How Imperial Custom Apparel scaled to 300 product listings per day with 80% fewer staff

"Store Link has bought back my time. As a business owner, it gave me back my time to focus on growth, which is invaluable." — JC, Co-Founder, Imperial Custom Apparel

For six years, Imperial Custom Apparel built a thriving print-on-demand business across Etsy, TikTok, Shopify, and Amazon. Starting with a single Brother GTX printer during COVID, co-founder JC and his family grew to serve both direct consumers and high-volume B2B sellers.

But success brought complexity. With 17 team members manually creating mockups, sizing designs, and uploading listings across multiple marketplaces, Imperial was drowning in administrative work. Each product listing took 1 to 2 hours to complete, and mistakes were inevitable at scale.

The challenge: Caught between manual chaos and failed software attempts

Imperial wasn't new to trying solutions. They'd already invested heavily in two different systems that failed to deliver.

"We ran into two systems that didn't really work for us. We spent a lot of time, effort, and money to set up those systems and they weren't really coming through on the expectations," JC explained.

Desperate for a solution, Imperial even started building custom software, pulling JC away from his core business.

The daily challenges kept mounting: teams manually sized designs in Canva and Adobe Illustrator, searched for mockups, crafted SEO descriptions, and ensured consistent placement across hundreds of products. The company paid for five Adobe Illustrator licenses, five Canva licenses, plus additional platforms. Quality control suffered, and customer onboarding was nearly impossible.

"I wanted to go back to what I was good at and what I wanted to do, marketing and printing," JC said.

The solution: Store Link and the power of true automation

When a Gelato representative cold-called JC, he almost didn't answer. That decision changed everything.

Store Link offered what competitors couldn't: battle-tested expertise from a company that built and scaled its own print-on-demand business, an all-in-one platform eliminating disconnected applications, and ready-made API integrations to TikTok, Shopify, and Etsy.

"When I presented all the things that we wanted to do with Gelato, it wasn't 'we can't do that,' it was 'okay, let's see how we can get it done and here's a demo in two days,'" JC shared.

Store Link automated virtually every manual task. AI-powered mockups generate professional variations in under two minutes with accurate colors. Perfect placement ensures every design is centered across thousands of product variations. One-click publishing replaced the hour-long process of downloading and importing CSV files. Instant customer onboarding made mapping thousands of products possible at the click of a button.

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The results: Dramatic efficiency gains and new revenue opportunities

The transformation was measurable across every dimension of Imperial's business.

"We're mind-blown. Yesterday we listed a listing in five minutes. A regular person can do it in about 10 to 12 minutes. You're easily listing 200 to 300 products a day," JC shared.

Operational efficiency:

• 17 employees reduced to 3 while maintaining output

• 1 to 2 hours per listing reduced to 5 to 10 minutes (up to 95% time savings)

• 200 to 300 products listed per day with minimal staff

• 30% payroll savings on listing-related tasks

Cost savings:

• $250,000+ saved in software development costs

• 5 Adobe Illustrator licenses eliminated

• 5 Canva licenses eliminated

• Multiple other platform subscriptions removed

Revenue growth:

• New B2B revenue stream unlocked by making customer onboarding seamless

• Faster trend capitalization with ability to launch products in minutes instead of hours

• Increased customer lifetime value through recurring order automation

"About 30% of our payroll was for these tasks: store listings, finding mockups, and pretty much all the expenses that came along with it," JC explained.

Beyond efficiency: A competitive advantage

Store Link gave Imperial a competitive advantage against industry giants like Printful and Printify.

"I feel like right now we're 20 feet ahead of the herd and whoever hops on this is going to capitalize on it tremendously," JC shared.

Imperial now offers B2B customers what big platforms can't: the same powerful automation tools Gelato uses, plus expert guidance on growing stores, not just fulfilling orders. When asked what single metric best proves Store Link's value, JC said lifetime value. "Once you introduce a customer to something like this and they see the results, they're not going anywhere."

For print service providers standing at the crossroads between traditional B2B and booming e-commerce, Imperial's story offers a clear message: the barrier to entry has been eliminated.

"If you're on the edge and it's something that you thought about, but you see as too complicated, Gelato is there with you every step of the way," JC advised. "This is a tremendous opportunity not only to drive revenue, but it's a tremendous opportunity to be one of the first ones to offer something unique."

Ready to transform your apparel print-on-demand operation? Watch the Store Link demo to see automation in action, or watch the full customer interview to learn how Imperial reduced their team by 82% while scaling to 300 product listings per day.