Online company stores are the best way to manage your branded merchandise. They serve as the easiest way for employees to access branded materials, from apparel to printing materials. We’ve been writing about online company stores for a while now so we’ve decided to put all our knowledge and resources about them in one place. Without further ado, here is the complete guide to online company stores:
What are online company stores?
First off, what are online company stores? In short, they’re an online platform that will help distribute and manage your branded merchandise for you, including items such as branded apparel, promotional items, business cards, and much more. They can help distribute branded merch to events and employees across the world and maintain brand consistency all in one place. Regardless of your use case, they free up a ridiculous amount of time and make your job easier. Get a primer on what a store can do for you with our helpful guide.
What kind of features are in an online company store?
The features you want in an online company store will be different than your standard ecommerce store. You need features such as automatically renewing budgets or approval rules to make sure the right person is buying the right product. We tailor our platform to our customer’s needs and over the years, have adapted it numerous times to fit a business’s specific use case. Below is a list of some of our most commonly used features:
Approval rules and custom workflows: Make your store workflows easy and efficient. Approval rules allow you to setup rules that force certain users to submit their order for approval before the order begins processing. This ensures that everything goes through a core admin user or group of admin users based on certain requirements that you define. This lets you ensure budgets and PO allocations are being handled properly for the financial side and brand consistency for items such as print material are being maintained for the marketing side.
Reporting and analytics features: Reports help you keep track on how your store is doing. For example, inventory or order history reports will let you know where your items are at any given time. You can find out where the inventory is, as well as track who is ordering items and where the items are going. All this comes together to let you know everything you need to know about your online company store at any time. We also offer custom reports and Google Analytics integration to make sure all your information needs are covered.
Single sign-on: Single sign-on is a authentication service that allows a user to use one set of login credentials (for example, user id and password) to access multiple sites. With a SSO system in place, you can login to your internal company site, then navigate to your company store, and stay logged in the entire time. This makes your shopping experience that much more efficient and it makes managing user credentials for admins that much easier.
Variable data products to streamline your store: Variable data gives you the freedom to upload your own artwork or write whatever text you want to see on your product and have a proof show up immediately. If you’re happy with how it looks, you simply add it to your cart and proceed to checkout as per usual. This works great for business cards, rider signs, and any other customizable materials you use.
Digital products to easily distribute your branded material: Digital assets are a big part of any brand’s arsenal. Social media assets, email banners, digital posters & flyers; they all play a big part in making things easier for your employees. Using a company store to house your digital products lets you maintain control of your assets and provide an easy to reach place for your employees to download them.
Promo codes, spending accounts, and gift cards: With an online company store, you gain access to a variety of methods that will help you give your employees the rewards and recognition that they deserve. Promo codes, spending accounts and gift cards can all be easily set for company, group, or user specific values, allowing you to adjust your reward for specific workers or divisions.
A customizable platform that can easily adapt to your needs: Our online company stores come packed with core ecommerce features, such as a mobile-friendly design, industry-leading security/up-time, and easy scalability to go from selling one product to thousands. But what happens when you’re looking for a feature that isn’t available? That’s where custom development comes in. We’ll work with you to help you build a store that fulfills all your needs, whether its integrating with a specific platform or creating a new feature based on your use case.
And much much more: There’s plenty that goes into a company store. From the start of creation to launch, it’s important to learn as much as you can and get a store that can cover all of your company’s needs.
What branded merch should I put on my store?
Product makes the store. Having the right product can be the difference between your store being used all the time or your store being a ghost town. With that being said, we understand that it can be difficult to pick product when there’s so much out there. Don’t have any clue where to start? Let us handle everything then. We’ll outfit you with our Store Starter Pack, a curated collection of products that are high-quality, popular, and get your store started fast. If you want to have more control of your product catalog, you can let us know some of your favorite brands or a price range and we’ll create a customized selection of products for your store. Check out some of our posts on branded merch to learn more:
Popular, custom branded merchandise: Learn all about the type of brands you want on your store. This post covers everything from apparel to accessories. Find out about five of the most popular brands to get your store started with.
What makes a good promotional campaign: The art of marketing relies on the various ways in which products, services, and even people are advertised and presented to the general public. Promotional campaigns are tools used to introduce or reintroduce any given product or service to a large audience over a period of time. Ensure your promotional campaign is up to snuff with this post.
How self-promotion can help build your brand: The key to a successful brand is to have a smart branding strategy. It’s important to analyze your business, along with the products or services you provide. Find out what it is that your ideal customer base is looking for in a brand. Cadillac shows what smart consumer research does with its direct mail campaign for the 2018 CT6 Sedan. Self-promotion serves as a tool to advance the perception of your company and, in turn, your brand. We’ve partnered with many companies for their self-promotion needs. This post details a few of the awesome projects we’ve taken part in.
Company swag boxes – 6 examples that provide an epic unboxing experience: Company swag boxes are an awesome experience for both employees and employers alike. Employees get cool merch in a nice package to enjoy and employers get to reward their employees and bask in all the thank yous they get. Check out some examples of company swag boxes and learn how you can get yours started.
Downloads
Company Store Brochure: We get it. You’re always busy and it can be hard to find time to read all of our amazing, detailed blog posts on our company stores. So we’re here to help. We got together and made a company store brochure that you can download and consume on your computer, phone or any other type of device you find yourself carrying.
Mango Languages Case Study: Mango Languages needed a store solution that could help connect the various libraries, schools, learning centers, and other clients that utilized their services, with useful print material, branded merch, and more. Learn how we helped create a store solution that perfectly fit their needs.
How much does an online company store cost?
The question everybody has been waiting for, how much does all of this cost. To put it simply: it depends. When it comes to figuring out how much a company store will cost a client, we first get together with the client via a store consultation and figure out their needs. Based on that and other factors, such as annual spend and special store features, we determine how much the store will cost. Learn more about our company store consultation on our company stores page.
How do I get started?
Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for, and the easiest question for us to answer. How do you get a company store started? It’s simple. Fill out the company store consultation form below and a store rep will reach out to you to get things started. It’s really that simple. You can also reach out to us via phone (248-545-4444), email (info@metronbranding.com) or via our contact page.