When we first launched our website, over 3 years ago, we wanted to make it super easy for families to get their free shirts. At first, we had them fill in a form and we would choose 2 shirts of the appropriate size/gender and send it to them. But, we learned that the process of selecting shirts for others can be pretty stressful! For example, if a child wears a size 6, does a 5-6 fit? Or is a 6-7 better?
We decided it would be WAY better if kids/families could choose their own shirts….so we launched an online store where each shirt was listed, with a photo. It was no easy feat – it meant photography and documenting every shirt in our inventory – but we did it and it was amazing! We were so thrilled to offer this option to families. We wanted to keep our costs down, so we used a free online store called WooCommerce.
One of our primary goals was to make shirt ordering easy – because when you’re exhausted from clinic visits and sleepless nights and anxiety, figuring out how to get a free shirt shouldn’t be complicated. We chose to list our shirts for $0, and if families wanted to order more than their 2 free shirts, they could donate on our website. For the most part, this worked out. Sometimes there was confusion on how to donate, but always resolved easily.
As we’ve grown and are now a registered charity (!), we needed to separate out donations from shirt purchases. We cannot issue a charitable donation receipt for a shirt purchase. But with our site set up the way it was, all donations funnel through the same place and the only way to know who gets a receipt is to review each donation (not a fun prospect).
We also felt like the WooCommerce platform was not super easy to navigate. Free, yes. Easy, no. So, we researched our options and decided to migrate our shop to the Shopify platform. We also decided to price each shirt at $15 but to add a coupon code for 2 free shirts. This way, families can get their free shirts, but also buy more at the same time. Fortunately, Shopify offers discounts to charities, so it wasn’t super expensive and definitely seems to be worth it. Oh! And there is a fun translation tool, so our friends who are French speaking can theoretically navigate to French!
It took some blood sweat and tears (ok maybe that’s a touch dramatic), but we managed to swap everything over to the new shop and quietly launched it about 10 days ago. Our first order was a success – the family figured out how to add the code in and ordered their free shirts!
The Shopify platform is so much easier and faster for us to use. We’re figuring out how to leverage “collections”, and variations and the fun things that anyone with an online store can relate to! We’re still nervous about ensuring people understand they can get their free shirts – but we’re monitoring it and following up as needed. And if anyone can tell us how to hide the “out of stock” items, we would be so grateful!
Take a peek at our new shop and let us know what you think!