BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE ONLINE STORE
Tips and ideas for products, pricing, and more.
CHOOSING ITEMS TO SELL IN YOUR STORE:
T-shirts:
T-shirts are the most popular MERCH item and essential to a successful Online Store. We recommend offering multiple T-shirt styles.
VIEW T-SHIRTS & APPAREL ITEMS
Other popular merch items:
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Hoodies
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Tanks
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Hats
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Tote bags
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Mugs
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Beanies
We highly recommend offering several low-cost items such as:
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Stickers
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Posters
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Wristbands
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8×10 Photos
Bundles:
Offering bundles of audio & merch together allows fans to purchase more items at a discounted price vs. ordering items separately. This has proven effective in increasing overall sales in stores, especially for pre-sale or crowdfunding campaigns.
Digital Downloads:
When offering physical music items such as CDs and Vinyl, we recommend offering a digital download of the music for fans who prefer this option.
Test Pressing:
When selling vinyl, consider offering exclusive signed test pressings.
You usually receive 5 test pressings with a vinyl production – consider ordering 5-10 more to sell in the store (we only charge $5 per extra test pressing when we make your vinyl). Since these are exclusive and limited, you can usually sell Test Pressings for double the cost of the regular vinyl.
Signed Items:
Consider offering signed items – CDs, Vinyl, Posters, etc. You can typically sell a signed item for $10-15 more than a non-signed version.
Upsell Items:
Consider offering a low-cost item, like a sticker, as an upsell item.
When customers put an item in their cart, our system can automatically include a pop-up window with an upsell offer – for example: “Would you like to add a sticker for only $5?”.
Upsells have proven successful in increasing overall sales.
Personalized Items:
Consider offering unique items such as signed handwritten lyrics, exclusive Polaroid photos of the artist in studio, a jacket worn by the artist, signed drumheads, guitars, etc., especially for pre-sales or crowdfunding campaigns!
These items have little to no manufacturing cost, but because they are exclusive and personal, they can be sold for higher dollar amounts.
Experiences:
Add unique experiences to your store!
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Backstage passes
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Exclusive Meet & Greets
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Guitar/drum/vocal lessons with a band member online
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Personal song recordings
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Other interesting offers specific to your fan base!
Instant Gratification:
When setting up a pre-sale or crowdfunding campaign for a new release, consider offering fans an Instant Digital Download of a single off the release or other exclusive content when pre-ordering.
This gives fans an immediate incentive to order, even if the product isn't available to ship yet. You might also consider offering a free digital download of the full album with the purchase of a CD or vinyl. This helps promote and increase the sale of physical items.
SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICING
Below is a general guideline of suggested pricing for our most popular merch items. Of course, this is only a guide, and you are free to set your retail price for your online store based on your products and customer/fan base.
In general, we recommend setting the retail price at 2-3x the manufacturing cost, even more for some items.
For example: A t-shirt might only cost $10 to print, but the standard retail cost for most t-shirts online is $30-40.
Signed items usually sell for more: Unsigned vinyl might retail for $30, while signed vinyl could go for $45.
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Vinyl – $30-40
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CD – $10-15
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T-Shirt – $30-40
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Hoodie – $50-65
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Hat – $25-35
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Sticker – $2-5
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Tote Bag – $20-25
IMAGES FOR THE STORE
Clean, simple, sharp images of each product and bundle are essential to a successful online store.
Most likely, you already have a graphic designer who has assisted in creating artwork for your vinyl/CD/merch items. We recommend having that designer create the individual product, bundle, and banner images for your store.
Image requirements:
Products:
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Square image with white or transparent background
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600×600 px or greater
Shop Banner:
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Banner image
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1200 X 430 pixels
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Bandwear can also assist with creating your product images for $95/hr for graphic design.
DESCRIPTIONS
Although not required, short, effective descriptions for each item are effective in increasing sales.
For music releases, consider a brief overview of the release – the year of release, any featured artists, singles, recognition or awards received, etc.
For apparel, it’s helpful to include the brand of the garment (American Apparel, Bella/Canvas, Next Level, etc) as well as any quality features – Soft 100% Ringspun Cotton, Super-Soft Tri-Blend Fabric, etc.
Descriptions with humor and creativity can also help increase sales. When considering descriptions, put yourself in the shoes of the consumer or fan – What information about this product would help encourage you to buy it?
ON-DEMAND PRINTING
The Bandwear online store platform provides the option to offer “on-demand” products. On-Demand products are only made/printed when they are ordered.
The primary advantage is that you can offer a variety of products without the up-front cost of investing in larger quantities of physical inventory.
The downside is that because the cost to print 1 single item at a time is higher than printing physical inventory in larger quantities, profit margins are significantly lower.
For example: When manufacturing physical inventory in bulk, profit margins are generally 40-60% higher across the board vs one-off on-demand printing.
Over a dozen of our most popular apparel items are available for on-demand printing (and 700,000+ items when making physical inventory)! Another advantage of physical inventory is that we can ship items for you to sell in person at performances, events, etc.
In general, you’ll make significantly more profit, have a wider variety of products to choose from, and have the advantage of selling products in person when you invest in printing apparel and merch items in larger quantities and keeping physical inventory in stock.
Our goal is always to help increase your sales so you can take advantage of the profits and benefits of making the physical inventory in advance. As a general rule, we advise that if you can afford to print even 24-36 tees or apparel items up-front, you should opt for this option vs on-demand printing.
With that said, on-demand can still be a good starting option for some, as well as an advantage when combined with physical inventory. We encourage you to contact us to discuss the option that best meets your specific needs.