We have recently been asked to print QR codes on promotional products. We have had great success with these ingenious little checker boards. That’s what we like to call them anyway.

Here are some useful posts about printing QR codes.

• 6 Simple Rules for Printing QR Codes
• Vector QR Code Generator
• What are QR Codes?
• Who Invented QR Codes?

Did you know that these little gems can store more complex information and not just a simple website address? Check out some of these advanced QR codes below.

When you request a quotation from us we will always ask you if you want us to make you a PDF visual so that you can see how your logo looks on the product you are enquiring about.

We Do Not Charge for This Service!

All that we ask is that you reply to the quotation email with the artwork in an Outlined Vector Format EPS file.

PDF or Illustrator AI file is also ok, so long as the artwork is vectored.  We can also in some cases accept hi resolution JPG images.  It depends what you are printing onto and how you are printing.

Over the years we have found many factories in China for wholesale promotional products.  It can sometimes be quite hairy dealing with the far east as you have little or no comeback if the goods come in and are not upto standard. At least if you buy off a company in the UK you have some comeback on quality of product and print.

We have learnt over the years who we can trust and have built up a handful of reliable, good quality suppliers.  We do have some language barriers that tend to be more a source of amusement, than a difficulty when dealing with the far east.

Some of our favourite phrases:

We have had a lot of interest in our data standardisation and promotional products portal.  I’ve outlined on linkedin the various features that we are looking to incorporate.  After discussions with various suppliers we have altered some of the initial specs and data fields.

As per my last 5 posts we are looking to rebuild our database to incorporate a standard set of fields that will be used in all the data feeds, XML, CSV and a HTML version of product data. What this means is that we are set back slightly while we rebuild the database it’s self and remap all the fields on the product pages and within the quotation system it’s self.  

I have added this section as an ongoing list that we will build into over time. The reason for this is so that we can build additional markers and flags that signify certain things.

If you look below you will see the kind of flags we are aiming for.  If you wish anything to be added into the list please post below and I will review it and add it in.

Showing upto date stock levels online is hugely useful.  It saves masses of time and makes you look highly professional.  Only the major suppliers seem to have the technology to do this at the moment.  However,  if you can make your system output a stock report as a csv file we can import it automatically.

I have outlined the format that ProMart will use when outputting the stock data.  Please note the stock level data is exported every 30 mins rather than once a day.  This will give us greater accuracy without having a permanent server process running.

 Most of the issues with images is that everyone supplies them differently.  I’ve started adjusting my previous posts on setting up product data to line up with the new posts about SIF (Standard Industry Format) Please read this post on how to setup images in your product data.

It covers some import aspects about how the pictures should be supplied.  I personally prefer to have all the different colours of a product on one image.

It makes it easier to maintain and that way a quote will always have the right colour product on it. Personally I would not add any extra images at all.  But I have allowed for it in the SIF (Standard Industry Format) so that those who use it have a standardised way of supplying it.

OK onto pricing.  Everyone seems to do this a different way.  Lets move on from that and get an approved SIF (Standard Industry Format) First off we have limited to 5 price breaks.

Having done some internal research on enquiries we have worked out that 93% of all enquiries could be quoted instantly if we had a minimum of 5 price breaks.  This is from data collected over a 6 month period.

As with all the product data formats I have allowed for scalability. The standard titles would be Plain, 1 Colour Print, 2 Colour Print, 3 Colour Print, 4 Colour Print, Full Colour Print.  However by adding the ability to define a title we give ourselves much more versatility in what we can use the fields for.  Engraving/Embroidery or whatever you want to use them for.

This is my first post on standardising industry product data.  It’s been a long time coming and so far I have the backing of several suppliers and 2-3 of the main product portals.

When I have managed to get all the product data fields assigned and created I will use this to build  a new database on ProMart.

Each of these fields will then be able to be exported using scheduled tasks into both csv and xml feeds for all distributors and all the product portals to use.

Well in our new continuing fashion I’m adding blog posts that actually matter to us.  And probably to quite a few others by the look of my internet and seo news feeds.  I’ve not really taken a huge amount of notice to google algorithm updates in the past.

They have never really effected us.  But not this one.  We have been booted below top 50 listings for our main search terms. Well I call them our main search terms although they have historically given us the least traffic.  A month or 2 ago we were No1 for “promotional products” and No2 for “Promotional Items”.  I could finally sit back and bask in the glory and gloat over my own accomplishments.