[Albion] BHAFC: Premier League club with League One retail department

[Wozza]

New training gear out today https://shop.brightonandhovealbion....ampaign=retail&dm_i=2D77,1ZTMV,3IPK3N,74A6I,1

Hurry, while stocks la.... Dur, sold out mate!

 

[dazzer6666]

Our Japanese fans have bought everything

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

OP is right the club shop is an absolute shambles. Never any kit available at obvious peak times of demand. Kids kit items around Xmas, forget it. Let people down on items ordered. Completely failed to have anything in to capatilise on the Mitoma Mania last season and our Japanese tourists. Overstocking shouldnt be an issue if the supply and supplier chain is managed well. If Nike cant turn orders to demand then why are we with Nike? If someone in the shop cant get the orders right then why are they in a job? And someone mentioned the BHAFC non-nike range, wow, did they hire the product buyer/designer from Matalan?

The club merchandising dept thought far smarter on its feet when it only had that small but perfectly formed shop in Queens Road in the Withdean era

 

[severnside gull]

Suggesting its League One standard is over-egging it a bit surely?
Isthmian League maybe……

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Our Japanese fans have bought everything

A smarter retail department would have opened an outlier Mitoma-centric store in Tokyo. But nope, club's efforts are confined to dipping a puny toe in the water with a half-arsed semi-shop in Churchill Square. Zero ambition

 

[jonny.rainbow]

The club merchandising dept thought far smarter on its feet when it only had that small but perfectly formed shop in Queens Road in the Withdean era

Easier to make decisions when you only have to consider the purchasing habits of the same 5,000 customers each year.

Didn’t see any kids in BHAFC joggers circa 2005.

 

[Stat Brother]

But you need to balance having "wastage" against being unable to fullfil demand.

The "out of date" shirts will always sell and if you discount by 20% the club will stay make a profit albeit at a far lower margin. If you can't meet demand, you take no money and make no profit at all.

It's "O" level economics; supply and demand.

I don't even have a CSE in Economics, but will Eden a guess the counter to that would be fans waiting for loss making tat will have a negative effect on the sales of new profitable tat a few weeks later.

Irrespective of that this ought to be a complaint for Easter not just after Christmas.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Easier to make decisions when you only have to consider the purchasing habits of the same 5,000 customers each year.

Didn’t see any kids in BHAFC joggers circa 2005.

And fairly bog-standard straightforward to scale up the supply chain to cope with demand in a manner befitting a Top Ten EPL club I'd have thought

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

New training gear out today https://shop.brightonandhovealbion....ampaign=retail&dm_i=2D77,1ZTMV,3IPK3N,74A6I,1

Not a huge fan of any of the new training gear. The pre season one was lovely though. Was hoping the club would release the walk out jacket the players wore against Palace as that looked great.

 

[portlock seagull]

It's always baffled me that the Albion shop quality is SO low!

You see some of the content created by Dogma, NSK or any other of the brilliantly talented creators around the city/county being jaw dropping at times... It doesn't seem like a difficult fix if you ask me

Buy NSK stuff. Faster. Cheaper. Better.

 

[portlock seagull]

Our merchandise is poor quality and over priced, others have already made this point. I’d like to add another…

It’s also very BORING!! For a city like ours, the dearth of imagination is scandalous. Cool it ain’t, bro.

All the creativity of a 1970s Probus committee. I fully expect a new range of mustard themed knitwear to be out next.

 

[trueblue]

To be fair on the club there are plenty of huge retailers that sell things which are ‘online only’ and not available in store. I agree that the range is generally poor. Perhaps we’ve just grown so fast and so unexpectedly (did you think we’d be in the last 16 of the Europa League in 2024?) that it’s been difficult to match supply to demand - plus as @Weststander suggested, the profit involved is probably so low that it’s not a top priority.

 

[jackanada]

I just don't see any evidence of there being anyone willing or able to make the decisions that would improve the stock.
It's Monday you're out of kit and Nike won't get you any more for months, you know the Japanese are coming and want souvenirs.
Hey lady who painted that mitoma picture in the program can we use it (probably got suitable rights already)?
Great hour in Photoshop to make it more Brighton specific, get it printed on 500 t shirts allow 24 hours, add another 24 to have "official merchandise" sewn on.
It's in the club shop for the game on Saturday.

 

[halbpro]

As others have noted, stuff not sold by the club seems far nicer. The Art of Football stuff seems way better, it’s cheaper and I’ve heard quality is good. Even the AoF scarf is better!

 

[lasvegan]

A couple of years ago I bought 3 same sized shirts online. In reality I got 3 shirts, made in 3 different countries, in 3 different sizes. I no longer buy clothing online.

One of them did fit me though…

 

[PTC Gull]

Any links for NSK and Dogma please?

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Not only is the club's retail service piss poor the design and general quality of the club's retail goods is also piss poor. I've been rabbiting on about this for years but i goes there's a degree of inevitability about the design issues when the CEO is your archetypal Pringle and Slacks kinda guy!! Notwithstanding the "Japanese factor"I can't help but think that the club is missing out on the possibility of a significant additional retail income boost if they could only improve in these areas.

Unnecessary dig.

 

[BN41Albion]

1st World problems!

Indeed, but also agree that our retail department is total shyte and completely at odds with the way the rest of the club runs The non-nike merchandise is also largely really poor quality too - definitely lower league standard most of it!

 

[Stat Brother]

And fairly bog-standard straightforward to scale up the supply chain to cope with demand in a manner befitting a Top Ten EPL club I'd have thought

Nah - being a dispatch/distribution kind of guy it's just not that simple - because nothing ever is.

If the margins (or lack of) are to be believed, the club isn't going to set the merch side up for 'Top 10 Prem' when that was the stated aim.
It doesn't seem like that long ago the closed season merch dump was still a thing, in the East Stand - all of that was loss making product.

I'll guess the club had a half decent handle on the situation when we were consistently bottom quarter through Hughton and Gpott's reign.
Although even then I seem to remember home shirts being a problem, which in turn may well be a Nike problem because we were such a small fish.

The last 12 months has be anything other than 'bog standard'.
The club isn't getting on the phone to Mr Nike and saying, 'run us up a couple of boxes of XL home shirts and some joggers please' on a whim.
They'd have done all the main orders now for 24/25.
What if we win a cup?
What if we finish below palace?

All of that is before we actually physically get the stuff out the door.
Picking, packing, transport, stock control.


And that's before the giant fookin elephant in the room -Mitoma.
He alone is probably screwing up the system more than all of the above combined.

 

[Slum_Wolf]

Any links for NSK and Dogma please?

MERCH — SHOP — Dogma, a Brighton and Hove Albion fanzine

www.dogmabrighton.com

NSK BHA

North Stand Kollective. Ruffians.

nskbha.myspreadshop.co.uk

nskbha

Welcome to nskbha

nskbha.bigcartel.com

Brighton & Hove Albion

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