We know its not easy as a new shop-partner. Those first few months are hard work as you refine your concept, work to create your products and start to promote your creations. Its great to see partners that appear almost from nowhere and start selling quickly, building up a loyal fan base. We thought we’d check in with one such partner the fast growing RetroFootballT-Shirts.co.uk and its head honcho, recent graduate James.
We discussed how he’s found the service so far and get some of his top tips:
Adam: So how is Retrofootball shaping up? How long have you been a Spreadshirt shop-partner now?
James@Retrofootball: RetroFootballTShirts.co.uk is going great thanks. The site has been live now for about seven weeks and is going great guns - had 30,000-odd visitors and have had a lot of positive feedback from customers as well as webmasters of various football sites
Adam: Great! Tell me how you found spreadshirt?
James@Retrofootball: Well the idea for the site came up about January time…my sister’s boyfriend is a big Spurs fan, and he said he’d love a Steve Archibald t-shirt (Archibald being an old Spurs striker from the 1980s) and he said how he would never be able to find one anywhere though
James@Retrofootball: So i did a “Google” for him and couldn’t find anything and so decided to search for making your own t-shirts and hey presto I found Spreadshirt. I made him the t-shirt, he absolutely loved it and wore it to a Spurs v Sevilla UEFA Cup match and said a lot of people came up to him pre-match in the pub and said how much they loved his t-shirt, asked him where he got it - and then I thought, “Why don’t I set up a site that has thousands of ex-players”….and thats how the site came about
Adam: So how have you found using the Spreadshirt platform so far?
James@Retrofootball: I’ve been really impressed with Spreadshirt - everything has been made very easy, although the transfer over to the new site came with its difficulties and there are still a few tweaks needed as you guys well know!
James@Retrofootball: The quality of the t-shirts has also been first class, as has the delivery, and I’ve recently agreed a deal with Luton Town Football Club to sell my t-shirts in their Official Club Shop. Spreadshirt were very helpful in helping me put together a quote for bulk orders for the Football Club - who by the way were extremely impressed by the t-shirts and the quality of the clothing
Adam: How many shirts you selling a day now?
James@Retrofootball: It varies….sometimes as many as 13/14 and sometimes 3!
Adam: Lets talk about how your marketing the shop. What would you recommend other shop-partners do to promote their shops?
James@Retrofootball: I think initially the idea is most important…find a niche market and then target that customer-base…don’t just set up a store selling t-shirts with pretty designs on, or people will just buy from a well-known store rather than you. You have to give people a reason to buy from your store - who is your target audience? - aim at a specific market
Adam: Have you tried an adwords service yet?
James@Retrofootball: I haven’t, no, you can lose a lot of money on that i hear! I’ll see how sales go, and possibly consider it in the future
Adam: But you’ve worked closely with fan communities. Tell me more about that, i think it would be interesting for other shop-partners to think about….
James@Retrofootball: Well this is where having a specific target for consumers is very important. Set up a store where you can approach websites who will like your products because they are aimed at the same target audience
Adam: How did you get these sites to starting link and promoting your shop? did you offer them any freebies or link exchanges?
James@Retrofootball: The catch may be that the people running those sites will want something in return for advertising your site. But thats something you can negotiate on.
Adam: How many sites are you featured on now?
James@Retrofootball: About 20. Every time i make a range for a new club - for example I have Sunderland coming next - I contact their unofficial fan sites and ask them if they would be interested in advertising the Sunderland t-shirts. The aim at the moment is simply to keep adding ranges for as many different clubs as I possibly can….I also want to expand on the baby range.
Adam: Are you a student or is this a full-time gig for you now?
James@Retrofootball: I recently graduated and i am now focusing on this to see where it goes….
Adam: Do you make the designs yourself?
James@Retrofootball: I make the designs myself, yes
Adam: How did you arrange the testimonials of the ex-footballers like Mick Harford?
James@Retrofootball: If you can get celebrities or people well-known in the field you’re catering for, to wear your products, that really does help
James@Retrofootball: I’ve made a very healthy profit in the first 7 weeks, which is a great start.
Adam: It might not feel like it, but usually the start is really slow, you’re still building the business and brand. So a healthy profit, is a great result!
Some other ideas good ideas from the RetroFootball site:
1. Offering Bulk Orders
You can use the bulk arm of the Spreadshirt business DDS to sell bulk quantities of your shirts. Prices per shirt usually drop and you have more printing options (e.g. screenprinting)
2. Promotion via myspace
A lot of your are doing this already. Makes even more sense if you can latch on groups around your sites interest area as retrofootball can.
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3. Creating custom shirts to a customers specification
4. Baby product ranges.
Best of luck with the site and let us all know how it progresses! Would also be great to see you in the forums connecting with other shop-partners. Be sure to check out RetroFootballT-shirts.co.uk
I must have been really difficult to contact all those player to attain their permission to use their personal copyright - how did you do it?