Cyber Student Store: The student store has found new ways to produce and market products in an online format

Senior Brooke Blair stood over her mini portable heat press, peeling the vinyl off of all seven layers of the student store’s new Chiefs-themed shirt. Instead of producing hundreds of “Cougar Hunt” shirts in room 500A with the rest of the Student Store staff for the upcoming Shawnee Mission Northwest game, Blair was in her living room alone, spending 10 minutes to produce a single shirt.  

Blair’s method is one of the ways student store has adapted to produce and market their products in a year where students don’t have the chance to walk by the in-person store.

Blair, like several others, applied to student store as a junior after noticing the store’s friendly and lighthearted social atmosphere. Seeing the store packed with students when shirts for the upcoming Rockhurst game were on sale and the white board in the Marketing room full of ideas for the store’s latest product are part of what made the idea of working in the store appealing to Blair. No longer able to make announcements at lunch or work in the slightly-claustrophobic Marketing room, the store has had to find new ways to reach East students. 

The lack of football games for students to attend has caused a struggle with the store’s design aspect, according to Blair. The beginning of the year normally consists of student store design members creating T-shirts for the theme of the next football game, so this year the store has had to find new ideas. 

“This year we’ve had to just be really creative,” Blair said. “We’ve come up with ideas that don’t necessarily relate to football games and are just trying to get those products out there to East students.”

The store has seven teams — managers, design and production, finance and inventory control, outside sales and delivery, promotion and website. Each team has adjusted to the circumstances, whether that be allowing customers to pay online via the store’s website or taking advantage of social media to promote new products. 

According to senior Hanna Robinett, one of the store’s managers, the design team has been looking at what colleges and sororities are doing for design inspiration, including the ever-popular tie dye trend. They’ve also integrated Kansas City sports teams, such as the Chiefs, into their clothing. 

The store is holding Instagram giveaways and making TikToks to promote their products that would usually be sold during lunch periods. They also have a newly designed website where anyone — not just East students — can purchase their products. 

Using skills from her Digital Design class, senior Libby Hise designed the new website, where customers can now buy anything from the store online — something that the store has never been able to do before. 

“When I logged onto the website, I kind of learned how to use it myself,” Hise said. “I taught myself completely how to make the buttons and different pages on the site.”

Hise, along with the other students on the website team, adds pictures of every new product to the site and updates the inventory status regularly. The website team also communicates with the delivery crew to organize product deliveries. 

Although student store looks very different this year, the new additions that students have made are making up for it, according to Marketing teacher Mercedes Rasmussen. 

“I will say that my students this year are working harder than any other group has,” Rasmussen said. “They have come up with the most amazing designs and promotional ideas.”

Robinett feels that while her experience this year is different than what she anticipated, she’s learning to prepare for the unexpected when it comes to marketing. 

“I think during this time it’s shown us a lot about how to be a well-functioning business,” Robinett said. “Especially this year it’s been much more challenging than the past years that have had it. It’s shown us that it’s important in any job, but especially in marketing, to work well with people and make sure that you’re putting in the extra effort to make things go smoothly.”