As marketers, we are required to not merely be creative and insightful in developing strategies for communicating our message to our target audience. We have to ship it: “Real artists ship.” – Steve Jobs “Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.” – Seth Godin While these two innovative thought-leaders are using “shipping” metaphorically in reference to following through on ideas, there is a direct connection to your marketing materials, too.

Life moves fast, and in the Digital Age, business moves even faster. Smart marketers know they need an organized, managed system for keeping collateral ready to use at the click of a button. They need an online company store.

After investing your time and money into building a company e-commerce site to serve your internal customers, the critical time finally arrives: launching your new corporate online store. Having hosted the “grand opening” of many branded merch stores in our 20+ year history, we have a few tips to getting started on the right foot. In fact, many times, we write introductory emails for our client’s team to help everyone get acclimated to the new program.

Deciding to build an e-commerce store to manage all your marketing materials is an easy one to make. Figuring out “where do we go from here?” is the daunting part! Fortunately, the ROBYN Company Store Solution pairs our clients with one of our store specialists to walk through the entire process, from selecting products that “define your core” to designing the features and interface of the store to launching it to your team and generating traffic.

  Whether your marketing closet is hidden in the darkest recesses of the warehouse or served up to you online via an online company store, having the right products at your fingertips is essential. Business moves quickly. You have to be faster.

Whether your team calls it “the pit”, “the cage” or even “the dungeon”, it’s the place where you store your marketing materials – you know, the catalogs, brochures, sell sheets, branded clothes, tradeshow give-away items – the stuff you sweated over to create, the premium promo items you hid so you would have them when you needed them, your top-of-the-line tradeshow booth. All of it shoved into corners, left unaccounted for… and under-utilized. And that’s the problem.

Today’s marketers are smart, forward-thinking problem-solvers who have a firm grasp of how to manage your brand and its digital properties. From creating compelling blog posts and eye-catching slide presentations to interacting with clients and prospects in all the right social media channels, these professionals are adept at making real magic happen for your brand. The last thing you want to do is saddle them with the task of managing your physical assets, too!

Each company is unique and every brand has their own internal challenges. However, we have found that a company store is one of the best ways for companies to manage their marketing collateral. Take 30 seconds to see the 5 Keys to a Company Store.

When searching for a branded merchandise store solution (a way for you to efficiently manage your promotional products, marketing collateral, tradeshow materials, etc.), a wide range of options and features are presented from different suppliers. Having been in the business of providing customized company store solutions for over 20 years, ROBYN Promotions is wise to some of the marketing ploys out there… and we want to share some insights with you. The “Zero Inventory” Store Some branded e-stor...

Safety is important in every profession, but let’s face it… guys working on a rig in an oilfield risk a lot more than getting a paper cut when they clock in each day. This is why smart companies like SandRidge Energy reward their employees on the rigs for being safe and not getting any DARTs (Days Away, Restricted and Transferred) from OSHA. In past years, the company rewarded employees who had zero DARTs with a nice gift, such as a high-quality jacket with the SandRidge logo on it.

The numbers don’t lie. Employee turnover costs companies money. A lot of money.

A company store provides companies with an efficient way to manage their branded merchandise, marketing collateral, forms, etc. From managing inventory to fulfilling orders, the branded e-store serves many purposes. However, these products are useless if they are not shipped to the end-users in a timely manner.

“We want to build a company store for our employees so they can buy our products. And, we want to mark up the price a bit to offset the cost of the store.” From a 20,000-foot perspective, this sounds like a sound business strategy. Unfortunately, in our 21 years in the business, we have found that less than 5% of your employees will actually pay to wear your brand.

Smart marketers (aka Smarketers) like to have a plan for success when they launch a new program. With the goals in sight, they are able to backtrack and identify the steps that will lead them to the their destination. At ROBYN, we take this same approach to helping clients select the best combination of promotional products for their online company store.

Once the decision is made to build a company store, many people struggle to decide what products they should put on the store. “Ultimately, it depends on the company and how they use these products,” says Sara Janzen, Client Care Specialist. “Usually, we see about one-third of the site devoted to apparel and the rest to printed pieces and promotional items.” “Some companies want a better way to manage their tradeshow activities, so we stock a lot of give-away items and literature that can be shi...

New salespeople… New clients… New franchisees… Each of these shares at least one important thing in common: they need to be up and running ASAP. This is where having materials in kits, ready to go at a moment’s notice, can be a critical tactic for a company. Express Employment Professionals is a good example.

Managing thousands of items of inventory for dozens of company store clients requires ninja-like skills. Fortunately for our clients, ROBYN has Kendall Williams on the job. “I receive everything that comes in and assign item numbers,” says Kendall, “and I know where everything is.” Keeping track of two warehouses full of stock is not a simple memory game, though.

The absolute best promotional products are the ones that are there when you need them… and they are RIGHT! It doesn’t matter how creative you were in picking out those “perfect” items, if your logo is the wrong color or they don’t show up on time, these products miss the mark. We get it.

Planning on building your own company store? Maybe you should think about that a minute before you jump right in. We frequently receive calls from smart, ambitious marketers who are looking for someone to take over their company store project.

There are many great reasons for having on online company store to manage your marketing collateral. Of course, things never stay static in the world of marketing – or communications, for that matter. Messages change.

Mark Twain once said, “Most people use statistics the way a drunkard uses a lamp post… more for support than illumination.” While there is a great deal of truth in this statement, the ROBYN Company Store Solution provides insightful ways to measure visitors’ behaviors to help you best serve them and your brand.   In addition to the custom reporting capabilities the ROBYN platform supports, this solution is also compatible with Google Analytics. What does this mean to you?

Sometimes, companies are hesitant to consider an online company store because they don’t want to tie up their money in inventory that could take months to actually use. While these smart marketers can see the benefits of the store (control of the brand, ease of management, multiple ways for visitors to purchase products, reporting capabilities, managed warehousing and shipping, etc.), they hesitate at the thought of purchasing quantities of product up front. Enter ROBYN’s “Promo On-Demand” Compa...

Put the yarn away, Ethel. We’re not talking about making blankets here! Kitting is one of the most popular services ROBYN offers to clients, but what is it?

Although we do everything we can to make your online company store a smooth and simple process for you and your colleagues, from time to time, questions do arise. And, who do you think gets those emails screaming "HELP!"? When you partner with ROBYN Promotions, we do.

When you partner with ROBYN Promotions, we handle the customer support for you!

After spending countless hours working with your Merchandising Liason to design your new online company store, choose which features best fit your needs, determine which items will be stocked, how your colleagues will pay for items and which reports need to be generated for whom, you're done, right? Wrong. Now, you need to bring your audience to the company store.

You've seen the light. You've realized that a company store is exactly what you need to manage your marketing collateral. So, what happens next?

Sometimes prospective clients call us and say, “I need more than a PDF store to email to my team, but I don’t have the budget for a custom online company store. Can you help me?” We love those calls. That’s because of our quick-turn Basic Company Stores.

For some brands, maintaining the same look and feel across each of their digital properties is an important part of their marketing efforts. Being in the branding business, we completely understand this… And we cater to it!   The “Custom” online company store is designed by the ROBYN web development team to match or complement the style of your other websites.

While ROBYN Promotions has the ability to build online company stores with every bell and whistle imaginable, some companies simply need a hassle-free solution for managing their company apparel. Enter the PDF Store. ROBYN’s PDF Store provides a great way for clients to try out a company store and gauge participation from employees, sales people and distributors without spending a large amount of time or money.

A great deal of thought is put into choosing the perfect combination of components to craft a solid campaign. Whether it’s a new product launch, a campaign to entice new customers or a brand recognition program, the planning is extensive. Each piece of the communication puzzle plays an important role in achieving success.

As you evaluate potential company store suppliers, be sure to find out if they can help the numbers guys with their reports. The more buy-in you get from your internal team, the better your results will be. When we talk with potential online company store clients, their focus is usually on managing marketing collateral, printed materials, promotional products, etc.

Distribution is one of the most overlooked aspects of a company store, yet certainly one of the most critical. After all, if you’ve poured countless hours and thousands of dollars into your branded products, what good is a company store if distribution is not accurate and expedient? Below is a checklist of options for shipment through a ROBYN Company Store program.

When one has a passion for something, that person learns as much as possible about the subject. Here at ROBYN, we are passionate about building high quality, custom online company stores for branded products, marketing collateral and literature. It’s wonderful when the premier organization in your industry deems you an expert and invites you to teach your peers how you do what you do, which is exactly what ROBYN’s Chief Branding Officer, Bobby Lehew, did at The PPAI Expo 2012 in Las Vegas last w...

An online company store provides companies with a fantastic way to control their brand: branded promotional products produced in the right colors with the right logos, printed collateral is high-quality (not straight off a 5-year-old inkjet printer) and forms are all up-to-date. But, there is another area of control that is often over-looked, but is extremely valuable... Control over what different types of visitors see.

Online company stores provide an effective way to manage marketing collateral for multiple offices, dealer networks, franchises or an outside sales force. One of the features we have been utilizing lately gives even greater flexibility: Options. When a visitor logs-in to your company store and selects an item to view, the ROBYN Company Stores provide a way to offer multiple options for that item.

The more custom online company stores ROBYN Promotions builds, the more variety we see in how our clients are using their stores to meet their unique needs. And, with new features being unveiled on a monthly basis, it is exciting to see how we are able to provide so many different configurations! ROBYN recently launched a company store for a client who was looking for a way to meet the demands for promotional items by its salespeople, but who didn’t want to burden a valuable employee with managi...

As you get closer to building your store, the decisions involved in creating your store are some of the most difficult aspects of the process. We have only one final word of encouragement for you as you build your program and it is the one priority that supersedes all in determining whether your store is successful: marketing. Whether your store is new, you are revamping an old store or you are simply infusing an existing store with new products, you MUST market your store.

Reporting is one of the most critical aspects of calculating your return on your investment as well as keeping your vendor accountable. Most stores provide monthly or at least quarterly reporting for the activity on the store. Select the type of reports you think you might need most:  Item summary report (summarizes each item) Item detail report (shows how it was purchased, dropped from cart, etc.) Inventory report (basic reconciliation) Inventory change log (changes made to inventory beyon...

  Not all company store providers realize it, but they will be servicing two distinct types of clients, both of whom are extremely important: you, the headquarters client who decides on the store and product, and your colleagues, those representatives ordering materials from the store. Part of your reason for choosing to build a company store is to outsource the management of many of the issues related to branded products and marketing materials, including handling orders and answering basi...

  As one of the largest privately held financial institutions in the U.S., it’s encouraging to see MidFirst Bank strongly embrace the initiative to "Go Green". Many financial institutions offer services such as eStatements and Online Banking. MidFirst is working to conserve natural resources in the way they do business as well, though.

Many companies have multiple product lines, each with their own distinct brand. Large conglomerates like P&G are able to devote entire marketing departments to each brand, but what about companies that have one marketing department to service all the brands? How can one department manage all the promotional items, branded gear, marketing collateral and literature for each brand within the company? Enter the ROBYN Company Store!

We're often asked what we do. In a nutshell, this! The Company Store by ROBYN from ROBYN Promotions on Vimeo.

Did you catch the post about Vendor Financed Inventory? If not, check it out, too! Customer Owned Inventory Customer owned inventory is what it implies: you own the inventory and have allowed the vendor to manage it for you.

Company stores exist to provide immediate access to branded materials and to parcel these materials out quickly for use in the field. Your company store should include a healthy mixture of both inventoried products and non-inventoried products. Typically, the first question asked is: Who owns the inventory?

  When building an online company store, it is vital to think about the various ways you want your visitors to be able to purchase items from the website. Purchasing options are wide and varied and with the right combination, your corporate store can offer great incentives and ease-of-use for your colleagues. The ROBYN Company Stores go beyond the basic checkout options. For instance, there are purchasing options that can help you track by department by providing a drop-down box at che...

Although the design of your online company store is typically one of the simplest parts of the process to implement, it is a critical component and might require some input from others within your organization. Most stores have a basic design option and an advanced design option. Basic design options do not imply they “don’t look good”, they are merely formatted with simple structures and simple design work, i.e., backgrounds that match your logo but fit within formatted templates.

We've discussed how a ROBYN online company store is an effective way to save time and money in managing your promotional products. Additionally, we have shown the fantastic custom print solutions available. This is a powerful way for you to give your franchisees, remote employees and sales force in the field ways to work independently, yet allows you to still control your brand.

Oftentimes, online company stores are seen solely as a way to manage promotional products. While it is true that this is the most popular aspect of ROBYN’s company store solution, there are other time and money saving benefits to explore. For instance, many of our clients are surprised to learn about the ways an online corporate store can help franchisees or satellite offices customize their literature, while staying within the strict print guidelines developed by the corporate headquarters.

  Who needs to be involved in your store creation? Differentiate between those colleagues whose input you value and those supervisors whose input and approval is important. In today's business world, very few decisions are made without consultation with at least one or two others.  First, determine who will "approve" your plans for building an online company store: me my supervisor the Director of Sales the VP of Marketing the Director of Marketing the VP of Human Resources the Directo...

Once you’ve determined the primary reasons why you want to start a store, your next most critical step is to determine your audience. Whom will your store serve? Another way of qualifying your entire audience is to review your org chart or your company directory.

Before you establish criteria for what type of store you need, determine what are the most important issues you need help resolving. Corporate web stores can serve a multitude of functions. Click here to learn more about what a ROBYN company store can do.

    Occasionally, we are asked this question, but more often this is what upper management asks smart, innovative individuals like you who are seeking solutions to particular “pain points” you are experiencing. Sometimes it’s better to start with “what is a company store” before getting into the “why do we need one” question, though. What is a company store?

One of the first questions many people ask when they are learning about the power of an online company store is "What kind of things can it manage?" We love being asked because we can handle much more than just apparel and promotional items! Our robust corporate store solution can handle virtually any physical branded item, from business cards and stationery items... To PDF-generated advertisements...

Although there are many components that go into a successful company store program, at the very heart of it all is the shopping cart because this is where visitors will browse available promotional items, add them to the cart, select a shipping method and pay for them. Our goal is to make this process as simple as possible. Product Selection Our online company stores are designed to be easy to navigate.

  Does an online “company store” make sense for you? That’s an easy one… Maybe. Depending on the size of your organization, it could be a perfect fit.