The comprehensive guide to building your company swag catalog

What’s a company swag catalog?

You’ve got swag figured out — new hire kits for that personalized welcome, high-quality items for your best customers and clients, and of course, super-soft t-shirts for the gang. But what happens if someone wants to get some additional company swag? Or maybe they’re not into the office mug and t-shirt, but they love the idea of a company branded Patagonia vest.

Here’s where a company swag catalog comes in.

While most of us are familiar with gifting swag, we overlook how powerful it can be to offer employees and customers a high-quality selection of swag they get to choose from.

A company swag catalog is a curated collection of swag available to your company employees and/or customers. At SwagUp, company swag catalogs are part of our online swag shops — a simple and powerful extension of your company’s brand. We work with you in creating the perfect selection of items as well as designing the site’s look and feel. Interested? Contact a Swag Agent to get started.

3 things to look out for

There’s no one right way to create a company swag catalog, but we do have a few tips for you to avoid some missteps along the way. Let’s get down to it.

#1. Know your audience

It’s possible to get really personal on the items you pick; in fact, we encourage it! Company swag catalogs are a great way to mirror the team’s culture and acknowledge the people driving the growth of the company.

As you design your company catalog, think about the pieces of company culture that would make some swag items more desirable and interesting over others. Here’s a few questions to ask yourself:

• Does the office have a beer keg or favorite sports team?
• Is the office pet-friendly and/or does your team share a bond in their pet companions?
• What company values or components of the company mission and vision attracted people to the company? For example, is there a focus on social impact and sustainability?

As you take the time to think about your company and the people part of it, you’ll recognize some products work better with your brand and budget. (Tip: Having a hard time deciding? Ask a Swag Agent for help identifying the best swag for your company. We might even be able to recommend some hot new finds we haven’t added to our site yet.)

#2. Strike a balance

With all the options out there, it can be hard to remember that more isn’t always better. Our advice? Be tasteful. Include a variety of categories in your catalog with select, high quality items (we suggest 3-5) per category. You may also want to consider items that reflect different pricing tiers as well. Check out our pack builder for swag inspiration.

The idea here is to create a catalog that strikes a balance between overwhelming people with too many cool options, and disappointing them with a sparse collection of overdone items (for example, t-shirts are a staple, but it might not be too impressive if that’s all you have).

Some of our favorite items are quarter zips, weekender duffel bags, and travel tumblers.

#3. Cover the bases, then think outside the box

More often than not, you’ll find the basics — t-shirts, drinkware, notebooks/pens — are swag items often expected to be available if company swag is offered to employees and customers for purchase. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to have them.

Depending on the kind of catalog you’re looking to build, it’s possible to have a very minimal and lightweight swag catalog with only unique, premium items (remember tip #1? Know your audience!) For bigger companies, a robust catalog with a larger number of categories might be more appropriate.

Not sure which situation you’re in? One strategy is to cover the bases with a couple basic swag categories like apparel and office before adding on more fun/unique categories and items.

Either way, it’s a good idea to get feedback from your team and/or customers as you build your company swag catalog.

Setting it up

SwagUp helps you put together your company swag catalog on an online swag shop accessible to employees and/or customers. If you decide to go this route, you’ll enjoy the benefit of immediate and convenient access to the company swag catalog. We can even help you set up reward credits for your employees.

Remember to make the site URL simple and related to your company name — after all, a good swag shop is an extension of your brand. It’ll also help to be aware of what your company brand colors are, and include related digital assets (like high quality team and office photos!) where possible.

Once you’re happy with the shop, communicate the launch to your employees and/or customers and make it easy for them to find at their own convenience, whether that’s via a page on the company website or a pinned Slack message.

Maintenance

We’ve got good news for you: for the most part, once you set up your online swag shop, you’re done! You’ve just permanently boosted your company’s brand, and it can function without any daily work on your part.

Still, we think some upkeep is a good idea. You might notice some items aren’t as popular as you thought, and other items are constantly out of stock. It’s a good idea to make adjustments as needed based on this data. Another way to keep things fresh is to rotate out seasonal items.

Lastly, we suggest offering a way for employees and/or customers to give feedback and make requests to the catalog.

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