Branded merchandise makes sense to create a consistent look for your team, whether you are a tourism operator, car dealership, real estate business or accounting business.
But how do you manage stock and find a way to order and supply branded merchandise like backpacks, pens and journals without clogging up your storeroom, constantly liaising with endless suppliers or ending up with a surplus of items you don’t need?
The simple answer is a corporate store.
What is a corporate store?
A corporate store takes your branded merchandise out of your storage area and into the online realm. It gives you and your employees an e-store where they can easily click to get hold of company branded and approved items, at any time and from any location.
Major brands have pages and pages of goods in their corporate stores. As a business, you can have as many or as few items as you like. As your bespoke store it is limited only by your imagination and budget!
Why have a corporate store
Having an online corporate store is convenient and cost-effective. You are saved from having to wade through different suppliers and submit bulk orders for products you may not need, or possibly even expire. A centralised portal can make sure bulk orders are placed thereby capturing any discounts and meeting suppliers minimum order levels.
When you have a corporate store, your branding can be consistent. No more resubmitting orders with new suppliers and having things look slightly different every time. Plus you can instantly see stock levels and know what’s available. Re-order levels can also be set in place, so you are never caught short.
Another benefit is that your corporate store will track insights for you. You can track merchandise orders by the team, then look at what’s popular and use the data to make decisions about branded products in the future.
Maintaining control of your merchandise is important. As a business you can choose to have access limited to a few key people or else choose to open it up to all employees. With your marketing calendar firmly in place and being able to see stock levels at a glance, planning for future events becomes a lot easier.
When you set up a corporate store with the help of a dedicated provider who specialises in this area, you will also access helpful advice from a team of professionals who have worked with many other brands to achieve similar results to the ones you are looking for.
Finally, corporate stores free up time for HR and marketing. Corporate stores can remove the headache of ordering stock, storing, managing and dispatching, leaving you to get on with the business at hand, rather than getting to grips with warehouse management.
Why offer merchandise through a corporate store
As employers, we all know remuneration isn’t the only reason people stick with their jobs.
When you have a corporate store and access to goods with your logo on them, you can make your team feel appreciated and cared for. Some ideas for your corporate store collection are:
- Welcome gift packs including laptop bags, caps and t shirts
- WiFi speakers
- High quality jackets that can be ‘unlocked’ after a certain number of years in the job or another milestone
- Stationery including pens, mousepads, notepads and more
- Reusable coffee cups
- Lanyards
- Facemasks and hand sanitiser
You can also use your corporate store to deck your employees out in branded gear when they are representing your company in public, either at meetings, presentations, or trade shows.
When your team have access to branded merchandise that looks great, works well and is appealing, they will hit the streets of your local area as brand ambassadors without you needing to ask!
Corporate store solutions
When you’re shopping around for a corporate store solution, make sure it includes the following:
- Design support so the products you order look great and your team want to own them
- Approved merchandise branded in accordance with your guidelines so you have consistently good quality items and apparel
- Different access levels so authorised employees can submit bulk and customised orders
- Inventory management, distribution, and support to take things off your team’s to-do list
- Easy online ordering for franchisees and buying group members
- Savings on bulk orders
All stock should be held at your supplier’s location, not yours, so you save space and money. Their service should include packing and dispatching, as well as handling returns to make things as easy as possible.
Speak to a provider that has a wealth of experience working with a range of brands and can tailor your corporate store solution to meet your needs.
Speak to Honeycomb Agency for more information about corporate stores and how to create one for your business.
