Club Merchandise

[Ox4Eva]

Let's hope we see some decent quality casual merchandise from the club this year. Especially some nice retro stuff and not just something with a printed Ox head on it.

There I said it, feel better now

 

[cuyellow]

Let's hope we see some decent quality casual merchandise from the club this year. Especially some nice retro stuff and not just something with a printed Ox head on it.

There I said it, feel better now

Completely agree, especially the in van / car window sticker. just a badge, not anything fancy and not too big, we are class and know who we are. no need for a comic bulls head or big sticker.

 

[Sarge]

Let's hope we see some decent quality casual merchandise from the club this year. Especially some nice retro stuff and not just something with a printed Ox head on it.

There I said it, feel better now

long overdue too IMO

 

[Deleted member 222]

Completely agree, especially the in van / car window sticker. just a badge, not anything fancy and not too big, we are class and know who we are. no need for a comic bulls head or big sticker.

I agree with this.

Also a nice retro track top wouldn't go a miss to.

 

[Marked Ox]

Do they do horned baseball caps anymore? That is proper retro or those weird flatcap type hats that were always sold in the 80s.

 

[Upthecowboys]

I'm not sure the club merchandise or range of merchandise has particularly improved since Tiger has come on board and that was one of the areas he said would improve.

I thought last year's kits were really smart and this years are decent as well but has anything else substantially changed? The training kit is also good but so was the previous big brand template training kit.

I also thought they were going to look at putting a charity logo on the kids kit, shame there is not an Oxfordshire charity on that. I think I heard there were restrictions for the players, i.e. you couldn't have Singha on most of the tops then Slavi etc having a charity logo on theirs - if that is the case then fair enough just leave the charity logo on the kids kits.

Not a major gripe just think things haven't changed much.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

The merchandise is generally poor. I bought a 'heat-change' mug last year (the OUFC crest appears in yellow on the black mug when it's warm). The first one they sent had just been shoved in a jiffy bag and posted - amazingly enough it was broken. The second attempt was a bit better (some bubble wrap around around it in a thin cardboard box) and it arrived OK, but the stuck on bits that changed colour fell off when hand washing it. So I've got a low quality plain black mug for £12. Pfft.
I can see why (with such a limited market) there's not that much stuff, but what they do have seems quite expensive and not particularly high quality.

 

[carefreeoufc]

It’s bonkers really that one of the only revenue streams the club does have that could generate some funds and no owner has ever seemed particularly fussed about improving it.

The shop in the covered market was a good idea but without stuff worth buying it’s a bit redundant. They should be using things like Father’s Day to flog stuff off season.

 

[holdsteady]

Do they do horned baseball caps anymore? That is proper retro or those weird flatcap type hats that were always sold in the 80s.

Flat caps came back into fashion, you would of thought the club would of tried to capitilise on that, especially in the retro kit year. I had the light yellow/light blue with pinstripes flat cap from the mid 80s as a kid and would buy one just to hang on my man cave wall next to my flag.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

It’s bonkers really that one of the only revenue streams the club does have that could generate some funds and no owner has ever seemed particularly fussed about improving it.

Yup, consistently overlooked. I deal with a lot of music related merchandise in my day job and the markup is pretty substantial on all garments - about £15 for your standard T-shirt and £25+ on your average hoodie or zipped top. Sometimes it’s even more depending on quality of materials and profile of the artist, but those are your average margins on mid-range, fairly standard cottons. Where football clubs have an advantage over many is the built in fanaticism and loyalty they enjoy from their fan base. Most people if given the option would buy most items from their club if possible, so investing in a decent quality range of clothing that includes much, much greater casual options is potentially a huge opportunity.

Where a lot of people (most in all honesty) go wrong is in sticking huge logos and initials on everything. It’s garish and overpowering, and often looks tacky. It also really minimises the practicality of the garments in terms of when and where people can wear them. Less really can be more when it comes to branding. Not everything has to be an unmissable billboard for the name or logo of the club, and subtle nods can prove exceedingly powerful. For just one example, make good quality work shirts and simply have the crest on the inside neck print - something people can wear to the office, or out on the weekend, and which they know represents their club but doesn’t necessarily scream it at everyone who looks at them. There is a time and a place for things that scream the name Oxford United and advertise the branding and logos, but you’re losing out on an enormous market if you insist on making absolutely everything about outward visibility. Technology comes and goes and the entertainment industry has gone through hell this century as a result, but one thing that doesn’t change is the need for physical clothing on our backs. That’s why record labels have long since created 360 deals, where as well as purchasing the rights to release and distribute someone’s music they also own part of the merchandising rights. People might illegally download an album or use a streaming service to consume a song or album, which results in peanuts as far as royalties paid go, but they aren’t downloading or streaming clothing - it’s one of the few things in life that simply isn’t going to stop being actively purchased. Unless the entire world decides to convert to nudism, obviously.

There is a strong six figure net profit waiting to be made on general, everyday clothing, and that’s before you look at improving existing items and ranges. The U.K. is also the leading global market in terms of e-commerce revenue - online shopping is growing faster here than any other country in the world. As such they could really, really benefit from an improved online sales portal, as the existing store is perfectly functional but is a little basic. Platforms like Shopify are revolutionising e-commerce storefronts both in terms of design and purchase methods, and offer a range of payment integrations to boot, most notably Apple Pay and even Amazon Pay, so that people can use their Amazon payment details to checkout quicker or simply checkout using the cards stored in their Apple wallets, which is often activated simply by a quick fingerprint scan. Most online stores now experience a minimum of 80% mobile traffic rather than desktops, meaning payment integration is everything. If your only payment method involves people typing out all their card details by hand - or rather by thumb - you are losing a phenomenal amount of sales each year, particularly to people under the age of 30 who are more likely to buy based on convenience and impulse rather than practicality and thoughtfulness. You’re also committing commercial suicide by forcing customers to login to, or to create an account, just to make a purchase. If you want to pick up data and contact information for remarketing purposes then you include that either right at the end of the purchase process or during the exit phase. By not offering an express or guest user checkout you are again pissing sales down the drain. The fewer clicks and fewer hurdles you can create for the customer, the higher your conversion rate.

Basically, yes, there is enormous untapped potential in both the items available for purchase and the methods used to sell them. Even a basic, fairly competent at best merchandising range will generate you at least double what match day programmes now produce in terms of net profit. If we have someone whose main job it is to put a programme together once a fortnight for nine months out of the year, it’s a bit of a shocker not to have one person dedicated to merchandising and genuine product development. Especially with that globally recognised name of ours to lean on.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Has anyone actually managed to buy a shirt online?

If I go to https://www.oufcshop.co.uk I can add a shirt into the basket. Clicking on the 'Proceed to checkout' button takes me to the https://www.eticketing.co.uk/oxfordunited/ site where it asks me to sign in. Do so successfully. There is no link back to the merch site. Going back to the merch site manually, I can see my details by clicking on the person icon in the header (including for some reason the fact that I have £4.50 loyalty balance - where is the tenner it was supposed to be?) so I am logged in OK. Clicking the 'Proceed to checkout' button again takes me back to the ticketing site! What on earth is going on?

Make it difficult for people to buy things and they simply will give up. I have, at least for now.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Has anyone actually managed to buy a shirt online?

If I go to https://www.oufcshop.co.uk I can add a shirt into the basket. Clicking on the 'Proceed to checkout' button takes me to the https://www.eticketing.co.uk/oxfordunited/ site where it asks me to sign in. Do so successfully. There is no link back to the merch site. Going back to the merch site manually, I can see my details by clicking on the person icon in the header (including for some reason the fact that I have £4.50 loyalty balance - where is the tenner it was supposed to be?) so I am logged in OK. Clicking the 'Proceed to checkout' button again takes me back to the ticketing site! What on earth is going on?

Make it difficult for people to buy things and they simply will give up. I have, at least for now.

Just had a look. They’ve tried to be too clever by integrating the retail and ticketmaster systems into one customer profile. I understand why they’d want to do this in principle, but not only does it create barriers during the checkout process, it also requires reliable and semi-sophisticated software that the current online store just doesn’t possess.

As I said earlier, the quickest and most basic way of improving this immediately is to enable a guest checkout process, and add an optional sign up post-purchase.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Exactly. I am a web designer / developer myself, and taking people on and off sites to log in to buy stuff is a very bad 'customer journey'. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't even work! I guess the reason they have tried to integrate the process is the 'loyalty bonus' for ST holders that can be redeemed when buying something so they need to know if you're in that group. Pity nobody seems to have tested it.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

If only the user experience were as sophisticated as the conversation that’s going on here.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

TBH it shouldn't be that hard. Keep everything on the shop site, use a webhook to write to the shop DB / customer records when someone buys a ST to add their bonus.

 

[Sarge]

Exactly. I am a web designer / developer myself, and taking people on and off sites to log in to buy stuff is a very bad 'customer journey'. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't even work! I guess the reason they have tried to integrate the process is the 'loyalty bonus' for ST holders that can be redeemed when buying something so they need to know if you're in that group. Pity nobody seems to have tested it.

absolutely spot on @ZeroTheHero ..... what is it with 'web designers' & IT geeks (your good self excepted ) ... who seem to make it as difficult as they can (?), by it appears utilising all manner of goodies that most users home system isnt compatible with, instead of making it as user-friendly as possible, to access and navigate as well as purchase items from some online outlets, with the absolute fact that the majority of website visitors are visiting via 'older' internet systems , set ups, pc's etc?

 

[Oxford Aesthete]

Flat caps came back into fashion, you would of thought the club would of tried to capitilise on that, especially in the retro kit year. I had the light yellow/light blue with pinstripes flat cap from the mid 80s as a kid and would buy one just to hang on my man cave wall next to my flag.

You're absolutely right flat caps have come back into fashion recently, thankfully wearing football colours hasn't though.

 

[holdsteady]

You're absolutely right flat caps have come back into fashion recently, thankfully wearing football colours hasn't though.

Come on, we make the play off final, you put your best Stone island jumper, Lois jeans and Gola trainers on, but what do you ironically finish it off with? Why it’s a Spall era ox head flat cap, do lovely.

 

[Cx]

Has anyone actually managed to buy a shirt online?

If I go to https://www.oufcshop.co.uk I can add a shirt into the basket. Clicking on the 'Proceed to checkout' button takes me to the https://www.eticketing.co.uk/oxfordunited/ site where it asks me to sign in. Do so successfully. There is no link back to the merch site. Going back to the merch site manually, I can see my details by clicking on the person icon in the header (including for some reason the fact that I have £4.50 loyalty balance - where is the tenner it was supposed to be?) so I am logged in OK. Clicking the 'Proceed to checkout' button again takes me back to the ticketing site! What on earth is going on?

Make it difficult for people to buy things and they simply will give up. I have, at least for now.

I was logged out, added the shirt to the basket, then proceeded to checkout. It redirected me, I logged in and then it allowed me to complete the process. Or, it would have. Unfortunately they haven't credited me with my £10 yet (still have £2 from last season though?) so won't be buying it until then.

 

[ScottishYellow]

I was logged out, added the shirt to the basket, then proceeded to checkout. It redirected me, I logged in and then it allowed me to complete the process. Or, it would have. Unfortunately they haven't credited me with my £10 yet (still have £2 from last season though?) so won't be buying it until then.

I’ve bought mine with no problem, it came quickly and luckily it was a nice true fit.