Promotional Product Stores provides an invaluable service for companies, products brands and ideas. Printing your artwork on T-shirts, pens, flying discs, backpacks and pretty much anything this service sells have a good deal of value in increasing brand awareness. And there certainly is no scarcity of corporate gift merchandise retailers out there.
Moreover, you can find more or less find what you're looking for on any site you go to. Therefore, it's essential to find a promotional gifts service that not only has the schwag you're shopping for in stock, but also a reputation for a great selection, attentive customer service and economical shipping options so that you won't have buyer's remorse and be stuck with 600 shoddy pens.
Promo Direct is such a service, and is our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award winner for promotional product stores. The promotional merchandise company earned this honor by providing a wide selection of high quality products, graphic-design services and a customer support structure that ensures customer satisfaction.
One of the major reasons that Promo Direct ranks so high in our review of the best promotional product stores is its excellent printing, embroidery and engraving options. Additionally, Promo Direct offers graphic-design services for customers who don't have artwork prepared for their corporate merchandise.
We received a good number of sample items from Promo Direct. Upon inspection, we found them to be of extremely high quality. They don't feel cheap like some logoed products do. The apparel we received looked and felt like it was bought at a department store.
One of the sample products we received was a messenger bag that we feel was of particularly high quality. Any student or traveling business person would definitely use this item to tote their laptop around. When you imagine your logo embroidered on 1,000 of these bags, the power of Promo Direct becomes clear.
This section in our review of the best promo merchandise stores was difficult to judge because getting an exact number of items offered by any promotional product store is impossible because that number is constantly changing. Selection scores are also difficult because many services contract with the same pool of suppliers.
One of the methods we used to test the selection of each business gifts service was to search every obscure item we could think of. Promo Direct yielded a result for every single item we searched for using this method, and that is not a small achievement.
Another way to determine the value of a promotional product store's item selection is what it chooses to sell. A good question to ask before you buy something is, "Will the people who end up owning these items actually use them?" As you browse through Promo Direct's online catalogue of products, the answer is an overwhelming yes. This is a profound plus in Promo Direct's column because it doesn't waste space on its website selling things that will ultimately end up in the trash shortly after they're given away.
The website usability score for Promo Direct was based on the answer to a simple question: "How easy is it to find what you're looking for using Promo Direct?" This may seem like a silly question, but lesser promo merchandise retailers have a horrible problem with directing users to the products they're looking for. If you already have a promo item in mind, you should be able to find it on Promo Direct's website in less than a minute.
We weren't happy with the website's color scheme, nor were we satisfied with how cluttered the site as a whole feels. However, this is a common lament among even the best promo merchandise stores.
Setting up an account with Promo Direct is also quite simple. Like most of the promotional product stores we reviewed, Promo Direct has a onetime set-up fee. However, unlike some of the lesser services we reviewed, Promo Direct doesn't require you to pay the set-up fee for reorders. Therefore, if you have a hit product and you need more, you only have to pay for the product itself. This is refreshing because Promo Direct wants your repeat business and doesn't charge you extra to get it.
The company does still offer sample orders and small business marketing ideas, which are both extremely useful resources for companies looking to use promotional products.
Another area in which Promo Direct excels is getting your shipment to you in a timely manner. The service has one of the lowest shipping rates we encountered. Not only is it fast and inexpensive, but a representative from the company will be in contact with you either by phone or email when your order is processed so that you know when your package was sent and when you will receive it.
Promo Direct has every customer support option we looked for. Phone and email are conventional, and attempts to contact the company are answered in a reasonable amount of time. The real star of the show is Promo Direct's live chat feature. This allows you to reach a customer service rep instantly. They are friendly, informative and helpful.
In the final analysis, Promo Direct is a hard service to beat. It has a wide selection of quality items that are long lasting and functional. Furthermore, the company has great customer service options and does its best to make sure that you get your items on time.
