Redemption Programs - Why Smart Companies Stopped Guessing Sizes
Somewhere in your building there's a box. Maybe a whole closet. It holds the polos from the last all-hands, the fleece from the anniversary before that, and a stack of mediums ordered for people who never answered the size email.
That box is your apparel budget, sitting still.
Most company apparel doesn't fail because the product is bad. It fails because somebody had to guess: what people would like, what size they wear, how many to order, and who gets the leftovers. Every guess costs money, and the misses end up in the box.
The old way
Buy first, hope later
The traditional approach goes something like this. A small group picks one item for everybody. Someone chases sizes across three emails and a Slack thread. You pad the order "just in case." Then a pallet shows up at the office, and a person who already has a real job becomes the receiving dock, the sorting table and the shipping department for the next two weeks. They repack boxes for remote staff and track down everyone who was out that day.
And you paid for every piece up front, whether it gets worn or not.
The better way
Give credit, let them choose
A redemption program flips the order of operations. Instead of buying shirts, you issue a value, either a store credit or a redemption code, and each person spends it on a curated selection in your branded online store.
Here's what changes on the budget side:
You pay per redemption, not per guess. Merchandise is decorated and shipped when someone orders it. Unclaimed value isn't sitting in a closet.
No size spreadsheet. Nobody collects, stores or double-checks sizing data. Each person picks their own.
No receiving, sorting or reshipping. Orders ship straight to each recipient, at home or at the office. Nobody on your team touches a box.
Spend stays controlled. Credits have a set value, so the budget is the budget. No overruns, no surprise reorders.
Fewer returns and exchanges. When people pick their own size, it's usually the right one.
For your people
What they get out of it
For the person on the receiving end, it stops feeling like a handout and starts feeling like a gift.
Something that fits their body and their style .A women's cut or a unisex tee, a quarter-zip or a hoodie, a tall size or a relaxed fit. Their call.
No awkward size questions. Nobody has to announce their size to HR, their manager or a group email.
It arrives where they are. No extra trip to the office to pick up a package, and remote employees get the same experience as everyone at HQ.
Something they'll actually wear.A piece someone chose for themselves gets worn on weekends, not just on "wear your company shirt" day.
That last point matters more than it sounds. Apparel that gets worn keeps your brand out in the world long after the event. Apparel in a closet does nothing.
Beyond one event
One setup, every occasion
Once the store and credits are in place, the same setup handles almost any moment:
New-hire welcome kits
Work anniversaries
Safety milestones
Annual uniform allowances
Project launch thank-yous
Issue the credit, share the link, done. No new project every time, and no program that quietly stops when its organizer gets busy.
Identity Works
How we make it simple
With an Identity Works QuickBrand online store, your Customer Administrators hold the keys. They can issue store credits or redemption codes to individuals or entire groups, set the value, and control which products each team sees. Your Account Manager helps build a catalog that's small enough to be good and broad enough that everyone finds something they love.
We handle the rest, from decoration to fulfillment to individual shipping, so your team gets back the hours it used to spend chasing sizes and taping boxes.
Ready to simplify how your team handles corporate gear? Let’s talk.