4 Stats Showing the Power of Our Latest Merchandise Update

WinRed’s integrated zero-touch merchandise program has completely upended how campaigns and organizations offer merchandise to their supporters. 

Every group on WinRed automatically qualifies for a completely free storefront and the ability to add items from our huge catalog of USA-made merchandise. Most of these items are print-on-demand, meaning the organization only pays for the product when a qualifying donation is made. That helps campaigns reduce overhead (no more bulk buying tons of shirts and bumper stickers) and saves them the hassle of managing fulfillment, sourcing products, or dealing with customer service  — WinRed and our integrated partners handle all of that. 

In February we added a highly requested improvement to our merchandise program — The ability to require a donor to make their gift recurring to qualify for the item.

The initial results for this feature were incredible, showing that it absolutely should be a part of your fundraising program. 

1. Opt-in rate is 927% higher

When a donor comes to a donation page they have the option to make the gift recurring or one-time. When a merchandise item is offered on the page and to get that item donors are required to make their gift recurring, we see a MASSIVE increase in the opt-in rate.Donors see and understand the requirement and are willing to make their gift recurring at higher rates so they can receive the item.

2. Subscription cancellation rate is 15% lower

One concern was whether donors would opt-in and then cancel right away so they could get the item without ongoing donations.

The initial data shows this is not the case. Donors actually cancel at lower rates than when a merch item is not offered.

3. Dollars per page view is 7% higher

Perhaps donors who want the product offered opt-in and more donors do so than when merch isn’t offered, but overall the page raises less.Our numbers show this is actually not the case. Pages that required a recurring donation for merchandise had a higher dollar per page view than pages without, meaning more money is raised for each person that visits the page.

Donations for merchandise tend to be higher overall as donors must donate enough to cover the costs of the item to qualify so you’re always making a profit on the donation. That helps boost the gift size. The net revenue on that initial gift may be lower due to product costs, however, because it is a recurring gift you are getting larger residual subscriptions which can lead to even more money raised in the long run.

4. Dollars per subscription is 51% higher

Finally, our numbers show that the dollars raised per subscription is higher on these pages. Again the logic above holds — merchandise items require larger gifts, donors opt-in at higher rates (and cancel at lower rates), and therefore the subsequent donations can be larger and make a bigger impact than smaller recurring donations.

To get started with this feature make sure to reach out to your merchandise team at merch@winred.com. You can also read more about how to set up this feature here.