As many of you know I started working for Storenvy back in October focusing on Community Management & Special Ops. Part of my job has been to help recruit as many new kick ass stores as possible. While on my quest I started seeing some recurring myths surrounding what is possible when using Storenvy as your storefront. People don’t realize just how awesome Storenvy really is. So rather than let these un-truths keep you from setting up an awesome store, I figured it was time to go myth busting!

MYTH: Since Storenvy is free it must be lacking some features.
FACT: Setting up and running a blog is free, so why should setting up a store be any different? We have all heard the saying “you get what you pay for” and while I usually agree with you, this is simply not the case with Storenvy. Storenvy is simple but powerful and even has a lot of features the other guys don’t have. Unlimited products, built in analytics, full customization, discount codes, easy order management, the ability to upload five images per product and a Facebook integrated store, consider this myth busted. Just because Storenvy doesn’t charge you, doesn’t mean that it’s not just as good or better than the other guys that are taking your money every month.

MYTH: Storenvy isn’t as customizable as ______.
FACT: Storenvy gives you the ability to completely customize the CSS, HTML and Javascript for your store giving you the opportunity to make your store truly your own. We absolutely love it when a store takes the reigns and completely redesigns their store.

Here are some great examples of storefronts that have taken it upon themselves to completely customize their storefront and even built their store directly into their existing website.

lilchiefrecords.storenvy.com

store.cureapparelco.com

capitlclothing.storenvy.com

shopwalkinlove.storenvy.com

MYTH: Since Storenvy is free there must be a catch or trick.
FACT: No tricks here! We truly believe that opening a store should be free just like setting up a blog. Now of course, we have a few upgrades you can turn off, if you want (custom domains, advanced discount support, etc), but the basic store is totally free with no catch.

MYTH: Customers have to go through the Storenvy Marketplace to get to your store.
FACT: No way! You get your own URL where you can point your shoppers directly to your store. But don’t worry about having to promote all on your own. One of the best parts about Storenvy is that along with your individual storefront all of your products automatically get included in the Storenvy Marketplace. Having your items listed in a marketplace allows customers to find your store when they may have not known you existed if you were on your own. Having your products listed in the Marketplace is a huge bonus of having a store on Storenvy.

MYTH: I can’t use my own domain name.
FACT: Storenvy launched Custom Domain support last year! When you first sign up for a store by default your domain does include .storenvy.com. But if you choose, you can change it to your own .com, .org, .me or whatever other URL you’ve got. This a paid feature that will run you $5.00 a month but for brands looking for that cohesive look it is five bucks well spent.

MYTH: “Setting up a store is going to be hard, right?”
FACT: It doesn’t get any easier than Storenvy. Storenvy was created to make setting up a shop as simple, fun and human as possible. The truth of the matter is most people do not know how to write and customize HTML or CSS and we get that. Each Storenvy store comes with complete with tools to make uploading products and customizing the look of your store as easy as possible. With just a few clicks setting up and launching a store can be done in no time. If you really wanted to hustle through it you could have your store up and ready for taking orders in under ten minutes. No joke.

Let’s face it, being in a band is hard work. From the struggles of promoting your music, booking gigs, growing a fan base, dealing with broken-down vans, equipment, relationships, etc about the only thing harder for a band is making money. To make matters worse everyone from club owners, record labels, merch companies and online storefronts taking their cut there can sometime be nothing left. Luckily Storenvy has stepped up to the plate to help bands sell their merchandise online, completely FREE. And yes we mean free. Hopefully putting a few more dollars in the pockets of hard working bands.

So why should your band have a Storenvy storefront?

1. Completely Customizable Storefront

Storenvy allows bands the ability to setup a completely customized storefront.  Immediately after signing up you have access to making your storefront look exactly how you want it to. From custom headers, background, colors, and fonts basically everything on you storefront can be changed to fit your brands image and look. For those of you with HMTL/CSS coding skills the sky is the limit as you can completely customize your site top to bottom.

2. Quick and Painless Setup

Literally if you can check email you will be able to setup an online store in no time. When Storenvy was created the goal was to make setting up a custom store as quick and painless as humanly possible. With just a few clicks you can upload a picture of your band to the header, change the background color or image and just have fun messing around with all the color schemes that are possible. None of this requires any knowledge of how to setup a website or storefront.

3. Features

• Unlimited amount of products
• Up to five images per product
• Incredibly easy inventory tracking
• Friendly admin panel
• Ability to offer discount codes to customers
• Easily link to your Twitter & Facebook pages

4. Facebook Store

With just a few clicks you put a store right on your Facebook page! After all why make your fans work to buy your products, bring your products to where your fans already are! Setting up a storefront on your Facebook page has never been easier.

Storenvy also prides itself on being a “social marketplace”. When you sign up for a store your products are also automatically added to the Storenvy marketplace. 15% of all sales on Storenvy occur directly through customers browsing through all the awesome products and stores on the Storenvy Marketplace page. The result is even more possible customers checking out your band and of course your products. More eyes equals more sales!

5. Free!

All these features are great but what makes it a no-brainer for bands to use this is that the service is COMPLETELY FREE! Part of the beauty of Storenvy being free is that you can sign up and try it out without any risk!

Storenvy makes opening an online store as quick and painless as possible so you can get back to what’s important — melting faces.

Check out some bands that already have great stores on Storenvy:

-Meg & Dia
-Showbread
-Weaver at the Loom
-Backseat Goodbye
-Life In Your Way
-The Narrative

I’ll admit I’m a huge fan of candy! Honestly, who isn’t? Well Candy Effect Clothing has taken their love of candy to the next level launching a clothing line centering around it.

Candy Effect currently has six candy inspired designs on their Storenvy page for $25 each.

Check out their candy inspired designs HERE

Storenvy has released the second half of their list of best cities for Indie Merchants and coming in number 1…… CHICAGO! My hometown! The rest of the list is below, but make sure to check out the full article on Storenvy’s blog to get the reasons behind their picks as well as some really nice stats on each city.

The rest of the list is as follows:
5. Portland
4. New York City
3. San Francisco
2. Los Angeles
1. Chicago

Storenvy, have been kicking a lot of ass lately rolling out new features such as custom domain names and writing some really solid articles. The latest article examines which are the best towns/cities in the United Stes for Indie Merchants.

Janette does a really nice job breaking down stats, listing some reputable indie stores in each town and overall giving some really nice insight. As of now the list is only comprised of the cities 10 through 6, with the top 5 cities rolling out soon!

So far the list is:
10. Kansas City
9. Atlanta
8. Austin
7. Miami
6. Seattle

My guess at the top 5: Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Cleveland, Los Angeles (in no particular order)

Make sure to check out the article on Storenvy’s blog HERE

When launching and running a clothing line or any business for that matter it is always crucial to put your best foot forward and present yourself as professionally as possible. Remeber you only get once chance to make a first impression, so make it a good one! Now many of you are probably thinking, “tell me something I don’t know”! But the truth of the matter is that I see many clothing lines shorting themselves by skipping steps and taking the “quicker, cheaper, easier” is better approach. Well I have news for you! With new clothing lines literally sprouting up everyday there is absolutely no room for marginal brands to stand a chance to compete and furthermore become successful.

When running an online business you most likely are not going to have the opportunity to individually talk or interact with every visitor and more importantly potential customer that visits your site.

So what exactly can you do to make sure your looking as professional as possible?

It’s All About Presentation!

With tools at your disposal such as BigCartel and Storenvy making a store to sell your goods is extremely simple and easy. That being said slamming some photos together and posting them in the standard BC or Storenvy storefront just does not cut it these days! Building a company is all about building a brand and an experience. Think of your storefront how you would think of building your own bricks and mortar store. If you were to open a retail location would you just rent a place throw your tees inside of it and open the door? I hope not! Most likely you would think about building an atmosphere by painting, adding furniture, music, lighting and extras to make your customers feel good about their experience. The same thing goes for your online store. By adding a custom layout that is aesthetically pleasing and also easy to navigate you are most certainly going to increase your sales and overall customer experience. If you are looking for examples of quality custom BigCartel sites look no further! (20 Awesome Big Cartel Storefronts)

Part two of your online presentation is how you present your items themselves. I have seen several really nice looking online storefronts fall short with terrible looking photographs. Remember your customers online can not pick up, touch or try on your items, so you need to show them exactly how awesome your shirts look. If done properly you really can take the negative of not being able to try on clothes and turn it into a positive by showcasing your tees looking bigger and better than real life with some awesome photography and creative ideas you really can make even a average looking tee/design look like a work of art. If I were to recommend anything when taking photographs of your line is keep everything consistent! Imagine the look you are going for and stick with it!

When It Comes To Getting Press It’s All About Your Approach

Bloggers get tons of email everyday from companies looking to get press. The key to getting most bloggers to write about you is simple, be professional, concise and courteous.

Be Professional
I can’t even begin to count the amount of emails I get from clothing companies that ask me to write about them that look like this:

“Hey I like your site can you write about my t-shirt company xxx. It would be awesome as we have some really sweet tees that are going to sell well. Thanks”

Either that or the email goes on writing an entire book about everything imaginable about the brand, life story and huge file of images. Here is the deal with that, most bloggers don’t have the time to read through the entire life story of a new brand and are never going to take the time to open the zip file you have sent over.

You really need to balance being concise, informative and professional when looking for press. Honestly I like to read nothing more than a paragraph when a brand is pitching their line. If you cant get your point across in a paragraph, then you need to go back and trim out unnecessary information, because I guarantee you there is some.

The brands that I usually write about fall into the following:

-They know about IAMTHETREND and even further know my name. It doesn’t take much effort for a company looking for press to find out the owner of a websites name especially if they do actually follow that bloggers site. For example my full name right now appears on the front page of the website 9 times! When you use someone’s first name it immediately makes the email more personal and shows that you care.

-They include a link! This is another easy piece of information that often get’s forgotten. Always make sure that you include a link at least once in your email.

-Include a couple small images. I’ll admit sometimes I get lazy or am just to busy to take the time to visit every site that get’s pitched to IATT. By simply including 1 or 2 .jpgs of a couple of your shirts it makes it really easy for a blogger to get a really good feel for what you have to offer and if they want to write about it. After all a picture is worth a thousand words! That being said don’t send huge high res files or an entire zip file of everything you have ever done. If a blogger likes what they see they are most likely going to contact you for more images to use with the post.

-BONUS TIP! Brands that submit to IAMTHETREND that take the time to pre-format their images to fit IATT sizes usually get posted about first. Every IAMTHETREND article has a 270 x 198 front page image and a 672 x 310 article header, when brands include those images for me to use that makes my life 100x easier thus get written about first! I’m assuming this is the same for many blogs.

In conclusion most of these tips are extremely straight forward, simple and generally common sense but are often overlooked. With that in mind most brands either skip one or more of these steps and in turn really hurt the chances that their brand completes a sale and/or gets press. Take your time, put your best foot forward and be professional and your brand will see more success immediately.

PopCultureTees owner Liz Fulghum is aiming to change how people shop for indie clothing. She has just recently launched her brain child, Pop Threads with the hopes of making it easier for consumers to shop and find apparel and accessories.

At its core Pop Threads is a curated showcase of the best apparel and accessories from talented independant designers. The site allows clothing lines to sign up for their site allowing them a personal page that contains information about their clothing line, links to the companies facebook, twitter and of course official website basically forming an online mall.

Pop Threads doesn’t actually sell anything through their site rather re-directs customers to the site of the clothing line they want to buy the product from so Pop Threads never gets a cut from any sales. Rather they charge a monthly subscription of $35 to a clothing line that wants to be on the site. They also do offer the first month free for any companies that sign up allowing them to test the waters and see if the want to jump in.

Right now the site doesn’t have a ton of clothing lines on it so pickings are a bit sparse but as more companies sign up the site could turn into a viable portal for buying clothing.

Overall I think it is an interesting concept, but wonder how many brands will be willing to take that $35 a month plunge. Further complicating the manner is you have sites such as Storenvy.com that allows clothing companies to put up on line storefronts that are free and encourage a more social shopping experience from their users.

Ill be definitely keeping an eye on this project and keep everyone updated on it’s progress as it continues to grow.

Pop Threads have been cool enough to give to LIFETIME MEMBERSHIPS to Pop Threads away for FREE! If you have a clothing line simple Retweet this article and you will be entered to win the membership!

As with almost everything in life presentation is the key to success. Many wise men have once said “you only have one chance to make a good first impression” and those wise men were right. Presentation of your product to your customer can be a make or break situation that results in a sale or a missed opportunity.

What exactly makes up the “presentation” when it comes to t-shirts?

In the previous three segments we have talked about packaging, printing and price these undoubtedly make up the core layers of your t-shirt presentation, but there is always more to think about.

Website
Most indie clothing lines are strictly based online and that online only atmosphere comes with a HUGE disadvantage, not being able to touch, feel and try anything on. So the question then becomes how do we turn those negatives into positives?

The key here is creating an online experience for your brand. You must think of your online store just as if you were building a bricks and mortar store for your brand. One of the biggest turn offs and mistakes a clothing company can make is cutting corners when it comes to developing their online store. When a customer comes to your site the first thing they are going to take note of is your website. In the first two seconds a customer is going to decide if they can trust you and if they want to buy from you. The key here is coming off looking as a reputable company and not a fly by night operation. It is completely okay if your working out of your parents basement or do this in your part time with every bit of extra change you can gather, but by no means come across looking like that.

Keys to making your website the best it can be.
BRANDING! Another huge pitfall that indie clothing companies fall into is not creating a recognizable branding image. Quite simply there are just way to many clothing lines out there to do just a mediocre job and succeed. The brands such as Johnny Cupcakes, Ugmonk, Electric Zombie, Glamour Kills and Pyknic all have one thing in common, they are instantly recognizable. Take a second and visit those sites if you haven’t already, those website clearly and effectively reflect a brand image that their shirts portray.

Take quality photographs
A picture is worth a thousand words, and when you are trying to sell products online a picture could be the difference between making money and losing money. As stated before it’s just not possible for a customer to pick up and feel your product through the internet but they can visualize what it would like on them through good pictures. Pictures along with your website can tell a story and create a brand image, so make sure to take that into consideration when you are doing your photo shoot.

I also HIGHLY recommend taking two different sets of product pictures, pictures for your look book and pictures for your store. Look book pictures show your tees or clothing “in the wild” or in everyday situations while shots for your store should be straight on shots that really show the detail of the shirts. Photos for your store should be done against a plain background (I prefer white), as to not distract a customer from what you are trying to sell, the product.

Functionality
This sounds like a no brainer, but make sure customers can EASILY navigate your site. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer then trying to jump through hoops when making a purchase. Quite simply they wont, if you make something difficult on them they are gone. BigCartel and Storenvy both offer very simple, cheap and customizable solutions for setting up a web store.

BUT ISN’T THAT EXPENSIVE?
You have to spend money to make money, but you also don’t have to be stupid about how you spend your money. Ask around, use social avenues such as Twitter and Facebook to help strike deals. Maybe you aren’t a pro photographer but ask some of your friends. Chances are that if you ask around someone is bound to know someone that can take decent pictures and most likely for free or on the cheap just for recognition.

Also using storefronts such as BigCartel and Storenvy can be done for extremely cheap or nothing at all. But by no means just sign up for a cart, slap your logo on it and call it a day. If you cant afford someone to design you a custom theme there are several sites that offer pre-created themes for $150 and under.

As I started this out article out with, you only have one chance to make a good first impression. I get several emails everyday from clothing companies asking me to check them out and their website and presentation is usually what makes me run for safety or investigate further and there is no reason not to think customers aren’t the same way.

If you missed any of the first three segments make sure to check them out below:
Part 1: Packaging
Part 2: Printing
Part 3: PricePrice

Threadbird is also having a .70 off sale to promote their name change from now until Sept 30th!

For a custom quote you can email Adam at: adam@threadbird.com or visit www.threadbird.com

For those of you that do not know, I actually started working for Storenvy Printing a couple months back. They approached me after doing a bunch of reviews on tees printed by them and asked if I wanted to jump on board. Honestly they have some of the best if not the best prints out there right now. They discharge base all their tees completely free, offer free screens and have the best inks out there.

If you have a clothing company or are looking to get some shirts screen printed, now is a great time to try a new screen printing company.

Some companies that Threadbird currently screen prints for:
Pyknic
Arkaik
Chop Shop
Snakes & Suits
The Printed Mind
Shred
RANDR
and many many more

You can check out the site and see some of the portfolio at: www.threadbird.com and if you would like a custom quote you can hit me up personally at: adam@threadbird.com and i’ll take care of you!

Whenever a company tries their hand at creating a Mario Bros inspired tee, I usually cringe, because you are dealing with one of mine and many others favorite childhood memories. When your dealing with emotions like these it better be one kick ass Mario design!

Luckily the “Zombie Kingdom” tee is an absolutely awesome twist and take on Super Mario Bros. The illustrations is pure win and really gives the Mario brand a new look that I have yet to come across!

Both tees are printed on American Apparel and are $25

Pick them up while they last at: http://cherrysauce.storenvy.com

As stated in the video I have also teamed up with the great dudes at Storenvy.com so if anyone needs custom mailers printed feel free to hit me up at: adam@storenvy.com

If you enjoy this video please take just a second to rate and leave a comment! Also dont forget to become a IAMTHETREND TV youtube subscriber!

There are zero affiliate links in this list, and Iamthetrend.com is getting nothing for posting this, but in return we would greatly appreciate it if you took just a second to hit the RETWEET button or Facebook Share button in the right hand column!

Lastly feel free to let us know what tanks are your favorite on the list by leaving a comment below, we have been known to give away tees to random commentors!

Enjoy!

1. Miles To Go $21.99

2.Wear Subeco $25

3.Dekay $20

4. RANDR $25

5. Umbrella Clothing $13

6. Stheart $19.95

7. Pyknic $20

8. We Are Alchemy TBA

9. Rockett $20

10. To Write Love On Her Arms $18

11. Masked Clothing $23.99

12. Glamour Kills $24.99

13. I Love Antix $18

14. Kill Brand $20

15. Iron Fist $25

16. Dance Party Massacre $23.95

17. Snakes & Suits $19.99

18. Shrimp Sauce $28

19. Electric Zombie $18

20. Miles To Go $21.99

21. To Die For $23

22. Simplified Clothing $18.99

23. Stheart$19.95

24. Pig Cloth $22

25. Live To Love $20

26.I Came From Nothing

26. Agape $19.99

27. The Names Brand $23

28. KKBB $24

29. Shrimp Sauce $28

30. Snakes & Suits $19.99

31.Wickvilla $14

32.Pyknic $20

33. Joshua Clothing $20

34. I Love Antix $18

35. Honour Over Glory £11.99

36. Rockett $20

37. Regan Smith Clarke $22

38. Masked Clothing $22.99

39. Alive & Well

40. Miles To Go $21.99

41. Electric Zombie $18

42. Glamour Kills $24.99

43. Stheart $18.95

44.I Came From Nothing £20.00

45. Masked Clothing $23.99

46. Pyknic $18

47. Big Deal £14.99

48. Shatterproof $18

49. Live To Love $20

50. CXCITY $22.95

51. I Love Antix $18

52. Dance Party Massacre $19.95

53. Agape $19.99

54. Revert Fashion $19.99

55. Arkaik $20

56. Take Notice $12

57. TopShelf Records $20

58. Tokyo Hardcore $20

59. Arkaik $20

60. To Die For $23

Aside from the “Paper Hugs Rock” and “Bookworm’s Haven” tees, MWA have also released a tee celebrating and supporting national GLBQ Pride. The tees awesome looking “rainbow” effect was made by mixing various inks during the print process giving each tee its own unique print!

You can pick up these tees at www.madewithawesome.com for $18-$22.

Best part of all is the tee is only $16.99 and is printed by Storenvy! You can pick one up at: deadburydead.storenvy.com

First off we have FullBleed run by Rob Dobi. He has just recently released his latest line titled “Series 10″ that featured 10 new kick ass T-Shirts. To get to the championship round he has faced some insanely tough competition such as; Assault, 8-Bit Zombie, Zombie Liquorice, Prestigious, and Free Clothing. Honestly this had to be one of the toughest roads to the Big Dance that was out there, but somehow Rob and FullBleed powered through.

Secondly we have the formidable opponent KKBB Apparel run by Michael Banos. KKBB is also coming off a brand new spring line titled “Turbofoxiness-A-Go-Go” which is comprised of 7 girl tops and 5 guy shirts. Their road to the Big Dance was proved equally as tough facing some young upstart companies that were hungry for the Tee Madness title such as The Printed Mind, Fresh Prints, Cultural Cotton, Fuzzy Ink and Arkaik.

Voting is going on now until Monday night at 8pm CST, when we will announce the winner LIVE on IAMTHETREND TV! So if you havent voted yet, VOTE NOW!!!!

On a side note, HUGE thanks to all 64 Tee Companies that partcipated in the First Annual Tee Madness Tourney. Also another GIGANTIC shout out to our amazing sponsors Blue Tide Productions, Storenvy and Standout Stickers, without them we wouldnt have the amazing prizes to giveaway to these companies.

Zach from Blue Tide Productions was absolutely responsible for making sure the Tee Madness brackets worked smoothly and I really want to thank him for making this all possible. If you need any sort of website or graphic work, he is your man, get a hold of him at: www.bluetideproductions.com

For all of you screen printing needs make sure to check out Storenvy. Honestly these guys do the best screen printing work that I have come across. Their prints are out of this world, prices are amazing and these dudes just flat rock. If you need something screen printed hit them up! www.storenvy.com

And for all your sticker needs, absolutely make sure to check out Standout Stickers. These guys do an absolutely phenomenal job printing custom die cut stickers. I recently just got a batch from them and hands down they were the best stickers I have seen. Check them out at: www.standoutstickers.com or www.purebuttons.com

Last but not least the BIGGEST thank you to all the fans and friends that voted on Tee Madness and made this Tourney a huge success!

That being said GET VOTING!

Here is the scoop:

We are looking for 64 T-Shirt Companies to fill out our bracket. Seeding will take place this Monday on IATT.TV. All 64 Teams will be put into a hat and drawn live on the show for bracket placement.

We will have a schedule drawn up, people vote, winners advance. With final Champion being announced and crowned April and announced live April 12th!

Champion will receive: Grand Prize:
$150 Storenvy.com Printing Credit
$100 Worth of Stickers from Standout Stickers
$75 Worth of Buttons from purebuttons.com
$50 Visa Giftcard from Blue Tide Productions
1 Month of Advertising on IAMTHETREND TV

4th Place:
$25 Worth of Buttons from purebuttons.com

So who is in?
We need 64 companies!
Email us at info@iamthetrend.com or leave a comment below!

WE HAVE FILLED THIS CONTEST! If you are in you have received and email from me! Sorry to the companies that did not make it in, this filled up extremely fast and it was straight first come first serve…

This week was a action packed show! Here is a quick rundown on what we talked about!

Industry BS:
Kill Brand gets robbed!
Fright-Rags switches from Gildan to Alstyle Tees
Make Your Own Iphone Case with Ray Frenden
Ript Apparel is giving away a IPOD NANO
Storenvy gives away 500 FREE TEES!

Tee Talk: (t-shirt reviews)
Peglife
Make Beats Not Beatdowns
Free Clothing
Seventh.ink

Very Nice! (Our favorite Tee finds on the interwebs!)
Submit and Remix
Skeg Clothing

Aside from the quality of the tee, I am really digging the new Hideyourarms logo. You can pick up the tee for $21 through hideyourarms.storenvy.com

Here are all the details straight from Storenvy :
Storenvy wants to give YOU a FREE shirt (designed by Godmachine)

2009 was 1 heck of a year for Storenvy Printing and we are not slowing down in 2010.
Our printing department went from a staff of only 9 people to now 35 in only 6 months. In February we are moving into our new 26,000 square foot facility with 2 new autos on the way and 1 more coming shortly afterwards. That would bring us up to 8 total machines. With plenty room to grow!

So..

We are giving you a FREE tshirt designed by the great Godmachine to the first 500 people that contact us.
We had him design this shirt for you, told him to just go crazy. So he came up with this 10 color beast of beauty.
We are printing this on an American Apparel 2001 tee with a custom screen printed tag.

The only thing you need to qualify to get a free t-shirt is be able to say yes to 1 of the below.

1. Run or work for a Clothing Company.
2. Be in a band or work with bands (label, manager, booking agent, etc)
3. Be a graphic designer that designs t-shirts
4. Run some type of website that has to do with t-shirts, music, or the arts.
5. Work for some type of company that would need tshirts printed at some point.

If you are not 1 of the above just tell us why we should give you a tshirt and we will probably do so.

(insert design here)

This is what you need to do to get your free t-shirt.

email me at printing@storenvy.com with the subject “Give me my free tshirt” and include the following information.

1. your name
2. email
3. your tshirt size
4. the company you work for (if there is one)
5. website url
6. Your Address!

We will start shipping these out in late January or early February.

Enjoy!

I recently had the pleasure of taking one of the first looks at the new format of Storenvy.com 2.0. I was so blown away with what I had seen I had to rush to write this article to start spreading the word about Storenvy 2.0. In the following article I will explain what is Storenvy is and why it is going to be an absolute game changer in the market.

So what is Storenvy?

Before we dive into how Storenvy.com is going to change the online marketplace I figured it best to give you a short rundown of what the company does right now. Simply put Storenvy gives indie companies an online storefront that allows them to sell their products to consumers without having to hire a high price web designer to make them an online store. As of right now the leader in this market is BigCartel.com, but after seeing Storenvy 2.0 I can quickly see BigCartel going the way of Myspace. Storenvy is combining the ideas behind sites such as Bigcartel, ETSY, Amazon, WordPress and adding the social aspect of Facebook into one lethal marketplace. Simply put this site is going to revolutionize the way that indie companies sell items online and how consumers buy from them.

So what exactly makes Storenvy 2.0 so special?

Storenvy gives small upcoming companies a huge voice to help market and sell their products

One of the main problems that upcoming clothing and product companies have is gaining the attention of an audience in which to sell their products. After they sell to all their friends and families they are usually stuck with a ton of shirts/products and the aching feeling of what next. This is where Storenvy is going to step in and help out. While there is no substitute for marketing and branding your company Storenvy is really going to help get your name out there and here is how.

Let’s just say as a customer you are a huge fan of XXXX Clothing, but you already own all their shirts and are looking for something new. Storenvy will be able to show you all the clothing companies that are similar to XXXX clothing, by analyzing which companies have similar customers, product tags and descriptions allowing you to easily find similar companies that you may like. Companies such as Amazon.com already do this when you are looking for books, music and movies, but up to this point very few companies have done this for the indie clothing and products market. Lets take this idea a step further, lets just say that you are looking for “zombie” t-shirts for the upcoming Halloween season, you will be able to type in the word “zombie” and see every company that has tagged their item with the word “zombie” whether that be zombie t-shirts, jewelry, posters, etc and from their browse and buy from a ton of great companies that you otherwise may of never heard of!

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Storenvy gets social

At this point it is no secret that everything online has become or is becoming social. Ideas such as Social networking and social bookmarking have become everyday occurrences for most of us, Storenvy has recognized that trend and has integrated that idea into shopping. They have seamlessly integrated features such as Facebook Connect, which will easily allow users to make posts directly to their Facebook wall whenever they love a shirt, buy a shirt/product or leave a comment on a shirt that they want their friends to see.

Storenvy is also aiming to be the world’s first online mall. The guys over at Storenvy realize that shopping is inherently a social activity and are striving to make the online experience of shopping as fun, easy and interactive as shopping at your local mall. Storenvy is also encouraging and hoping customers “hang out” on their front page, where they can browse thousands of stores while seeing what’s new, popular and on sale all the while encouraging interaction between Storenvy users. They are also in talks of having a weekly live video show that would highlight new stores as well as showcasing some of the best of what Storenvy shops have to offer, which would further the sense of a community and interaction on the site.

What I see as the ultimate catalyst for the interaction between users and creating an online mall experience is going to be the Storenvy customer profile page. As a user Storenvy.com you will build a online personality/profile similar to that of your Facebook account. This profile will allow you to add friends and monitor what they have been viewing, loving and purchasing. As a user you will also be able to become a fan of an online store as well as be able to “like” products. By “liking” and becoming a fan of shops Storenvy will start to tailor its recommendations towards your personality. Your Storenvy user profile will also be viewable by your friends. Lets face it, we all love knowing what our friends are wearing and buying and by being able to view our friends pages you will be able to find new companies that they may have found and leave comments about their findings!

Shop across unlimited stores

As mentioned above Storenvy is really aiming for this site to be an online mall in which a user can browse thousands of shops making purchases from unlimited number of different companies all in one checkout process. This to me is what is what is truly revolutionary about the site. As a customer you will be allowed to view thousands of independent sites while adding products from those sites to your cart. Once you are ready to checkout you will be presented with shipping options for each item from each store. So if you want one item rushed and the rest sent standard that is not a problem. You also have to remember that there will be more than just clothing companies opening shops on Storenvy. Theoretically you will be able to buy a CD from your favorite new band, pickup a new shirt from XXXX Clothing and then go to another shop to pick some accessories to complete the outfit all in one shopping experience.

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Complete Customization

From a developer,designer or store owner standpoint this is one of the true beauty parts of Storenvy. Absolutely everything is customizable, from text color, to background images to how the products are placed on the page. Storenvy has given the user complete control with very simple tools to help along the way. Aside from being able to tweak individual elements of your store’s page I have been told that overtime there will also be preset themes to choose from, making the task of designing a store even easier. The customization area of the site is a dream come true for web designers. Storenvy is taking a WordPressesque approach in letting designers develop themes and save them for others to use. This is going to create a new market for web designers to show off their talents and make some money with. You can already see it with WordPress, there are hundreds of custom WordPress theme design sites and it doesn’t take to much foresight to see sites dedicated to creating custom themes for Storenvy storefronts coming in the near future. Lastly if you already have paid someone or love your BigCartel store page, Storenvy allows users to copy their html code from BigCartel and paste it into Storenvy getting you up and running in no time!

Did I mention it’s Free?

Are you excited yet? If your not maybe this will do it for you; all of the features mentioned above will be absolutely FREE! You will be able to post an unlimited number of products to your store as well as have immediate access to all the features that Storenvy offers right out of the box with no monthly fee and no cut from sales. Go ahead and pinch yourself, you are awake and there is no catch. I have been told that down the road Storenvy may be adding Myspace and Facebook widgets that may have a small cost, but as of now everything will be free!

Award Winning Screen Printing Service

On top of all of this, Storenvy also houses an award winning screen printing service. I have had hands on experience with several garments that they have produced and I can honestly say that their prints are over the top when it comes to quality. Just recently we selected our top 10 Upcoming Clothing Lines, and without knowing it 7 out of the 10 brands selected already use Storenvy for their printing services. Bottom line is Storenvy is putting together the complete one stop shop for apparel companies.

Closing Thoughts
In closing I was honestly blown away with the scope of this project. This site could easily have been broken into several different projects and sites, but the guys over at Storenvy have been laboring away for the past year making it a one stop source and shop to benefit the industry. I eagerly await the launch of Storenvy 2.0 which should be rolling out in the next month or so. It is going to be interesting to see how this changes the marketplace and what companies like BigCartel are going to do to combat against this new assault.