Products for my eCommerce store! Part 2

As stated in my previous post I am now going to be outlining what products I will utilise within my eCommerce store using print on demand manufacturers. The company I have outlined that I would like to work with is called “Printify”. This company has many manufacturing firms all over the world allowing me to produce goods in multiple locations in the world regardless of my personal location. To begin with I have decided to sell to America as conversion rates for this country is much higher than other countries across the world. America’s citizens are passionate about buying goods they have an emotional reaction to and have the disposable income to fulfil their impulses.

What does this have to do with selecting products? Because I will only be selling goods to America, I can only design and sell products that are available to be manufactured by Printify manufacturers based in the states. Certain products are only made abroad in countries such as china (which is not ideal as we will run into the same problems as drop shipping). Therefore, the context of where my target demographic will be based is very relevant for my design process.

Printing Manufacturers

When visiting the Printify.com website you can navigate through their catalogue and change the options to search by manufacturer. Out of all the manufacturers that are available there are 8 that are based in the united states all othering a myriad of printed goods. Rather than listing each service provider I have decided to list what goods are available so that I may select and narrow down my choices to begin to decision making process.

The products that are available to be manufactured are:

The full list above contains 35 different possible options that I may choose from regarding potential product creation solely based in the United States. This is a comprehensive list of options but as stated previously it has been recommended that I only need 20 products for the launch of my store resulting in an excess of options. This is to be expected however as many options such as the beach towel may be more of a seasonal option than a staple for my store.

Which options will I choose?

My next goal within this store creation process is to take my 35 potential options and narrow it down to 20 product choices. Although I won’t be able to know for definite what products will sell without testing them in the market, I can make some rational assumptions as I go forward.

What do I mean by rational assumptions? What I mean for example: it may not be a good idea to launch my store selling leggings as this product typically is difficult to get the sizing right for the customer. Therefore, I’m likely going to have a lot of people trying to return them or change their size which will be a headache that nobody needs.

After some deliberation I narrowed down my 35 options down to 20. Here are the following 20 options that I have decided to use as a starting point for my store:

1. Cotton crew t-shirt
2. Full-zipped hooded sweatshirt
3. Hooded sweatshirt
4. Heavy blend crewneck sweatshirt
5. DTG socks
6. Tote bag
7. Polyester square pillow
8. Sherpa fleece blanket
9. Women’s t-shirt dress
10. Women’s skater skirt
11. Duvet cover
12. Weekend bag
13. Accessory pouch
14. Duffel bag
15. Apron
16. Backpack
17. Regular mugs
18. Stainless steel mugs
19. Phone cases
20. Custom pin buttons

I believe that this selection is a good range of options that will give variety when a customer comes to my store. These products will also have a multiple different price points giving me the opportunity to test front end products as well as a have many up-sell potentials with back end products.

Conclusion: What’s next?

Now that I have made the decision regarding what inventory I will sell on my website I now need to design the prints and visual aesthetic of each piece. Before I can do this, I must first plan what kind of designs I am going to need for each product. In some cases, I can use the same design or re-colours of a design across multiple formats reducing the workload required for launch.

After taking considerable time to assess the products I have made the initial assessment that I will need 13 different designs across my 20 products. Breaking this down further I will need 1 Square design, 4 rectangular (A3 shape) designs, 2 badge designs, and 6 seamless patterns. The square design is needed to go on the tote bag. The rectangular designs are standard for t-shirts, sweatshirts, and jumpers. The badge designs will be needed for the pin button badges as well as for the zipped hoodies chest. And finally, the most important one the seamless patterns will be used on everything from the Sherpa quilts, the bed-sheets, to the socks.

To conclude the next step in my process is to create a short design brief for myself in regards to the 13 designs I will need to develop as well as begin the idea generation process and research stage of my design method.