Sustaining campus pride (and revenue) when a virus has shut things down
For 18 months, colleges have fretted over how to teach students who suddenly were hundreds of miles away from campus, how to maintain healthy enrollments and keep building projects going during a oncea-century health crisis.
But what about the baseball caps, T-shirts, sweatshirts and other licensed merchandise wrapped in school colors that nurture campus pride while generating millions in sales — not to mention books and other course-related necessities sold in campus stores that suddenlyhad to close?
A sports team on a win streak is no doubt good for sales in any year. But what happens when the team isn’t playing at all, or at least not in front of packed venues due to infection risk of COVID-19?
Monica Rattigan is the Executive Director of University Stores and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pittsburgh. She oversees operations of Pitt-owned and operated retail venues, including The University Store on Fifth, The Pitt Shop, Maggie & Stella’s Cards & Gifts, and ThePitt Shop at the Pete.
She spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the pandemic’s impact on sales, encouraging signs she now sees and what she and others learned about consumer behavior in extraordinarytimes.
Sure, an “Oakland Zoo” shirt or Panthers-logo cap is discretionary retail — even an impulse buy. But don’t underestimate it. Any parent moving a child onto campus knows the power of these 10 words: “Hey, can we stop at the bookstore before yougo?”
This interview has been edited for space and clarity.
Early on, how did the COVID-19 pandemic affect sales?
We were closed in our physical stores to the public but remained open for online sales and continued to fill those orders. We reopened to the public in late July for the return of students and have been open sincethen. Even though our stores were closed and there was a lower amount of foot traffic on campus, our sales were better than projected. Sales were down about 20%, but a lot of that has been made up by e-commerce sales. Our sales were slightly above the national average.
When you look at national associations of stores, we’re in a top tier of $10 million and above in sales. Our sales vary, but annually, we’rearound $10 million.
What have you been seeing that makes you optimistic about a rebound?
At the beginning of the pandemic last summer, sales were impacted. But as admissions has been able to bring back tours in the springon campus, and we’ve been able to be open to the public, we’ve seen strong sales for tours for prospective students, as well as when parents are moving students in. Our peak time is always fall semester. That’s what we’re gearing up for nowin August. And with the largest freshman class in quite some time coming onto campus, we expect salesto rebound.
People buy their T-shirts and things to get ready for football games. And so that’s always really popular in August. Alumni are shopping online and in the stores when they visit campus. So homecoming will be a very big week for us as well as family weekend. And course materials are required by faculty members, so we assist with filling those orders forour students.
How did restrictions at athletic events hurt sales?
The greatest impact was basketball games. They didn’t have the ability to have a large amount of attendees in place. And so our Peterson Events Center store was heavily impacted by that. But, with the hope of us returning to normal schedules, I think that’ll be helpful. And certainly, anytime a team is doing well, that creates excitement. The soccer team did very well this year. And we saw some sales this spring because of thesoccer team’s success.
How did your retail strategy change in response to the pandemic?
The pandemic gave us an opportunity to advance more quickly some of the ideas and innovations we had been discussing and speed up our timeline a little bit. We introduced a store pickup window this year in the Schenley Quad. You could order online and pick upat the window. It has been incredibly popular and something that we’re going to continue. We’re also launching a curbside pickup option this fall.
What items did particularly well?
Probably the most popular item is a Nike t-shirt that has the Panther head on it and that’s continued to be a strong seller. Champion brand is doing very well for us. In July, we launched ‘Oakland Originals,” a oneof-a-kind mystery T-shirt subscription program.
We’re seeing a really great response to that. So we are trying to offer things that are new and different that you might see at a regular retailer. It’s not just support for athletic teams. Schools like the Business, the Pharmacy— they have a loyal following, and there’s interest in representing the schools andacademics.
What were your priorities during the pandemic?
Digital delivery material was growing before the pandemic and doubled this past fall.
The early priority was ensuring the delivery of course material necessary for our students to be successful. But branded merchandise was also important because students, alumni, athletic fans — they show their pride that way. People still feel that affinity, and maybe even more so if they’re not oncampus.
What were the stakes for Pitt and its students in keeping sales going?
We’re one of several departments that is revenuegenerating, and we are selfsustaining. So that means the money we’re taking in, we use to pay for staff. We have 32, full-time and parttime staff. We also are one of the largest employers of students on campus. In a typical year, we employ roughly 50 students. So this past year, obviously, that number was impacted, but we expect to be back up to normal employment numbers for our students this year, which is great news.