Shops on smash.gg are known to be customizable to the organizer and community’s needs. Some shops incorporate a donation button, having proceeds donate to a charitable cause, or have compendium rewards that feed into specific facets of their event. Compendium rewards can consist of many different things, including:

Expanding a pot bonus

Inviting a player to the event

Adding another game to the list of games at the event

Allowing for another game mode

A 24-hour venue

And many more! The possibilities are endless!

To help fund these rewards, people interested in showing their support are free to donate or, if compelled, grab some of the cool merch. Each of these add a portion of their proceeds directly to the event, and the customer gets to choose the reward level they contribute to.

Poi Poundaz utilizes many of these shop features, but with a twist! They refresh their shop with brand new products very often, which is something no other major shop has done on smash.gg for a single tournament. By having a fresh assortment of products to entice viewers, the shop is exploding with a fun array of items and keeps people returning to see what’s new.

Say “Aloha” to October’s Shop Items!

The Poi Poundaz shop has a stylish set of merch up for sale right now. Below are some of the awesome items that you can purchase from their shop, and all of them give to the reward goals they have set for their event:

Hawaii Smash Aloha T-Shirt: A floral shirt representing the Hawaii Smash scene! Comes in sizes XS — 3XL.

A floral shirt representing the Hawaii Smash scene! Comes in sizes XS — 3XL. Controller Capture Cards: These capture cards will be mapped to display any input action made on your controller and show it right on your stream overlay! Options available are Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo 64.

These capture cards will be mapped to display any input action made on your controller and show it right on your stream overlay! Options available are Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo 64. Hawaiian Jiggs Poster: A chill, tropical vaporwave poster done by artist JustWarton! The poster size is 18” x 24”.

Poi Poundaz provides their own products, but also pulls in other artists to sell their wares as well. There are many more products to be found in the shop than what is shown above, but get these soon! Come November, the shop will undergo a refresh, and new items will replace many of those currently available.

Over $3,500 has already been contributed to the event via purchases. Eight players are already slated to attend the event due to reward levels including Lucky, Bladewise, and Falln.

The Sea, the Sand, and the Plan

The items found in Poi Poundaz’s shop are all extremely varied, and the refresh idea is unique. Chloe “Yink” Schupp-Omid of smash.gg Partner Success reached out to event organizer Thomas “Toggle” Goedecke to get some insight for all the planning that went into setting up the process.

Schupp-Omid: How often does the shop refresh? Goedecke: The shop is in four parts (September, October, November, December), featuring new stock, new items, and fulfillments at the end of every month. Schupp-Omid: How many items total do you plan to have throughout the shop’s lifespan? Goedecke: We are currently at 51 planned items, with each month’s shop having around 15–25. This number may fluctuate as new artists agree to help out our tournament.

Above: Alolan Exeggutor art print by Australian artist Super Shark Rocky.

Schupp-Omid: Has the refresh been successful for your event? Goedecke: We have been able to create traffic to the shop at the beginning and end of each month. The beginning of each month introduces new items, and many users will get really excited and hop on the new item train. At the end of the month we let users know what items will no longer be available, and that creates a secondary push for the shop. We also heavily market the shop items at the beginning and end of each month. Schupp-Omid: Where do you get your ideas for the shop items? Goedecke: We did extensive research going into this project. The most successful items sold for Tier 2 and 3 events are Tournament Specific Hoodies, T-shirts, and posters. Tier 1 events also get large margin items like signed controllers, custom painted controllers and systems, as well as items that tie into specific players. Unfortunately our tournament doesn’t have those resources yet, but we’ve found a lot of success with rotating out T-shirts and posters. The only other items we saw success for were items unique to that region or could only be provided by that region. This is where the overlays and controller capture cards come in. By offering these unique items, we corner a market and create interest in a certain niche in the community (in our case, streamers and tournament organizers). Not only have these items been selling successfully, but they have brought community leader eyes to the tournament.

Goedecke went on to explain that while this process and setup for a larger event might not be as feasible, it could in some way still be scaled. He and his team already have ideas to refine and improve the model for future endeavors.