Depending on the type of business you operate, you may find that selling branded merchandise can be a great source of additional revenue. But if setting up a full e-commerce site and worrying about payment transactions, security and shipping fees seems like too much work, considering e-commerce isn't your core business, there are several services that offer hosted merchandise store solutions. And those stores can be set up in minutes.
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Web sites like CafePress (cafepress.com), Printfection (printfection.com) and Spreadshirt (spreadshirt.com) offer hosted e-commerce store solutions that are customizable, often free and can be integrated to fit your Web site.
CafePress offers one of the better-known solutions. Users can quickly set up merchandise stores, creating designs and selling them on t-shirts, posters, mugs, bumper stickers and mouse pads. CafePress can even help customers print books on demand. On top of hosting your e-commerce store, CafePress produces each ordered item, offers a checkout and credit card payment processing, manages returns and exchanges, offers phone and email support and ships your products worldwide. Users can set up a Basic Shop account with as many stores as they want for no charge. More flexible customization options is available with a Premium Shop for $6.95 per month.
Printfection and Spreadshirt offer services similar to CafePress, but these companies each offer only one type of store, most comparable to CafePress' Premium Shop. These companies offer their services for free and provide a great deal of customization, making it easier to integrate it into your Web site. Both companies encourage it.
After setting up an online shop, you can link to it from your Web site. These solution providers don't offer simple code for embedding your store. But if you know enough HTML to customize your hosted shop with your brand and color scheme, you can make it look and feel like the merchandise store was built right into your Web site.
With some careful planning and customization, you can create a store that looks as good as any expensive, time-consuming e-commerce store for next to nothing.
