Merch Guy
Corporate swag store

Launch a Corporate Swag Store in
2 Weeks

Your team gets a branded store. We ship direct to every employee. $0 setup, $0 per-seat, $0 platform fee. SwagUp charges $4,800 a year for the same storefront. We don't.

2 weeks
Kickoff to live store
$0
Setup and platform fees
12 units
Minimum on decorated apparel

Quick Answer

How much does it cost to launch a corporate swag store?

Nothing upfront. Merch Guy charges $0 setup, $0 per seat, and $0 monthly. You only pay for what your team orders. Embroidered polos start under $25 at 12 units. Screen-printed tees run $5-12 depending on quantity and colors.

2 weeks
To a live, branded store
$4,800/yr
What SwagUp charges (we don't)
5-7 days
Order to employee doorstep
12 units
MOQ on decorated apparel
What's inside

Everything a store needs, nothing you pay extra for

Every feature below is included. No gated tier. No $400/mo storefront upsell. You're not being priced into a different plan every time you grow.

Branded storefront

Your logo, your colors, your product shortlist. We build the store in the first week and you review it in the second. Mobile-first because that's where most employees check out.

Zero inventory risk

On-demand production. Nothing sits in a warehouse. Nothing expires. You pay per item your team actually orders, not per item you guessed they'd want.

Redemption codes and budgets

Hand each employee a credit. $75 a year is a common starting point. Share a link. They pick sizes, check out, done. Budget hits zero and the store stops them at checkout. No awkward HR email chains about who gets what.

Direct-to-employee shipping

We ship each order to each address. HR stops being a distribution center. Remote teams get their swag in 5-7 business days in the US. International adds a few dollars per order.

Live reporting

One dashboard. Who ordered. What they picked. Where it shipped. How much you've spent. Export to CSV when finance wants it. No surprise invoice at quarter-end and no Excel gymnastics.

Reorder without rebuilding

Ran a swag store last year? We keep your product list, artwork, sizes, and brand file. Relaunching takes days, not weeks. You don't start from zero every time a new hire class shows up.

Operational flow

From kickoff to employees unboxing

Five steps. Two weeks. No demo wall.

  1. Step 01

    Pick your products

    Browse our catalog or send us your wishlist. We narrow it to 8-15 items that fit your brand, price range, and audience. Apparel, drinkware, tech, wellness, printed goods.

  2. Step 02

    We build the store

    Logo on every item. Brand colors on the site. Your shortlist goes live behind a URL. Need redemption codes or budget caps? Wired in the same week.

  3. Step 03

    Share the link

    Drop the store URL in Slack, email, or your onboarding doc. Employees open it, sign in if you set gating, and start shopping. No account creation friction.

  4. Step 04

    Your team orders

    They pick size and color, check out in about 90 seconds, and get a confirmation email. Shipping is included in the per-item price or covered by the code you gave them.

  5. Step 05

    We produce and ship

    Orders hit production the next business day. Items print, embroider, and ship inside 5-7 business days. You get a running report of what's moving and where. No ticket needed.

Merch Guy vs the category

What a corporate swag store should actually cost

Numbers below come from each vendor's published pricing as of April 2026. Where a vendor doesn't publish, we say so instead of guessing.

Merch Guy SwagUp Printfection (Swag Pro) DIY on Shopify
Store / platform fee $0 $400/mo ($4,800/yr) Gold tier required for Shop Not publicly published $39-$399/mo Shopify plan
Setup fee $0 $0 on Basic tier Not publicly published $0 plus theme and design costs
Per-seat fee $0 No per-user fee (tier gating instead) No per-user fee; Standard caps at 100 users $0 (you build any gating yourself)
Minimum order 12 units on decorated apparel 25 units per item standard Not publicly published Whatever your supplier requires
Lead time to launch 2 weeks 3-4 weeks production window Not publicly published 4+ weeks (you build it)
Inventory model On-demand production Hybrid (pre-buy packs, storage fees every 6 months) Warehoused inventory (5,000-15,000 pieces by tier) Whatever you set up
Pricing visibility All-in, published Tier prices published; item pricing via calculator Tier features public, dollar amounts gated Transparent (you own the stack)
Redemption codes Included Included on Gold and up Store features gated to Enterprise tier Build it or buy a plugin
FAQ

Common questions

How much does it actually cost to set up a corporate swag store with Merch Guy?

Zero. No setup fee, no platform fee, no per-employee charge. The only money that moves is what your team spends on items they order. Embroidered polos start under $25 at the 12-unit minimum. Screen-printed tees run $5 to $12 each depending on quantity and color count. You see the all-in number before anyone checks out.

Why do other swag platforms charge a platform fee and Merch Guy doesn't?

Most of the category is built on SaaS pricing. SwagUp's Shop feature sits behind their Gold tier at $400/mo, which is $4,800 a year before an employee orders a single hat. Printfection doesn't publish its dollar amounts, but a third-party listing put the plan near $499/mo. We make money on the merch we produce, not on a subscription you stop using in July. So we didn't build one.

Is two weeks really enough to launch a store?

Yes, when you hand us a logo, brand colors, and rough product direction on day one. Week one: we curate products and mock up the store. Week two: you approve, we go live, employees start ordering. We've run this playbook enough times that the timeline is boring, not aspirational.

What is the minimum order quantity?

12 units on decorated apparel. That's per item, not per order. If an employee orders one polo and another orders one tee, we batch both into the production run. No employee has to hit a cart minimum. No HR team has to play inventory Tetris.

Do employees pay, or does the company?

You pick. Most teams fund the full order and give each employee a credit (something like $50-$100 a year). Employees see their remaining balance in the store. Hit zero and they can't check out until you top it up. If you'd rather have them pay, we can run the store that way too. Or mix it: company covers a welcome kit, employees pay for extras.

Who pays shipping, and how fast does it show up?

US shipping is rolled into the per-item price. Employees never see a shipping charge at checkout unless you explicitly want them to. Orders produce and ship inside 5-7 business days to anywhere in the continental US. International adds a flat per-order fee that we quote before you launch.

What if we have remote employees or people in other countries?

That's the whole point of a store. Each employee enters their own address. We ship to 50+ countries. International adds a few dollars per order depending on destination and customs will add a few days. HR doesn't have to collect shirt sizes in a spreadsheet anymore.

Can I cap what each employee can spend?

Yes. Set an annual or per-campaign budget (a common number is $75 per person per year). Employees see the remaining balance every time they open the store. Hit zero and the checkout stops them. You can also use single-use redemption codes for one-off moments like welcome kits or holiday gifts.

How do I see who ordered what?

Live dashboard. Filter by employee, by product, by date, by location. Export to CSV. You get a per-order trail for finance and an aggregate view for the people deciding next quarter's catalog. No guessing at what moved and what didn't.

Is a swag store cheaper than buying in bulk and distributing from the office?

Usually, and by a lot. Bulk orders sound cheap per unit until you count the sizes that never move, the storage space, and the HR hours spent packing boxes. A store only produces what gets ordered. Waste drops close to zero. Most companies save 30-50% compared to buying bulk with a 20% utilization rate.

What's the difference between a swag store and a bulk swag program?

Store = employees self-redeem, on-demand, over time. Bulk = you order 100 hoodies at once for a specific moment. Most programs run both. If you want the program-level strategy (new-hire kits, events, sales incentives), start with our company swag page. For recognition moments like anniversaries and performance wins, the employee appreciation gifts page walks through per-person budgets and bundle options.

What are the most popular items on a corporate swag store?

Embroidered polos, branded quarter-zips, insulated tumblers, and hoodies in your primary brand color. Polos in particular tend to be the workhorse on a corporate store because they wear for Zoom calls and client lunches alike. Our custom embroidered polos page has the full brand list (Nike, Adidas, Port Authority) and the tier pricing.

Your store could be live in two weeks

Send us a logo and a product direction. We'll handle the rest. No demo wall, no $400/mo upsell.