I won't comment on Sale as I have no idea how they run their merchandising/ finances/ etc, and to be honest could not give two hoots.

But blow me, look at that photo of Wigan's shop. It looks almost identical in size to ours - but that is where the similarities appear to end! It is clearly [iwell [/istocked, with a [irange [/iof goods. Like I said, I am no merchandising expert, but if a member of the public with an interest in Wigan RL finds themself in that shop, they will more than likely [ispend money[/i.

Don't want to go on about the negatives while the club is going through what is a tough transitional spell, but this is so basic and fundamental to our club not just surviving, but growing it's brand in a (soon to be even more) crowded marketplace. Surely someone at the club has the knowledge and ability to put this right?!?

...and if not, why not?

The folly lane online club shop rlurlhttp://www.ragingbull.co.uk/Shop/Folly-Lane-ARLFC/383.aspxrl

The Salford online club shop rlhttp://reds.myshopify.com/collections/foundation-trustrl

reds.myshopify.com/ Who could say no to 50p for, erm, 50p?

reds.myshopify.com/ Who could say no to 50p for, erm, 50p?

We're a Super League club in a New Stadium ,so we should be able to match merchandising efforts of our partner superleague clubs, We are trying to attract new supporters , and our site is down or exhibiting Cd's from 1995 & a year old Calender, Our New Club shop is isn't restocking shirts for young kids who are to be the future fanbase of our club,,,

As for the Sale comment I wasn't praising them for the fiscal sobriety, just pointing out there aggressive marketing but you knew that already .

it is one thing to tell teh club to purchase loads of merchandising but we live hand to mouth.

Look at the games, Bradford, Leeds, Wigan fans all buy shirts in huge numbers as well as season tickets. We traditionally aren't great at buying in to the club image.

How many people on here regularily buy club branded stuff?

Maybe if the club was given a list of orders for items they might be more willing to splash the cash.

Ask Rob how hard was it to sell T shirts for Forever Reds.

I think the hats Shirl and Alan did were the easiest to shift. And the club then lifted the design

If Wigan make more money on coasters than we do on replica shirts, I wouldn't be a fat lot surprised but let's not pretend it's because of the shop layout.


The online shop is bobbins and I agree with others - a holding page would be a classier solution to what's there.
I'd imagine the limited quantity of shirts is an insight into how precious every penny is at the club at the moment. Without knowing what a fresh batch costs, we've no idea if re-stocking is a good idea or not.


Aggressive, cost-heavy, loss-making marketing. We've got so much to learn.

Really heavy, I heard.

I think some people are missing the point. The shop currently appears to have a range of shirts, t-shirts, polo shirts, etc in adult sizes. All well and good.

But I'm talking about selling cheap alternatives to a £20plus item of clothing. I appreciate the club may not have loads of money to splash about, but how expensive would, say, an order for 1000 items to retail at less than £5 cost the club? Common sense says it costs less than £5k! It is a business they are trying to run here. You have to speculate to accumulate. Simple. If it doesn't work then fine - but they've never tried it!!

(And they have obviously found the money to fill the shop out with more expensive clothing items, so money has been spent somewhere along the line...)

Just for info my wife took the shirt back which we paid £33 for! We told the assistant we were prepared to wait for a new batch or asked could it be ordered, they already had my money, guess what they told my wife the season was halfway through & they would not be ordering any more. Very sad how do we expect to market our product to families when we cannot even have the basics in the shop.

I have also received a full refund, wasted!

Be fair though, the club will only order what it thinks it can sell in the space of this season. It's damned what ever it does in this case as the product has a short life span. Order too few and people complain when they are sold out, order too many and people complain the club has no money because they've just written off stock they can't sell.

Maybe the answer is to launch next seasons shirt mid way through this season, invite pre-orders from fans then buy to order, with a small percentage on top. make a big event of it at christmas and have some of the players hand deliver the shirts.

The focus of the club shop should primarily be on timeless, classic items that won't date after a season. Simple polo shirts and t-shirts with the classic devil on and such like. The reality is we don't sell a lot of merchandise and wouldn't even if we had a well stocked shop.

Arrrggh. I am sorry to keep going on about this (as I know there are undoubtedly more important things to focus on) but why are people under the illusion that all we should sell in the shop is clothing, especially as much of it has a limited shelf life?