Survey Success

Thanks to all those who took part in our October surveys (one for buyers and one for suppliers), we now have a deeper understanding of you, your buying habits, budgets and of the way you use the website. This information is invaluable in assisting us to continue to improve the site in line with your requirements.

The buyers' survey revealed that it's mostly SME's (64% of respondents) that use the site, although 13% are large corporates. Most respondents (39%) purchase between one and three times a year, with a healthy 27% buying 10 or more times per annum. 55% have an annual budget for promotional items in excess of 5k with 10% holding a budget of more than 125k.

Their favoured source for promotional items is search engines (28%) followed by online directories (23%) promotional supplier websites (22%) with 17% favouring magazines and just 8% exhibitions. This contrasts with the findings of the recent BPMA report which cites exhibitions as the place where buyers are most likely to source new products. However, some of the BPMA research was carried out at an exhibition, and our research was carried out online. So, it could be a case of horses for courses.

Most buyers (86%) value promotional-merchandise.org.uk as either good or excellent. Interestingly, the Promo News section is now more popular than the Quick Quotes board (so suppliers, keep sending us your news items). The Supplier Directory gets by far the most traffic with 47% of respondents declaring they visit it most often.

It's reassuring to know that over 50% of respondent buyers were of MD/CEO/President/Director/Marketing or Brand Manager status. The most important factors they are looking for when buying promo goods is price and product range/quality, both scoring 28%.

Our supplier survey told us that 36% of respondents quote their average online order value as under 1k, however 15% receive average orders in excess of 10k, including 3% with online orders in excess of 60k.

Both buyers (71%) and suppliers (40%) favoured receiving their Promo Newsletter monthly.

So we know that it's mostly executive-level buyers who use this site, they value the site as a useful tool and they like the frequency with which we issue news. Our suppliers tell us they spend approximately half of the marketing and advertising budget on the Internet, so we are offering them the platform they require. But we are not complacent and we will be using the findings of these surveys to continue to improve promotional-merchandise.org.uk In the meantime, don't wait for another survey, we are always open to constructive criticism and ideas, so keep in touch.

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