CafePress.com to add 119 jobs, gets $1.5 million in incentives
Yea, that headline caught my attention (thanks to Jen from Lekker Designs for spotting the article)...I had to pass it on, along with my thoughts.
Cafepress.com is a company made up of "the little guy"...over 2.5 million little guys setting up shop, selling and buying their wares through the Cafepress website. But when does Cafepress' good fortune end? Or at least slow down? So far the company has been increasing profits by roughly 75% each year since 2001. Even I, a "little guy" (gal), have experienced similar growth with my Cafepress ventures and I often wonder myself, "when will this growth slow down? Is Cafepress here to stay?" And occasionally, "when can I buy stock in them?"
So far Cafepress has managed to survive the dot-com boom when so many start-ups failed. They've inspired numerous competitors to start up their own versions of the service, and have created a whole new kind of online community where shopkeepers befriend their competitors, share tips, and bond online like no other group I've known. I've made friendships, met the owners and many staff members in person, learned a heck of a lot and continue to grow my Cafepress stores and profits. They've done a lot of things right.
I just hope they can survive this rapid growth period and manage to keep ahead of the competition with their online service. It's refreshing to hear they plan to expand and add so many jobs. That announcement at least seems more tangible than their plans for 2007 announced a couple weeks ago to shopkeepers. Many of us shopkeepers are frustrated with how slow change happens these days because Cafepress' resources seem to be spent either adding more server space to handle the rapid growth or adding new products to their line. In the meantime, us shopkeepers wait patiently for much needed site upgrades, tools, and functionality so we can continue to create our shops efficiently to meet a growing demand.
So far Cafepress' size has proven to be a great opportunity for competitors and third-party developers to fill in the gap. While Cafepress tells us to use other parties' tools (like those found on Cafepressdn.com), competitors are finding success where Cafepress is lagging. Printfection.com, for example offers a similar service, and because they are still relatively small, they have the luxury of resources and time to make changes happen quickly and respond to shopkeepers concerns with more than a form letter and a 'promise to look into the issue.' I have been very happy with their service so far. Goodstorm.com has also come out with a wonderful new Flash-based T-shirt creator, now in beta. Can Cafepress keep up with these innovators?
Though there's a lot I don't know, I still have faith in Cafepress. And in crazy times like this (more on that later this week), I like to wait until the dust clears before making a final judgement. For now, I'll continue to run shops through Cafepress and dabble with their competitors and let you know what I learn as I go.
