Category: Warehousing and Storage

What’s one of the best ways to get your business’s name in front of potential customers and keep it there? Sure, you can use digital marketing or go old school with billboards or direct mail campaigns, but the single best performer across most industries might surprise you: promotional products.

Don’t take our word for it, though.

• Almost 100% of customers want to know if a company offers promotional products.
• The average promotional product is kept for around 5 months, but it can be up to 10 years.
• 90% of people who receive a promotional product remember the company’s brand.

Of course, not all promotional products are worth your time and money. Apparel and drinkware continue to be some of the most popular promotional products, with hats/caps and bags also consistently ranking among the best sellers. Here are the most popular promotional products ordered.

Branded Apparel

T-shirts are among the most popular promotional products because they are simple, visible, and easy to size for big groups. However, pay attention to quality, fit, and branding method (silk screening vs. vinyl applique, for instance).

• Best for: events, employee kits, brand ambassadors, and customer loyalty programs.

Drinkware

Drinkware keeps selling because it follows people around. Tumblers, water bottles, and mugs are daily-use items, meaning your logo gets daily impressions. Pick a style your audience already loves (think commuter tumblers, gym-friendly bottles, or office mugs), then keep the imprint clean and durable.

• Best for: corporate gifting, wellness campaigns, conferences, and subscription box inserts.

Bags of All Kinds

Tote bags, backpacks, and drawstring bags are popular promotional items because they’re both useful and visible. If you choose a bag with a sturdy handle, a decent fabric weight, and a design that doesn’t scream “freebie,” it’ll stay in circulation longer.

• Best for: trade shows, retail promos, community events, campus marketing.

Hats And Caps

Hats and caps are always among the most popular promotional items. Give someone a hat that looks like a real brand, and they’ll wear it even when they forget where it came from (which is kind of the point).

• Best for: outdoor events, sports sponsorships, field teams, and influencer-style merch.

Pens And Small Desk Items

Pens might not be the trendiest, but they remain one of the most popular promo items in consumer-facing surveys. If your audience is office-heavy, add notebooks or desk accessories to the mix.

• Best for: banks, clinics, service businesses, front desks, and direct mail.

Finding the Most Popular Promotional Products for You

If you’re planning your next campaign and want the most popular promotional products picked for your audience (then stored, kitted, and shipped without headaches), JM Field can help. Get in touch and tell us your budget, your timeline, and who you’re trying to reach, and we’ll recommend items that people will actually keep (and get your fulfillment dialed in from day one).

If you’re selling a product, you’re dealing with warehousing and storage costs. It doesn’t matter what your industry might be or what niche your product falls into. The problem? Chances are good that you’re not entirely clear on what you’re paying for or even if some of those costs are really necessary. Let’s explore what you need to know about warehousing and storage costs.

What “Storage” Actually Means

Storage is the cost of holding your inventory in a warehouse so it’s ready to ship when an order comes in, and several things affect what you pay here, including:

• How your inventory is stored: pallets, shelves, bins, or special zones
• How much space it uses: small-and-dense vs bulky-and-airy
• How long it sits: fast movers vs slow movers
• How often it’s touched: stable inventory vs. constant rework/kitting
  
  

A high-velocity SKU that ships daily can be cheaper to store (per unit sold) than a slow mover that takes up space for months.

The Most Common Storage Pricing Models

Most 3PLs price storage using one of these approaches:

• Pallet storage: If your product arrives and stays mostly in full cases, pallet storage is common. You’re usually billed per pallet position per month.

• Bin or shelf storage: If you’ve got smaller items, apparel, or a wide SKU count, you may be billed per bin, per shelf section, or by a defined storage unit.

• Per cubic foot: This is a “space is space” model that’s often used when products vary a lot in size.

The right model depends on what you sell. If you’re shipping small items with lots of SKUs, bin-based storage can make sense. If you’re moving cases quickly, pallet storage might be better.

Storage Is Only One Part Of The Warehousing Cost Equation

Here’s what often gets lumped into “storage costs” even though it’s technically separate:

• Receiving
• Putaway
• Handling and touches
• Inventory management and reporting

What Makes Storage Costs Spike

If you want to keep warehousing and storage costs under control, watch for these issues:

• Oversupplying slow-moving SKUs
• Bulky packaging
• High SKU complexity
• Seasonal inventory
• Poor inbound compliance
  
  

How You Can Lower Storage Costs Without Risking Stockouts

Here are a few solutions that usually help:

• Set reorder points based on velocity, not guesswork
• Trim long-tail SKUs that don’t earn their space
• Tighten packaging to reduce cube
• Ship in cleaner, better-labeled inbound shipments
• Use kitting strategically (sometimes it reduces space and picking time)
  
  

The Help You Need

Warehousing and storage costs don’t have to be surprising. Get in touch with our team, and we’ll review your SKU mix, inventory flow, and shipping patterns, then recommend a storage and fulfillment setup that fits how you actually sell.