Metchandise line - suggestion

Hello!

It's pretty clear that the merchandise section was not planned for this amount of interest.

I would suggest emitting a promo code for fan fest attendees to include free shipping for an online purchase. This would alleviate thr frustration with the lack of availability of the merchandise.

Thanks

Agreed, they screwed up badly with selling items. Even free shipping would be a slap in the face considering I'm STARING at the mechandice they are no longer selling today.

BlizzCon has 3+ hour lines for the stores for a two day convention. Comic Con's individual stores could be upwards to 2+ hours just for one brand... You should come prepared to be standing in line for merchandise, in my opinion. An online store, promo code for free shipping, etc. would only raise the cost of Fan Fest.

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Originally Posted by Lavarinth

BlizzCon has 3+ hour lines for the stores for a two day convention. Comic Con's individual stores could be upwards to 2+ hours just for one brand... You should come prepared to be standing in line for merchandise, in my opinion. An online store, promo code for free shipping, etc. would only raise the cost of Fan Fest.

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FanFest had 5000 and the lines were so bad people were in line for the entire day (6-7 hours).

Sounds like to me SE left a lot of money on the floor with their bad to horrible organization for their merchandise line. If people are coming to spend their money but SE doesn't want it SE shouldn't complain about future money problems.

The thing is. I'm not even sure what was wrong with the merchandise line this year. As far as I know, anyone who got into the line at 2014's fanfest on the first day got through. But in 2016 they weren't. Yes 2016 was nearly double the attendance but it also had more registers (3 or 4 compared to 10ish).

Part of it was having way more goods to buy, it was about double from 2014. It wasn't always as simple as just handing your tick sheet and paying.

In all fairness, 2014 had the VIP pass you could pay extra for. So you were able to get in earlier than the normal time on day 1, get in-line, and buy your goods before the keynote even started. I also think not having free t-shirt with the cost of the attendance or one being given away as part of the battle challenge also made up more buyers. Small things that add up, but the amount of items available this time around certainly is a contributing factor.

Here's a suggestion for 2018.

Have people preorder the merchandise they want to get and submit it to SE so they can compile a rough estimate of how much merchandise to bring. People will be able to pick up their items at a predesignated time so no one is wasting hours upon hours of precious time in line. SE would just need to include additional inventory of what\\'s been preordered to take on any last minute purchases.

For those who do not preorder, they can still wait in a separate line for any last minute items they now want.

Continued

For those who know exactly what they want, they would have the option to pay for their purchases before fanfest, or at the time of pick up. I would make the official fan fest shirt FREE to those who preorders AND prepaid. That way the consumer doesn\\\\\\'t have to worry about any money they they\\\\\\'d have to haul around and fear they may spend it elsewhere, and SE gets paid. For those that do not preorder and prepay who still want the official shirt, they can still get the shirt at its regular price.

Suggestions:
Communication about the availablity of con items. Put a note on the physical display if a con item is sold out. Have a con staff member walk the line periodically informing people if something sold out and to keep the line in order. That in itself will reduce the line, because people aren't going to wait there if they know ahead of time that the items they want have already sold out.

Have a staff member stand at the end of the line holding a sign where the line ends. (First day of the con I couldn't even find the end of the line, it was so haphazard!)

Exclusive sales online for fanfest attendees with optional pickup at the con.

Give each attendee a merchandise line reservation time ticket at the time they pick up their badge, that way the line doesn't become a fire hazard. Don't tell people you are going to give out reservation tickets for the merchandise line at 10a.m. and then hand them out to people at 8a.m.

Also, lets talk more about the availability of the merchandise. Every shirt in the larger sizes sold out, while there were plenty of smaller sizes left. Same thing happened at the first fanfest I attended, even though when you registered your ticket they asked you what shirt size you wore. That should have been a good estimate of the distribution of stock sizes needed for this event. I'm all for pre-ordering this stuff online and having it shipped to your house before the con or picking it up at the con.

Another reason why the line was so long--our goodie bags didn't contain a shirt this time, and you couldn't win a "I beat XXX" shirt during the con events either. Alot of people wanted a shirt as a souvenir and the only way they could get one was by standing in the disorganized merch line. I'm not necessarily saying "give people a free shirt", but rather give the people the option to order a shirt online for pick up before the convention with their goodie bag/merch booth, or even better, mail to their house.

This is one of the few cons I've walked away from with a large chunk of money still in my pocket.

the merchandise accessibility was straight up horrible. We had some pretty disappointed members. There should definitely be a way for people that went to Fan Festival to purchase the items. I mean we didn't even get a shirt or anything for going this year.. =(

Agreed - online preorders + assigning a time window.

Here's one way it could work: during time window, they scan your QR code (automatically checking that you're showing up for the right time slot), hand you a tag, and then text you when your stuff is actually ready to pick up. At pickup line you just give them the tag and they find and hand you your bag. Done and Done.

If there's a delay for some reason, they could text you to let you know there's a delay and when to show up, much as airlines do if your flight is delayed.

If you don't pick it up in time, they could possibly assign you a second-chance pickup time window, but hopefully that would not be necessary.

Another thing they could do is offer optional merch pickup the day before the main conference, with the same system - checkin time windows and texting you when your stuff is (or will be) ready to pick up.

There is a huge misunderstanding about "the merch line was bad". Having to wait a few hours is to be expected, sure. For fanfest, people who were lined up at doors open were still not taken care of by doors closed on day one. Half-way through the day they stationed Staff at the end of the line to prevent people from getting in line anymore, then handed out tickets to those still in the line when the first day was over.

Day two there was no "merch line". If you didn't have a ticket from day one, you weren't even able to attempt it. So trying to be pragmatic and waiting until the crush was gone just meant you got absolutely nothing. The merch line was abysmal, and a lot of us are very very burned by not being able to buy anything as fans who (in my case) spent several thousand dollars to attend.