At long last, it's here!

The Blues Store is coming to the internet this Saturday giving our fans the opportunity to purchase their CUFC merchandise online for the first time ever.

We caught up with shop manager Mark Stevens to get an insight in to what we can expect.

You've been very busy in the last couple of weeks getting things ready for the online shop, Mark, but what exactly has that involved?  It's been pretty hectic.  We've been busy taking pictures of all the products that we want to sell online.  We had a session where we took pictures of Keiren and Kev Gray, along with Sarah Story.  They were very patient as we had them dressed up on the pitch because we wanted to show the clothes been worn rather than just on hangers.  I've tried hard to get an interesting layout for the online shop rather than just a boring list of products but, of course, we have also tried to make it as easy to navigate and shop from as possible.

We are also working hard at the moment to source products that we feel will sell well on the website.  We want to appeal to the fans who live away as well as those nearer Carlisle.  Non-clothing items, the Hughie McIlmoyle book, and the Official United Magazine, for example, will be for sale online.  We think we have a good choice of items to start the shop with but we will be building it up all the time

The online shop will be available for anyone in the UK.  This is simply because of problems with the exchange rates, which vary from day to day.  Very few firms operate an International site.  However, that doesn't mean we won't send overseas.  We suggest that anyone wishing to purchase from overseas browses the website and checks out all the items and sizes available.  Then, if they ring up the shop, we will check out the exchange rates on the day and get back to them with the correct price.

Since the Blues Store opened in July sales have gone better than we ever dreamed they would.  Our sales are on a par with a Championship team.  We knew it would be busy with a big initial demand, because Carlisle United haven't had this type of facility before, but we never thought the demand would continue unabated the way it has.  We are now desperately sourcing new products and re-ordering lots of lines so that we have enough stock coming in for the Christmas season.  At the moment we are spending a lot of time looking at new ranges, and listening to people and what they've said they want, and hopefully we are responding by bringing the right products in.

With us now getting to the turn of the year we have been looking at getting in warmer clothing.  We have a new range of training gear coming into the shop by the end of this week.  That will include Hoodies, Fleeces, Bench Coats and a Bench style jacket, all in the Blue Le Coq Sportif style.  We have only ordered small quantities at the moment but as the weather goes colder we will carry more of those lines.  We are also getting the tracksuit in for Saturday so there will be a few new lines to see on the day of the Macclesfield game.

Back to the website, and when an order is placed how long will it be before you fill it?  We'll look at it first thing in the morning as we think that quite a high percentage of the orders will be placed overnight when people are browsing in the evening.  We will be checking throughout the day until around 3pm, when the last orders of the day will be filled and taken over to the post office to be sent away.  Orders that come in after that time will be filled the next day.  We have set up the website so only items and sizes that are actually in stock will be shown online, so no one should have to wait long for their order.

When does it actually go live?  When people wake up on Saturday morning it should be there for them.  We are doing final tests over the next few days, making sure that all the systems are up and running and it will be launched very late on Friday night or very early on Saturday morning.  It will be accessed via the Official site homepage and we have been sorting that out over the last few days as well.  Hopefully people will like what they see.

Online shopping comes to CUFC this Saturday!!!

Don't forget, you can already book your match tickets online via our internet ticketing service.  Click the yellow link below to place your ticket order:

 Take me to the Carlisle United Online Ticket Service