design a shirt and save it and process the order themselves. They pay for it up front!!  I have also created the order for customers inside the design studio and add the order to the cart email them the cart and all they do is pay for it.

All of that is great but I have encountered some issues and I have to say I'm not impressed with the support so far. The ones that I get dont seem to know more than the online tutorials. Everything gets moved to "Tier 2" and then I just sit and wait. I'm kinda loosing my patience so by the end of this week I may be happy with Inksoft or exploring other avenues!!

[TCT]

We have had inksoft for probably 4 years or so, and have never had it go live. The amount of work on the back end is staggering. We also have never been able to make the pricing jive with what you would get quoted if you called up or emailed. Could it work and be of a benefit? Yes, just will take some solid set up time and like Dan said you have to really market it well.
One nice thing about it is the designing app can be loaded on your site you already have, that way you don't have to use one of their cookie cutter templates/sites. But there goes some more time!

Frog- I could be wrong, but I seem to remember on a email or something that they are now headquartered of of AZ. Tempe maybe? Or the below zero weather here has gotten to me and that is just my subconscious telling me something!

[Frog]

Frog- I could be wrong, but I seem to remember on a email or something that they are now headquartered of of AZ. Tempe maybe? Or the below zero weather here has gotten to me and that is just my subconscious telling me something!

They do now list a Tempe address, but also released this last August
http://www.inksoft.com/inksoft-honored-by-albuquerque-journal-printwear/

[TCT]

Frog- I could be wrong, but I seem to remember on a email or something that they are now headquartered of of AZ. Tempe maybe? Or the below zero weather here has gotten to me and that is just my subconscious telling me something!

They do now list a Tempe address, but also released this last August
http://www.inksoft.com/inksoft-honored-by-albuquerque-journal-printwear/

Probably got the award and signed the new lease in the same day!

[whitewater]

What may need to happen with an online designer is make one that you can use on a mobile phone.. Do they do that yet?

Most of our customers are doing everything by phone. They approve mocks and everything else on a phone. So maybe the reason for a shop having no sales through inksoft is because of that. The customer does not want to go to a computer.

Just a thought.

[CSPGarrett]

We have been to Inksoft twice and left twice (started with them back when it first came out, wasted 3 months of time during college designing it and then left since it didn't work properly).  Heard it got better and came back about 6 month's ago, left shortly after.  It takes a lot of time to set it up and is usually best handled by hiring a programmer outside the company to do much of the coding and such.

The other thing you must really think about is the customer base you are trying to go after.  The market is currently swamped with online stores such as this that allow people to price hunt, design, and buy compared to 2004-2007 where there was just CustomInk and a hand full of companies coming out of the wood work.

I think it can work, but at the same time we always found that most people were shopping around on it, dropping off during checkout, or bouncing within the first few minutes.  I think using it as just an online designer can be much more beneficial than going after the full e-commerce style.  That is just our thoughts, but we have used a few different ones (deco included) and never found the ability even with my coding skills to get the sites looking and pricing just right to compete with some of the larger capital backed companies.