Corporate Fulfillment Programs: At the Crossroads of IT and Branded Products
Whether you call it a company store, a branded merchandise program or a corporate apparel shop, there are many solid reasons the most innovative companies today are embracing a marketing collateral management solutions. Most notably, our web stores work!
At Think it Then ink it, we’ve developed and managed company stores for our entire existence. We recognized how technology allowed us to change the way things are done, yet we have found four key reasons businesses are in search of a better way to manage their brand assets. Over the next few weeks, we will share stories about how our clients have unlocked a problem by using one of these keys.
Our 4 Pillars of Corporate Fulfillment Programs
- Brand Control
- Simplified Processes
- Centralized Fulfillment
- Predictable Systems and Informative Feedback
Controlling Your Brand
The sales team wants polo shirts to wear on the golf course, the marketing team wants embroidered t-shirts to give away at the tradeshow, the Operations Manager wants work apparel for your field installation..and they all expect to be handled with one simple system. Different styles, different sizes, material preferences, multiple logos, purchasing options… Yes, you need a way to manage this.
A company store can effectively manage these options, and our fulfillment team can get the items to those who need them when they need them. But our employee company stores are ultimately tasked with managing the entire process.
Absolute Group offers their employees a variety of corporate branded apparel options. With employees in multiple job settings across 5 business units, we were asked to create a single web store to manage all product and all transactions. These are uniform stores, sales support stores, and branded merch for company promotion. By creating business segmentation, the company encouraging their employees to “wear the brand”, but they are also letting them know which items are appropriate for which business. Only a company with a versatile IT-system could pull it off.
Customized IT
The Absolute Group company store is a hybrid store, meaning it manages both inventoried and non-inventoried items. Featuring a full line of branded promotional items (such as hats, mugs and baby gear) that are kept on the shelves in the fulfillment warehouse near Madison, WI, these products can be ordered online and shipped the next day. The corporate apparel program, however, is completely on-demand. Each month, Think it Then ink it batches all the Absolute Group attire orders and places one large order. This saves money on shipping and ensures AG is getting the best price for these products. Plus, there is never a concern regarding leftover product that no one wants when styles change.
“We help our clients choose items that we feel won’t have issues with stock when we develop a non-inventoried program like Absolute Group’s,” said Bri Barrett, Office and Systems Manager. “The last thing we want is to place an order at the end of the month and find out some items are not available!”
The detailed reports Think it Then ink it’s corporate services team provides Absolute Group each month help their marketing and HR teams track which items are popular, who is buying them and where they are going. Knowledge is power, and the company store is a tremendous asset for Absolute Group to ensure their corporate apparel program is first rate.
Check back as we explore the other pillars of corporate fulfillment programs.
