I've been playing with CafePress tonight and made some simple shirts to try out the service and promote this here site. Why not?
A couple of things about CafePress. The site is great and really easy to use, but it could use an interface upgrade. Imagine an Ajax version, it would be sweet. Just some simple inline editing and/or the ability to move the products around to the order you wish in the store. I'd also like to see an RSS feed with images of the products and some javascript or flash promo widgets so bloggers and others can merchandise their own sites.
CafePress won the webby award for best retail site. It was up against Target, Art.com, iStockphoto, and Home Depot of all places. iStockphoto is great, but you wonder how long the stock photo market will sustain with the advent of flickr, image search and other photo sharing services. I'm not saying it's dead, but I can envsion the possibility. There has to be better retail sites out there than this list. Where are the sites that offer highly personalized and customized experiences? Where are the sites that offer end to end service and content? Where are the sites that offer no distinction between online and offline? Just wondering...
So go ahead and get some shirts or a mug or something. I'll donate the profit to Vipassana Santa Cruz and the Prison Project.
Thanks.
