Behind the scenes merch update
Merch is one of the most vital parts of keeping a band going. But there’s a lot more that goes into it than just loading a bin into the van and taping some shirts up to a wall to sell.
A lot to manage
Inventory, designing, ordering, and organizing are just some of the elements of keeping a healthy merch booth stocked. But it’s essential to keep the band running.
New designs
Several months ago we started working on the designs that will eventually roll out fully in March or April. After finding the artist we’d be using we got the band together. Looking through their body of work we discussed a few unique ideas we felt maybe in their wheelhouse in terms of design.
After landing on some design ideas and paying the artist the design process begins and several weeks later we get designs. Upon approval, they get colorized and delivered to us a design.
One of those is our new Alien Abduction design that we will be rolling out as Shirts, flags, patches, and maybe even hoodies. The other is yet to be fully revealed but keep your eyes out on social media for it.
Now with our new designs, we begin mocking up the designs on different apparel and find the best fit for it. Which for my money is this retro reverse ringer design we will be printing.
Next, I’m getting quotes then ordering from various vendors we’ve worked with and are sourcing the flags and patches that will all get rolled out with these new designs.
Once the new stuff arrives
When stuff starts to come in we will price and tag all the new stuff, make sure they are all updated on our Point of sale system Square.
Going into the Christmas break I’ve been organizing and tagging all of our current stock to make the checkout process better.
Reorganizing our merch system
There are some huge benefits to tagging everything. Not only will we be able to scan the barcodes which are way faster for checkout, but it will also automatically keep our inventory in sync.
Each item we sell has a SKU or Stock Keeping Unit. Those that we sell both online and at shows are set up to pull once an hour and update inventory from our POS to the website.
Additionally, we offer some items online only. These are more specialized items like our all-over print Thrash Metal Fanny pack – https://www.folkhogan.com/product/thrash-metal-fanny-pack/
When an order comes in we are reviewing it to either pick and ship or it is automatically fulfilled. If the order has a mixture of online-only items like our beach towels and a locally fulfilled item like our Vinyl record it’s no sweat.
We’re basically Amazon over here but we don’t make our employees Pee in water bottles. I’m fact we prefer they don’t and take regular bathroom breaks, so you could even say we’re better than Amazon for that reason.
New faster web hosting
We have been annoyed with our web hosting being unreliable so we just switched everything over to a fancier host.
This will help people be able to checkout without any slowed-down pages or trouble loading.
The new payment gateway for Venmo.
We now accept Venmo through our website via PayPal. If you choose to checkout with Venmo you’ll be redirected with the order total to checkout. Additionally, we’re still accepting Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Cards.
So with new designs rolling out, updates to our Point of Sale and website, and our anti-Amazon “pee in a toilet” at work policy we are sending into the new year. We’re thankful that you’ve all stuck with us and look forward to 2022!