General research for our Start-up

[KrisYoung]

Hi everyone, we are in the early stages of our startup idea and seek your opinions and feedback.

The concept is an online storefront for your company branded merch, that only your team has access to.

Have your hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, and other goodies, made to order when your team wants them.
Onboard new teammates and offer an allowance to spend in your store.
No more welcome packs filled with items no one uses, or t-shirts that are too small.

Appreciate any feedback.

 

[AmazonGeek]

I know a printing/merch company that has this. They set clients up with an account so they can create/upload designs. Then each regional office can log in and order what they want. They can make certain changes (names/numbers on business cards, wording on hoodies - that kind of thing) but the overall brand guidelines are protected. Not sure how many companies are out there doing it but if not too many there may be room for one more

 

[KrisYoung]

I know a printing/merch company that has this. They set clients up with an account so they can create/upload designs. Then each regional office can log in and order what they want. They can make certain changes (names/numbers on business cards, wording on hoodies - that kind of thing) but the overall brand guidelines are protected. Not sure how many companies are out there doing it but if not too many there may be room for one

Our idea is more aimed at the company allowing employees to pick their items in a welcome pack or however else a company would like to reward their staff, rather than your example of a larger company. This is good to know though as it means it's a concept that is in practice and most like works. Thank you

 

[Mark T Jones]

It's some time since I've been an employer, but my initial thought is that a starter pack is a nice freebie to hand over - once you make it choice-led it loses impact and immediacy

However, few of us on here actually employ people (other than spouses for tax reasons) - you probably need to do specific research amongst employers

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

This already exists from at least a couple of suppliers I know - staff/branches can log in and order whatever they like, they can have allowances/credits given to them each to spend on what they want to choose.

Also exists for customers (but it's essentially the same thing) where supplier can reward customers with a value that they can then log in and use. So let's say a shop is a stockist of Heinz beans (random example) they get rewarded with merch credits and they can log in and order Heinz branded caps or t-shirts or whatever, or in some cases other stuff like tech rewards or vouchers.

So without peeing on your chips, the idea isn't novel unless you have something particularly unique or interesting about it.

 

[fisicx]

My wife has this at work. It’s part of their intranet. Other companies have similar. Staff order what they want then a nominated person puts in the order to the supplier.

No need for a storefront.