Frequently Asked Questions
Do You Integrate with Shopify?
Yes! Integration with Shopify is our preferred method and is super simple and easy.
How Long Does The Integration Process Take?
The integration process itself takes about a 30-45 minute phone call with one of our integration specialists. Integration can also be completed almost entirely on your own by following along with our setup videos on YouTube, that you can find here:
YouTube Playlist - T-Shirt Storm Integration
How Long Does It Take To Get My Store Running Through You Guys?
Technically, we can be integrated with your store and beginning to fulfill orders within about 45 minutes. There is some backend work that you'll need to do on your store in order to be fully up and running, but the more motivated you are to get rockin' and rollin', the faster you can be up and selling.
Are There Any Upfront Costs?
Yes, we are not a free service and we do have a monthly membership fee. Membership is $69.99/mo for our Brand Fulfillment Package.
Also, there can be other upfront costs that depend your level of development/progress and how much we need to help you get going:
WEBSTORE BUILDS:
If we are building your webstore for you (on our platform or Shopify), the typical cost for us to build your webstore ranges from $1200 to $2000. As of 2/19/24, however, we are not offering any full website builds except in rare circumstances.
BRANDING PACKAGE:
Then, there can be materials costs associated with the level of branding that you choose for your products. The FULL branding package includes custom branded neck labels ($75 set up and $2ea for application), 500 (2.5 x 5.5) hangtags ($50), and 500 (4x6) flyers ($130) that go on each shirt and/or in each package. You can choose to have all 3 elements of the Branding Package, or any combination of the 3 elements. We suggest doing AT LEAST the interior neck labels as that is the first and most important step in making your t-shirt company look like an actual brand, instead of just someone printing graphics on t-shirts. The application of a retail hangtag on each product and the inclusion of a flyer (content of your choice) into each package are included in the monthly membership - we do not charge an extra per piece price to apply those items. We do charge $2 per garment for the application of a custom interior neck label. The materials cost of the branding package is completely up to your budget, and are recurring as your materials are depleted. All 3 of these elements typically add only about .50 to the hard cost of each product.
To summarize, you can get started with us for as little as $69.99 per month if you already have your designs ready to rock, you have your webstore built and you forego any branding materials. Or, you can get all they way up to hundreds or thousands of dollars in costs if we are building you a webstore and you're doing all elements of the branding package. Call us today to speak with one of our brand specialists to discuss what will be best for you! We can give you an idea of startup costs within just a few minutes on the phone and after answering a couple of questions...
How Do I Get Charged?
MEMBERSHIP FEES:
Your first month of membership is charged when you sign up, but then we don't charge you again until the 1st of the SECOND month after signup. For example, if you sign up on March 17th, we don't charge you the $69.99 again until May 1st. Then, your monthly membership is charged on the 1st day of each month thereafter. We are a month-to-month service with no long term contracts and a 30 day membership cancellation window.
FULFILLMENT FEES:
If you've built your own webstore on a third party platform, then you'll be paid out for your orders through your websites/platforms, and then you'll pay us from those funds for the services that we complete for you. We will send you an invoice with a secure and easy-to-use payment link each week along with an itemized listing that details out the costs of the items that were fulfilled during the previous week. If no orders were fulfilled during the previous week, then no invoice will be sent.
If we've built your webstore on our in-house platform, we pay out on the fifteenth of the month for all sales that cleared in the previous month. A sale "clears" five days after we ship it. We can pay out via PayPal or we can send you a check - whichever method you prefer.
How Do I Make Money With T-shirt Storm?
Each item sold on your website that we fulfill has a base price (which can be found in our Fulfillment Pricing section). For example, t-shirts printed on one side starts at $18 so anything you charge over that base price is your profit. The base price includes the garment with your design printed on it. This base price does not include shipping costs. More information on how shipping costs work can be found in the section below, and for more information on pricing, see our pricing page.
I Already Have A Webstore or I'm in the process of building one - Can T-Shirt Storm Integrate Into My Existing Site?
Absolutely! The most elegant solution in this case is for you to build your webstore on Shopify. Once you've done that, we then have an actual person who sits in our offices that will log into your Shopify store every day using a "Staff Account" (we will help you set that up). Your orders will be downloaded every day, printed out and then sent straight to our production department for fulfillment. A similar arrangement can occur if your site is built on another platform like Squarespace, Wix, WooCommerce, etc... But the absolute best platform for this type of integration (and in general) is Shopify, and as of February 19th, 2024 we are ONLY accepting Shopify websites for integration. However, there ARE some special requirements when creating your products on Shopify in order for us to properly integrate our services - we will teach you how to do all of it and also be there for support along the way. So, if you're just starting out with your Shopify store, don't make a bunch of products until you sign up with us and work with our team to learn exactly how to set up products so that WE can handle the fulfillment. If you've already got a Shopify store set up with products, no worries! We can walk you through the simple steps of adjusting those products so that T-Shirt Storm can handle fulfillment of those items. Call us today to sign up and get going!
Who Pays For Shipping/Handling And Sales Tax?
If you've built your own webstore on Shopify then you are in control of exactly how much you charge your customers for shipping. Those platforms have very sophisticated systems that allow you to select from any number of different shipping options and charges your customers at the time of checkout for whichever shipping option they choose. As we login to your account to fulfill orders, we will be shipping from your account based on the options selected by your customers and your platform of choice will then be charging your account for those shipping costs.
If we build your webstore on OUR platform, then things operate largely the same way: your customer will pay for shipping/handling fees at checkout. Our proprietary cloud-based system is integrated directly to the United States Postal Service via Stamps.com. Your webstore will charge your customer shipping based on the weight and volume of each order in real time according to current published shipping rates. Shipping fees are calculated once the customer inputs their shipping address in the checkout process. As per current Sate and Federal requirements, sales tax is only charged to customers who are purchasing from the same state in which T-Shirt Storm operates. So, as of October 2018, only residents of the state of California are required to pay sales tax on orders through your webstore.
Are There Any Minimums? What Happens If I Only Sell A Few Items?
No, there are absolutely no minimums. Since we don't print anything until it sells, you have no inventory risk! The individual costs of each item sold pays for us to produce it, and you have zero out-of-pocket expenses for inventory. The number of shirts you sell is directly related to the size/engagement of your audience, and how much effort you put into getting the word out about your webstore and create designs that people want to buy and wear! How much you sell is up to you, but if you sign up with us and you sell ONE item, we will absolutely make sure that it gets produced and shipped to your customer!
Can I Track Sales, Earnings, Customers And Orders?
Of course! If you are a Shopify client (or you have built your own webstore on another platform like Wix, Squarespace, etc) then you always have access to your own site, and since we're using YOUR account to do all order fulfillment, then you always have access to the states of completion of each or your orders! Shopify and other platforms have extremely robust reporting systems so that you can track all sales, traffic, customers, orders etc...
If we've built your webstore on OUR platform, we provide you with private administrative login information into the backend of your webstore. There, you can track all sales, earnings, website traffic, customers and orders in real time. You can also make changes to your webstore/products (Although we DO suggest a quick tutorial with us on how the backend works if you decide you'd like to do any of this). Our system provides you with absolutely 100% transparency, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Are There Any Limits To The Number Of Items I Can Have Linked to T-Shrit Storm Fulfillment At Any Given Time?
No, there are no limits! You can have as many items on your webstore as you'd like - the sky is the limit and you can really see just how far your imagination can stretch. However, we do suggest that focused and staged rollouts are the best strategy for sales. Launching collections, periodically removing non-selling items, limited edition items and creating a curated offering keeps your webstore fresh. Also, launching new products and collections gives you a good point of contact for your audience and an excuse to reach out to your fanbase with the exciting news!
DESIGN, PRINT AND PRODUCT INFORMATION
What Type Of Art/Image Files Do I Need To Provide?
Files should be sent as native Photoshop files (.PSD), editable .PDFs or Illustrator files (.AI or .EPS) and on a transparent background. Resolution should be 150 to 300 dpi (300 preferred) and on a canvas that is 16 x 20 inches with an actual print size no larger than 15.5 x 19 inches. Full size 16 x 20 inch PNG's are OK as well, as long as they are on a transparent background and between 150-300 dpi resolution. You can send files to us via Dropbox links or send files via wetransfer.com. Before sending files, view them at 100 to ensure there is no blurriness or pixelation. Our state-of-the-art printing technology prints pixel-perfect data which means high resolution full size images look beautiful, but it also means that imperfections in the artwork will be printed as well.
How do I send my art files and mockups to T-Shirt Storm?
Create a Google Drive and put ALL of your mockups and art files into the Drive, then share access to the drive with art@tshirtstorm.com. When we need your art files, we'll simply go to your Google Drive and grab them!
What's A Standard Sized Print & What's An Oversized Print?
Our standard print size is 14in. x 16in. and our oversized print is anything larger than this with a maximum print size of 15.5 in. x 19.5 in.
How Many Colors Can I Have In My Design?
The number of colors in your designs is unlimited! At T-Shirt Storm we are using state-of-the-art printing technology that can capture incredibly fine detail, seamlessly replicate difficult gradients and accomplish printed t-shirts that were thought to be impossible with traditional methods of t-shirt printing. You will be absolutely blown away by the incredibly high quality of our prints.
How Good Is Your Print Quality?
Our print quality is as high as it gets! We have mastered the process of DTG printing where we can confidently guarantee that each item we print is retail quality when it ships to your customer. We use the best inks, printers and pretreats to ensure that colors are vibrant and opaque. As well, we have rigorously torture- tested our process and guarantee that our prints will last over 100+ washes.
How Good Is The Quality Of Your Blanks? Do You Have Any Fabric Limitations?
At T-Shirt Storm, we only print on the best garments. T-shirts are 30 or 40/single combed and ringspun fabric, side-seamed (as opposed to cheaper tubular construction), super soft and fashion fitting. Simply stated, we only print on the quality of t-shirts that we love to wear, and we spare no expense when it comes to the quality of our garments. Hoodies are midweight and more fashion-fitted as well - not oversized and bulky like some cheaper brands. Fabrics are limited to cotton-rich fabrics and our printing output is absolutely the best quality on 100% cotton, so we stay in that lane as much as possible. We can print with beautiful success on 60% cotton /40% polyester heathers but dry-fit and synthetic-rich fabrics are a "no fly zone" for the DTG process. However, new advancements in DTF (Direct to Film) make it possible for us to decorate on polyester garments with tremendous success as well - ask us about DTF!
What Styles Of Garments Can I Offer On My Webstore?
Currently, we offer a wide range of garments from the most popular blank manufacturing companies: unisex short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirts, ladies/juniors fitted fashion tees, youth short sleeve t-shirts, 3/4 sleeve baseball tees, unisex and ladies/juniors tank tops and pullover hoodies - all in a wide range of colors and sizes. We are constantly searching our local distributors for new bodies and colors and always looking at ways that we can expand our product offering to create even more value for you, our valued clients! Check out our CATALOG PAGE for a more comprehensive list of what we offer.
Where On The Products Can I Print?
Currently, we can print full color graphics on the front and back of the shirt (or both) and also on one or both sleeves; Sleeve prints can also be huge: 16 inches long by 3-5 inches wide max, which is WAY bigger than any of the other POD companies can or will do. However, printing on sleeves is very time consuming, expensive and ONLY available for T-Shirt Storm monthly members. Also, heat transfer logos/graphics in one color can be purchased up-front and applied to sleeves for a small additional fee per item which can be very cost effective depending on the size and design of the sleeve graphic.
How Long Does It Take For You To Ship An Order?
90-95% of our orders process and ship out within 4-6 business days from when the order was received. On occasion, like when we have to order a blank from all the way across the country, that processing time can take 1-4 days longer. We ship via USPS and/or UPS. So, a typical order placed from Texas on Tuesday ships by Friday thru Tuesday and arrives by Tuesday thru Thursday of the following week.
Are There Any Content Restrictions On Designs?
Look, we live by simple rules and believe that your brand should be an open place for expression and a wide variety of messaging. However, that doesn't mean that we will just print ANYTHING on a t-shirt. Be kind and respectful to each other, use your best judgement and don't try to print anything that you don't own, that's pornographic, hateful or overly obscene. At the end of the day, T- Shirt Storm reserves the right to refuse to print a design at our sole discretion.