Quality control is an important issue at PODs and Cafepress is no exception. There have been countless tales of wrong/missing orders and such like but I think one of the things that rankled shopkeepers the most is knowing from personal experience that their shirts and stickers and things are sometimes haphazardly stuffed into a bag and sent out. To be fair though, all the items I received from Cafepress were in good condition and folded fairly neatly.

Cafepress has decided to address some of these quality issues which can be seen in the recent upgrading of the way they send the receipts and  now they have also upgraded the way they pack the shirts. It is the result of shopkeeper feedback and the recently implemented Cafepress Voice. To all who say otherwise, here is evidence that Cafepress does indeed listen to the shopkeepers. “Starting this week, all apparel in orders will be rolled and wrapped in a recycled paper band, held together with a sticker.” From their announcement it seems there will be more improvements to come.

I have to admit though, that when I received the notification of the new packaging I had expected something more like the new Zazzle.com packaging that was introduced recently. Cafepress items come in a white plastic bag with the trademark green and black logo while Zazzle items come in a very sleek futuristic package. They say it is “technomatic, electrostatic, and polyethylene-omatic” but I say that it is awesom-atic.