How to Set Up a Retail Shop for Your Non-Retail Brand

When it comes to developing and selling a custom merchandise line no matter it’s objective, many brands struggle to get things off the ground.

For those managing this task, it can create the risk of ordering items haphazardly to get merch on shelves so they can get back to their area of expertise like running a tech startup, leading a company’s HR function, creatively directing an ad campaign, tapping into a new market, or managing a fast-casual food chain.

Building a retail shop for their brand, while valuable both for the business and its audience, is not many brand’s main forté.

And that’s the gap we can help fill.

In fact, we take this approach with many of our larger clients. When your creative team is small and overseeing many brands in an umbrella of the bigger parent brand, they’re often already stretched too thin.

Setting up merch lines for each unique brand is a lot (more) to take on. Between researching the best price to what is trending to how to source, produce, and market the items — it’s a full-time gig.

At the end of the day, it’s not their expertise anyway, and it may feel like they would do a disservice to the brand the merch supports.

“With just one creative director that oversees all things designed at Big Red F [Restaurant Group] across seven unique concepts and over 14 locations, [our] team leans on [Anthem Branding’s] expertise in retail apparel design to create comprehensive and cohesive custom apparel and headwear collections that align with the brand’s goals,” says Lauren Hoogewind, marketing director at Big Red F.

Can you relate to Lauren?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options, fighting to find time to research different products and prices, wondering how exactly an item can be customized, where and who can produce the items, etc., we can do this work for you — even going as far as lending a hand with design.

This helps our clients out big time because all they have to do is look at the customized options that are curated and designed specifically around their brand and goals and pick their favorites.

How Anthem can fill gaps for your brand

We work with The Post Brewing Company, a restaurant owned by the group at Big Red F, to develop custom merchandise and headwear that stocks their retail store.

After diners finish their award-winning gourmet meal, they can hit up the shop to choose items they feel proud of wearing because they’re on-trend and to show off their brand loyalty because they’re well-designed.

Our partnership with the brand allows the team to know their merchandise is not only reaching their audience effectively but designed specifically to meet their goals and objectives. We can bring creative ideas and institutional knowledge to the table for you so you don’t have to manage it all. Read the full story on how we helped out The Post with their custom merch line! Some fun pictures of that project are below.

See how we may be able to help offload some of the heavy lifting for you and your team whether that's lending a hand with curating great merch, finding the right items within your budget, or designing a new creative concept. Chat with a branding expert to learn more!