It’s an exciting Monday, friends!
My team and I have been planning for this day for quite some time: Launch day! The new-look TOPS Store is now live.
This was a long time coming! Ever since I started at TOPS, about two years ago (hard to believe!), I’ve been chatting with people — members, coworkers, you name it — about how we organize our merchandise in the online store, how we could add new categories or perhaps improve the experience overall … you know, just make the shopping/perusing a bit more intuitive.
We were, for quite some time, “stuck” within the confines of our system. I won’t get into all the technical details, but it’s never as easy as just, “let’s fix the search functionality” or tweaking little things here or there and expecting major shifts.
We needed a brand new setup.
So that’s what we did! Again, I don’t want to bore you with EVERY detail behind our “why,” but some big decisions were made, and now you have a very freshened-up version of the old TOPS Store.
We also added some new items!
We hadn’t done that — with the exception of some 75th anniversary merchandise — the two years I’ve been working here, so that was really fun, to sit down with my colleagues and select some items that we think you’ll love. Consider these things our “classic line” or part of our “core TOPS collection.” We didn’t want to select any whacky colors, logos or themes … just blues, grays, whites, blacks; the general look that matches who we are, as an organization.
We started by stocking lots and lots of shirts — “tops,” if you will … hoodies, crewnecks and T-shirts, namely — and you can choose whether you prefer the look of a big or a small logo.
We also ordered drinkware, because that’s what you told us you wanted, when we put out a survey earlier this year.
Didn’t see it? There’s still time to fill the survey out!
There’s a hat I saw some positive comments on, when I was reading over our Facebook page last night; I really love the simple but clean canvas bags; and MAN I could go on and on and on. But I won’t! I encourage you to check out the store for yourself. You can get there the same way as always — just go to tops.org and click on Store, or bookmark the following URL: https://shop.tops.org/
You should find the new store pretty easy to use. You can search by the item number, if you happen to know it (which might be handy if you spot an item you want to purchase from TOPS News, for example, where we always list item numbers on those ad pages). For the shirts, we carry sizes ranging from small to 4XL. You can always go back to your cart, by clicking on the shopping bag icon in your upper right, and you can even toggle between browsing in U.S. dollars or Canadian dollars. When you’re ready to return to tops.org, our homepage, you’ll see a TOPS Club, Inc. button right next to where you select your currency, in the upper right once again.
The store is open to all — meaning if there’s a TOPS hoodie you really want to request as a holiday gift, feel free to share that link with your friends and family. 🙂
We ARE still rearranging some things, so if you see the categories shift ever so slightly, that’s just us, getting settled into this new space. It can be challenging to launch new projects and initiatives, so that’s normal … we’re improving as we go! And learning more and more about this new space every day.
One important thing to call out is this: It used to be, when you were logged onto tops.org, and then you decide to shop in our online store, that the computer would still recognize you — that “old” storefront would pull your details from your tops.org sign-in, if that makes any sense. (And if you’re like, “wait, WHAT?” or your eyes are starting to glaze over, maybe just skip this paragraph, lol).
In short, this new TOPS Store is not connected to your sign-in on tops.org. So if you’re filling out your Shipping info, and you’re wondering, “Why doesn’t the Store recognize me? I signed in!” Just know that you’ll have to enter your details once more. But it won’t be like this forever! We’re actually in the process of switching websites, and the store and our sign-in page WILL integrate seamlessly starting in early 2025. (K, now I’m giving way too much information, when I said I wouldn’t inundate you with info like this!) haha.
Finally, you’ll find EVERYTHING on the new store: memberships, retreats, you’re able to donate to our fantastic organization … we even have a brand-new blog. Here’s one of the most recent entries — scroll all the way to the bottom of the store homepage, or click on the words “Health Hub” on the horizontal navigation bar up top, to read the entries we’ve posted so far.
This is what those blogs look like at the bottom of the storefront’s homepage:
Expect lots of photos in the coming days-weeks-months! I’m also going to see who, of my colleagues, would be willing to put on a T-shirt, so we can show you friends what this stuff looks like on real bodies.
And just know this — we ordered quite a bit of new merch, but we’re far from done! We have a fresh relationship with a new vendor, and we’ll be re-evaluating what’s selling, what’s not, what else is in demand, etc., moving forward.
ENJOY shopping, TOPS pals!
