INow as for a T-shirt design, we could all collaborate upon that. Off the top of my head I would suggest that one side of the garment has some appealing graphics/logos of interest, the reverse side having a ( possibly quick/witty ) phrase and our web address eg. 'Crunch for Einstein' & 'einsteinathome.org'. But I'm just shooting the breeze here.
Any comments on this anyone ?
Cheers, Mike.
Mike, you are a God send! I for one like this idea of drop-shipping, and with you leading the way I am for that too.
We have some ideas already for appealing graphics, and your idea of putting the graphics on the front and text with 'Crunch for Einstein' & 'einsteinathome.org' on the back is also great.
Let us know what Professor Bruce Allen has to say about it.
Thanks for stepping up to the plate!
I think on the back it should have an @ symbol instead of an & symbol as it means "at"
We have some ideas already for appealing graphics, and your idea of putting the graphics on the front and text with 'Crunch for Einstein' & 'einsteinathome.org' on the back is also great.
I think on the back it should have an @ symbol instead of an & symbol as it means "at"
Mikey, read this again closely.
'Crunch for Einstein'
&
'einsteinathome.org'
I think you meant to put the @ sign in 'einstein-[at]-home.org'
He could even leave the '&' sign out, or put in the word 'at', and still put in the '@' sign in like above.
The '&' symbol was my idiom as part of the post, not part of a T-shirt design. :-)
Thinking out loud : To be definite I'm currently examining Shopify as the e-commerce platform ( 'front end' ) and Printful as the drop-shipper ( 'back end' ). Naturally I haven't yet made a decision on that pair. I'm just investigating. It seems that the choice of the two is quite loose however there is tight integration offered in this case.
{ For that matter Printful can do way more than drop-shipping ( they call it Print-On-Demand ) but since this will only be a small operation let's not go into that. }
The money goes like this : a customer goes to a ( yet to be constructed ) web site created under Shopify ie. actual_subdomain_name_here.myshopify.com. They choose a product : size, color and whatnot. They pay by various means but regardless a credit goes ( via a pre-agreed link process ) to a nominated account and the drop-shipper is notified. The drop-shipper produces and ships the product and the account is billed for the service(s) and thus debited with their total costs to do that ( no doubt with a margin for themselves ). Any profit from the transactions is therefore the difference b/w the credit and the debit, this should be non-negative. :-)
However there is a cost from the e-commerce platform, Shopify, in the form of a monthly fee - of the order $30.00 AUD - so that some initial seed is required and obviously some margin in selling T-shirts needs to be obtained to cover that. The rest is market economics. If no one buys enough product then the total process has that recurrent fee as a loss. That would not sustain, pull the plug & shut it all down ( there's no lock-in ). If you sell enough T-shirts at the right price then the process could survive. Of course the more you sell the cheaper the price per item could be offered to the consumer. The trick is to select a sale price to avoid running at a loss vs. keeping the products affordable and thus promote sales.
The obvious risks :
financially this is assigned to whoever holds the account. I could/would initiate/seed and carry that risk, no problemo.
It is also very important not to encroach on anyone's intellectual property without explicit permissions. That includes the E@H name itself, any artworks, any logos etc.
Targeting a specific niche is recommended. For starters I think it's safe to say that no one is currently selling E@H merchandise. That's a plus. The target consumer here would be anyone who is interested in E@H's citizen science computational approach to gravitational astrophysics. That could at least encompass all E@H contributors past or present, various science and technical personnel associated with E@H, and literally anyone else who thinks E@H is a good project irrespective of their level of engagement and even if they are not nerds like us ( list not exhaustive ). I'd look upon the products as 'team icons'.
So I have just watched this half-hour, moderately high pressure lets-drink-the-Kool-Aid type of presentation on Shopify. A real fire hose of info delivered. They want to reveal & demonstrate their functionality by having you sign up with them first. LOL. I resisted.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
The '&' symbol was my idiom as part of the post, not part of a T-shirt design. :-)
Thinking out loud : To be definite I'm currently examining Shopify as the e-commerce platform ( 'front end' ) and Printful as the drop-shipper ( 'back end' ). Naturally I haven't yet made a decision on that pair. I'm just investigating. It seems that the choice of the two is quite loose however there is tight integration offered in this case.
{ For that matter Printful can do way more than drop-shipping ( they call it Print-On-Demand ) but since this will only be a small operation let's not go into that. }
The money goes like this : a customer goes to a ( yet to be constructed ) web site created under Shopify ie. actual_subdomain_name_here.myshopify.com. They choose a product : size, color and whatnot. They pay by various means but regardless a credit goes ( via a pre-agreed link process ) to a nominated account and the drop-shipper is notified. The drop-shipper produces and ships the product and the account is billed for the service(s) and thus debited with their total costs to do that ( no doubt with a margin for themselves ). Any profit from the transactions is therefore the difference b/w the credit and the debit, this should be non-negative. :-)
However there is a cost from the e-commerce platform, Shopify, in the form of a monthly fee - of the order $30.00 AUD - so that some initial seed is required and obviously some margin in selling T-shirts needs to be obtained to cover that. The rest is market economics. If no one buys enough product then the total process has that recurrent fee as a loss. That would not sustain, pull the plug & shut it all down ( there's no lock-in ). If you sell enough T-shirts at the right price then the process could survive. Of course the more you sell the cheaper the price per item could be offered to the consumer. The trick is to select a sale price to avoid running at a loss vs. keeping the products affordable and thus promote sales.
The obvious risks :
financially this is assigned to whoever holds the account. I could/would initiate/seed and carry that risk, no problemo.
It is also very important not to encroach on anyone's intellectual property without explicit permissions. That includes the E@H name itself, any artworks, any logos etc.
Targeting a specific niche is recommended. For starters I think it's safe to say that no one is currently selling E@H merchandise. That's a plus. The target consumer here would be anyone who is interested in E@H's citizen science computational approach to gravitational astrophysics. That could at least encompass all E@H contributors past or present, various science and technical personnel associated with E@H, and literally anyone else who thinks E@H is a good project irrespective of their level of engagement and even if they are not nerds like us ( list not exhaustive ). I'd look upon the products as 'team icons'.
So I have just watched this half-hour, moderately high pressure lets-drink-the-Kool-Aid type of presentation on Shopify. A real fire hose of info delivered. They want to reveal & demonstrate their functionality by having you sign up with them first. LOL. I resisted.
Cheers, Mike.
To increase the possibility of making enough money to stay in business the Shopify people offer not just t-shirts but mugs, hats and other things as well. I'm not saying this should be the main goal but I'm sure people would buy at least some other things as well if given the opportunity.
You're absolutely right. The recommendations I've seen indicate starting with a small range of products, say up to a dozen, and working from there. Printful has about 350 distinct product categories and in detail very many more permutations and options. Put simply, they may do whatever you can print something upon in terms of personal apparel and accessories. Personally I'd like a baseball type cap with a sewn logo on the front and an all over print duffel bag.
The trick to all this is you need not hold any inventory at all. Indeed the vendor may never see and hold any of the products on sale, only as a virtual mock up for display on the commerce site. It is even possible to respond to requests for bespoke items to be generated. It is all very agile.
Also a refund & return policy needs to be formulated and made available with a general terms of service statement. Plus I have to work out how to be taxed : for me I think this would devolve to the Australian law ( a Goods & Services Tax being 10% of the retail price ).
{ Professor Bruce Allen is currently conferencing overseas and is ever so busy, so I'll catch him when he gets back in a few weeks time. }
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) Correction : the drop-shipper is paid in advance of an item's production. So funds from a sale would go to the account then immediately debited ( all automated with pre-arranged behaviours ). In fact there are really two tightly linked accounts from a vendor's viewpoint : one with the e-commerce site and the other with the drop-shipper. You get straight forward accounting statements for both. The business skill is in keeping the former in higher credit than the latter is in debit. :X)
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
The rabbit hole goes deeper : as an example, here is a rendering of what it would look like to have an embroidered logo on some clothing item
which I have derived from the graphic on the upper left top of the page you are viewing now ( it's a PNG with transparency ). Imagine that embroidered onto hats, shirts, socks, bags ... the list just goes on. It took me ten minutes to do that through Printful's design interface, learning from scratch. The digitised image ( common formats ) is converted to a ( proprietary ) machine image file and fed, with a sock say, into a fancy 'sewing machine' that Printful has. I think they can embroider using up to six distinct thread colors, added to the product's base color gives quite a design palette to work with.
What a hoot ! ;-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Here's what the same logo - no color editing this time - could look like* when printed onto a mobile phone case eg. my Samsung Galaxy S23
this being a product mockup ie. it is pure virtual and this is what a prospective buyer might see on the e-commerce site.
{ I'd emphasise that these examples are subject to permission to use the graphic with any products on sale }
To produce an actual phone case this would be achieved via a process known as sublimation printing ( or dye diffusion ) using heat and pressure with the inks in gaseous form.
This might sell for as low as $15 - $20 AUD exclusive of tax and shipping ( but don't hold me to that as I've just roughly estimated that for the sake of discussion ). Again, I would price the products so as to not run at a loss but also be affordable. I'm aiming to not generate any profit but I can't reasonably predict that in advance. Shipping especially is the wildcard because that depends upon the location of the buyer. Some vendors offer 'free' shipping but it isn't really : it is just folded into an item's price anyway, plus a margin to cover sending to obscure locations. Also if you do fold in the shipping price, the consumer may wind up being charged for a value added tax on that component of the price. I'm gonna have to really drill down on tax aspects.
Cheers, Mike.
* I'm operating in a free trial/demo mode with Shopify and Printful.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
GWGeorge007 wrote: Mike
)
I think on the back it should have an @ symbol instead of an & symbol as it means "at"
mikey wrote:GWGeorge007
)
Mikey, read this again closely.
'Crunch for Einstein'
&
'einsteinathome.org'
I think you meant to put the @ sign in 'einstein-[at]-home.org'
He could even leave the '&' sign out, or put in the word 'at', and still put in the '@' sign in like above.
i think that would make more sense.
Proud member of the Old Farts Association
The '&' symbol was my idiom
)
The '&' symbol was my idiom as part of the post, not part of a T-shirt design. :-)
Thinking out loud : To be definite I'm currently examining Shopify as the e-commerce platform ( 'front end' ) and Printful as the drop-shipper ( 'back end' ). Naturally I haven't yet made a decision on that pair. I'm just investigating. It seems that the choice of the two is quite loose however there is tight integration offered in this case.
{ For that matter Printful can do way more than drop-shipping ( they call it Print-On-Demand ) but since this will only be a small operation let's not go into that. }
The money goes like this : a customer goes to a ( yet to be constructed ) web site created under Shopify ie. actual_subdomain_name_here.myshopify.com. They choose a product : size, color and whatnot. They pay by various means but regardless a credit goes ( via a pre-agreed link process ) to a nominated account and the drop-shipper is notified. The drop-shipper produces and ships the product and the account is billed for the service(s) and thus debited with their total costs to do that ( no doubt with a margin for themselves ). Any profit from the transactions is therefore the difference b/w the credit and the debit, this should be non-negative. :-)
However there is a cost from the e-commerce platform, Shopify, in the form of a monthly fee - of the order $30.00 AUD - so that some initial seed is required and obviously some margin in selling T-shirts needs to be obtained to cover that. The rest is market economics. If no one buys enough product then the total process has that recurrent fee as a loss. That would not sustain, pull the plug & shut it all down ( there's no lock-in ). If you sell enough T-shirts at the right price then the process could survive. Of course the more you sell the cheaper the price per item could be offered to the consumer. The trick is to select a sale price to avoid running at a loss vs. keeping the products affordable and thus promote sales.
The obvious risks :
Targeting a specific niche is recommended. For starters I think it's safe to say that no one is currently selling E@H merchandise. That's a plus. The target consumer here would be anyone who is interested in E@H's citizen science computational approach to gravitational astrophysics. That could at least encompass all E@H contributors past or present, various science and technical personnel associated with E@H, and literally anyone else who thinks E@H is a good project irrespective of their level of engagement and even if they are not nerds like us ( list not exhaustive ). I'd look upon the products as 'team icons'.
So I have just watched this half-hour, moderately high pressure lets-drink-the-Kool-Aid type of presentation on Shopify. A real fire hose of info delivered. They want to reveal & demonstrate their functionality by having you sign up with them first. LOL. I resisted.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Interesting, fascinating. I
)
Interesting, fascinating. I think I should spend more time on the message boards instead of Facebook.
Mike Hewson wrote: The '&'
)
To increase the possibility of making enough money to stay in business the Shopify people offer not just t-shirts but mugs, hats and other things as well. I'm not saying this should be the main goal but I'm sure people would buy at least some other things as well if given the opportunity.
You're absolutely right. The
)
You're absolutely right. The recommendations I've seen indicate starting with a small range of products, say up to a dozen, and working from there. Printful has about 350 distinct product categories and in detail very many more permutations and options. Put simply, they may do whatever you can print something upon in terms of personal apparel and accessories. Personally I'd like a baseball type cap with a sewn logo on the front and an all over print duffel bag.
The trick to all this is you need not hold any inventory at all. Indeed the vendor may never see and hold any of the products on sale, only as a virtual mock up for display on the commerce site. It is even possible to respond to requests for bespoke items to be generated. It is all very agile.
Also a refund & return policy needs to be formulated and made available with a general terms of service statement. Plus I have to work out how to be taxed : for me I think this would devolve to the Australian law ( a Goods & Services Tax being 10% of the retail price ).
{ Professor Bruce Allen is currently conferencing overseas and is ever so busy, so I'll catch him when he gets back in a few weeks time. }
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) Correction : the drop-shipper is paid in advance of an item's production. So funds from a sale would go to the account then immediately debited ( all automated with pre-arranged behaviours ). In fact there are really two tightly linked accounts from a vendor's viewpoint : one with the e-commerce site and the other with the drop-shipper. You get straight forward accounting statements for both. The business skill is in keeping the former in higher credit than the latter is in debit. :X)
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Mike and Mikey, I'm liking
)
Mike and Mikey, I'm liking this more and more every time Mike posts about Einstein@ Home t-shirts and stuff. I can't wait to get some items.
Thanks Mike for looking into this in more detail than I had ever imagined. You are a PRO!!
Proud member of the Old Farts Association
The rabbit hole goes deeper :
)
The rabbit hole goes deeper : as an example, here is a rendering of what it would look like to have an embroidered logo on some clothing item
which I have derived from the graphic on the upper left top of the page you are viewing now ( it's a PNG with transparency ). Imagine that embroidered onto hats, shirts, socks, bags ... the list just goes on. It took me ten minutes to do that through Printful's design interface, learning from scratch. The digitised image ( common formats ) is converted to a ( proprietary ) machine image file and fed, with a sock say, into a fancy 'sewing machine' that Printful has. I think they can embroider using up to six distinct thread colors, added to the product's base color gives quite a design palette to work with.
What a hoot ! ;-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Here's what the same logo -
)
Here's what the same logo - no color editing this time - could look like* when printed onto a mobile phone case eg. my Samsung Galaxy S23
this being a product mockup ie. it is pure virtual and this is what a prospective buyer might see on the e-commerce site.
{ I'd emphasise that these examples are subject to permission to use the graphic with any products on sale }
To produce an actual phone case this would be achieved via a process known as sublimation printing ( or dye diffusion ) using heat and pressure with the inks in gaseous form.
This might sell for as low as $15 - $20 AUD exclusive of tax and shipping ( but don't hold me to that as I've just roughly estimated that for the sake of discussion ). Again, I would price the products so as to not run at a loss but also be affordable. I'm aiming to not generate any profit but I can't reasonably predict that in advance. Shipping especially is the wildcard because that depends upon the location of the buyer. Some vendors offer 'free' shipping but it isn't really : it is just folded into an item's price anyway, plus a margin to cover sending to obscure locations. Also if you do fold in the shipping price, the consumer may wind up being charged for a value added tax on that component of the price. I'm gonna have to really drill down on tax aspects.
Cheers, Mike.
* I'm operating in a free trial/demo mode with Shopify and Printful.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I will try a PC web browser.
)
I will try a PC web browser. It's not displaying on my cell phone.
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)