Comparative Analysis
Advanced-Online vs. Standard Online Solution Providers
Standard online solution providers have traditionally followed the same approach as brick and mortar stores. That is, purchasing predetermined inventory and pre-decorating the items before placing them on their platform.
While this strategy does have a few benefits, such as the ability to instantly ship out an item after it’s purchased, it has considerably more liabilities and limitations. If merchandise does not sell, then you can be liable for the leftover inventory and, in some cases, you won’t be able to bring in any new inventory until the old is sold or paid for.
When comparing our on-demand strategy to the above, there are significant advantages. Our unique solution allows you to choose from a very broad range of apparel and non-apparel items for your online store. You aren’t limited to 2, 3, or 4 colors options, nor are you limited to only offering 2 logos. This amount of flexibility is not possible with a traditional inventory solution.
To better see how we compare to a standard online solution provider, see below.
Inventory
Advanced-Online
By purchasing all of the blanks from our vendors and storing them in our warehouse, we can keep your inventory to an absolute minimum. Nothing is pre-decorated so there’s virtually no inventory liability. With Advanced-Online, you’ll never have to worry about any unsold merchandise or any holding fees.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Nearly all merchandise under a traditional online solution provider will be pre-decorated and will be held in a warehouse. You are financially responsible for these items, regardless if they sell or not. And in some cases, you may be charged a holding fee for the unsold inventory. Leaving you with a big bill and a handful of odd-sized merchandise.
Contract
Advanced-Online
Our contracts are simple and straightforward since our model doesn’t revolve around inventory. If you ever feel like our solution isn’t the best fit for you, you’re welcome to leave. We just ask that you provide us 90 days notice.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Traditional online solution providers tend to have stringent contracts. If you have committed to any inventory, there can be a serious financial risk to both you and your store provider. Which can make leaving a partnership very costly, even if the service was sub-par.
Account Management
Advanced-Online
After signing a contract you will be assigned a program manager. They will be your sole point of contact with us and will be with you for the life of your program. Whether you’re inquiring about a logo addition, want to do a special promotion, have a production question, or have any other type of question; your program manager is the person to ask. They’ll liaise the inquiry to the appropriate department and will work to get you an answer.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Depending on the company, you might not be eligible to receive a dedicated account manager unless you hit a high yearly spend (such as $100,000), or you may not be eligible to get one at all. This can lead smaller companies to have to work with multiple points of contact for various aspects of their program. Opening the door to confusion and miscommunication.
Site Customization
Advanced-Online
Whether your annual spend is $50,000 or $300,000, we allow you to highly customize your site. Setting up different product lines and login portals for different groups of employees is very easy for us. You can even select different pricing structures for every portal on your site!
Standard Online Solution Providers
The majority of standard online solution providers only offer one portal or page for users to purchase branded swag. Some offer additional customization for higher-tier clients, which alienates small and medium-sized businesses.
Product Decoration
Advanced-Online
We’ve invested in the best equipment to ensure that we can decorate everything in-house. It doesn’t matter if you order an item that is embroidered, screen printed, laser engraved, dye-sublimated, inkjet, DTG, requires a decal, or is a custom stationery product; we’re able to decorate it in house. Since nothing is outsourced, you never have to worry about order minimums.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Since most standard online solution providers outsource their production, they lose control and flexibility over the decoration methods. Meaning a company logo might not come out clean using screen printing but by the time they catch it, there could be 100 shirts completed. Additionally, it could take days or weeks for those same shirts to be made via DTG if they outsource to different third-party companies.
Logo Options
Advanced-Online
There’s no maximum amount of logos that you can use. We built our technology to handle multiple logos so you can offer as many as you’d like. Some of our programs offer only 1 logo while others offer over 100. You’re even able to offer co-branded (two or more logos on a single piece) or personalized merchandise!
Standard Online Solution Providers
Normal online solution providers will limit your logo options. Adding new logos means purchasing more inventory, which can quickly add up. Leaving you with an abundance of (expensive) inventory, or offering a very limited product assortment.
Product Availibility
Advanced-Online
Thanks to the brilliance of the on-demand production strategy, you’re able to offer dozens of different apparel and promotional items in various colors. We offer men’s, women’s, and youth clothing lines. As well as carry some name brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Callaway, Columbia, Ogio, Johnnie O, and more. We welcome you to offer as much as you’d like.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Typically, merchandise availability is limited due to the various costs of carrying inventory. Aside from companies that hit high pre-determined annual spending, most will face a small product selection and will be limited to a couple of color options.
Pricing
Advanced-Online
Our purchasing power with our vendors allows us to receive pretty big discounts on blanks. Enabling us to offer extremely competitive pricing on all of our items, regardless of the quantity ordered.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Determining the selling price for merchandise under traditional companies can be confusing. With them, you’ll have to factor in warehousing, decoration, shipping, any outsourcing fees (which could include more shipping), inventory, and their markup. This can lead to a high final selling price for a single shirt.
Facility
Advanced-Online
Controlling every aspect of our solution can seem excessive to some, but to us it only makes sense. By keeping our warehousing, decoration, fulfillment, and technology all under one roof, we can ensure consistency with our services. This consistency translates to providing you and your customers the best experience possible.
Standard Online Solution Providers
Most standard online solution providers range in size from smaller home-based businesses to large industrial corporations. The former is significantly limited when it comes to production and storage capabilities. The latter, while sometimes able to keep everything in-house, usually opts to stick to their field and outsources the other components. When a company has to outsource an aspect of its online store solution it loses control of the process.
Dedicated Staff
Advanced-Online
When you partner with us, you get support from our in-house account managers, customer service team, operations professionals, graphic artists, and production staff. We encourage you to use us as a resource and let our teams take care of the day-to-day, allowing you to devote more time to your business.
Standard Online Solution Providers
While some traditional companies have a small group of account managers for you to work with, very few offer additional support (such as in-house artists, production experts, etc). Even fewer have a customer service team on hand to help field any small level questions/issues.
Ask us for youself
Have a question that wasn’t answered above? Give us a call and we’ll help you out.
972-471-5400
