Must Read | Distributor Sales Volume The Promising Factors If a big portion of stockpiled marketing budgets went toward promotional products, it certainly wasn’t for arbitrary reasons. The return of in-person events such as concerts, sporting events, conferences, sales meetings, trade shows and other events were significant contributors to 2022’s growth. Live events often go hand-in-hand with promo, but they also create a buzz that reminds clients of the lasting effect of promo. It’s almost a domino effect. “We returned to events in full force, recapturing the annual energy of promo for the first time since the pandemic began,” says Nancy Schmidt. All of this was only made reasonably cost effective, however, because of a fairly dramatic improvement to the supply chain – a major talking point in Q1 – as we progressed deeper into 2022. “Having the goods available for sale at the industry’s peak season was a major contributing factor,” says Walsh. As China contends with its own major wave of COVID-19, complications may still arise going forward, but a supply chain turnaround can only be seen as good news. CJ Schmidt agrees that inventory levels “started to creep their way back to a level of normalcy towards the latter half of 2022,” which was ultimately a prerequisite for record-breaking sales numbers. Essentially all of these factors are related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented global and economic effects. Times were hard, and there’s no getting around that. “Many businesses thrived through the pandemic, but generally speaking, that was not the case with promotional products,” Walsh says. The further we get from the onset of the pandemic, the easier it has become to do business, resulting in something of a delayed recovery for the promo industry. trekandshoot / Lotus_studio / Shutterstock.com “Many businesses thrived through the pandemic, but generally speaking, that was not the case with promotional products.” –Kevin Walsh, CAS 72 • APRIL 2023 • PPAI
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