An Unfiltered Look Inside Our First-Ever Merch Launch
After MONTHS in the making, we were so excited to finally launch our first ever-merch collection last month, which featured stickers, mugs, and Work From Home Club tees. Keep reading for an unfiltered look inside what went into the launch & what we got out of it. Yep, we’re telling ALL… including the profit we made after everything was all said and done. 🫢 Enjoy!
THE PREPARATION PROCESS
PHASE 1: PRODUCT DESIGN
When it came to launching merch, we knew we wanted to go big or go home, so we went all in on scouting the best of the best to help us bring our vision to life. Back in Q4 of 2021, we started working closely with a freelance illustrator to get our custom t-shirt and sticker designs just right. From there, we toured printing and production facilities to find a vendor that could produce our merch at a high-quality AND reasonable price. From the design’s color and scale to the t-shirt’s material and sizing, there was so much that went into bringing exactly what we wanted into fruition, but we couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out!
PHASE 2: PACKAGING DESIGN
We knew we couldn’t stop at just having a killer product… we needed killer packaging too for that extra “wow” factor! With help from our friend Taylor of Socially Taylored, we were able to collaborate with Noissue to create custom boxes, mailers, tissue paper, and branded stickers.
Here’s a look at how they helped us bring our dream custom packaging to life:
Once our product and packaging arrived, our team had a box-building party, logged inventory in the backend of our website, and spent time learning the ins and outs of ShipStation, a shipping software for e-commerce fulfillment.
PHASE 3: PHOTOSHOOT
Once inventory and shipping logistics were sorted out, it was time to get to work on our launch campaign! After weeks of moodboarding, we opted to have two photoshoots: one at Homemade Social HQ and another at a local diner. Because Reels are popping off right now on IG, we prioritized not only getting photos but also behind-the-scenes video clips too!
PHASE 4: LAUNCH STRATEGIZING
We kick-started our launch campaign by scouting on-brand influencers to gift our entire product line to (and a SUPER cute exclusive Homemade Social CD with a QR code to listen to our Work From Home playlist). We specifically chose to pitch ourselves to influencers who worked in social media/digital marketing or were already big fans of our brand! Here are a few of our favorite influencer posts from launch day:
Additionally, once images were finalized, we were finally able to:
Start teasing on social & link to a waiting list
This email opt-in list was the first to know & receive access to our merch launch! In our teaser content on IG, we promoted joining this list and included verbiage like “limited quantities available” to create a sense of exclusion and scarcity. Plus, this tactic is a great way to transfer social media followers into email subscribers!
Finalize merch product pages with images and copy
Set up a series of emails to move our audience down the conversion funnel
Conduct trend research and build out two weeks worth of on-trend social posts dedicated to the collection
PHASE 5: LAUNCH DAY
Before we knew it, it was launch day! If you’ve checked out our Q2 Analytics Report Reveal, you’d know this campaign saw the largest spike in impressions and website clicks all quarter.
Here’s a look at some teaser and launch posts we’re extra proud of:
THE OUTCOME
Now let’s get to the juicy stuff… was all of this work worth it?! Short answer: yes. It was a fun passion project for our team and was a great way to build brand awareness. Long answer? Let’s get into it…
Once the orders started rolling in, that’s when even more work began for our team. Balancing fulfilling orders while managing our daily workloads was no joke. Luckily, one of our customers deemed our shipping speed as better than Amazon’s, so you could say it paid off. 😎
Now let’s talk money. Here’s a breakdown of what we invested into this launch:
Merch Cost: $2,791.78
Packaging Cost: $243.79
One Time Cost (ie. printer, designer): $1,384.66
Now, here’s a breakdown of total sales:
Bundle: $1,200
Shirts: $2,574
Mugs: $228
Stickers: $198
Our total sales from the drop came out to $4,200. When we subtract the total cost from this (excluding gifted packaging), we profited a whopping $23.56.
Yep, you read that right - we made $23.56 from our first-ever merch launch.
Call us crazy, but we’d totally do it again (with, of course, several tweaks to our approach now that we’ve gone through the process once before). Overall, we loved seeing how this collection fostered a community with our audience and increased brand awareness at large. Plus, our team had a heck of a good time along the way.
We hope you enjoyed this fully transparent, unfiltered look inside our first-ever merch launch! Interested in snagging some goodies during our next drop? Click here to join the waitlist. 🤠
xx,
The Homies
