The Hidden Costs of Multiple Vendors

HR has its onboarding kit supplier. Safety has its workwear source. Marketing juggles promo, print, and trade show vendors. With no central hub:

• Approvals fall through the cracks
• Deadlines slip
• Brand guidelines are not followed
• Marketing budgets get hijacked by other departments

Minimum Order Madness

One of the most budget-draining issues marketers face is vendor minimum order requirements. Need 8 branded polo shirts for a small regional event? Your vendor requires a minimum of 24 pieces. Suddenly, your targeted budget for a focused initiative balloons into an unwieldy expense that forces you to either overspend dramatically or scramble to find alternative solutions. To make matters worse, you’re spending time chasing down t-shirt sizes or guessing the quantity of sizes needed.

This minimum order problem compounds across multiple vendors. Your swag vendor has one minimum, your uniform supplier another, and your print vendor yet another set of requirements. Marketing budgets that should stretch across multiple initiatives get consumed by artificial minimums that serve vendor interests, not marketing objectives.

The Brand Guidelines Go Rogue

Every new vendor relationship begins the same exhausting way: re-explaining brand guidelines from scratch. Logo placement specifications. Color requirements. Font selections. Approved messaging. Quality standards. Each vendor needs to be educated about your brand standards, creating a repetitive cycle that burns through valuable marketing time. And let’s not forget the set-up fee each vendor will charge and long lead times for sample approvals.

Worse yet, without centralized brand control, different vendors often interpret guidelines differently. The result? Inconsistent brand representation across merchandise that dilutes your carefully crafted brand identity.

Billing Nightmares

Perhaps nothing frustrates marketing leaders more than getting billed for branded merchandise they never ordered. Because items feature company logos, finance departments or vendors routinely route all branded merchandise invoices to marketing – regardless of which department actually placed the order.

• HR orders employee welcome packages? Marketing gets billed.
• IT needs branded laptop sleeves? Marketing’s budget takes the hit.
• Safety requires company-branded hard hats? Once again, marketing absorbs the cost.

This cross-departmental billing chaos makes budget management nearly impossible and creates friction between teams. To get the vendor to re-invoice the correct department – how much time are you wasting?

Quality Inconsistencies

Every vendor has its own standards, processes, and supply chain. The result? Branded merchandise that looks and feels different across your organization.

Many vendors outsource decoration, which drags out lead times and increases mistakes – like tradeshow apparel arriving with the wrong logo colors. And who gets blamed? Marketing.

Few things erode brand equity faster than inconsistent colors, misprinted logos, or poor-quality swag. Every new vendor means re-explaining brand standards, and every mistake chips away at credibility while stealing time from actual marketing work. To make it worse, marketers often share stories of rogue employees bypassing the system entirely to order off-brand items – creating even more inconsistency and brand damage.

Turnaround Time Inconsistencies

Multiple vendors mean multiple production schedules, shipping timelines, and quality control processes. Coordinating a cohesive branded merchandise program becomes a logistical nightmare when different elements come from different suppliers with varying lead times.

Trade show preparations become particularly stressful when your promotional items arrive on time, but branded apparel is delayed, and printed materials are stuck in production. The lack of synchronized delivery schedules forces marketing teams into constant crisis management mode. Ever have to run to a local print shop at a tradeshow across the country?

The truth marketers need to hear: most vendors oversell their capabilities, and most RFPs aren’t written to expose these critical gaps.

How iCoStore Powers Your Brand

Flexibility for Every Use Case & Department

• Employee Stores for branded merchandise or sales aids
• Uniform Stores for corporate apparel, safety and more
• Print Stores for marketing and sales collateral
• Event and Pop-up Stores for holidays, conferences, and limited time campaigns
• Award and Recognition Stores for incentive programs

Technology That Integrates With Your Business

Most vendors stop at selling swag. iCoStore connects to your business. Our platform integrates with ERP, HRIS, SSO, and procurement systems, so merchandise isn’t siloed – it’s built into your workflow across every department.

• Custom admin views for logins, point balances & program KPIs
• Role-based access and approvals keep spending controlled
• Automated reporting & analytics show usage and spend in real time
• Custom checkout fields and department-level billing
• A secure platform with PCI compliance & Tier 1 hosting
• Brand guardrails built in – rogue orders blocked

It’s not just a store. It’s a solution.

Full-Service Support That Lifts the Admin Burden

It’s the small stuff that eats up time, but iCoStore handles it for you:

• Dedicated account managers keep your program on track
• Live customer support to field employee questions
• Warehousing, kitting, and direct-to-employee shipping are included
• Tax & compliance handling is built into our system
• In-house graphic artist and technology team

We become your partner and extension of your team, so you stay focused on marketing, not chasing t-shirt sizes.

Your Brand. Our Platform. One Seamless Solution.

iCoStore closes the gaps that traditional vendor relationships create. We provide the consolidated platform, transparent controls, and operational efficiency that lets marketing teams focus on strategy instead of vendor management.

Your branded merchandise program should strengthen your brand and inspire your team, not drain your budget and monopolize your time. The solution isn’t better vendor management, it’s eliminating the need for multiple vendors entirely.