Orb Group

If you want merchandise planned around your audience and brand rather than picked from a catalogue at the last minute, Orb Group handles strategy, sourcing, webstores and fulfilment from offices in Glasgow and London.

Orb Group is a brand merchandise agency with its main office at Ibrox Business Park in Glasgow and a second office in Farringdon, London. It describes itself as a team of marketing and supply chain professionals and says it has 30 years of experience. Its About page says the business started as Sports Business and Leisure and became ORB in 2002. It is listed here with the other merchandise agencies.

The agency argues that merchandise is often left to the last minute, delegated to a junior person and reduced to a logo on an item. Its answer is a strategic service called ORB360, which it says starts with the audience and the brand before any product is chosen. It aims for items that are functional, emotional and sociable, and says it can also design the ecommerce platform and marketing campaigns for brands that want to sell merchandise to their fans.

Services

Orb’s website sets out five service areas:

• Branded merchandise, from design and sourcing to production, with samples, costing and quality checkpoints before distribution
• Point of sale
• Branded workwear and protective clothing
• Corporate gifting, including swag bags, premium gifts and simple thank-yous
• Managed ecommerce

Buyers looking for uniforms or PPE can compare it with other suppliers under workwear and uniforms and clothing and workwear. Its gifting work sits alongside the corporate gifts and client gifts listings.

Webstores and ecommerce

Orb says it builds webstores on established platforms, naming Shopify and Magento, and can integrate them with a client’s back-end systems using its in-house IT resource or specialist partners. The benefits it lists are 24/7 access for the audience, stock control, system integration and monthly reporting on average basket, delivery postcodes and popular products. Its featured case study for this service is Caledonian MacBrayne, where passengers could buy branded merchandise. Other providers are gathered under branded webshops and company stores.

Process and account handling

The site describes six stages: ideation and design, product sourcing and production, quality control and compliance, sustainable sourcing and ethical management, planning and logistics, and fulfilment and distribution. It says it deals with global suppliers, vets them on an ongoing basis and attends conferences and events to find new products. It also lists dedicated account management and says its managing director is directly involved until a client is fully onboarded.

Orb says it can still supply everyday items such as pens and mugs at a good price through its catalogue, though it prefers to steer buyers towards curated, specifically sourced items. If you are preparing a request, our guide on how to brief a promotional merchandise supplier is a useful starting point.

Source: orbgroup.co.uk, orbgroup.co.uk/about, orbgroup.co.uk/services/branded-merchandise