Sourcing Promo Goods
What Are ‘Promo Products’?
Promo products are generally custom printed merchandise with a company logo or message somewhere on the front or back. Sourcing promo products is done by a retailer or reseller for a specific person or company made in specific colors, mostly in large quantities.
The most common promo product you can see is the company themed T-shirts that almost all companies in the US give to their employees. Promo products are used universally to promote companies, products, brands and corporate image.
Companies use them as a giveaway at special events, exhibitions or product launches. Many companies also give such products on occasions like Assistant’s day or festival days like Christmas etc.
Promotional merchandise is mainly purchased by corporate companies in the US, UK and other European countries through promotional merchandise distributors or promotional consultants.
Different types of people try to purchase promo products, like Corporate companies, institutions, retailers and resellers.
There are two ways for sourcing promo products, one is to directly contact the manufacturer or the reseller in a country like China or Taiwan. The second way is to look for a retailer in your own country who is involved in this trade and who imports regularly from multiple sources.
Promo Products manufacturing:
Since promo products involve specific colors, logos, images, art work and text, the distributors who collect the order collect the artwork from the client in the format required and pass it on to the manufacturer or the company that does the customization work.
There are companies that do manufacturing and customization both, and there are also ancillary units which do just the customization. Buying the products in the US and asking for artists to do the customization may be very costly, and can be done only if the volume required is less.
In most cases the customization is done at a unit which is nearer to the manufacturer or the stockist and where the labor cost for such works are less. Most distributors have contracts and agreements with the manufacturer and printers both so they save time for the people who are sourcing promo products.
Promo products distributors should have the ability to source and supply in short notice thousands of products from anywhere in the world.
Sourcing promo products locally:
Promotional merchandise resellers in the US like EPROMOS (www.epromos.com), NYCwebStore.com (www.nycwebstore.com) and The Gifted Ones (www.thegiftedones.com) concentrate their retail business with clients in New York and East coast.
They have specific merchandise like the New York skyline snowglobe, statue of Liberty, Times Square based items, ‘I love NY’ caps and T-shirts, Brooklyn Bridge Marble coasters, Yankees and NY Giants merchandise items. If you are dealing in smaller quantities, it will be better to contact them and get the customized product instead of contacting a manufacturer directly.
If you want very large quantities or repeat shipments of different goods then it may be a worthwhile decision to contact a China based reseller or manufacturer. Since, importing from China has become such a common thing now, many resellers in US and China both have offices around the globe like (www.getitglobal.com) hence sourcing promo products has become very easy.
Also if you are looking at Chocolate based gift items, most of them are made in Pennsylvania and other parts of USA itself.
Finding Promotional Merchandise Distributors:
If you register and post your requirements, you will shortly receive quotations from multiple distributors and resellers. Also you can use those forums to research about the availability of specific goods in certain countries.
If you are worried about the genuineness of the reseller in a foreign country you may contact the Consumer councils of those countries or cities to find out more about that particular distributor.
There are companies which do online business of promotional merchandise now a days like Branders.com (www.branders.com) and Clayton Kendall Inc (www.claytonkendall.com) . Online catalogues let you browse through thousands of previously made promo products and choose the right ones among them.
You should try to find resellers who are good at quality and can do the best artwork, because promo products are meant to lift the corporate image of your company and the quality of the promo product speaks volumes about your company’s quality. 
Sourcing promo products for the very first time might be an exhausting process, finding the right distributors, negotiating with them and getting the products shipped. Once you gain knowledge and the right contacts in this sector, you can very well make a good living all around the year dealing with promotional merchandise.
Here are some other Wholesale Sourcing sites that I have found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Sourcing-3.com.
Sourcing promotional products
Sourcing promotional products
Tags: Promotional goods, Sourcing Promo Goods, Sourcing promotional products