“We’d like you to order up some new company T-shirts for us.” You need to get up to speed on buying this type of thing… fast!
Here is some important real world knowledge about the promotional product buying process…
Prices and Products are Not the Same as at Target - Newer and less experienced buyers are usually sticker-shocked at how much an item will cost when purchased for promotional purposes. “But I can get a Hanes T-shirt at Target for $3″ they muse when their distributor quotes a price of $6 for what they feel is the same shirt with just some printing on it. In some cases it might be the same shirt or something very similar.
Here’s the situation. Large retailers are buying product by the truckloads. Notice that it is truckloads with a “s.” They have huge centralized buying forces that negotiate based on volume and many other factors such as shipping. Your 144 piece order is a short, special order run even for the distributor and his suppliers. Plus, you are buying occasionally and they usually don’t know when your next order might come in. Thus the higher pricing to cover their costs to hand hold you through your order without guarantees for future business. Additionally, your distributor or decorator incurs costs to set up presses and process your order. These are also built into your price.
You Need “Good” Art – If you email a JPEG file of your logo to your promotional product distributor, first he’ll just shake his head and say, “Not another one.” In this situation, your distributor may ask you to provide electronic artwork in a “vector” format such as Encapsulated Postscript (.eps) or Adobe Illustrator (.ai). These formats provide clean-edged art that is required for imprinting and can usually be provided by your company’s graphic designer. Alternatively, they may charge you an art clean-up fee to make it print-ready.
Your Distributor is Not Printing Your Product in His Office or Basement – Promotional products are typically imprinted at large facilities that can handle orders of hundreds or thousands pieces each. Your distributor is not printing them for you at his or her company. So suggesting that you can pick up your order at your distributor’s office to save some time or shipping costs will not be met with a positive response.
Shipping and Handling Costs and Issues Can be Huge – After the product price sticker shock, shipping and handling fees are often the aftershock. There are multiple issues.
First, a single tote bag, T-shirt, or mug may seem like a small item. Now multiply that by 1,000 or more. The sheer physical volume of a large quantity of promotional products can overwhelm your office or dock. Also, thousands of boxed up pieces could be of significant weight, maybe even into the hundreds or thousands of pounds. Ask your distributor for information on the shipment size and weight and how it will be delivered to you so you can plan accordingly. While you’re at it, ask them for an estimated shipping cost, too.
Second, expedited shipping is very, very, very expensive! In many cases, your product will not be shipping from the person or company from which are buying. It may be shipping across the country to your door. Many distributors do their best to look for the closest suppliers to shorten shipping time and cost. So allow for sufficient time to get the product produced plus the time to ship to you.
Now that you know more about the promotional products industry and the buying process, you won’t be sending out a newbie alert when you contact your distributor.
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