IPMA-Swagforce Partnership Helps In-plants Start Selling Promo Products

By Bob Neubauer

Selling promotional products is a growing service for in-plants. Already 21% of them are doing it, according to IPI research. For those that want to but have had trouble getting starting, a new partnership between the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) and Swagforce, a promotional products e-commerce agency, may finally provide an entry into this lucrative market.

Starting on March 1, Swagforce will offer its white label promotional products website and sales support to IPMA members to help them sell apparel and promotional products to their customers. For those that have had trouble joining a promo products organization like SAGE or ASI to become a distributor, this partnership will enable them to easily source branded items and add their own markup.

“Many in-plant printers are missing out on a significant stream of revenue with apparel and promotional product sales,” said Swagforce CEO Dan Steinborn in a press release. “Swagforce allows them to add this new service for their customers without a huge investment in technology, staffing, or industry knowledge.”

Selling promo products is not only a proven revenue generator for in-plants (some generate more than $1 million a year from promo product sales), but it increases the value of the in-plant by enabling it to monitor proper use of the organization’s branding on personalized pens, mugs, key chains, thumb drives, and other promotional items, as it already does on printed pieces.

“Our members have been asking us for years to come up with a solution for them to help increase promotional product sales,” said IPMA Executive Director Mike Loyd. “Swagforce is the exact partner we were looking for to offer this type of service to our members. We couldn’t be happier with this partnership and the new benefit we can offer our members.”

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.