Where Have all the Daily/Weekly Tee Sites Gone?

Last year it seemed like a half dozen or so Daily/Weekly T-Sites sprung up based on models identical similar to Teefury or Threadless. Many of them were promising – with slight tweaks on the model, good site designs and wealth of great designs from talented artists.

Then the 2009 holiday hit and when we returned from trimming our trees and opening our gifts, more than one of these sites were closed indefinitely, and a few (like Cameesa and ShirtFight) have been working to shift tweak their business model even before then.

If you look closer, you’ll start to see a larger story emerge – the ones that are now closed were suffering from production and delivery issues. Others, we suspect, were suffering from an identity crisis and were having a hard time differentiating themselves enough to stand out and make sales.

So what’s the lesson here?

For anyone starting a clothing line or t-shirt site in 2010 (or just re-imagining an existing one) here’s a few important things to remember:

• Find what’s unique about your business and then tell everyone.
  When you’re not the first to market, you have to sell your differences. Is it better designs, better customer support, a better experience? Whatever your unique angle is, find a way to make it the centerpoint of your site, your pitch, and all your advertising campaigns.
• Get it right the first time.
  It’s easier to build a great reputation than to come back and repair a mediocre one. The sites that have actually closed down will lose significant amounts of momentum. For users who had a bad experience, it will be a hard sell to convince them to come back.
• Guarantee your supply lines.
  The time to test your infrastructure is BEFORE your site launches. Make sure your printer can handle an order of 20000 just as easily as 20. Make sure your suppliers are well-known and your garments aren’t facing shortages. Make sure your system for distribution works for 10 or 1000. In order to ensure successful growth you have to anticipate it. In other words, act big before you are big.
• Focus on customer support from day one.
  In many ways, good customer support is almost more important than anything else when it comes to your business. Even on the internet, word of month is the most powerful promotional tool. If someone has a good experience with your site and with your customer support, they’ll tell 10 friends. If they have a bad experience they will tell 20 friends and twitter about it to all 300 of their followers.
• Get ahead of problems.
  If the worst happens and you suddenly find that you can’t ship your product when promised, or your supplier is back-ordered 10 weeks on your favorite t-shirt brand, don’t stick your head in the sand.Communicate the problem clearly and right away with any affected customers and then offer them something to try and make it right: their design on a different brand of shirt but delivered on time, a 20% off coupon on their next order, or a refund if they want it.

  And then fix the problem so it doesn’t happen again.