How does the process work?
The fulfillment company will start by creating a merch sales web page that will attach to the bands existing website. The set-up fee is nominal:   $25 for a 5 item site, $50 for 15 items, and $75 for 20+ items. Then the band will decide what items they want to sell online (shirts, CDs, posters... any kind of merch the band wants to sell online) and the fulfillment company will put these items up for sale on the merch page. Factory Merchandising will stock the online store with merchandise (except for CDs, pins, posters and other merch not made by FM, which will be sent to the store by the band). The fulfillment company will then take the orders from online customers, ship the orders and receive the payments.   Sales revenue will be paid monthly to the band, and the fulfillment company will automatically re-order when the store runs low.

Why is this different from other online merch deals?
In traditional online merch contracts, the band authorizes the merch company to sell an exclusive item, and that company then pursues sales online. The merch company manufactures the merch and/or receives the merch from the band, then sells it and takes a percentage of the total sales. The usual rate is around 30% of the total sale.
With our arrangement, the band retains complete control over what is being sold, and how the sales are made. The products are sold through the bands own website, so there is no need to license the merchandise rights to another company. The band simply decides which items to list for sale, and our fulfillment company fills the orders made through the band's website.

Why will this make our band more money?
There are two ways a band will make more money with this arrangement. The fulfillment company charges exactly HALF of what most companies charge for fulfillment services: only 15% of the total sale. That means on a $15 t-shirt sale, they only take $2.25 to package and ship the order and handle all payments and returns. Secondly, prices at Factory Merchandising are consistently lower than those of other merch companies. Even though this arrangement is made available through Factory Merchandising, we will not charge an additional fee for the service. The manufacturing costs are the same as they are for tour merch.   In addition, since we already have the screens for the band's designs, there won't be an additional set-up fee to make the merch for the store.  
As an example, suppose you sell a t-shirt online for $15. The manufacturing cost for a one color shirt is only $4.25, and the fulfillment company only takes $2.25 to ship the order. That sale returns $8.50 to the band, a much higher return than most bands receive for their online merch.

What other benefits are there?
-Since the band decides what is sold on the website, leftover tour merch can be sent to the store instead of lying around until the next tour.
-Through a special arrangement with Factory Merchandising, a band won't have to put up any money to stock the online store. Factory Merchandising will front all the money needed to stock the store, and the band will be paid after the proceeds pay for the initial order.
-By grouping tour merch and store merch orders together into a single print run, the higher quantities may earn better quantity discounts for both.
-The merchandise web page is fully supported by the fulfillment company. They keep everything running smoothly and kept up to date as instructed by the band.
-The fulfillment company also offers full website design services, if needed.
-Factory Merchandising has special shipping arrangements that allow store merchandise (and tour merch) to be sent at less than half the cost of UPS.

How do we get started?
The complete info about the Merchsquad online order fulfillment can be found at www.merchsquad.com . You can also check out the backend programming capabilities of these guys by going to www.squadstudios.com .

The set-up process takes from 1-3 weeks, depending on how quickly the info is provided to Merchsquad. Factory Merchandising will handle the details and ask you for the things we need. We can arrange to have all the merch sent to them in one shipment if you provide us with items we don't make (CDs, posters, etc).