In 2024, we surveyed more than 1,000 companies that sell branded gear and apparel to learn about their business and how they use technology. One of the largest lessons we learned was that online stores – not generic company websites – are growing as a sales channel in promotional products. In fact, online stores are the only sales channel experiencing sustained growth in promotional products and branded merchandise.
Today we’re going to look at why online stores are a powerful sales channel for businesses in branded merchandise, and how you can create compelling online stores that drive sales.
Online Stores: The Only Growing Sales Channel in Promotional Products
Online stores are the only channel that saw growth (9% of annual branded merchandise sales in 2022 – 13% of annual branded merchandise sales in 2024) in promotional products and branded merchandise. That’s it, that’s the tweet.
Online stores – like OMG stores – are different from a company’s main website, and sell branded merchandise and products to a specific group of people, instead of targeting the entire internet. There are numerous ways to sell branded products online, but online stores drive the most sales.
In fact, online stores drive 14% higher sales than a distributor’s company website. This is largely due to the fact that online stores are group-specific, offering a targeted set of shoppers the opportunity to purchase branded merchandise and promotional products that matter to them.
More than that, our research also revealed that online stores drive only 5% less total annual sales when compared to physical storefronts. If this growth trend continues, online stores will likely overtake brick-and-mortar as a sales channel for branded merchandise in the near future. This is exciting news for those who want to enter into the industry, because it illustrates that having a physical storefront is no longer necessary for success.
Why the Growth?
According to Statista, online retail and ecommerce sales will exceed $4.3 trillion dollars globally in 2025, and that number is expected to continue growing. In the bigger economic picture, it’s clear ecommerce is not going anywhere, and will continue to be a global revenue powerhouse connecting shoppers to products around the world. So, it’s not surprising that online stores selling group-specific branded merchandise and promotional products are growing as a sales channel. Shoppers want to do business online with brands they care about and online stores offer an easy way to get the products they want.
In the age of online shopping, modern consumers expect a seamless, Amazon-like experience when they make any purchase online. They expect fully branded storefronts that are easy to navigate, that offer clear and secure purchase instructions, and different payment options like buy-now-pay-later leader, Klarna.
When it comes to selling promotional products and branded merchandise, it’s not difficult to understand why online stores are the only growing sales channel: they offer shoppers the modern experience they have come to expect when buying online in their personal AND professional lives.
Who Uses Online Stores?
So we understand the popularity of generic online ecommerce, and why it makes sense for branded merchandise professionals to tap into it as a sales channel, but who in promotional products are using online stores today? Well, it turns out that most of the market is already tapping online stores as a sales channel to drive more revenue.
In fact, 62% of businesses that sell branded merchandise use online stores, and of those using online stores, 81% of distributors, decorators, and dealers use an industry-specific solution. This is an interesting note and illustrates one massive learning: for selling branded merchandise, one-size doesn’t fit all. Most promotional product pros aren’t using generic ecommerce solutions to sell branded merchandise. Instead, they’re relying on tools that were crafted specifically for group sales.
By leveraging an industry-specific solution like an OMG store, people working in branded merchandise are getting a tool that is built to navigate the unique challenges associated with sourcing, decorating, buying, tracking, and delivering promotional products. Online store solutions provide capabilities to personalize products, specialized reporting for decoration and fulfillment, unique payment methods like Redemption Codes and Points, built-in fundraising capabilities, and a lot more not available on generic ecommerce platforms. In this industry, details matter, and online stores designed to facilitate group sales are built to navigate the nuances of generating revenue in branded merchandise.
Tips to Optimize Your Online Store to Boost Sales
So, we understand the awesome value that online stores provide for selling branded products and merchandise, but actually building and launching an online store can seem like a tricky trail to navigate. But, with OMG’s online store options and stellar support, you can easily create and launch tailor-made online stores for every customer and program (no matter how big or small) in mere minutes.
When building your online stores, consider some of these tips to increase shopper confidence and boost the number and size of orders:
- Brand Your Store – shoppers judge the security of your website by how professional the design and branding appears. Use high-quality logo images, a well-designed banner, and thoroughly brand your store to make visitors feel confident and secure while they shop.
- Create Clear Category Navigation – easy site navigation provides a clear path for visitors to navigate and makes shopping simple. Think broadly when creating product categories, and order based upon importance using clear terms and everyday language. Consider using subcategories to get more specific and direct traffic to the products that you want to sell.
- Pick High-Performing Products – product trends shift from year-to-year and have a seasonal nature. So, pay attention to seasonal trends to understand what people are buying and when.
- Offer Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) as a Payment Method – BNPL boosts AOV by 48% in OMG stores by giving shoppers financial freedom and budget flexibility. Using a service like Klarna can significantly boost your sales revenue.
- Deploy Discount Marketing – 41% of shoppers cite discounts as one top reason they choose to shop online (globalwebindex.com 2020). When building your online store, consider how you can offer discounts to boost cart totals. Think about bundling products for a discount, offering free shipping over a certain purchase threshold, and time-based promotional discounts to boost buying.
- Capitalize on Seasonal Sales – catering to seasonal trends can significantly boost your online store’s profitability and growth by offering products and merchandise that’s trending and topical. As you consider a seasonal online store, remember that you can use OMG’s versatile platform to simply sell seasonal products.
Learn more about how to get more from your online store here
OrderMyGear Builds High-Performing Online Stores for Promotional Products
When it comes to selling branded merchandise and promotional products online, nobody does it better than OMG. Our online stores can be fully branded, live, and selling merchandise in mere minutes. But we offer so much more than just online stores. Our team helps our clients every step of the way. From sales support, to building online stores for our clients, and everything in between, OrderMyGear is the partner that promotional product professionals lean on for guidance every single day.
