"The Online Professional Clothing Fair addressed two specific issues on our campus. First, it increased meaningful engagement events with online students and provided a concrete return on investment for the Student Activities Fee. Second, for all our students, it provided additional resources for their professional growth in a safe and non-judgmental environment. We conservatively estimated that the value of clothing distributed in 2019 was approximately $31,000. We feel that we helped to successfully eliminate a barrier to the path of gaining professional employment. In addition, we received positive support and generous donations from our community, alumni, faculty, and staff. One of our online adjuncts donated beautiful women’s suits. She lived in New Jersey but was able to meet with an Admissions Counselor who was nearby at an event and they brought the clothes to campus.

Initially to gain campus buy-in on the concept, we created a team from across campus. Members included Student Activities, Online Engagement, previous volunteers from the face-to-face clothing fair, Alumni, President’s Office, Physical Plant and Public Relations. We sought their help on messages regarding collection of donations and what the desired results would be.

Our biggest challenge was to find a way to support the web store. It was suggested to research Shopify as they cater specifically to retail stores who don’t have the infrastructure to support their own designed online retail. We did this and created a site with Shopify. Their services are outstanding. Upload is easy and efficient and they are great to work with to achieve a highly professional website. The cost is also reasonable - $29/month and a $17 domain fee yearly for the basic package. During the active weeks of the online clothing fair we do purchase additional services that help us manage the efficiency and fairness of the distribution of the clothing.

The next challenge we had to face was space. Due to construction upgrades, space was limited on campus in general. This was the impetus for changing the Clothing Fair from face-to-face to online. Our space needs were different and more in line with a warehouse and distribution center than a large retail shop space. For the first two years, we rented a storefront in downtown Canton to be our storage, processing and fulfillment center. Community members were able to drop clothing off there and we gained publicity for our event by installing large colorful window signs. With approximately 800 square feet, the rented space worked well the first year. The second year (2019), the space available in the storefront was reduced to 500 square feet because of an adjacent business expansion. We rented the space for twice the time we had the previous year because we had already received donations throughout the year and wanted additional time to process. However, there was a water leak in March, and we were forced to move the entire setup back to campus. The new campus space was laid out much better than the storefront and was much more efficient. For the 2020 season and going forward we have obtained the on-campus space for the Clothing Fair from January – May. This has cut the costs significantly for the project and increased its sustainability.

Implementation
The Coordinator for Online Student Engagement, who also is a programming guru, was able to work with the Shopify code to tailor it to our needs including specializing the inventory controls, customer instructions and personalizing emails sent to customers. In addition, we password protected the site for the exclusive use of our students for the first part of the fair. This password was accessed through the student portal RoosLife. Once the period of allowing access to SUNY Canton students ended, the password protection was taken down and all community members could shop including students from our nearby colleges (Clarkson University, St. Lawrence University and SUNY Potsdam).

The Ready Center/Career Services staff are very involved in the process. The first year we hired students to manage the donations/retail, but during the second year and going forward we have been able to train a few of our Work Study students to lead the effort. This staff sorts the clothing, writes a brief description, photographs, bags and tags with code. All the identifying information and a link to the photo are put into an Excel file that is then uploaded to Shopify. The Clothing Fair is open in April but we start accepting donations in the Fall and then advertise for donations in February. During the beginning of the Spring Semester the process of photography, bagging, tagging and uploading is ongoing. We have a core group of volunteers work throughout these months.

Once the is launched live online, Shopify generates orders which we then pull and package for the customer. We keep track of fulfillment and email customers when orders are ready for pick up. On campus students pick up their orders at the Ready Center. All students can shop daily but we do limit the number of items they can order in a daily session in order to ensure all students have a chance at the clothing. Online students’ orders are shipped after the fair closes which enables us to bulk ship their purchases.

Results
The Online Clothing Fair gives additional access and removes barriers to professional development. Last year, we estimated that each student received clothing items valued at nearly $270. We have expanded their resources. We are reaching more students than we did in the past because of the 24 hour a day access. Our campus community and regional community are excited about making donations to a good cause. We see expansion to include student internships or applied learning experiences in online retail, promotion, fulfillment and customer relations.
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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a8t0Vb4inLpjx7tWhvAV11WBDfGMn1SU