Erskine

The challenge

As one of Scotland's best-known charities supporting veterans and their families, Erskine requires practical ways to engage supporters, promote its brand and generate additional fundraising income.

Managing merchandise internally can place unnecessary pressure on charity resources, particularly when stockholding, fulfilment, customer enquiries and supplier management are involved.

The challenge was to create a solution that would allow supporters to access branded merchandise while ensuring the charity avoided the operational complexity and financial risk often associated with traditional merchandise programmes.

The solution

Urban Planet developed and continues to manage a dedicated online merchandise platform for Erskine, providing a fully managed solution covering production, fulfilment, quality control and customer support.

Built around an on-demand fulfilment model, products are produced as orders are received, removing the need for significant stockholding while maintaining a professional supporter experience.

The platform provides a simple and effective way for supporters to purchase branded products while allowing Erskine to remain focused on delivering its core charitable services.

The delivery

The project includes:

• e-commerce platform development and management;

• branded merchandise sourcing;

• on-demand production;

• order fulfilment;

• customer service support;

• quality control management;

• product development and sourcing;

• fundraising merchandise;

• promotional products;

• ongoing platform support and optimisation.

The system provides a single destination for supporters to engage with the charity through branded products while simplifying the operational processes behind the scenes.

The outcome

By centralising merchandise sales and fulfilment through one managed platform, Erskine benefits from a more efficient and scalable approach to supporter merchandise.

The solution has helped improve:

• operational efficiency;

• supporter accessibility;

• fulfilment management;

• stock control;

• supplier simplification;

• fundraising opportunities;

• brand consistency across merchandise and promotional products.

The on-demand production model also reduces unnecessary stockholding and minimises waste, creating a more sustainable approach to merchandise management.

Most importantly, internal teams can remain focused on supporting veterans and their families rather than managing day-to-day merchandise operations.

Why it matters

For charities and membership organisations, merchandise programmes can create additional fundraising opportunities, but they often bring challenges around stock management, fulfilment and supplier coordination.

Urban Planet helps simplify these processes by combining e-commerce, branded merchandise, on-demand production and fulfilment into one managed solution.

The Erskine platform demonstrates how charities can strengthen supporter engagement, generate additional revenue and maintain professional brand standards while reducing operational complexity and avoiding the burden of managing merchandise internally.