BlueCotton’s browser-based design studio is one of the industry’s best tools for DIY custom apparel design. Users can easily add text and images to create designs and preview exactly how they’ll look when printed. However, BlueCotton’s previous stock image partnership severely limited what customers could create within the platform.
By switching to Vecteezy Enterprise, BlueCotton transformed its offering. They now provide exponentially more design options at a significantly lower cost while saving their team countless hours through automated API integration.
Key Metrics
- 300% – Increase in available design assets (from 12,00 to 30,000+)
- $6,000 – Annual savings vs. previous stock provider
- 480 hours – Yearly time savings through automated API integration
- $30,000 – Annual cost savings from automation
About BlueCotton
Industry: Custom screen printing & embroidery
Company Size: 130 employees
Use Case: E-commerce design platform integration
Website: bluecotton.com
The Challenge
BlueCotton’s previous arrangement with Getty Images gave them 12,000 images annually to be used within their design studio, at an annual cost of $18,000. The problem BlueCotton faced is that the selection wasn’t large enough, despite the significant cost.
“We were stuck with a really limited selection of images for our customers,” says Angie Norrod, Art Director at BlueCotton. “With a small selection of images, many customers weren’t able to find what they really wanted.”
The number of images wasn’t the only limitation. BlueCotton’s workflow was extremely manual. Team members had to individually download images from Getty, then manually upload each one into the design studio, creating an operational bottleneck.
Key Pain Points:
- Limited asset library restricting customer creativity
- High costs for limited content
- Time-intensive manual processes
- Support tickets for design elements not available in their library
The Solution
BlueCotton management saw an opportunity to transform their process and improve efficiency through Vecteezy Enterprise and API integration.
“The Vecteezy API was a game-changer for us,” explains Norrod. “Instead of handling individual files manually, we could suddenly make this massive library of images available to our customers automatically.”
Vecteezy engineers created a custom “print-friendly” filter that automatically selects images from Vecteezy’s library that will be suitable for printing on apparel (SVGs with limited elements and colors that will print clearly).
By implementing Vecteezy’s API, more than 50,000 professional-quality images were integrated directly into BlueCotton’s browser-based design tool. This represents a 300% increase over the 12,000 images previously available, while also eliminating the tedious manual work of downloading and uploading images. And thanks to the API integration, BlueCotton’s image library is constantly growing with new images added and automatically available in the design studio.
The drastically improved image selection allows BlueCotton to provide deeper and broader options for customers who previously might not have been able to find what they wanted. And just as important, the implementation was simple. “Getting set up with Vecteezy’s API was really straightforward, and their team members were willing and able to help in any way we needed,“ says Norrod.
Results & Impact
The switch to Vecteezy delivered immediate and substantial improvements across several key metrics:
Cost Efficiency
- 33% reduction in annual content licensing costs (from $18,000 to $12,000)
- 480 hours saved annually by eliminating the manual downloading and uploading process.
- $24,000 saved annually as a result of the time savings, for a total of $30,000 in annual savings
- 300% increase in selection for customers, going from just 12,000 images to more than 50,000
Customer Experience
The expanded library available in BlueCotton’s design studio directly impacts customers, leading to several tangible improvements.
Reduced Support Tickets: Customer service inquiries about the availability of design elements dropped by 30% after the transition to Vecteezy. “We used to get a few emails every day asking for specific types of images,” says Norrod. “Now, customers can usually find what they’re looking for thanks to the vastly improved selection.”
Improved Completion and Reduced Cart Abandonment Rates: Since implementing Vecteezy’s API, BlueCotton has experienced a 12% improvement in design completion rates, meaning more visitors who start a design are completing it and following through with an order. Additionally, cart abandonment has decreased by 18%. ”We believe the reduction in cart abandonment comes down to the fact that customers are happier with the designs they can create now that we can offer more options,” says Julie Denton-Price, Co-Owner and Chief Revenue Officer at BlueCotton.
Higher Average Order Values: The average order value for products created in BlueCotton’s designer has increased by 8% since switching to Vecteezy. The company attributes this growth to improved customer satisfaction with the designs they’re able to create.
Looking Ahead
Although the move to Vecteezy has already benefited the company in several ways, BlueCotton leadership believes there’s still more to come. “We anticipate improved customer satisfaction will lead to more repeat orders,” says Denton-Price. ”We’re also really excited about the convenience of Vecteezy’s API in terms of automatically updating the assets available in our design tool. In the past, when image selection changed, our team members would have to manually remove certain images and upload new ones. Thanks to the API integration, that’s now automatic. This saves us a lot of time and removes the possibility of manual errors.”
Interested in seeing what Vecteezy API can do for your company? Please contact us for a free quote.