The Promotional Products Industry Has Been Solving the Wrong Problem for Decades
For more than 30 years, we watched companies spend hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars on branded merchandise months before anyone needed it.
As companies grew, getting branded merchandise to more employees, locations and events became increasingly complex.
Our industry responded the only way it knew how. We competed by building bigger warehouses, launching company stores, investing in inventory software and developing ever more sophisticated logistics. Over the past 15 years, we got very good at managing inventory.
But managing inventory was never the real problem. Paying for it months before you needed it was.
What that actually costs
Industry estimates put the annual cost of carrying inventory at 20–30% of its value: the cost of capital, storage, handling, insurance and shrinkage. Every $100,000 sitting on a shelf costs another $20,000–$30,000 a year to hold. That's before the wrong sizes, the old logos, the departed employees and the campaigns that ended early.
Every dollar sitting on a warehouse shelf is a dollar that isn't growing your business.
Inventory is a choice
The good news? Inventory doesn't have to be a cost of doing business anymore. It's a choice, and there's a better one: produce what's ordered, when it's ordered, and ship it in days.
Promotional product inventory isn't an asset. It's idle cash.