What dozens of startup marketers told us about buying merch

The first thing almost everyone described was the process, and nobody described it kindly. A marketing manager at a SaaS startup told us the vendor websites are outdated and the whole thing feels clunky. A founder who was shown one of the biggest promo sites for the first time reacted with a phrase we cannot print. One operations lead buys a single swag order from four different vendors, because no single vendor carries apparel, drinkware, a decent bag and a notebook at a quality level she is willing to put her logo on.

The work happens over email: a request, a PDF, a revision, another PDF, a mockup that arrives three days later with the logo stretched. Nobody on the vendor side is helping them decide. They are being sold to, not advised.

The second theme was choice, and the complaint was that there is too much of it. Ten thousand SKUs and the same tee on every site. The people we spoke to did not want a bigger catalog, they wanted someone with taste to narrow it down to eight or ten things that would make their team look like a brand and not like a trade show. Several of them described the moment of giving up and ordering the same hoodie as last year because deciding was not worth the hour.

This is the one that changed what we built. Five of the seven cohort buyers told us they already open ChatGPT when it is time to order: "I have four grand and an event in three weeks, what should I get," and then they go and buy whatever it says, from whichever site has their card saved.

A former account executive at a $35 million promo distributor described his own marketing manager doing exactly that, and asked the obvious question: why not copy it, and instantly create a cart she can check out?

The same ex-AE explained the business model that keeps everything where it is. Once a salesperson covers their salary and a bit more, they are moved to a 1099 arrangement and collect residuals on their accounts for years. Nobody in that chain is paid to make the buying experience better. Merch is maybe five to ten percent of a marketing budget, the buyer is pulled in fifteen directions, and the incumbent’s advantage is a saved credit card and a ten-minute checkout. In his words, the bar is on the floor.

That ten minutes is the real competitor. Anything new has to be easier than that and look better than that, at the same time.

Merchpath Curator is our answer to the ChatGPT prompt, with real products on the other side of it. You give it your website and one sentence about what you need. It pulls your logo and your brand colors, picks a collection from products worth keeping, and shows your logo on every piece, in your colors, in about a minute. Everything in the collection can be quoted in one click, from 12 pieces, as onboarding kits, event gear, or a swag store for the team.

It went into public beta on October 20. It is free to run, and the misses are as useful to us as the hits.

Three things that came out of the calls, useful whether or not you use us.

Write the sentence first. "Welcome kits for 30 new engineers starting in January, soft and wearable, around $45 a head" is a brief. A category page is not.

Decide the moment before the product. Onboarding, an event, a thank-you, a store. The right products follow from the use, never the other way around.

Pick eight to ten products, not thirty. A collection reads as a brand. A catalog reads as a budget line.