It’s been now two weeks since we launched our site. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we kept things really simple. No splash page, no flashy graphics, no animation, no corny slogan, just T-shirts. Because that’s the reason, we hope, people are coming to the site.

The final design looks as if it takes less than an hour to do. But believe it or not, it was actually the culmination of tons of reflection and research. Seriously. We looked at lot of other sites noting what we liked and didn’t like, and tinkered with a myriad of colours and layouts. Here’s one version that didn’t make it.

For the e-commerce engine, we’ve done a few things differently from a lot of other sites. Items added to a cart are clearly shown under the product. The bag can be emptied from any page on the site. And the inventory system prevents you from adding more T-shirts to the bag than what’s in stock.

But there is one cool feature other e-commerce sites do that we don’t – the ability to view products by size or by colour. We skipped it for now as our programmers told us it would slow down the site considerably. Then again, we don’t actually get 100,000 visitors every day.

The store is now open. We’re calling this a pilot launch as we’re using it as an opportunity to evaluate and improve our products and services during this two-month period.

More specifically, we want to confirm that:
- our site is glitch free and easy to use
- our T-shirts meet your expectations
- the ordering and shipping process works as we described in the FAQ
- we answer your questions professionally and swiftly

To achieve this, we need your feedback, both good and bad. We’d appreciate it if you can leave us a comment on this post or send us an e-mail at info@s-label.com.

We hope you will enjoy our T-shirts.

Your pals at Swiftlabel

The good news is that the site is complete. But all is not rosy. As we test the ordering process, we realise that Paypal’s standard merchant service is not as flexible as I thought it was.

We essentially want Paypal to only take the credit card details, but it seems the system also allows the user to complete the shipping details. We don’t want that as we are collecting that info on our site as we are only shipping to certain countries and have different rates for each.

We are now faced with three options:

1. Go ahead with the current system: in this scenario, we get to launch right away but we’re concerned the payment process might be a bit confusing. If we do go ahead, we’ll have to think of the right blurb to put before sending our customers to the Paypal site.

2. Get a Paypal Pro account: to do so, we have to open a US business banking account. This might take an additional week to complete as long as the US banks allow someone else to act on our behalf.

3. Get a regular internet merchant account: this is what we were ultimately aiming for, but the process is onerous and lengthy (2-3 weeks) especially for a start-up. Fortunately, Business Partner received his Canary Wharf-sized bonus today so I doubt we’ll have any problems passing the credit check. This option also means that we will have time to release our other sets of T-shirts (we’ve got a quite few in the pipeline).

Time to put on our thinking caps.

We’re pricing our T-shirts at $28 (USD), roughly 15 pounds, 23 euros or 3,000 yen. We think it’s a reasonable price for what we’re offering – a slick eye-catching design printed on an American Apparel T-shirt. It’s more expensive than what some better known companies (practically everyone at this point!) like Graniph and Threadless charge, but more affordable than others.

I’m pretty sure we can make more money by pricing it higher, but we just don’t like spending more than $30 for a T-shirt. And we feel that you shouldn’t too. Because once it starts getting expensive, I start worrying about staining or damaging the T-shirt, which then defeats the purpose of wearing it in the first place, that is to wear it carelessly.

The $28 price tag includes sales taxes, but excludes possible charges that are tacked on at customs like duty fees and VAT for international shipments. FYI, I didn’t pay any extra fees for the 3 orders (packages of 2 tees, 4 and 20) that were shipped from our supplier in California to our address in London. In the UK, any package under 18 quid sent from outside the EU is exempt from these fees.

We also didn’t bother with using a psychological pricing approach ($27.99 or $28.99) because we think it’s something that’s silly for us to do and we like to keep things very simple.

This is how we want to run Swiftlabel:

1. Make great T-shirts
I always have a tough time expressing this. When people ask me what I do, the usual follow-up question is what’s so special or unique with the T-shirts. I’ve seen so many unconvinced expression from my explanation since I’ve embarked on this project that I sometimes just tell people I’m looking for work to avoid the issue altogether. I wonder how musicians, DJs, or other artists who are starting out convey their taste or style. I think this will become clearer once you see our forthcoming pipeline of printed cotton.

2. Keep customers and designers happy
The Litmus Test, to us, is when a customer is not happy with his or her order. We’re fickle customers too, so if there’s anything you don’t like with your purchase please tell us. We will make sure the situation is handled swiftly, professionally and properly, and, if possible, that it doesn’t happen again.

But addressing a problem is only part of the equation. We also have to find ways to keep people excited by our products and brand by having a different approach and going that extra mile to do things well. That, to me, will be very fun to do.

As for our wonderful artists that collaborate with us, it’s quite simple. If we pay them fairly, treat them well, and promote their art, we believe they will continue to do outstanding work for us.

3. Preserve the brand
It’s very important that we stay true to the brand. No personal insults or crass humour on our T-shirts, even if they would sell well. No visible logo on the T-shirt (and maybe not even on the inside). It’s the design not the brand that makes it cool. No discounts or coupons (sorry but we prefer to reward people differently) as it would cheapen the brand. If the T-shirts weren’t good enough to sell out then we shouldn’t have printed it in the first place. I’d rather give them away to good clients or to charity. And no selling to retailers unless the price is kept at a reasonable level (no more than $30 in North America, 30 euros in continental Europe or 20 quid in the UK).

If we can do these three things very well, I’m pretty sure we will have a very successful brand, and not a swift one in existence.

We were supposed to launch yesterday, but we decided to be a good sport and let Microsoft Vista get all the attention this week.

Jokes aside, everything’s in place minus the payment function, which is an important feature to have, and our Body Art T-shirt. We noticed that our suppliers printed it on a men’s t-shirt, causing the piercing to appear below the waist. Not quite the desired effect we’re after.

While our programmers are hacking away, I can now concentrate on the stuff I like - making T-shirts and going out. I’ll try to attend Margin London, a streetwear tradeshow, and review concept and T-shirt stores in London.

One I must see is Best. Here’s an amusing pic from the shop’s blog.

T-shirts have arrived. Website is functional. Once our developers finish integrating the payment processing, we will be kickin’ next week.

Time to run amok with the Aussies for their national holiday.

We received our first T-shirt today. It took a mere 5 days to ship from California to London. Ironically, the regular airmail shipping through the U.S. Postal Service was a day faster than its priority service, and $60 cheaper.

Four more T-shirts will be sent today via DHL, and the remaining one should get here early next week. If all things are in place (still on pace), we will start selling on 29 January.

I’ve gone from bar hopping to web coding the past two days. Now that the online shop is sitting on our server, I got to dabble once again with HTML and tinker with the site’s design.

It’s been almost non-stop since Sunday evening, understanding why there’s extra space between lines, why some pages appear wider than others, why the page displays correctly in Firefox but not IE, vice-versa, and other pesky browser issues.

With my HTML ordeal nearly done, the dilemma tonight is deciding whether and where to go out. Bar Rumba for some latin beats? A chill Open Deck night at The Chapel? Or the mother of ‘em all The End for a house jamming feast?

Now that we’re just a few days away from opening the online store (29 January is our target date), I’d like to share my favourite T-shirt companies pre-launch. I avoid the term best, since taste is subjective, and I haven’t covered all T-shirt labels to make such statement.

My list is based on one criterion - the same approach we’re using for our Tees - would I wear it or buy it for a friend? To be more specific, the style I like is urban, gritty, witty, and above all simple.

Without further ado:

1. Graniph (Japan)
+ $9,000 top prize money lures top designers, affordable T-shirts
- too many people wear it in Japan

2. One Top (Quebec)
+ great designs by Quebec artists, few people know about it
- disappointing 2006 collection

3. 2K by Gingham (California)
+ great selection of T-shirts
- hard to navigate, new designs

4. LaFraise (France)
+ limited series T-shirts, intuitive website.
- designs are getting too cutie and cartoony for my taste.

5. Divinas Palabras (Spain)
+ witty and well designed T-shirts
- some are less witty, not cheap (50 euros last I checked)

These labels also have good stuff but the overall humour or style, I suspect, is meant for a younger crowd: Bedlam (closed?), Busted Tees, Naco.

Note: my list was compiled over a span of 2.5 years from either surfing the net or scouting these cities for great Tees: Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, Prague, London, Milan, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. Other cities I want to check out are Buenos Aires, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, and Stockholm.