In light of continued cuts to public funding, museums have had to become more commercially enterprising in order to survive.
One way in which museums are boosting income is by setting up an online shop, which, depending on the size and profile of the institution, can eventually account for between 5% and 50% of total retail revenue.
An online shop can also be used to attract new audiences and increase engagement in a museum’s collections, as illustrated by Manchester’s National Football Museum.
The museum’s online shop, which was expanded as part of a website revamp last year, directly links its collections to its range of merchandise, including books, replica trophies, shirts, accessories and football memorabilia.
Website visitors can look at more than 1,000 museum objects online, including a shirt worn by Pelé in the 1958 Fifa World Cup and a football board game from 1884. If they click on an object they are shown more information about it and a ‘shop collection online’ icon directs them to related products being sold.
Phillipa Duxbury, the marketing manager at the National Football Museum, says: “The expanded online shop offers unique football gifts unavailable anywhere else on the web and will form an important revenue stream for the free entry museum.”
Money raised from the National Football Museum’s online sales will also be used to fund exhibitions and the maintenance of its collections.
An online shop can also be a really effective way of consolidating a cultural institution’s brand, as National Museums Scotland (NMS) has demonstrated with its revamped store.
It cleverly exploits people’s interest in the Lewis Chessmen, made in Norway between 1150 and 1200 AD and discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831. Replicas, made using 3D laser scans of the original pieces, are bestsellers online, attracting buyers from all over the world.
Not all museums, however, take the view that items sold via online shops should have a direct link to collections, exhibitions or even local history. Bristol Culture – including Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, M Shed and the Red Lodge Museum – stocks products it knows will be bestsellers, as well as bespoke items.
Meanwhile, the William Morris Gallery in east London launched its online shop as part of a wider strategy to improve resilience. In 2014 the gallery received a grant of £100,000 from the arts council’s resilience fund, £14,000 of which was used to set up an online shop – a move that is designed to boost retail sales by 8-10%.
While the highly desirable William Morris brand lends itself well to the world of online retail and was easy to promote, the gallery had to address concerns relating to security and the holding of customer data.
When it comes to setting up an online shop most museums choose to work with a digital design agency or website builder. However, off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms are often an option favoured by institutions that are either cash-poor or want to find out whether there’s a demand for an online shop before committing significant investment.
Many museums underestimate the cost and importance of photography. Commissioning a professional photographer to take pictures of each item of stock can be expensive and time-consuming.
Zac Mensah, the head of transformation at Bristol Culture, says it is worth contacting retail suppliers for images. “Our suppliers are happy to provide us with images. When products are ordered the suppliers won’t send you images by default.”
Dropshipping, whereby customer orders are passed on to a manufacturer, retailer or wholesaler, can be an effective way of managing the risk of buying up lots of stock that doesn’t sell. It is also a useful tool for museums that are short on storage space.
Online retail is an effective way to generate extra income and its ability to reach audiences on a global scale also makes it a powerful engagement and marketing tool.
One way in which museums are boosting income is by setting up an online shop, which, depending on the size and profile of the institution, can eventually account for between 5% and 50% of total retail revenue.
An online shop can also be used to attract new audiences and increase engagement in a museum’s collections, as illustrated by Manchester’s National Football Museum.
The museum’s online shop, which was expanded as part of a website revamp last year, directly links its collections to its range of merchandise, including books, replica trophies, shirts, accessories and football memorabilia.
Website visitors can look at more than 1,000 museum objects online, including a shirt worn by Pelé in the 1958 Fifa World Cup and a football board game from 1884. If they click on an object they are shown more information about it and a ‘shop collection online’ icon directs them to related products being sold.
Phillipa Duxbury, the marketing manager at the National Football Museum, says: “The expanded online shop offers unique football gifts unavailable anywhere else on the web and will form an important revenue stream for the free entry museum.”
Money raised from the National Football Museum’s online sales will also be used to fund exhibitions and the maintenance of its collections.
An online shop can also be a really effective way of consolidating a cultural institution’s brand, as National Museums Scotland (NMS) has demonstrated with its revamped store.
It cleverly exploits people’s interest in the Lewis Chessmen, made in Norway between 1150 and 1200 AD and discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831. Replicas, made using 3D laser scans of the original pieces, are bestsellers online, attracting buyers from all over the world.
Not all museums, however, take the view that items sold via online shops should have a direct link to collections, exhibitions or even local history. Bristol Culture – including Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, M Shed and the Red Lodge Museum – stocks products it knows will be bestsellers, as well as bespoke items.
Meanwhile, the William Morris Gallery in east London launched its online shop as part of a wider strategy to improve resilience. In 2014 the gallery received a grant of £100,000 from the arts council’s resilience fund, £14,000 of which was used to set up an online shop – a move that is designed to boost retail sales by 8-10%.
While the highly desirable William Morris brand lends itself well to the world of online retail and was easy to promote, the gallery had to address concerns relating to security and the holding of customer data.
When it comes to setting up an online shop most museums choose to work with a digital design agency or website builder. However, off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms are often an option favoured by institutions that are either cash-poor or want to find out whether there’s a demand for an online shop before committing significant investment.
Many museums underestimate the cost and importance of photography. Commissioning a professional photographer to take pictures of each item of stock can be expensive and time-consuming.
Zac Mensah, the head of transformation at Bristol Culture, says it is worth contacting retail suppliers for images. “Our suppliers are happy to provide us with images. When products are ordered the suppliers won’t send you images by default.”
Dropshipping, whereby customer orders are passed on to a manufacturer, retailer or wholesaler, can be an effective way of managing the risk of buying up lots of stock that doesn’t sell. It is also a useful tool for museums that are short on storage space.
Online retail is an effective way to generate extra income and its ability to reach audiences on a global scale also makes it a powerful engagement and marketing tool.