One thing that always frustrated me as a fan was how hard it was to buy stuff from my alma mater.  I knew if I was on campus that I could get most of what I wanted from the campus bookstore, but once I had graduated and was off-campus, there were few good options.

I always thought this was ironic because you are making it hard for people to pay you to promote you.  For example in high school, I would wear Nike swoosh t-shirts so often that my dad asked if Nike was paying me to wear their gear.

But when I try to visit my campus site, I have to really want to buy something and actively try to find what I want to buy.  When I find something I want, typically the school website has opened a new window to a website with my school colors hastily thrown at the top of an otherwise generic website.  My trust in this purchase is quickly dropping.

Once more, unless I buy a special structured fan pack, it's a real pain to buy a t-shirt, a DVD, and a football ticket at the same time.  I'm stuck creating three accounts and passwords to three different websites.

Online stores need to do more than simply give access to what's on campus.  They should be a central place where you can buy everything you need in one customer-friendly experience.

Amazon set the gold standard for combining numerous buying options into a single customer-friendly experience, and PrestoSports is working to do the same for its customers.

The first big improvement we made was putting the online store into the official athletic website.  This gives fans much greater confidence in their purchase, kept users coming back for more information, and it has made the store much easier to find and use.

Next, we added an online auction system to our stores.  Each have been successful with stores and auctions at Butler, UNH, St. Bonaventure, and Holy Cross, and by combining these, we allow someone buying a t-shirt at the store to see what auction items are currently being bid on, and vice versa.  Now you get both the best of Amazon and eBay on your official athletic website.

Our next step is to support multiple fulfillers in a single purchase.  What does that mean to a fan?  It means that your shopping cart on the athletic site can include a t-shirt from one company, a penant from another, and a championship DVD from a third.

Later this month I'll talk about how this unified marketplace not only helps fans but how it also helps schools get a better insight on their fans... with FanZone!