Q Do you know who prints cards for Zazzle.com either here or in the US? Any pointers would be gratefully received.
M, via email

A Thanks for bringing the Zazzle website (www.zazzle.co.uk) to my attention, it hadn’t been on my radar up until now and it’s certainly a fascinating business and a fascinating business model.

The company is based in California, and was formed by two brothers in the late 1990s while they were at Stanford University. As such, it’s one of the few original dotcom businesses to have survived and thrived, and they clearly have some very clever software systems at work.

Zazzle offers a vast range of ‘one-of-a-kind’ branded merchandise that’s produced on-demand, with most orders shipped within 24 hours. So, for example, you can order a t-shirt or mug featuring a vintage Walt Disney image or something from Star Wars. Alternatively, I could upload my own design. And by making bespoke designs available via its marketplace function and seller incentive programme, users can also receive commission on products sold.

There’s a huge community of Zazzle sellers out there. The product range is enormous, and includes apparel such as t-shirts and ties, skateboards, Keds shoes, mugs, mouse mats, pet clothing... as well as printed stationery, photo cards, posters and other more conventional print items. In fact, the range is so huge that Zazzle talks about a potential 24bn product variants being available with 100m products added daily.

The options are mind boggling. One of the site’s most popular products is custom postage, which is huge in the US for things like weddings and new baby arrivals.

I found it hard to believe they could produce all this stuff themselves, imagining some sort of virtual production hub. But having spoken to someone at the company it seems they do – items are printed and shipped from its Californian production facility.

It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on Zazzle, they already have specific sites using local language and currency for Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand; and at the end of last year the firm launched three further European sites for France, Spain and Portugal along with a Brazilian version. Its main rival seems to be CafePress: www.cafepress.com.

Some clues as to the kit in use can be found in a YouTube video (http://bit.ly/6Q3uZ8), featuring an interview by USA Today with Jeff Beaver, one of the Zazzle brothers.