Spreadshirt.net is the new website on the block which allows the creation of shirts, apparel and personalized items (mugs, aprons, bags, etc) according to consumer tatses. It is a German company and has received several prizes for its innovative business idea. In 2004, the group won The Hewlett Packard Business Innovation Award. Contrary to the other companies which make this kind of custom products, Spreadshirt.net is the first company that uses the concept of community, where people can create their own designs and sell as well. There are about 200,000 users/buyers/sellers working with Spreadshirt.net.
It is a service of personalization allowing the customers to run a simple little business. The user is referred as both buyer and seller. People can go on the website, look for items and buy them. They can also create their own product and sell it on the website.
When the customers are buyers, they choose, pay on the website and receive the product at the end of the process. If the customers are sellers, the website charges a sum of money for each process that is involved starting from purchase of raw materials, to manufacturing, to delivery. The users / sellers have to just design the product and promote it, the rest of the process is managed by spreadshirt.net. The website is in charge of producing, printing, delivering and in case of problems (in terms of quality), the website takes full responsibility and works towards solving the issue.
The user is the one who fixes the prices on his products. For instance, a simple white shirt with a color print costs 11 dollars, if the user sells it for 25 dollars in his online shop; he earns a profit of 14 dollars. If he decides to sell it for 12 dollars, he earns only one dollar. If he sells for the original price , he pays and earns nothing because it is only when there are profits that the website and the user make business. All the financial transaction services are provided by companies like PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, etc. Customers can pay by credit card, pre payment or by their user account (if they earn money from their products).
The tool for designing the product is within the reach of everybody. User needs to create an account with ample amount of information and only then can they begin to design their products (the customers have the choice between drawings made by spreadshirt.net or they can import their own ones). They have to also design their online shop (in a way they want or as their "brand" and "universe" needs to look like) using a system of templates.
[...] On the online market, this kind of information is very crucial. Managing this kind of information and utilizing this knowledge accordingly to ensure success are definitely competitive advantages. We have different interfaces for managing it: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is used for organizing, synchronizing and managing the company's interaction with the customers. It is a customer database that facilitates the management of information concerning them and provides addresses which are instrumental in verifying the information regarding contacts. Credit checking is a very crucial part of our process. [...]
[...] The company proposes 16 different ranges of T-shirts (available in 10 colors), six sweat shirts (seven colors), five jackets (four colors), and lot of other items that do not come under the textile category (mugs, umbrellas, etc). There are products available for both men and women that come in different sizes (small, medium, etc) The cross selling is really important for our market as it is a way of offering products or items according to consumer tastes, their past purchases or their online searches. [...]
[...] As a manager, I am well acquainted with the main challenges, the needs and expectations of the company, not in terms of IT system but in terms of business. I am more focused on the ability to deliver value product services and reduce costs by building an efficient, secure and logical infrastructure. I have set out five objectives: Better alignment between our business priorities and the IT system Lower IT costs Improving customer service Improving the service availability Enhancing the performance The five objectives Better alignment between our business priorities and the IT system- It is crucial for Spreadshirt.com to be equipped with an IT system which responds concretely to its problems. [...]
[...] - Monitoring: It is a means of controlling and tracking information in addition to the performance of the company. It is really important as it allows ameliorating the negative points with more efficiency. In our case, for instance, we can easily track the orders and the time between the order and the delivery. The service can be optimized at different stages. Each operation can be controlled, measured and judged. This new information can easily be collected and analyzed. It is a global structuring change which will increase the performance of the company. [...]
[...] The case Spreadshirt.com needs to invest in a new information technology system in order to increase the efficiency of its supply chain. Its sole means of ensuring profits is by manage operations and data efficiently between the purchase and the delivery of products by customers. It needs to explore new opportunities to create the next stage of innovation and thus ensure competitive advantages over its peers. In this market, it is necessary to manage the data and information in an efficient manner. [...]
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