CafePress, Inc. is an American

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesal ...

of a wide range of consumer items, including clothing, home decor, drinkware, stationery, gifts, and user- customized on-demand items. The company was founded in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

, but is now headquartered in

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, where its production facility is also located. In 2001, CafePress.com won the People's Voice

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

in the Commerce category.

Business model

CafePress.com sells T-shirts, bags, mugs, wall clocks, calendars, and a myriad of other products. Customers can upload their own graphics design, logo, or text, which will be added to the product by the company. CafePress.com also offers print-on-demand services for wall art and

stationery Stationery refers to writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery usually specifies materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) or by equipment such as computer p ...

. The site also allows users to have a virtual CafePress "shop", including an online storefront and website hosting, order management, fulfillment,

payment processing A payment processor is a system that enables financial transactions, commonly employed by a merchant, to handle transactions with customers from various channels such as credit cards and debit cards or bank accounts. They are usually broken dow ...

, and

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...

History

CafePress, Inc. was founded as a privately owned company in 1999 by Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain. In July 2008, CafePress acquired the specialist photographic art printing business Imagekind, and in September 2010 further acquired photo-to-canvas company Canvas On Demand to add to their platform of brands. In June 2011, CafePress filed with the SEC to raise up to $80 million in an initial public offering. On March 29, 2012, CafePress debuted at $19/share on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

under the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded Share (finance), shares of a particular stock or Security (finance), security on a particular stock exchange. Ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols ...

PRSS. The stock hit an intraday high of $22.69/share. On April 30, 2012, CafePress announced that it would move its corporate headquarters from

, to its production facilities in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, at a cost of $16.5 million. Louisville and the state of Kentucky had offered incentives as high as $10 million for the move, up to $1 million per year for ten years. On September 28, 2018, Snapfish agreed to acquire CafePress for approximately $25 million, purchasing all outstanding CafePress stock for $1.48 per share in cash. The buyout was completed in November of that year.. Company founder Fred Durham left the company when the buyout was complete. In February 2019, CafePress suffered a data breach. The exposed data included 23 million unique email addresses, with some records also containing names, physical addresses, phone numbers, and security question/answer pairs. Over 180,000 records contained social security numbers. A 2022 FTC complaint alleged that CafePress was negligent in its security practices and failed to promptly notify customers after it became aware of this breach, and instead waited until security researchers disclosed it publicly. CafePress was ordered to pay US$500,000 after the 2019 data breach. The Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement and along with payment to those affected, must report its security measures to a third party. On September 1, 2020, PlanetArt acquired CafePress from Shutterfly's business unit, Snapfish, a San Francisco-based company. Part of this transaction included Cafepress changing its name to Residual Pumpkin Entity but still operates CafePress branded websites as such. In February 2024, the website was hacked and the breach compromised more than 23 million accounts. As of October 2024, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated payments totaling over $370,000 to consumers adversely affected by the data security lapses of CafePress.

Brands

CafePress, Inc. has its flagship brand, CafePress.com. CafePress, Inc. also partners with other businesses to provide licensed content on their site, and power online custom shops for large companies, such as ABC,

Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland, the United Arab Em ...

and

Peanuts Worldwide ''Peanuts'' (briefly subtitled ''featuring Good ol' Charlie Brown'') is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reru ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cafepress 1999 establishments in California American companies established in 1999 Companies based in Louisville, Kentucky Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Internet properties established in 1999 Online retailers of the United States Retail companies established in 1999 Self-publishing companies Self-publishing online stores 2012 initial public offerings 2018 mergers and acquisitions