Beginning your branded merchandise career can seem like a daunting task, particularly for those entering into the industry without any experience. If you’re new to selling promotional products or branded gear and apparel, you’ll hear advice on everything you need to be successful.
“You gotta do SEO, it’s a goldmine.”
“How many printers do you own? You need at least 5 to survive.”
“Have you thought about decorating in-house? Getting into embroidery?”
“How many sales people do you have? You’ll need a team for success.”
“If you don’t sell hard goods, you’ll fall behind.”
It seems like everyone has an opinion on exactly what you need to launch a successful venture in selling promotional products. While their intentions are good, all of that competing advice can make your head spin, and cause you more confusion rather than providing you any clarity. So, we’re here to tell you about the things you absolutely don’t need to be a successful entrepreneur in the promotional products industry.
We surveyed more than 1000 companies that sell branded gear and apparel to learn about their business and how they use technology, and here’s some of our key takeaways about what it takes to be successful in promotional products – and the things that you absolutely don’t need.
You Don’t Need a Large Team
Being a part of a team is incredibly rewarding, and it can sometimes seem like the large teams are the most successful ones – but that’s not the reality in branded merchandise. In fact, most businesses within the promotional products space are made up of fewer than 10 people. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t powering big sales numbers. Our research finds that 57% of companies in the branded merchandise space generate between $100,000 – $1 million in annual revenue, meaning that you do not need a big team to drive meaningful revenue and growth.
These small-but-mighty teams are driving a lot of revenue, and they’re doing so without all of the expenses and logistics associated with having a large staff. So, if you’re new to the branded merchandise industry, it’s ok – and perfectly profitable – to start small and grow your team as you go. Or you can just stay nimble and capture all of that revenue you’d spend on additional team members.
You Don’t Need a Physical Store Front
A lot of business owners in promotional products have a traditional brick-and-mortar storefront, and that is a completely viable way to centralize operations and sell products. But, you absolutely do not need a physical storefront to be successful. In fact, only 42% of promotional product Distributors, Apparel Decorators, and Team Dealers have a traditional storefront, meaning that the majority of business owners (58%) in this space have a physical store.
So, don’t worry about the headaches that come with finding, vetting, insuring, and leasing a storefront. You don’t really need one to sell promotional products.
You Don’t Need to Hold Inventory
It may seem like you need to put your hands and eyes on all of the products that you sell, but that’s not the case. Having a storefront or warehousing your products can offer numerous benefits, but there are real costs associated with renting and insuring a commercial space.
Only 39% of Distributors, Decorators, and Dealers hold inventory, meaning that 6 out of 10 of these business owners don’t hold inventory. So, while it’s completely valid to hold, warehouse, and sell inventory, you don’t need a space to house all of the promotional products and branded merchandise that you’re going to sell.
Our advice? Save the money you’d spend on warehouse space and invest it in a solution that helps you grow your business and sell more products. For instance, OrderMyGear offers Pop-Up Stores to help facilitate zero-inventory operations, which can be launched, branded and ready to monetize in mere minutes.
You Don’t Need to do all of Your Own Decoration
You don’t need to do your own decoration – or at least not all of it. While nearly 60% of businesses that sell branded merchandise offer some level of in-house decoration, such as embroidery or screen printing (an increase of 6% from 2022), it’s still very much a team sport that involves multiple partners to fulfill different kinds of decoration methods.
Luckily, OrderMyGear and Stahls’ have partnered to offer Distributors, Decorators, and Team Dealers the tool they need to seamlessly fulfill a variety of decoration requests – OMG and Stahls’ Fulfill Engine. With this new integration, promotional product pros can now offer print-on-demand (POD) services to their customers, allowing them to tap into a network of vetted decorators to automatically source, decorate, and ship products on their behalf. From order capture, to design and delivery, OMG and Stahls’ Fulfill Engine make it easier than ever to satisfy a variety of customers’ specific printing, decorating, and shipping needs.
OrderMyGear Has Everything You Need to Succeed in Selling Promotional Products
There is something that you do need to be successful in promotional products, and that’s a rich digital suite of services that helps you capture more customers and facilitate more sales – and this goes beyond just having a website for your company.
Online stores are a key component driving business and growth for the promotional products industry, as 62% of the industry uses an online store to sell their products, and 81% of those people and businesses use an industry-specific solution that helps them navigate the unique challenges of selling branded merchandise.
Unlike websites that provide a general experience to the masses, online stores create a highly personalized, retail-like experience for customers, encouraging them to place orders for branded merchandise made specifically for them. Industry-specific solutions like OMG online stores provide more unique capabilities for selling customized products and apparel, including specialized reporting, advanced payment methods like points and redemption codes, as well as fundraising capabilities.
