Cafepress Tips for Animal Rescue Organizations

Tips for Making a Successful Cafepress Store 

1. First and foremost, if your rescue organization can afford to upgrade to a premium store, it is a VERY wise move to bring in those sales. It costs about $60 a year, and if you put in the effort, you should easily make that money back. Moreover, a premium shop allows you to add as many designs as you want, allows you almost complete flexibility of design in your store, you tend to get more traffic in a premium shop, and the layout is generally more appealing to shoppers.
2. Get those designs added. As a rule, the more designs you have in your store, the more likely you are to get sales. Try to have several variations of your rescue organization's logo and consider offering items featuring the photos of rescued pets. Importantly, consider expanding your customer base by offering more general pet-themed, species-themed, or breed-themed designs. While your regular supporters will probably purchase logo-wear, you'll get sales from other folks if you offer more general designs. Don't limit yourself to selling logo-wear...think of your store as a business that generates funds for your rescue.
3. Hike up those prices!! When most people start out on Cafepress, they tend to set their prices too low. Cafepress's base prices are relatively high, so marking a t-shirt up to 22.99 might seem unreasonable at first. BUT, remember that many of your customers are making purchases because they want to support your organization, so they are generally willing to pay a premium. Keep in mind also that your customer base is not value shoppers - those folks are going to buy their apparel on clearance at Target, not through your store, so don't worry about having great deals. Also, consider Cafepress marketplace traffic. If your design is selling for significantly less than other designs featured on the same page, shoppers might think your item is lower quality since it has a lower price. Oddly enough, studies have shown that people tend to purchase higher priced items. As a rule of thumb, at the very lowest, select "high" as the default markup through the product design template, then raise your prices from there.
4. Take some time to make sure you're putting up good designs. If a shopper is browsing in your store and sees a design that probably shouldn't have made the cut, they might be dissuaded from purchasing other items, thinking that your store is unprofessional. Another huge no-no is designs that don't fit the products. Make your designs huge, or use the Cafepress templates for each product, then go through and LOOK at each product and adjust the size of the image accordingly. Also, if the design just doesn't look right on a button, on a bumper sticker, or whatever, leave that product out. Again, you want your store to appear clean and professional. Finally, be very careful when you are putting images on dark apparel. Generally, you want your designs to have transparent backgrounds so they will print property on dark garments.
5. If you know HTML, feel free to go crazy with your shop design! The better your store design, the more likely it is that browsers will buy. If you don't know much HTML, that's OK, too. Cafepress has ready-made templates you can use. Just make sure that the template you use suits the overall theme of your store. One huge thing that is incidental to your store design is checking for spelling errors. People don't want to give their credit card information to a store that has spelling errors. Also make sure that your organization makes your store easy to navigate. When you're creating sections and subsections, consider that most shoppers won't click more than a couple clicks deep before they stop looking. Make it easy for shoppers to find the items they are looking for.
6. Unless you already have a large customer base of supporters, most likely, a large portion of your sales will be through the Marketplace. First, MAKE sure you are opted into the marketplace, allowing your designs to be included in the Cafepress market, and searcheable by shoppers landing on the cafepress page. It also allows affiliates to pick up your items and sell them for you!
7. When you upload images, you are allowed to put "tags" on the images. This is how customers locate your designs in the marketplace. You can use up to 20 words...make sure you utilize this to its maximum extent. Look at your design and think about words a shopper might think of when they are trying to find your design. For example, if you have a design with a photo of a shelter dog and the words "Adopt and Save a Life," some of your tag words should probably include the name of your organization, "shelter," "rescue," "adopt" "dog" "dog lover", etc. Tagging is critical!!
8. SEO, SEO, SEO! SEO means "search engine optimization." Make sure you have descriptive words all over your site to help the search engines find you and classify you correctly, so browsers can find you as well. For example, if you have a Coonhound rescue, make sure you have words like "coonhound," "Bluetick", "Redbone", rescue, the name of your organization, "help support animals," etc. on your main page. Then, make SURE you take advantage of the section description, landing page description, and product description areas. Don't just put a word or two to describe the product, e.g. dog shirt...put lots of descriptive words about the product, who might like to purchase the product, etc. When you describe you design imagine you are describing it to someone who is blind. Also, think like a shopper. Would a bluetick hound owner want to buy your product? Would a shelter volunteer want to buy your product? Use descriptive words to indicate who might be interested in purchasing your product. Good SEO will DEFINITELY help in your search engine results, and it will drive more people to your site, which will result in sales.
9. Take advantage of the Cafepress affiliate program. Cafepress affiliates pick designs from the Cafepress marketplace and sell them. They get a portion of your markup price in exchange for bringing in the sale. Attracting affiliates is a GREAT way to increase your customer base. There are a few tips to attracting affiliates. First, make sure you are opted into the marketplace. Second, join the Cafepress forum and check out the section where affiliates announce if they are looking for designs. There are dozens of affiliates selling pet-related designs, and several that sell shelter, rescue, spay/neuter, animal welfare, and adoption products. Make sure you do a good job tagging, and have great descriptions. If an affiliate picks you up, good descriptions and tags are critical to help shoppers find your designs in an affiliate store. Also, as a general rule, affiliates do NOT like outside links in your Cafepress store, so try to keep these to a minimum. The exception here, of course, is a link to your rescue organization website (and, MAKE SURE THE LINK WORKS!!). The idea is that affiliates don't want to send a shopper to your store only to have that shopper wander away through your outside links.
10. Marketing!! Even if you are a rescue organization, you have to market your store just like every other Cafepress shopkeeper. If you have a website, you already have a built-in customer base. Display a link to your store prominently on your webpage, and update members frequently on new designs. Your supporters WILL buy items! If you are a member of rescue forums or boards, put your store link in your signature. If you visit related blogs, include a link to your store in your comment signature. Advertise your items on Craigslist. Consider starting a Squidoo page to promote both your rescue organization and your store. Ask your friends and family to post a link to your store on their website. Include a link to your store in newsletters you send to your members and supporters. WEAR your apparel! Be a walking billboard! Purchase items from your store at wholesale discounts and give them to supporters, use them as raffle prizes, sell them at events, or auction them off. Upload your items to Google base. These are just a few ideas to get you started. The more links that go to your store, the more traffic (and sales) you will get, and the more the search engines will like your store. Promotion is critical and it takes hard work, but it will pay off in more sales and more money for your organization.
11. FINALLY, the most important tip is to be persistent! Most shopkeepers do not make hundreds, or even dozens of dollars at first. It takes a lot of time and effort to make a successful store. But it is a really great way for rescue organizations to make some extra money. Keep at it and don't give up! :)