We wanted to share a massively successful InkSoft Powered web store. This school store sells only pre-decorated items which generated $16,063.90 is only 16 days! Mike, owner of Cleveland Printwear, agreed to share the secret for success using InkSoft…but you will have to stay tuned for the interview.

Tell us about Cleveland Printwear and your history.

We started CP in 1983. It’s a small family business serving North East Ohio. We have seven employees. My son Matt met you at the show in Vegas last year and does most of the sales. My other son Sean handles the embroidery and is our un-official IT wiz. We were bumping around the $1 million sales mark the last few years.
Our in house product includes Screen Printing, Embroidery, Cad-Cut Film and Direct -To-Garment on lights. All graphics are done by our staff artist who has been with us for 20 years.

Why is InkSoft important to you?

InkSoft allows us to offer customers an online presence and opportunity to make money. Extremely easy to set-up. Well thought out from a printer’s perspective. Reliable tech support. Exceptional control over every aspect of our stores.

What is your favorite InkSoft feature?

Education!!! Having the videos right in the area we are working on is great. We were able to have our artist log in and watch only what he needs. Sales could learn the back end by watching video and get a better idea of how to lead the customer to a successful decision to partner with CP.

So, you’ve had massive success with an InkSoft powered webstore Magnificat Athletics, tell us how your marketed the store and how you generated so much business in such a short time.

The approach with Magnificat High School was two fold. First the school did not have to handle any product, re-caps, distribution or money in their athletic department. We did a presentation at their fall sports meeting explaining to parents and students that we partnered with the athletic department for the convenience of ordering mandatory Team Gear as well as Spiritwear online. After a determined period of time were are able to turn off the Mandatory Team Gear and leave the Spritwear store intact. Beside freeing up the secretary who handled all this work every season we showed the athletic department how $1-2.00 per item in commission could add up to help with rising expenses such as banquets, awards, coaches apparel, transportation, etc. Every little bit helps and we showed them how to keep a portion of the profits in the school helping kids. This is crossing over to other departments within the school. Every order shipped with a discount coupon for sweatshirts.

We expect to have three other schools up and running before Winter sports kicks in and seven spirit stores due online in the month of September.

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Simple and attractive storefront. Mike did an excellent job with custom product category images.

Products Magnificat Athletics

Pre-decorated ‘static’ products. Low color count and simple product options.

Lacrosse Products Magnificat Athletics

The numbers don’t lie. Mike gave us permission to share the sales numbers. You can see the date range 8/17/11 to 9/2/2011 (today’s date–and the time of this blog post).

Highlights:

  • Mike pays the organization a 5% commission for each sale
  • Avg Order Sub-Total $98.23
  • Avg Order Total $106.24
  • Avg Gross Profit $40.82
  • PayPal is the only payment processor
  • 30 day web traffic report:
Hits
Total Hits 13,942
Visitor Hits 13,551
Spider Hits 391
Average Hits per Day 435
Average Hits per Visitor 20.63

Magnificant

Take aways:

1: Stores = revenue. Period. If you aren’t building web stores, promoting them and making relationships then you aren’t using InkSoft’s most valuable tools. Web stores offer something unique to your clients and prospects. Something that isn’t easily duplicated.

2: Static products are smart. It is VERY easy for a consumer to make a decision and checkout. Don’t forget: It’s not always about ‘customization’ and the Design Studio.

3: Keep it simple: Colors/Design, product options, and graphics.