Q: What kinds of products do you offer?

Christopher Robbins: We have drinkware, wall décor, blankets, floor mats, stationery, journals/notebooks and more. Our items have full-color imprinting, they’re functional and they complement ongoing programs. We also offer personalization on our items. We can do not only names, but also a personalized agenda for a meeting, for example. And we don’t have any minimums, on any product. A true e-commerce company has to have clear, transparent pricing and no minimums, in order to compete with the likes of Amazon. This company went live in June 2015, because we wanted to get ahead of Amazon. These kinds of products just weren’t being offered in the corporate world. There was Cafe Press, but those items are sold directly to consumers. Our headquarters are in Maryland, and now we have facilities in Phoenix, AZ, the UK and Australia.

Q: What kinds of clients and markets do you serve?

CR: It really runs the gamut. We’re able to power customers’ e-commerce sites, and we’re integrated with Shopify. We ship everything in two or three days direct to the consumer. We don’t have any drop-ship fees and no minimums. We can do one mug, or 100 mugs. We help companies keep their offerings fresh. Otherwise items stay the same, and their e-commerce site gets stale.

Q: How do you imprint your items?

CR: Everything is imprinted with variable data printing, and everything is individually packaged.  That’s the value-add. Personalization aspects can include a name, title, year, location and more. Sometimes a company will co-brand, so they’ll use their logo with their best customer’s logo, for example. We did an order for 15,000 employees recently, and each got a personalized mug shipped directly to their homes.

We receive the art from the client, along with a spreadsheet with all the names they want on the different items. The spreadsheet (what we consider the proof) is run through a system and the art is ready in five minutes. We also have all recipients’ individual addresses and we can sort by shipping company, whether it’s Fedex, UPS or another shipping provider.

Q: What makes your products and your company stand out?

CR: We’re different because this industry has traditionally been B2B, but we actually provide products to the consumers for our customers. It’s also a way for our clients to use social selling and get their items out there quickly, because we let them create their brand without inventory. So they have an audience of about 8 million people versus just their typical customer base.

Q: Can you give us an example of how your personalized items were used effectively?

CR: When Requests for Quotation go out, how does a company stand out? The only difference between one distributor and another is the relationship they’re able to build. For one company in Houston, the journals we made for their sales reps (through a distributor) were personalized for each prospect, with their name, company logo and value propositions and contact details for the recipients’ reference in the inside cover. So it was a proposal plus a gift. And the cover has their logo, so they’re sure to use it. 

Because the prospects received personalized journals, the recipients felt compelled to call and set up a meeting. And then every time the journal was used, the prospect was reminded about the company’s services and had the contact information on the inside cover, which reinforced the relationship. Our job as a supplier is to provide our distributors with items that let them show why their end-buyers need them.