Club Shop and Merchandising.

chunksafc said:
You would assume so although I'm sure someone experienced in retail will explain if not.

I've mentioned before that Leeds make loads from merchandise, what do they do different to us? Is it stock levels? Variety? I can't see it being tourists or visitors like Man Utd and Liverpool etc.
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Simple. Cost. Even for a pop up, you have short term rental, and, more expensively, shop fitting (including wiring up for EPOS (you can't just use an i Zettle and have any kind of stock control)).
 
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Something else I think the club should consider if they ever get the club shop up and running and stocked is opening up one night per week till 9pm

I know it seems mad to some people who don't work 8-5 every week day, but getting to any sort of shop, bank, doctors, appointment etc.. during normal working hours is an absolute ball ache for people that do

There's no way I'd be taking an afternoon off work to get back to sunderland early enough to visit the club shop or sort out a ticketing issue.
 
mollydog1 said:
Why don’t they allow sports shops to stock the strips. No we’re at Consett ,Stanley or the metro for a long time. But plenty of bar code tops
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It was something Quinn did back in the day, The big problem is that most of the big boys have only central buying (local managers can't get stuff in themselves), and, once you've lost a customer number, it's the devil's work to get it back, and pretty ,mcuh impossoble if you aren't in the PL (because it's only those that will sell nationwide).
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
Simple. Cost. Even for a pop up, you have short term rental, and, more expensively, shop fitting (including wiring up for EPOS (you can't just use an i Zettle and have any kind of stock control)).
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So what do Leeds do better than us that makes them make so much more from merchandise?

Would a mobile shop as suggested by @TheMagicTorch work or is that to much cost as well?
 
When this new bridge is built and everything else around is up and running, housing / offices / hospital, the corner unit of the holiday inn would be the perfect position for a town centre unit. Will probs be a small supermarket I guess tho
 
chunksafc said:
So what do Leeds do better than us that makes them make so much more from merchandise?

Would a mobile shop as suggested by @TheMagicTorch work or is that to much cost as well?
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At a guess, from the numbers involved, they're putting some or all their sponsorship deals through that heading. For £25m, they'd need to be selling the equivalent of 12.5 million shirts, whicn is plainly nonsensical. It's futile to try and draw detailed conclusions from the very limited analysis in the published accounts, where there is very wide scope over what gets put where.

A mobile shop would have an one-off set up cost of vehicle (up to an artic, depending on how big it's to be) and fitting out, but then there's a problem with secure storage, which I suppose could be done at the AoL at a pinch, although ideally you'd want it garaged somewhere.
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
At a guess, from the numbers involved, they're putting some or all their sponsorship deals through that heading. For £25m, they'd need to be selling the equivalent of 12.5 million shirts, whicn is plainly nonsensical. It's futile to try and draw detailed conclusions from the very limited analysis in the published accounts, where there is very wide scope over what gets put where.

A mobile shop would have an one-off set up cost of vehicle (up to an artic, depending on how big it's to be) and fitting out, but then there's a problem with secure storage, which I suppose could be done at the AoL at a pinch, although ideally you'd want it garaged somewhere.
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With more than 110,000 shirts sold already this season, Leeds’ new kit deal will be big business

Link to how well Leeds do with it all
 
Blyth Reds said:
This so called Nike gear is simply shit quality.
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This. I ordered a polo off the website last week as there was an offer on. Whilst I expected the horrendous ironed on club crest I must say the material is shocking and won’t last 5 minutes. Imagine forking out full price (£40) for that.
 
You cannot purchase an SAFC top in Sunderland or Durham city centre, the MetroCentre or Ponteland airport etc.. Our PR/marketing is a non existent mess.

You can rarely purchase SAFC kit/clothing in popular sizes at the club shop.

The week before the Wembley play off final a year ago with SAFC having 55k people having bought tickets, the club shop was open for a few hours on TWO days.

The ticket office is such a mess it’s longest serving member of staff left this week saying that the club is a miserable place to work at right now. She’d been there most of her working life.

On the pitch: much better. Off it: absolute disorganised shambles in key areas.
 
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CissesUnderpants9 said:
Fan Letters: "Sunderland’s merchandising is nowhere near good enough!"

just finishing reading the bloke's rant, just wondered what everyone else thought, i reckon he's got a good point.

Dear Roker Report,

Now that we’re in the close season, I thought I’d have a rant!
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Any criticism of our merchandising and off the field activities is 100% warranted.
It's amateurish at best and the range of kit and training gear is possibly one of the worst in the EFL.
Blyth Reds said:
This so called Nike gear is simply shit quality.
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Spot on..... These are the cheapest shirts they have and are the basic range. Justsport or similar then stick on a 'Haway the lads' or 'SAFC' and expect the fanbase to pay £40 for a tshirt you can get for less than £15 on mandm direct.
 
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Sons of The Wear said:
You cannot purchase an SAFC top in Sunderland or Durham city centre, the MetroCentre or Ponteland airport etc.. Our PR/marketing is a non existent mess.

You can rarely purchase SAFC kit/clothing in popular sizes at the club shop.

The week before the Wembley play off final a year ago with SAFC having 55k people having bought tickets, the club shop was open for a few hours on TWO days.

The ticket office is such a mess it’s longest serving member of staff left this week saying that the club is a miserable place to work at right now. She’d been there most of her working life.

On the pitch: much better. Off it: absolute disorganised shambles in key areas.
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That's not great at all, it really needs to be addressed by Davison
 
I’m a lifelong Sunderland fan (living in Leicester but born & bred in Seaburn) working for a company specialising in design, production, web sales and marketing within the sport & leisure sector. Clients include UFC, Liverpool FC, Real Madrid FC. I feel that the SAFC merchandise product range offer and webstore experience are extremely poor and contacted the club last year to offer our services.

I sent a proposal to the club last year along with a detailed analytical report on what was wrong with the current merch offer & web store performance but they came back stating that the club had entered a 5 year contract with another company and that they weren’t interested.

I believe that if we could pursue this again we could offer fantastic clothing / accessories for the fans and generate substantial income for the club.

SBNation are interested in running an article & I wondered if RAWA would be interested in looking at this with me?

Any other suggestions would be welcome.....
 
Sons of The Wear said:
You cannot purchase an SAFC top in Sunderland or Durham city centre, the MetroCentre or Ponteland airport etc.. Our PR/marketing is a non existent mess.

You can rarely purchase SAFC kit/clothing in popular sizes at the club shop.

The week before the Wembley play off final a year ago with SAFC having 55k people having bought tickets, the club shop was open for a few hours on TWO days.

The ticket office is such a mess it’s longest serving member of staff left this week saying that the club is a miserable place to work at right now. She’d been there most of her working life.

On the pitch: much better. Off it: absolute disorganised shambles in key areas.
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Sad to hear a long serving employee leaving at a time when the club on the pitch is on the up and looking positive.
nbtsafc said:
I’m a lifelong Sunderland fan (living in Leicester but born & bred in Seaburn) working for a company specialising in design, production, web sales and marketing within the sport & leisure sector. Clients include UFC, Liverpool FC, Real Madrid FC. I feel that the SAFC merchandise product range offer and webstore experience are extremely poor and contacted the club last year to offer our services.

I sent a proposal to the club last year along with a detailed analytical report on what was wrong with the current merch offer & web store performance but they came back stating that the club had entered a 5 year contract with another company and that they weren’t interested.

I believe that if we could pursue this again we could offer fantastic clothing / accessories for the fans and generate substantial income for the club.

SBNation are interested in running an article & I wondered if RAWA would be interested in looking at this with me?

Any other suggestions would be welcome.....
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For a supposed forward looking club our website offering is a joke and has needed an overhaul for years. We've got to start matching the off field offering with the progress on the pitch.
 
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CissesUnderpants9 said:
not just the club shop, but its also the other units we had around the region, at one point, the bridges had a unit, i remember it very well as i used to get stuff in it, around christmas, lots people in it at the time.
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It was outside mate near where cex etc is now, we had one in the late 80s early 90s inside Jacky whites. It's criminal mind, it surely makes sense to have a shop in the heart of Sunderland city centre the foot traffic alone would get people in. We need to be pushing the club as much as possible before the blood money starts a Keegan like mid 90s land grab around the region. I'd be getting one opened in the galleries too.
 
I live in the city centre and know I could buy a mags top now in a short walk.

We haven't stocked any shirts in months in our club shop. RAWA and the fans groups should be hammering the club for how badly our commercial side is.

Had family over from Australia who couldn't buy a shirt
Mackemansj1 said:
It was outside mate near where cex etc is now, we had one in the late 80s early 90s inside Jacky whites. It's criminal mind, it surely makes sense to have a shop in the heart of Sunderland city centre the foot traffic alone would get people in. We need to be pushing the club as much as possible before the blood money starts a Keegan like mid 90s land grab around the region. I'd be getting one opened in the galleries too.
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Should have a small unit on high street West, if vape shops can afford the rent why can't we?

Could sell tickets too and that area is just perfect
 
Brett said:
I live in the city centre and know I could buy a mags top now in a short walk.

We haven't stocked any shirts in months in our club shop. RAWA and the fans groups should be hammering the club for how badly our commercial side is.

Had family over from Australia who couldn't buy a shirt

Should have a small unit on high street West, if vape shops can afford the rent why can't we?

Could sell tickets too and that area is just perfect
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It's bonkers mate, I see people bring up costs were a massive sized football club in the second tier that's just sold 31k season tickets and you can't buy a club shirt a mile or so away from the stadium in the city centre. That just seems f***ing mental to me like. It maybe a cost but like you say there's vape shops shitty mobile phone repair shops even inside the bridges if the owners of those can find away to make money out of business like that surely a business with a huge built in customer base can find away to make it work. I don't think we've had people at the top brave enough to make proposals of such things as it may require an initial outlay that vape and mobile phone repair blokes can muster but a championship club can't .
 
I’ve said it for years the club should have a mobile shop on the corner of the car park by the stokoe statue to catch all the cross bridge traffic. It should tour the region during the week. Market days out in sheep worrying country, county fairs, the lasses games etc etc.
 

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