Group Ordering Made Easy — We Set Up the Store, Your Group Does the Rest
If you've ever tried to organize a group shirt order, you know how it goes. You send a message asking for sizes. Half the people respond. You follow up. Someone changes their mind. Someone wants a different color. Someone Venmo’s you the wrong amount. You end up fronting money you're not sure you'll get back, managing a spreadsheet that keeps changing, and wondering why you volunteered for this.
We Have a Better Way
Rain City West sets up a custom webstore for your group — a dedicated online shop with your design, your items, and your sizing options. You share the link with your community. Everyone places their own order, picks their own size, and pays for themselves through a secure checkout. When the store closes, we collect everything and go to print. You pick up the finished orders bagged and sorted, ready to hand out.
No spreadsheets. No chasing payments. No guessing on quantities. We handle the store, your group handles the ordering, and you stay sane.
Webstore Setup Fee: $100
This covers building your store, writing product descriptions, creating your size guide, producing custom images for each item and packaging each order for easy distribution. The setup fee is non-refundable. We only offer group ordering for screen printing services and a minimum of 12 orders is required for webstore.
How It Works
Step 1 — Get in touch and tell us about your group
Reach out with the basics: what your group is, what you're looking to offer (t-shirts, hoodies, other items), and roughly when you need everything in hand. We'll talk through the details and confirm the setup fee to get things moving.
Step 2 — We build your webstore. ($100 set up fee)
Once the setup fee is paid, we get to work. We build a dedicated store for your group and take care of everything it needs to be ready for your community: product descriptions that explain what people are ordering, a size guide so everyone picks the right fit, and custom images for each item.
Step 3 — You share the link.
Once the store is live, you share the link with your group — by email, group chat, newsletter, social media, wherever your people are. We recommend keeping the store open for two weeks to give everyone time to order.
Step 4 — Your group orders and pays their own way.
Every member of your group places their own order directly through the store and pays at checkout. No one person has to front the cost. No one has to track down payments after the fact.
Step 5 — The store closes and we check the numbers.
Each store needs a minimum of 12 orders to go to print. Once the store closes, we review the totals. If the store has met its minimum, we go straight to production. If it falls short of 12 orders, we'll be in touch — see the section below on what happens in that case.
Step 6 — Production and pickup.
From store close to finished orders, plan for up to four weeks. Finished orders are individually bagged and sorted, ready for you to pick up at our West Seattle shop and hand out to your group. We don't ship individual orders to group members — the pickup model keeps things affordable and manageable for everyone.
The Important Details
A few things worth knowing before you get started:
The 12-Order Minimum — What You Need to Know
Here's what happens if your store doesn't hit 12 orders:
- We'll notify you before the store closes if your store is running short, so you have a chance to do a last push with your group.
- If the store closes and the store hasn’t reached 12 orders, we'll refund the purchase price of that item to every person who ordered it.
- The $100 webstore setup fee is non-refundable, regardless of whether items hit their minimums. The fee covers the work of building the store, which happens before orders come in.
Most groups that put in a genuine effort to share the link and remind people don't have trouble hitting the minimum. But we want you to know exactly how it works before you launch.
Store window is two weeks.
We recommend keeping the store open for two weeks. That's enough time for the word to spread and for stragglers to get their orders in without dragging the timeline out indefinitely.
Production takes approximately four weeks after close.
From the moment the store closes to the moment you're picking up finished orders, plan for up to four weeks. We'll give you a more specific estimate based on your order when the store closes.
One main point of contact.
We ask that one person from your group serve as our primary contact throughout the process — answering questions from group members, and coordinating pickup. That person doesn't have to do much, but having a single point of contact keeps things from getting confused.
Pickup in West Seattle.
Finished orders are picked up at our shop in West Seattle. We bag and sort everything individually so you can hand them out easily. We don't ship individual orders to group members — the pickup model is part of what keeps the whole thing affordable and manageable.
What Can Go in Your Webstore
We can stock your webstore with most of the items we offer at Rain City West. Screen printed t-shirts and hoodies are the most popular choices, but we can also include long-sleeves, tanks, and other apparel. If you have something specific in mind, ask us and we'll let you know if it's a good fit for the group ordering model.
Each item in the store can be offered in multiple sizes and colors — your group members choose what works for them when they order. We'll help you think through the item lineup and pricing when we set things up.
Screen printing services are only offered for group web stores.
Questions We Get About Group Ordering
Ready to Set Up Your Group Store? Let's Get Started.
The sooner you get in touch, the sooner we can get your store built and your link ready to share. Tell us about your group and what you're hoping to offer, and we'll take it from there.