Difference between Stock vs. Custom Merchandise

When ordering promotional products, you’re not just limited to what is on offer in the store or what we call stock merchandise. There’s a world beyond stock merchandise—- you can create promotional products however you want. To learn more about the differences between stock and custom merchandise, read below.

1. Stock Promo Merchandise

As we’ve established above, stock merchandise are the items you can see on our website. What you see is what you get. They are ready-made with limited colour and customisation options. While there is nothing greatly unique about it, stock merchandise has its perks, such as quicker turnaround time and lower minimum order quantities. Plus, having way too much freedom with the customisation can be a burden sometimes. Businesses that don’t want to spend too much time designing and planning their promotional giveaways or corporate gifts will prefer stock merchandise

On the downside, you can expect to have a finite choice of materials, sizes, and colours for stock merchandise. The print area size is also limited. They are also more likely to cost more per unit than custom items.

How to order stock promo merchandise

Ordering stock merchandise is as easy as choosing your preferred item on our website or catalogue and entering the specifics, such as the quantity, colour, decoration option (from the list of available options for the item), and a copy of your logo, branding, or artwork. Upon approving the artwork, your order will be dispatched according to the lead time.

2. Custom promo merchandise

Custom merchandise allows businesses the freedom to fully customise their giveaways or corporate gifts. You are able to choose the size, branding, printing, and material. You basically have no restrictions within reason. After all, we don’t have magical powers to give you hoverboards that actually levitate off the ground. Another benefit to choosing custom merchandise is that it typically costs less per unit.

Since it is not ready-made and we still have to find a supplier to create your items based on your specifications, custom items have a longer lead time.

If you see the innovative promo giveaways that global and big brands have been doing, most of them are custom merchandise as they are one of a kind.

Photo 1 Credit: Ads of the World

How to order custom merch

You will need to work closely with our Account Managers when it comes to ordering custom promo merchandise. It would be better for you to have mockups or illustrations so that we can have a visual reference of what you’re looking for. Don’t forget to also give us the artwork and dimensions (size, weight, colour, material… etc.) upon ordering.

Since the production depends on the customisation and complexity of the design, there is no standard lead time but generally, it takes us 3 months to source the materials, produce the items, and deliver your order.

Stock vs Custom Merchandise: Which Should You Choose?

While going for stock merchandise is fast and easy, custom merchandise allows your brand to stand out with its plethora of customisation possibilities. For inquiries and custom orders, reach out to us by phone, email, and chat.