Today’s promotional product shoppers demand fast turnaround times, a variety of products, and exceptional customer service. In short, they expect the Amazon-like experience across shopping channels. But meeting those expectations through traditional methods can be expensive, risky, and inefficient
Combine shoppers’ high expectations with an uncertain market, and you can find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Shoppers want it all and fast, but they’re also spending less on non-essentials and are generally displaying more cautious spending behavior.
We analyzed OMG online stores opened in Q1 to understand what’s working and identify big market trends, read it here.
With market-wide buying hesitations growing, distributors, team dealers, and decorators would be wise to mitigate small, controllable risks, and grow their sales offerings and capabilities to remain competitive in a tight market.
Enter Print-on-Demand (POD) stores by OMG – a solution designed for speed, flexibility, and scalability. Whether you’re looking to minimize loss or open new revenue streams, POD stores by OMG can transform how you fulfill orders and win new business.
POD Stores by OMG
OMG and STAHLS’ Fulfill Engine have joined forces to make fulfilling online orders easier than ever before with print-on-demand stores. OMG’s POD stores enable you to tap into a network of vetted decorators to automatically source, decorate, and ship products on your behalf. This opens up powerful new sales opportunities by offering small-batch runs, and significantly expanding the types of products and decoration methods you can offer.
Controllable Risks to Reduce with POD
The benefits of running POD stores are a mile long, but during times of uncertainty, the true power of POD is in the small ways it can help businesses be more efficient and say ‘yes’ to more sales opportunities. By reducing small losses and supplanting them with a stack of small wins, businesses can survive – and even grow – in a tough market.
Here’s some of the common risks and inefficiencies plaguing businesses that sell branded merchandise that POD stores can completely eliminate.
Inventory Costs
Traditional bulk ordering ties up capital in physical inventory. With POD, there’s no need to pre-purchase large quantities of merchandise. You only print what you sell, which can significantly reduce inventory costs like:
- Excess inventory
- Warehousing expenses
- Tied-up working capital
Risk of Investing in Unsold Inventory
A common pain point in the promotional space is overestimating demand, especially for niche or event-specific items. POD allows you to produce items as they’re ordered, ultimately reducing spend on products that will go unsold. This helps minimize, or even eliminate:
- Financial risk from unsold goods
- Waste from obsolete merchandise
- Stress from forecasting errors
Back Office Inefficiencies
Manual workflows like coordinating with vendors, tracking production, and managing deliveries take up time and space that could be spent on revenue-generating activities like finding and winning new business, or selling into existing accounts. POD centralizes production and fulfillment, helping you:
- Automate order processing
- Reduce administrative overhead
- Reallocate team time to growing accounts
- Making time to find and pitch new business opportunities
Client Churn Over Limited Fulfillment Capabilities
End-customers expect quick turnarounds, personalization, and the ability to track their orders. If you cannot meet those needs, they’ll turn to a competitor or someone who can get the job done. POD expands your fulfillment capabilities, allowing you to:
- Accept small-batch and rush orders
- Expand fulfillment capabilities without infrastructure costs
- Increase customer satisfaction and retention
- Expand your product lineup and sell more types of products
Eliminate Overstock and Obsolescence
Obsolete merchandise from past events or seasonal campaigns becomes dead weight. Speaking with OMG clients, it has become apparent that this can be a major financial shortcoming for promotional product businesses. POD ensures you’re only producing what’s in demand, helping you avoid:
- Holding outdated or irrelevant inventory
- Steep markdowns or write-offs
- Lost storage space and wasted storage investments
Net New Wins with POD
There are very controllable risks that, individually, may not cost much, but when added together they can become a more significant source of revenue loss. Luckily, POD stores can help get ahead of those challenges and ultimately curtail that collection of losses.
On the flip side, POD stores can also help you inject some variety into your business, and give you more opportunities for sales and growth.
Print-on-Demand Done Right
Using a solution like OMG’s POD stores means full-service fulfillment: printing, packaging, and shipping, all from a single solution. This frees your team to focus on growth activities like:
- Pitching and selling to new accounts
- Building client relationships
- Growing existing accounts
- Scaling your business
Say ‘Yes’ to More New Opportunities
With no order minimums, lightning-fast turnaround times, and a wide variety of products and decoration methods, OMG’s POD stores make it easy to say “yes” to clients with last-minute or low-volume needs. This can help you accrue a massive amount of small wins, which can add up to significant sales revenue. POD stores lead to:
- More closed deals
- Better client responsiveness
- Increased order volume without added complexity
Clean Up Manual Inefficiencies
Many branded merch businesses run on outdated, labor-intensive processes. OMG’s POD stores help automate key aspects of order fulfillment, giving your team:
- More time for strategic growth
- Less time spent on redundant tasks
- More consistent, trackable workflows
Add New Product Lines
From mugs and tech accessories to apparel and tote bags, OMG’s POD stores offer a diverse catalog of products and new fulfillment methods, without having to stretch or speculate on the upfront investment. This allows you to:
- Offer more without financial risk
- Customize and expand your catalog quickly
- Test new product categories with low overhead
B2C and D2C Expansion
Looking to enter the retail or direct-to-consumer (D2C) space? You’re not alone. In fact, OMG’s latest Quarterly Online Stores Benchmark Report illustrates that more and more distributors, team dealers, and decorators are using online stores to pivot their business into new verticals. OMG’s POD stores let you explore more business opportunities outside of your typical industry targets. OMG’s POD stores let you:
- Launch branded stores fast
- Test new market-facing campaigns
- Capture new sales channels without warehousing
Don’t Just Survive – Thrive – with OMG’s POD Stores
The market is the market, and no one single person can ease market-wide uncertainty or buying anxiety. Instead of focusing on what you can’t control, focus on what you can control: your tech stack and product offerings.
By taking advantage of OMG’s POD stores, you can dramatically boost your sales channels, and reduce a lot of inefficiencies and waste. By doing that, you can minimize waste and boost your bottom line – regardless of what’s happening in the marketplace.
