Six-hundred plus years ago there were still people that believed the earth was flat. Fast-forward to the 21st century and there are some who still believe the internet is not a viable medium to retail through. For the rest of the world, internet sales continue to be a larger part of their overall retail business. Pro Image Sports is no different. We will soon have over 100 stores nationwide with nearly 50 owners. Each of these small business owners recognized a few years back that they needed to find a way to sell the licensed sports product from their stores online.
The challenge was and is that it is incredibly costly and time consuming to successfully launch and build online business. Especially if you are a sole proprietor.
“We always had customers asking if they could order stuff online,” says owner Chris Edwards who is part of a group that owns five stores in the Pittsburgh area. “As local owners it was difficult to maximize sales at the brick and mortar location while still having money for a proper online presence.”
Most franchises in all types of industries sell items on their corporate website, thus fattening the franchises wallet. Pro Image Sports is different in that we do not have any corporate stores or conflict. All our efforts are to find new and creative ways to make our franchisees profitable. It was obvious our owners needed a way to sell product online to compete in an ever increasing battle online for customers. There just wasn’t an obvious answer as to how to effectively help our owners to do so.
After researching the issue for some time we were able to find software that allowed customers to purchase from one central location at shop.proimage.net and have our individual owners all across the country to serve as the fulfillment partner of each specific order. It has been a huge service for our owners, lightening a great burden from their plates and providing them with the opportunity to find incremental sales outside the walls of their stores.
The way the system works is if a customer purchases an item from anywhere in the country our owners are notified and the closest one to the customer that has the product ships the order directly from their store. Payment is then processed and directly deposited into the owners’ bank account.
“The online sales system is slick. It has been a huge help,” said Edwards who personally fulfilled 659 orders over the past year plus. “We never would’ve had the time or money to do this on our own.”
Customers have been happy that they are able to continue their relationship built at the store level to their online shopping options. They appreciate shopping from a known and trustworthy retailer where they typically know the local owner by name.
This is one of the many benefits and services Pro Image Sports franchisees receive on an annual basis. Sales continue to grow online. There is no denying the earth is indeed round, or that e-commerce will continue to grow. We appreciate your patronage and loyalty online and at our stores. Check us out at shop.proimage.net for the latest product hitting stores.
Request Info