Eircom League Online Stores

I'm sure most people involved in club websites drop into this forum at least occassionally. At this stage, most club websites have an online shop selling jerseys etc. We are hoping to get one online at www.monaghanunited.ie shortly. The purpose of this post is twofold, 1 a question, one a suggestion:
1) What is the best system for implementing an online shop? Dundalk have jsut launched theirs using the same PayPal system as Bohemians. Are there any other options out there that people would recommend?
2) What about an eircom League online store where all the merchandise of clubs is sold? Sites such as this, or even the FAI site(!) could link to it. Actual sales would then be routed through the sales systems of individual clubs (ie, if you bought a Dundalk shirt on this eircom League store site the actual transaction would go through the Dundalk.com PayPal account).
Subscribing clubs could pay a development and maintenance cost and/or a commission on sales.

The question .... have a look at www.buy.ie

The suggestion ... i think it is wide open to anyone who was enterprising enough to do it. I always thought that a good side line for an online shop would be clubs crests and ring-tones.

It would be great to see it and would appeal to a global market, i.e. all the collectors, of which there seem to be many, all being shoved pillar to post and probably getting no where in the end when looking for eL stuff. Also the ex-pats would love it i'd imagine.

It would need the clubs to work with them fully though ... might get held up there ... not getting a cheap dig in but can you imagine Ollie Byrne helping out .... and to be fair you could see his side too .... but there is a bigger picture here too ... There is no way Ollie would wish this well.

If clubs weren't bitter it could work !!

there are also quiet a few shopping systems out there which are free. They mostly interface into paypal or some such system. I was going to open one up for the new season selling county merchandise since the club have no online shop. All it costs is a few hours and a paypal account.
You can see my example shop at :
http://www.comeoncounty.com/modules.php?name=CCart

The shop is not open yet (dont buy anything :) ), but uses Calloway's CCart (a free php solution) to provide a nice interface to paypal.

If php is not your thing there are plenty of other free options which with a bit of programming/configuration savy can be made look very good indeed.

We will have an ol-line store for the new season when our new site opens up as well. Think it's PayPal

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Originally Posted by monutdfc

1) What is the best system for implementing an online shop?

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You can outsource, but I generally recommend against that since setting up yourself is so easy these days, and when you outsource you're at the whim of your supplier. osCommerce is generally the simplest and easiest way to get an online store, uh, online. It's been around since the flood so it's stable as they come, and it's written in PHP so it's customisable at a later date. (Buy.ie use osCommerce, although of course that's outsourced.)

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Dundalk have jsut launched theirs using the same PayPal system as Bohemians.

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Since PayPal now allow withdrawal to Irish bank accounts, this is the simplest and easiest route.

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Are there any other options out there that people would recommend?

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I recommend two other options, based on sales: WorldPay for medium-level sales, and Realex for high-level. Neither are suitable for your application. (There's also 2checkout and nochex, but my experience is that these are very "budgety" solutions -- they're a bit tacky, and I'm not sure I'd trust them 100%.)

I can arrange some or all of the above if you'd like to get in touch (adam AT beecher DOT net). For a fee, obviously, don't come looking for freebies. :)

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2) What about an eircom League online store where all the merchandise of clubs is sold?

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I'd love to do this, but it would only work on a very professional level, i.e. the primary store would need contracts with all of the clubs, stores, staff, etc. Which defeats the purpose of selling online. So it won't work. If you can come up with a solution that will, I'd be happy to work with you.

This is Off Topic btw, the eL forum is for football discussion.

adam

Another option we we have just established is an affliate shop- which means that when Derry fans click through the store and shop and a large selection of well known internet stores we get a commission on their sales.

It is nothing huge, but is still money coming in which we didn't have before

Check it out on Buy Store

If you are thinking of signing up other clubs, gone click through our link as very new organisation we attract we get a cut

good to see theese online shops.
i would imagine fans would be more likely to buy new strips online than in shops in town.-especially if there is a pre-sale on the website.
i think city should implement something like that for this years new strips.

Thak you very much to everybody for your feedback. I'm quite busy at work at the minute, but I hope to get time at the weekend to research some of the links here. Looks very promising, thank you again.

On the eircom league store idea, like I say it's only an idea, but I don't think it needs to be that complicated. What I had envisaged was either
(a) an eircom League store front page where you click on the link for Monaghan United say and it brings you into the www.monaghanunited.ie online store.
or (b) more professional looking, it operates as any online store except that when you go to pay for goods you are brought into the payment system for the club whose merchandise you are buying. So, say you are buying a Monaghan United shirt, you click on "buy" and you are connected to the Monaghan United online store ordering and payment page. (Not sure how it would work if you wanted to order stuff from different clubs.)

Obviously (b) would require a bit more investment in terms of time, designing and programming and even (a) would need somebody to get it off the ground, but I don't think either would require a huge commitment from the clubs. Maybe the league would organise it itself and host the shop on the FAI site. Or eleven-a-side could host it on their site (obviously they are not a charity, but they would have nothing to lose and they already have links to club websites).

If you're proposing just putting up an index of eL webstores, for informational purposes, then sure, it's a good idea; in fact I'd be happy to help set it up and host it. However if you think you'll generate revenue from it, I think the amount of work involved might negate your profits, because you would either have to negotiate contracts with each and every club, or rely on ad revenues (which aren't going to amount to much in that format).

The eL could do it of course, but "eL" and "innovation" don't really sit well in the same sentence.

adam

Yeah, I certainly never envisaged an eircom league store being a profit-making entity!!
I'll concentrate on getting our own online store up and running first, but might look at this afterwards.

Well, good luck with it anyway. I hope I'm wrong, but my experience of dealing with eL soccer clubs doesn't inspire confidence. Some of them are somewhat more progressive these days, but that's relatively speaking. Half a technophobe is still a technophobe.

adam

Bohs shop is a dead duck -- dunno why. Perhaps online shops in this market are good on paper/screen but not in practice.
Anyway, Paypal is so easy even the Hoops could probably manage it ;) , and unless you have a large number of stock items it's more than enough.
Incidentally, I think it would be a great idea for the FAI to sell Irish club gear on their new online store. What would they have to lose? I sent them an email suggesting it and they wrote back saying they'd have a think about it, but nowt since.

If anyone from the FAI is lurking, Foot.ie would be happy to develop, manage and host a Foot.ie and/or FAI-branded eL merchandise store for no upfront cost. All we would require would be assistance with contract negotiation with the clubs, some form of exclusivity agreement, and obviously a reasonable commission. Drop myself or Joe a line if you'd like to arrange a meeting.

adam

Just want to add to this ....

eL Books .... Nearly every club has one or more books written related to the eircom League and there is virtually no way of finding out about them, not to mind read them. It would be a great place to setup stall for this stuff ... also the eircom League handbooks .... if they were available online, you be guaranteed to sell a few more (that was confirmed on another thread already)

Yeah, just make sure if you have an online shop, that you actually have the infrastructure behind it. Nothing worse than a shop that fails to deliver. Our shop is due for the new season too (I do the shels site). That makes a good few online shops for Eircom League clubs.