CASE STUDY

This summer, the University of Birmingham experienced a 51% uplift in graduation merchandise sales, thanks to a bespoke and highly coordinated retail solution delivered by Infinity Inc.

A thoughtfully designed product range, flexible print-on-demand production, and a seamless pre-order system helped drive both sales and student satisfaction during one of the busiest times of year.

Graduation is a milestone moment and one of the busiest periods for university retail teams. The University of Birmingham wanted to offer students something extra special this year: merchandise that felt both premium and personal, without adding unnecessary pressure on their in-house team or overproducing stock.

Over 8 days the University would host graduation ceremonies for 6,300 students, each accompanied by proud families and friends, meaning merchandise demand would be high, fast-moving, and unpredictable. With such a large volume of students graduating, the key challenge was to offer a wide, personalised range of merchandise while keeping stock levels under control, ensuring a smooth retail experience for both staff and customers.

We created a full-service graduation merchandise strategy that tackled every part of the challenge, from product development and stock control to fulfilment and customer experience.

1. A Tailored Product Range

We designed an exclusive apparel range for the Class of 2025, including:

Hoodies and T-shirts featuring a bold “Class of 2025” back print, and the iconic Old Joe clock tower.

Personalised apparel with the student’s College and School printed on the back, creating a truly meaningful memento of their time at Birmingham.

We also supplied a wide range of popular graduation gifts, including our best-selling graduation bear, branded certificate frames, scroll holders, pin badges, and key rings, all designed to mark the occasion in style.

2. Print-on-Demand

When it comes to tailored merchandise, the biggest challenge is meeting demand without overprinting. To solve this, we implemented a hybrid print-on-demand model.

We pre-printed a batch of hoodies with just the University logo at our Leeds HQ, meaning they could be sold year-round, beyond just graduation. We then printed transfers for each of the 24 Colleges and Schools separately, and supplied them along with a transfer press directly to the University. This allowed their on-campus team to apply personalisation on demand, only printing what was needed, keeping the process agile and waste-free. 

3. Graduation Pre-Order Website

To support the retail team and make things easier for students, we built and launched a dedicated University of Birmingham graduation merchandise website two weeks ahead of the first ceremony.

Students, parents, and friends could browse the full collection online and place orders in advance. This allowed the retail team to pre-press personalised apparel ahead of time and prepare orders for easy collection on graduation day — reducing queues and cutting down on stress.

The site saw over 100 pre-orders before launch day, and went on to generate £10,000 in online sales.

4. On-Site Support & Training

To ensure everything ran smoothly, our Account Manager visited campus ahead of graduation with the delivery of stock and equipment. We helped organise merchandise, set up the transfer press, and provided hands-on training for the retail staff, making sure they felt confident and ready for the busy days ahead.

Our approach helped the University of Birmingham achieve:

• 51% uplift in graduation merchandise sales
• A streamlined production process with minimal waste
• A significantly smoother collection experience for students and staff
• A £10,000 boost in online sales via the dedicated pre-order website