Tweet

Running Franchise Merchandise Programs through Online Stores

Guest post by: Elyse Cabral

Article Overview: Franchises are in a unique situation when it comes to creating a merchandise program; most individual stores have a different owner each with their own opinion on how the business should be run. An online store can ensure consistency across all your promotional products and merchandise.

Running Franchise Merchandise Programs through Online Stores

Franchises are in a unique situation when it comes to creating a merchandise program; most individual stores have a different owner each with their own opinion on how the business should be run. One of the biggest challenges with franchises is ensuring that franchise owners adhere to the guidelines set by Head Office so that there is consistency across all the stores. If you take a fast food chain for example the menu is always consistent because customers expect to find the same range available at all the stores.

The same philosophy should also be implemented when it comes to creating the Uniform and Merchandise range for the franchise; each store should be expected to have the same uniform and promotional items available. The easiest way to achieve this is with a set merchandise program and an online store which the uniforms, merchandise and promotional items can be purchased through. JEM Promotional Products can offer an online store where the whole range of merchandise and promotional marketing products for in-store promotions can be sold to individual franchise owners across the country. We also handle the distribution so that Head Office have one less thing to worry about and there is consistency across all mediums.

The benefits of a Franchise Chain having an online Merchandise Store:

* Ensure your brand is protected

Just like you ensure that your franchises offer the same goods and services across the board you should ensure that consistent branding is used across all your merchandise including staff uniforms. Even if all the stores use the same logo there can still be inconsistency in printing or embroidery if the job is not done by the one company. The quality of your merchandise can have a negative impact on how customers perceive the business.

* Gain group buying power and economies of scale

Imagine the difference in price between one franchise store buying 10 shirts for their staff and all 100 stores buying the same shirt increasing the quantity to 1,000. There are not only price benefits associated with buying in bulk, there is also the opportunity to create a product that is unique to you. By producing larger quantities we are able to take your job off-shore and have it manufactured in China which means that we can customise the product to your exact specifications. We can make the shirt the PMS colour of your logo and we can use more creative embroidery and printing methods. Click here to read more about Custom Made Promotional Products.


* Provide Marketing Support to Franchise Owners

Advertising and marketing is commonly organised through the Franchise Head Office and Promotional Products are a form of advertising and should therefore be organised in conjunction with the national marketing campaigns. It is crucial that the same marketing message is being communicated across the board and the only way to do this is by organising everything centrally including in-store promotions.

For example a coffee chain may decide to give away a coffee cup holder tote bag with every 4 cups of coffee purchased. Imagine if a customer sees the advertisement in the newspaper only to find that their local store does not have the offer available. By coordinating this through the Head Office and having the Online Merchandise Store available for the individual franchises to order however much they need of the item you begin to run your in-store promotions more effectively.

There is a lot of flexibility in terms of what you can achieve with a Franchise Merchandise WebShop, whether you want to gain additional revenue by selling merchandise to your franchise owners or if you want to use the WebShop to provide marketing support where you don't charge for the merchandise but use it as a central ordering system where we control the national distribution JEM Promotional Products can customise our service to meet your needs.

Related Articles
  Using Freebie Marketing To Lift Retail Sales Online
  What is a Franchise?
  St. Patrick’s Guild Offers Online Shopping for Church Supplies
  Melissa Payner-Gregor on the board of directors of Destination Maternity
  Why You Would Want to Franchise Your Business

Article Tags: business gain, economies of scale, embroidery, food chain, franchise chain, franchise owners, franchise store, group buying power, inconsistency, marketing products, mediums, merchandise program, merchandise range, merchandise store, negative impact, promotional items, promotional marketing, promotional products, staff uniforms, store promotions



Related Forum Posts
Re: Enticing Franchises - Top 9 List - All Franchise listed above are in millions of dollars. Do you have the list of Franchise in thousands
Re: Info for would be franchisers... - [quote="Sebastien":1d29sdv1]Like Franchise Times, Franchise Update is a very practical magazine. There is no blah blah, just straight facts that anyone in the franchise community can relate to. I just want to mention that all these magazines are NOT franchisee oriented. I mean these magazines are for franchise professionals. If you're looking to buy a franchise, you won't find much information in there. To answer your question, getting published in Franchise Times was fairly easy. I don't want to brag too much but I think I am known in the franchise industry. I was the marketing guy at Franchise.com for a few years before joining my new company, the World Franchising Network. So people know me and I have a very good relationship with Nancy Weingartner, the Managing Editor at Franchise Times. I was talking with her at the last Franchise Expo South in Miami and she mentioned she'd like me to be profiled. I was like "ok, sure!". I like this franchise executive profile thing in Franchise Times as it is rarely BS. People are usually really natural in there.[/quote:1d29sdv1] Thanks for the follow up Sebastien! And I can't say that I'm surprised that networking with the right people and managing your relationships with them properly are the keys to being published. I guess the old adage holds true of "it's not who you know, but who knows you" that's important.
Seek Venture Capital & Funding - Hello, Greetings from India. I am Seeking Venture Capital for Offshore Software Company Start-up. Need advise along with Business Model Sample. I have a basic outline for an offshore company. 1. Technology - like Microsoft Dot Net, Java, LAMP 2. Talent Team - Found Good Technology Developers. 3. Where I can get the leads/potential customers - Leads have been identified who are willing to move forward offshore projects. 4. I do not have resources like funding. It is a very critical factor to me Industries: Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail, Insurance, Distribution & Logistics, Healthcare, Industry Associations and Software Product Development, Agricultural Industries and Etc. Services: Offshore Software Development Company. Offices to be located: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and USA. Products/Services/Applications in areas like POS & Billing, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Material Management, Inventory Control, Plant Maintenance, Purchasing, Accounting and Logistics. Dynamic Web Programming with Database Driven Content Management Systems, Online Stores for E-Commerce, B2B Solutions, Community Portals, Website Redesign and Development, Custom ERP with Enterprise Wide Functional Modules such as Marketing, CRM, Accounting, Inventory Control, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Purchase & Stores, Logistics and Supply Chain. Seek your further questions and help. Thank you, Best Regards, Jayapratap.
how much for a franchise fee? - Dear Colleague There is no easy answer to this question. Things to consider: [list=] The sizeof the Franchise Clent base Expected Turnover Intellectual Property costs (recoup) Number of Franchises Number of employees Original Set up costs Franchise admin costs An example: A franchise that I was involved in setting was to a simple "lawn mowing/home repair" franchise. The Franchise included national/local advertising - preparation of client lists - general admin - central accounting etc The Franchise involved 300-500 clients - and an annual turnover of about $300,000 . The annual franchise fee was $30,000. Hope that this gives you some idea Take care Ian[/list]
Re: Franchise Surveys - Another good tool to researching a franchise is to speak with their existing franchisees. This contact information is included in most Franchise Disclosure Documents. In order to get a Franchise Disclosure Document or FDD as it is often referred to, you will have to complete a basic franchise application. The franchisor will then usually provide you with the FDD at that time. Included in that book of information is a list of the existing franchisees, the contract, the investment information etc... This information is required by Federal Law to be disclosed to your prior to making a purchase. So be sure to do your research and start with the Franchise Documents to get the initial information.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Purchasing Real Estate using the SBA 504 Loan

The Value of Small Businesses

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.