The Easiest Way to Create an Online Logowear Store
Logowear can be a big part of a camp’s identity. Wearing camp logowear is a way for campers, parents and alumni to identify with the camp, feel camp pride and stay connected. Logowear is often available for purchase during camp or at specific times of year but more and more camps are looking to make their logowear available all year round by setting up an online store.
This article will describe a model of an online logowear store that helps you overcome the traditional challenges of selling online and allows you to get up and running relatively quickly with minimal effort in time and resources.
Traditional challenges of selling online
People are often wary of creating an online store because of the following challenges:
Inventory
How many t-shirts should I order? How many different colors and sizes? What I do with the 50 extra small yellow t-shirts that I’m left with afterwards? What if I order something and it doesn’t sell at all?
Logistics
How do I take the orders? Do I set up my own website? If I incorporate it into my own website, do I have the ability to take payment online? Who is going to manage this website year round?
Storage
Where do I keep all my inventory year round if I don’t have any space in my offices and the camp canteen is not accessible off season?
Delivery
How am I going to handle packaging and delivery? Am I going to have to make a trip to the post office every week to deliver individual packages? How much is that going to cost me? Who is going to be responsible for that?
Cost
Will I make any money off my store? Am I actually going to lose money on the inventory I don’t manage to sell? Do I even have the human resources to handle this?
The Solution: Hosted Print-On-Demand (POD) Store
At Pack for Camp, we provide a model that allows you to create an online store that is available to campers year round. Our model answers all of the above challenges so that setting up a store is free, easy and involves little to no maintenance.
Hosting
We host the store on our website, which means that all the logistics around setting up and maintaining a website, taking orders and accepting payments are all taken care of because the webpage is created and hosted by Pack for Camp.
Print on Demand
All our items are printed on demand. In simple terms this means that the item is only printed when somebody actually buys it. We print one item at a time so no single item has to be ordered or paid for in advance. For example, a camp can offer 20 different items in their store including t-shirts, sweatshirts, joggers, mugs, accessories and more. When a camper orders one of these items, the specific item is printed and delivered to the person who ordered it.
Effectively this means that you never have to worry about holding inventory or about ordering quantities in advance. You can offer an item in multiple colors and with multiple different logos and if you don’t sell any, you know what happens? Nothing! The item is only printed once it’s paid for by the camper.
Storage and Delivery
When a camper orders from your store, it is delivered directly to the address they choose. All the logistics of storage and delivery are handled on our end. The camp does not need to hold any inventory and does not need to concern itself with physically delivering the item to the camper. No packaging, no trips to the post office, no logistics.
What does it cost me?
Nothing. And you make some money… Because you are not ordering anything in advance or committing to any minimums there is no cost in buying inventory. The service is free to set up and maintain and you get a 10% commission (minus shipping and handling) on every item sold.
Available all year round
Even if you have your own canteen, your webstore will be available 24/7 all year round. That means that campers, parents, alumni, staff, and donors can buy your camp swag any time of year. You can also promote the store around specific seasons and events like Alumni dinners, Holidays season, reunions and more.
What do I need to do to get started?
Not much. To create a store, you simply choose the items you want from our catalog, send us the logos and tell us where to place them on the items. We create the store and once you are happy with the way it looks, you send the link out to campers and let the magic happen.
Set up your store today
To set up your store today, contact us and we will take you through the steps to get up and running in no time.
About the Author
Gaby Fachler spent 10 summers in his youth as a camper and staff. He is the founder and general manager of Pack for Camp, an online store that offers everything you expect to find on a camp packing list: soft trunks, bedding, laundry accessories, toiletries, storage solutions, clothing and more. Pack for Camp partners with summer camps to create customized smart packing lists and logowear stores for campers and staff.