Online company stores are no longer a fad. They are mandatory for companies with employees counts over 250 that want to reward employees, manage uniforms and manage your overall swag logistics and distribution.
Company swag can quickly get out of hand when it comes to inventory control and the time your HR or Marketing team spends on ordering and distributing swag.
Still need more convincing? Here are 10 reasons why you want to consider an online company swag store.
1. Inventory Control
Your marketing closet is overflowing with outdated swag, 4XL polos and XXS sweaters. The vast majority of marketing or HR departments who do not have an efficient company store program have this closet. Working with a company that can provide a great assortment of branded apparel and swag with quick turnaround times can often eliminate the “marketing closet” – as well as the time spent managing it.
2. Employee Satisfaction
Your current product assortment never seems to make everyone in the company happy. Employees come in all shapes, sizes and with unique tastes. Company store programs that provide a variety of apparel and promotional items with all budgets in mind keep the team happy.
3. Turnaround Time
The turnaround time from your current vendor is weeks, and you need your order in days. Having your “go-to” company uniform or bestselling apparel items inventoried for shipping in less than 48 hours is essential for many businesses, especially for those new hires who need logoed swag or uniforms on day one. If your company can purchase and inventory apparel and swag upfront, your current store vendor should be able to ship those items within 24 hours. Company stores that provide a variety of print-on-demand items will allow a larger variety of products with no warehousing needed. These on-demand items should take 5-7 business days to produce and ship with the right vendor, and partnering with a company store vendor with in-house decorating will also likely result in faster turnaround times.
4. Employee Reward
You want to reward employees with store credit or points for a job well done, important milestone or companywide accomplishment. Do you know the number-one factor that separates an often-visited company store from one that employees rarely check out? Company provided store credit, employee rewards or points! Boosting brand awareness, meeting sales goals, celebrating years of service or showing overall employee appreciation are just a few reasons companies provide credit to employees. And keep in mind, the absolute best way to promote a new company store is to load employee credits ahead of a new store launch – that will get the team there in full force!
5. Real-Time Stock Status
You’re certain you purchased enough pens for the next three trade shows but can’t find them anywhere! Again…that “marketing closet!” Lock and key is about the only way to keep employees from grabbing swag on their way to see a client or when they forgot their coffee mug at home. But isn’t that the whole idea? A well-run company store will have real-time inventory levels, alerts when items are running low and fast turnaround times on those often-used products that need to be available right away.
6. Brand Control
You have multiple locations or departments ordering from different suppliers, and your logo never seems to follow your brand guidelines. If you got the entire company together and asked everyone to wear a company logo apparel item, how many different shades of your PMS color would you find in the logos? A company store should eliminate this issue upon launch. Company apparel, promotional products, business cards, trade show displays and all the other marketing collateral items should be printed in the correct PMS color every time! Finding one supplier that can print all these items and provide a robust company store solution to fulfill the orders is a marketing department’s dream!
7. Cost Control
We truly have no idea how much is being spent on swag by the employees throughout our company. Obviously, this is music to the ears of most promo distributors. With that said, a company store program that provides fulfillment nation or worldwide can reduce the need for multiple suppliers immediately. Company store software that allows for department budgets, manager order approvals and the ability to control what products employees can and cannot see provides all the functionality needed for one platform to service all employees and company locations.
8. Shipping & Logistics
Shipping and Distributing Swag takes way too much time away from our HR and Marketing Team. One of the biggest reasons companies look for online store options is because of the time it currently takes to manage the shipping and distribution of their swag. Multiple offices, home office and overseas locations can change continuously. The ability to control the logistics of our inventory and where it needs to go can be a nightmare and not second nature to a marketing or HR department. Company stores give buyers the ability to manage the items and shipment locations for each order drastically reducing the headaches and overhead within your HR and Marketing team.
9. One Stop Shopping
Your business cards and sales collateral comes from XYZ Printing, your trade show table throw and giveaways come from SwagRUs and your company swag apparel comes from CheapSwagYesterday. Imagine finding a company store platform that can provide all print and swag collateral in one centralized platform. Having one vendor that can provide all things print can be a huge time saver and also ensure your logo colors are consistent every time they are printed no matter the collateral they are going on.
10. Low-Cost Marketing
My employees love where they work. How can they promote our company away from the office? Company swag can be an excellent way for your employees to promote the business while our for a job, eating at a restaurant or at a ball game. Everyone likes free swag. Why not create walking billboards from your team as they go on their daily life adventures with your logo on their hat, water bottle or jacket. Employee rewards and marketing your brand can go hand in hand with a friendly smile.
Request a demo of our company store software and see firsthand how a new online store program this year makes sense for your business.
