The Event
Saludia, a major player in the US pharmaceutical industry holds an annual “90 Days of Mindfulness” competition. Participation is optional and the goal is for employees to practice some form of meditation or yoga for a minimum of 20 minutes a day. At the end of 90 days, prizes are given out to top performers. Besides wanting to motivate their employees to stay healthy and happy, Saludia also found that this yearly competition created comradery among the staff noting that employees were creating group activities and meetups for meditation and yoga. Every year as a thank you to participants and to help employees identify participating co-workers, Saludia gives each participant a branded t-shirt with a beautiful artwork design and the competition name to commemorate their accomplishment.
The Challenge
The challenge, as anyone who has done corporate or departmental ordering knows, is finding a way to collect each participants desired t-shirt size, color, and shipping address quickly and efficiently. Manually collecting orders can be a tedious and time consuming task and estimating order numbers for each size often leads to companies ordering way too much or not enough. Saludia needed a way for employees to be able to claim the competition t-shirt on their own, without a middle man.
This type of situation required an online store. The issue was that the store needed to be quick to launch, relatively low-cost, and temporary. With only one item, ABC couldn’t justify a full-fledged Company Store. The majority of solutions available, in and outside of the promotional products industry, have a learning curve and involve a one-time set up fee and monthly hosting charges making them undesirable in a situation where only a few products are offered for a temporary time period.
Solution
When ABC Promotions reached out to our team we recommended that they use our Simple Store solution. It would allow them to quickly set up the page, adding in the competition logo, brand colors, and a countdown clock to motivate participants to order their t-shirts before time ran out. Shoppers could go directly to the provided URL, select their desired size, and checkout.
ABC set up free shipping for participants so shoppers just needed to enter the desired address, and the shirt would be delivered right to their doorstep. To track who ordered t-shirts, employees were asked to use their employee number as the payment method at checkout. Simple Stores were also built with temporary and seasonal stores in mind meaning that stores can be turned on and off with a simple click of a button.
What sold ABC Promotions wasn’t just the features, it was the price. Simple Stores does not have a one time setup fee or a monthly hosting cost. Distributors are charged per order and billed on a monthly basis. Pricing starts at 50 cents per order but that price decreases as the number of store orders goes up.
Results
11,354 total orders were placed, with 8,931 orders placed in the first 3 days. For each order placed, regardless of the number of items in each order, ABC Promotions was only charged $0.20 (Over 2500 orders = $0.20/order for Simple Stores – click here to see pricing). The entire store build took roughly an hour with no other costs or fees other than the per order charge, making Simple Stores a cost-effective solution. Below is the overall profit analysis for the Simple Store t-shirt campaign.
With the Simple Store solution, ABC was able to offer a quick solution, launched the store without any major issues, and ended up managing multiple Simple Stores for Saludia.
Lesson Learned
Company Stores are our bread and butter but they aren’t always the best fit, especially if you have a temporary store with only a handful of items. Simple Stores were created so you can provide your clients with an alternative solution to a full-fledged Company Store.
Next Steps
If you have a client that you think would be a perfect fit for a Simple Store or just want to learn more give our team a call or attend one of our weekly Simple Store demos. We promise, you won’t be charged a penny until the first order is placed.
Note:
- *Company names and campaign details, have been modified to protect anonymity. The order total has also been modified to a lower number to protect anonymity.
- **For privacy purposes, these are not actual values and have been estimated.