[citricsquid]

I like the idea, but I have the feeling your t-shirts are overpriced.

I had what you could call a t-shirt problem, I purchased over 150 in the space of a year, anyway one common thing I noticed is that a brand (eg: Threadless, Bustedtees) that sold based on merit and not gimmick could sell at a much higher price than somewhere that was relatively unknown or sold based on some sort of gimmick. For example teefury.com is a site that does a sort of similar thing to you with time based sales, they sell at around $10 each but would never do well at $25 each.

My (anecdotal -- myself and friends) understanding of why people aren't comfortable spending $25 on a time-sale t-shirt is that you're selling selling based on 2 things, the t-shirt itself and the idea that it's time-exclusive, this adds pressure. If I purchase a t-shirt from somewhere like Threadless I know it's likely if I wait 2 weeks it's going to be there still, so I don't feel like "I must buy now!" and then I don't feel like I'm paying for something I might not want in a week, whereas if I see a t-shirt on your site with 1 day to go: "That t-shirt is cool! Hmm, but I have to buy it right now... and $25 is a premium t-shirt price... I might not like it in a few days... I'll skip". This behaviour is especially so with the added idea that I'm possibly buying a t-shirt nobody else likes, it makes me think maybe it's just a crappy t-shirt.

Your site is a site that customers would constantly be coming back to, so while you might not make such a good margin on a $12.50 shirt vs. a $25 shirt, it would be made up for in the average customer purchasing 20 shirts a year vs. 5 if they had to be considerate about their purchases.

I'm not sure if I explained that well, if not I can try and re-word it.

[seekely]

As a very frequent t-shirt purchaser myself, the reason sites like TeeFury (which I love) do not sell at $25 is because their t-shirt quality, design, and printing style is not anywhere near as nice as Threadless or DesignByHumans. I am hoping Nifty will earn a reputation more like the latter sites than the former.

With that in mind, I will definitely test price points and appreciate the perspective from a fellow t-shirt buyer.

[citricsquid]

That's true (re: quality), I've spent $50 on a few t-shirts from my favourite quality companies (http://jinx.com t-shirts wear like a dream)

An idea that might fit with your site would be to offer a shirt of the month deal (bustedtees example: http://www.bustedtees.com/shirtofthemonth).

$200 upfront for 12 months of shirts (works out at about $13/m), every third week of the month you generate a random shirt for me from that weeks shirts and if that shirt matches the least popular I also get a bonus shirt (fits with the theme of the main weekly sale) or maybe if I am a subscriber I get double the chance of a bonus shirt (maybe least popular and most popular or least popular and second least popular) or something.

You could even do it like a loss leader type deal, have a yearly subscription for $100 (which would be ridiculously low and pull lots of people in) and then use the marketing from that (people telling their friends about the cool shirt that just arrived, tweeting about it etc. every month).

Although I guess as you're doing t-shirts on demand there's probably not much financial outlay so cash up front might not be worth potentially losing profits.

If your shirt quality is good (I'm going to order a shirt later to find out) then I'd sign up to that sort of deal ($200, or $100) without a second thought because there's nothing better than getting a surprise t-shirt.

[seekely]

The t-shirts are of quality, I promise :)

The subscription suggestion is great and might be a better fit for Nifty. I'll have to give some thought.

Another direction I am thinking of going is more clearly separating the purchase from the pick. So you pick your shirt to buy and then make a separate pick for the least popular. I worry the additional UI may complicate things, but it is probably worth testing.

[kerneis]

No, regardless of UI, I think the dilemma of having to buy yourself the least popular one to get an extra t-shirt is important. And what would happen to your buisness model if everybody liked (and ordered) t-shirt A but nominated t-shirt B? You would have to ship two t-shirts to everybobdy, whereas your current plan guarantees that no more than 20% of customers get a free t-shirt --- which also makes it more challenging to play the game.

[CaveTech]

Not to be nit-picky, but $200/12 is closer to 17 than 13.

[thedufer]

Maybe he calculated assuming a free shirt if you randomly get a least-popular? This means 14.4 instead of 12 per year, and truncates to $13 (rounds to $14).

[zevyoura]

I think you're right, but one quick note: there is actually an element of time pressure on Threadless; they print a limited quantity of each design (though popular designs are brought back as reprints). Also, they regularly (quarterly, I think) have $10 sales. T-Shirts are a crowded market, with some very strong existing players. It is an interesting concept though, best of luck to the OP!

[bangbang]

I agree. I personally was about to pull the trigger on a T but the price point was juuuust beyond what I'm willing to pay. I doubt I'm alone in this thought.