OGO

OGO is a print-on-demand and drop-shipping service in Melbourne, Australia, that prints AS Colour T-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel, plus mugs and tote bags, for sellers who run a Shopify store. The OGO Shopify app picks up each order, OGO prints it by direct-to-garment (DTG) in Melbourne, and ships it to the customer under the seller's branding. The homepage pitches it to creators and brands with fans to sell to: "OGO lets you design and sell branded apparel, at no upfront cost." It says the service is backed by the team at Tee Junction.

What a seller gets

The model is simple. A seller designs products in the OGO app, publishes them to their Shopify store, and "when you get a sale we print and ship directly to your customer." The homepage says OGO handles production, shipping and customer service while the seller keeps the profits, and describes the shipping as "Full white label drop shipping. Professionally packaged and delivered." with the seller's own branding.

The company describes itself as "Australia's first print-on-demand drop shipping brands like AS Colour!", its own claim. Its point of difference is geography. The shipping page says all orders come from its Melbourne headquarters, so "You'll never have to deal with packages coming in from the USA or Europe, and all the hassles of international post and Australian Customs."

How orders and billing work

When a customer orders on the seller's Shopify store, the OGO app grabs the order automatically and OGO invoices the seller within 24 hours. Once the invoice is paid through automated billing, production starts "right away here in Melbourne." The site's Shopify app section has guides to installing the app, creating products and setting up billing and payment details, and separate pages cover packaging and branding, billing and payments, and ordering samples.

The product-creation guide has video walkthroughs for a simple product and for design variants. The variant feature lets one listing carry a different design per shirt color, for example a black design on a white T-shirt and a white design on a black one. Design guides cover apparel and mugs separately.

Printing and stock

OGO prints by DTG. The homepage says it "uses the latest Direct-to-Garment (DTG) technology to deliver retail quality prints with amazing colours and industry-leading wash durability," and calls the team "the t-shirt printing experts." It offers dozens of styles from AS Colour and Sportage, which it calls "Australia's best-known brands," and says "10,000+ garments in stock give you 2-4 day average turnaround times." The tone of the site is informal: "Listen mate, there are a zillion places on the internet to get a crappy t-shirt made, but we're not one of them," followed by the promise of premium T-shirts and merchandise "handcrafted in Melbourne."

Products and prices

The products page lists prices in Australian dollars. Categories are men's apparel, women's apparel, kids' and infants' apparel, sweatshirts, organic, custom mugs and cups, custom tote bags and accessories. Examples from the first page of the catalog:

• AS Colour Men's Staple Regular Tee: $9.00
• AS Colour Men's Lowdown Singlet, Barnard Tank Tee and Shadow Scoop Neck Tee: $9.00 each
• AS Colour Women's Maple Regular Tee: $9.00
• AS Colour Organic Unisex Tee and Women's Maple Organic Tee: $10.00
• AS Colour Men's Classic Tee and Men's Tall Tee: $11.00
• AS Colour Unisex Raglan 3/4 Tee: $12.00
• AS Colour Men's Base Longsleeve Tee: $13.00
• AS Colour Chad Polo Shirt: $15.00
• AS Colour Supply Pocket Hoodie Sweatshirt (mid weight): $30.00
• AS Colour Stencil Pocket Hoodie Sweatshirt (heavy weight) and United Crew Sweatshirt Jumper: $40.00
• 11oz ceramic mug: $14.00
• 12oz enamel mug: $17.00

A few older lines, such as the Men's Paper Slim Tee and the Box Crew Neck Sweatshirt Jumper, sit in a discontinued category. The organic category holds the organic unisex and women's tees, the only products the catalog labels that way.

Shipping within Australia

OGO offers two domestic services, and the seller controls which one a customer gets through Shopify's shipping method names.

Standard goes by Australia Post or Couriers Please at $9 for the first item plus $1 for each additional item. The shipping page estimates 8 to 15 business days to most metro areas and 8 to 20 business days to non-metro areas, production included. It covers parcel lockers, PO boxes and remote locations at a flat rate, with tracking on every parcel, a tracking email and automatic Shopify updates once dispatched.

Express goes by Australia Post Express Post at $12 for the first item plus $2 for each additional item, with estimates of 5 to 12 business days to most metro areas and 5 to 15 business days to non-metro areas. The Express Post network covers 80% of Australian business addresses, private addresses and PO boxes. To use it, a seller creates a Shopify shipping method with the word "Express" in its name; every other method goes Standard. Express orders get no priority in production, which the page makes plain: "The only difference is the delivery method."

For both services, sweatshirts (crewnecks and hoodies) and designs printed on both sides may add an average of 1 to 3 business days to production, and all times are estimates rather than guarantees.

International shipping and pickup

Everything outside Australia goes by DHL eCommerce Global Mail at $18 for the first item plus $6 for each additional item. The estimates are 2 to 4 weeks to "major partners (USA, UK, New Zealand)" and 2 to 8 weeks to most other countries, and the page warns that "There is no guarantee of delivery times with International orders. Some orders and destinations may take weeks or months." DHL gives basic tracking on request, local tracking may be missing in some countries, and international tracking is not pushed to Shopify automatically; sellers request it through the support email.

Samples, or orders collected by the store owner, can be picked up from OGO's warehouse in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, by setting the Shopify shipping method to "Pick up". The page says pickup is not for a seller's customers.

Proof from customers

The homepage's case study is Hamish & Andy, described as "Australia's favourite radio duo," who "launched a Shopify store in under a week, selling thousands of items of merch to their dedicated fans across Australia and the world," all through OGO's app.

Who it suits and who it does not

OGO suits a Shopify seller whose customers are mostly in Australia: a creator, podcast, band or small brand that wants AS Colour blanks printed locally, published base prices from $9, flat domestic shipping from $9, white-label packaging and no customs delays. The organic tees give an option for sellers who want that label on a product.

It suits less well a seller whose buyers are mainly overseas, given the 2 to 8 week international estimates, or one whose store is not on Shopify, since the Shopify app is the only order route the site describes. The range is also narrow beside a large general catalog: apparel, mugs, totes and accessories, with the apparel printed by DTG.