You’ve built a great business, a powerful brand and a network of offices or branches across the country. You’re already ahead of a lot of your competition but duplication and having a team spread across different geographical locations can have its challenges.
One of those is ensuring that the integrity of your brand, in the form of uniforms, sales collateral, signage, print, merchandise and promotional products, essentially anything with your brand on it, is protected.
Your brand is the foundation of your business and brand integrity is crucial to your ongoing success so here’s some benefits eCommerce can bring to distributing your branded and promotional product.
Distribution Efficiency
Instead of storing and dispatching uniforms centrally, a good Ecommerce platform enables you to have a specialist supplier warehouse, pick, pack and dispatch your branded product to your branches nationwide, or even internationally
Low Operational Cost
Most branded product suppliers offer a free eCommerce platform to clients on a managed merchandise program. This program protects your brand and allows you to manage distribution at arm’s length, but with full control. Adding another layer of accountability, you add sign off authorities so your line managers can authorise branch purchases from the branches or stores they manage.
Low Setup Cost
Rather than have a dedicated store room at your office which staff have to stocktake, then pick pack and dispatch, branches simply order off your EStore and await the delivery. This keeps your head office staff focussed on revenue generating activities, not tied up counting and shipping shirts and business cards. As I said earlier, most branded product suppliers offer a free eCommerce platform to clients on a managed merchandise program so your setups cost are likely to be minimal.
Growth Potential
If you add a new branch, you simply give them a login to your Ecommerce portal and they can order everything they need to get the branching up and running. 5 branches or 500, most Ecommerce platforms are designed to scale with ease.
Reporting and Accountability
Most online stores offer comprehensive reporting, allowing you to either login or receive regular reporting on individual products and branch performance. Find out what sells and what doesn’t and make sure the right product is getting to the right place. For example, if your business has a high PPE profile (Personal Protection Equipment, such as Hi Vis Vests and safety glasses), you could check that the right amounts of suitable PPE is going to the relevant branches.
Reporting is also invaluable when it comes to re ordering. Knowing what ‘sells’ and how often will help you review and refine your range. You can assess a new range of say uniforms to determine if the take-up is strong or you can use the store to test options by setting up pre orders, testing ‘A’ v’s ‘B’ options.
Ordering Flexibility
Ecommerce stores are open 24/7 so if one of your night shift teams needs to order uniforms at 11.45pm, no problem. The order would usually be picked, packed and dispatched on the next business day.
The other flexibility having your own Ecommerce store gives you as a business owner is quick and easy distribution of a new product. Say you introduce a new branded client corporate gift or sales promotional product, simply put it online and send the link to each branch with instructions to order.
Brand and Pricing Control
Having your own customised Ecommerce platform allows you to have complete brand control. Nothing goes online until your 100% happy with the design and quality. Many business suffer brand damage when rogue branches start producing their own branded apparel and products locally, logos change shape, colours are slightly off and styles mysteriously change – before you know it your brand has taken a journey that you didn’t want or approve.
Knowing what sells on your EStore and when gives you the power to buy in bulk where you can and limit your expenditure where you need to, giving you complete control of your brand assets.
Most people have bought online before but not everyone understands the power of managing your branded and promotional product using a custom Ecommerce so, contact your local RED and discover what you can achieve.
Talk to us about ecommerce distribution.
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