Wikimedia merchandise
Don't forget to come back and let us know what you thought!
Goal
[edit]The Wikimedia Foundation wants to provide affordable, high-quality merchandise to the project volunteers and the general public to reward its volunteers and spread the Wikimedia and project brands around the world. To that end, we want to build a wide-reaching store that is able to provide good value and fast shipping around the world with the help of a worldwide distribution system and potentially project volunteers as project needs arise. The revenues from the store will cover the cost of merchandise and support the Wikimedia Foundation through programmatic events with most of the revenue going towards subsidizing merchandise and/or shipping for more expensive locales, as well as to provide free merchandise to worldwide volunteers as a reward and thank you for their service.
The Merchandise Giveaways Program is the primary, ongoing iteration of this initiative, although other projects are in the works.
What is this page for?
[edit]Like anything else on Wikimedia projects, we value and hope for feedback from the community to ensure the store evolves and improves as a project and representation of community pride.
We are always seeking feedback on the process of The Wikimedia Store, such as:
- What do you like about the current product selection?
- What other products or designs would you like to see offered?
- Is there information missing from product descriptions or FAQs?
- Would you like to see changes made to packaging or automated order/shipping emails?
- Do you feel the quality of goods is acceptable? If not, what would you like to see changed?
- Do you have skills, partnerships, or other suggestions to provide our team?
Every part of the process is malleable at this point and we would like to get the ordering process and product selection as perfect as we possibly can so customers, both within and outside the editing community, can get the same high-quality experience they have come to expect from our other Wiki projects.
Call for designs
[edit]We want your designs! Go to /Design ideas page to give your ideas. We don't wish to overwhelm customers with too many design options, but we want to be able to keep a constantly fresh variety of products, so we would like ideas from everyone for future products and designs. Product ideas (without specific designs) can go on to the main discussion page for now.
FAQ
[edit]Where is the Wikipedia Store located?
[edit]The store is located at https://store.wikimedia.org. Please feel free to peruse and perhaps place an order! If you would like to offer your feedback, please send an email to merchandise
wikimedia.org.
I see a decent selection of products now, but is there more to come?
[edit]We want to keep the store both well-stocked and fresh by periodically offering new products, while also rotating out old products that are not as popular. Right now, we have a few new ideas in the works and are starting to look at the 3rd generation of products and we need your help! Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on either the talk page or on the Design ideas page.
What products are currently in the works?
- Agendas
- New T-shirts
- Temporary tattoos
We also want to make T-Shirts for other projects as well. While we have some ideas of our own, but we would appreciate feedback from the community. There are many product options we can add to the store, such as baby/toddler apparel, lanyards, flash drives, headgear, totes-- to give you some ideas. We, of course, want to cater to the needs of the community, so send us your feedback and we'll put it to good use!
Who profits from this store?
[edit]100% of the profits from the Wikipedia Store go to the Wikimedia Foundation. It is not the intended purpose of the Wikimedia Store to become a Profit center. All proceeds are filtered back into the store to keep production costs low, subsidize shipping and help to provide merchandise specifically aimed towards community members.
Is the store secure?
[edit]Right now, the checkout page is fully secure (through Shopify), but we do not have complete HTTPS throughout the rest of the site. HTTPS pages attempt to load unencrypted resources.
Are you working with any third parties ?
[edit]Yes, given the enormous logistics involved and limited resources we have, we're working directly with 2 main service providers:
- Shopify (website) is the online shopping platform that we're using. They provide an easy to use and relatively adaptable platform that services more than 40,000 stores already, including other high traffic stores such as the KONY 2012 campaign and Angry Birds. They have been incredibly excited to work with us and have offered developer resources to adapt the platform to our global needs.
- Fulex is an E-commerce fulfillment company based in Detroit, MI. Fulex manages 3 fulfillment warehouses across the continental U.S. We pride ourselves on Honesty, Reliability, and Excellence. Our core competencies include integrated fulfillment and customer care services for product, literature, promotional and point-of-sale distribution needs. We are a leading provider in these service areas because of the dedication of our people, the technology we invest in and the commitment we have in each and every client.
Are purchases tax deductible?
[edit]All of the purchase prices of the item goes directly to funding the cost of the merchandise and the store overhead, therefore we're not able to provide a tax receipt for any of the purchase.
Can I make a donation on the store?
[edit]Not yet, but we are looking into this functionality soon.
Where are your products sourced from?
[edit]We only source merchandise from socially responsible businesses with ethical manufacturing practices. Our branded products are manufactured in the United States, China, India, Pakistan, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Will my order be delivered without any issues?
[edit]We use United States Postal Service (USPS), UPS and DHL for deliveries inside the United States and abroad. All of our shipments leave the United States and will likely spend time in the customs of the country where the shipment arrives. We cannot provide any customs clearance estimates, but in most cases, shipments may spend anywhere from 1 to 3 days in customs.
Why isn't my currency accepted?
[edit]Right now, we're able to display our product prices in dozens of global currencies. However, at this time, we are able to process payments in USD only via Paypal. We're working to implement new payment systems, which will allow us to accept, not only different currencies but also offer of a variety of regional payment options.
Are there plans to translate the content on the Store in other languages?
[edit]This has been a topic of much discussion, both in the community through bug reports (see Bug 37797 and Bug 57939) and at the Foundation. We have decided that our goal, for the time being, is to create a truly professional, well-functioning store in English while exploring international functionalities in the near future. The feasibility of undertaking such a large project is dependent on 3 things:
- Finding a fulfillment company that specializes in accurately and affordably delivering packages internationally
- Implementing the capability of processing multiple currencies, and
- Migrating the store design from a Shopify template to an in-house design that should make it easier to display alternate languages.
All of these projects are currently in infant stages but are real priorities over the coming years.
We're Wikimedia - Why can't we have our own designs on the store?
[edit]Right now, we want to make sure we have a minimum collection of high-quality, durable, and high-value products with the Wikipedia and Wikimedia project marks. We're actively looking at services that would allow small-batch printing of user-submitted designs, and soon we will begin to offer limited-edition user-submitted designs posted on Wikimedia Commons and will be taking user ideas for longer term editions as well (see our Design ideas page). Our normal Trademark policy also allows you to make Wikipedia merchandise for yourself (without selling it) already and we do not plan on changing that.
Announcement: What's the plan for the 2020s?
[edit]Finally, we're so thrilled to announce that the Wikimedia merchandise giveaways program is alive and well! We are contacting a minimum of 10 nominated users a week and encouraging users to continue to nominate worthy community members.