“We should just set up a company store.” 

You’ve got merch. You’ve got a growing team. Maybe you’re getting more requests for T-shirts or business cards or holiday gifts. So naturally, someone suggests building an always-on online store to handle it all. 

It sounds smart… until it becomes your team’s responsibility to promote it, refresh inventory, and figure out who’s ordering what (or worse: why no one’s ordering anything at all.)  

Company stores seem like the solution. But they’re often just… more work. 

Your goal isn’t to run an entire online shopping presence for your brand. You just want to get the right swag to the right people, without all the admin, upkeep, and second-guessing. 

Here’s where your e-Shop can go wrong: 

• People stop visiting the store. You thought “set it and forget it” would work. But in reality, people do forget it. 

• It’s more expensive than you thought. Maybe you didn’t realize that the company hosting your eShop would have to continuously work with you to design, code, and update your store, just like any other website. And that can really add up!  

• There are too many choices. Your team said they wanted more apparel options, but now they’re overwhelmed with decisions with no sense of urgency to actually place the order. 

• There’s no one to run it. If there’s no dedicated staff member promoting the store, keeping products fresh, and fielding internal questions… it gets stale fast. 

• You didn’t need it all the time. Turns out you only needed gear once or twice a year – so why pay to keep a whole storefront running 24/7? 

…But Tactive, don’t you sell ongoing e-Shops? 

YES. And that’s how we know when they are (and aren’t!) a good solution. Permanent stores make sense for organizations that: 

• Have a distributed workforce that frequently needs marketing materials (think: business cards, brochures, sales kits) or daily workwear (like uniforms, usually not for corporate settings)  

• Already have a strong internal merch culture (and the budget to match!) and can move through minimum order quantities 

• Have someone on staff to promote the store and manage updates 

If that’s not you? That’s okay!  

Try this instead:  

If you only need merch a couple times a year – or if you’re testing the waters on branded swag – a Pop-Up Shop is a lighter lift. 

These temporary stores live on the Tactive e-Shop website and are open for a limited time (usually 2 weeks). You promote the shop, your audience places orders, and once the window closes, we handle the rest: printing, packing, and shipping directly to each recipient. 

Pop-Up Shops work especially well for: 

• Employee gifting 

• Event or campaign merch 

• Seasonal collections 

• Fundraisers and limited-time offers 

You get all the perks of a company store without the overhead. And because there’s a built-in sense of urgency, people actually place their orders instead of putting it off forever. (Plus, we already made you a marketing kit to help you promote the Pop-Up Shop to really rake in your sales!)  

Need help figuring out what swag store options actually make sense for your team? Let’s talk.