Gradient Financial Group - Case Study

Case Study - Gradient Financial Group

Gradient Financial Group has over 300 employees and serves independent financial service services professionals across the country.

The Problem

Gradient approached Imprint Engine in 2019 seeking solutions to several challenges they were facing, which are typical for many of our clients:

Inconsistent Product Quality

Working with multiple vendors to source products and print, resulting in unreliable quality, missed deadlines, pricing & product inconsistency.

Not Efficient

No efficient system for their team to order these items and had been manually processing orders utilizing inefficient methods.

Frustrated Employees

Their marketing team was assembling items into kits and distributing them, causing clutter, extra work, and frustration among employees.

The Imprint Engine Solution

We created a Custom E-Commerce store as a central location for employees, consolidated inventory sourcing and management, created a custom point store for employees to shop in, and helped organize gifts and a company site for their annual all employee meeting.

Custom E-Commerce Store

We created a customized e-commerce store that acts as the centralized hub for all marketing and sales materials utilized by their independent advisors and employees all over the country. The store contains both print and promotional products, with many of the print items having web-to-print or “design online” capabilities. This makes it simple for people to do things like order their own business cards or update a marketing piece with details specific to their individual practice and send to print directly through the website. Customers can select their shipping preference on every order, and receive order updates and shipping confirmation with tracking for a seamless ordering experience.

Inventory Sourcing and Management

Our product and trend specialists have helped Gradient create a store full of top quality products that their teams and customers love. We hold all of their inventory in our warehouse so when orders are placed through the site our dedicated warehouse team packages them up and ships them out wherever they need to go. Many orders contain custom individual notes and other elaborate packaging methods to provide the recipient with a customized and unique experience. We provide monthly inventory reports along with reorder recommendations, so they never have to worry about tracking their inventory levels or staying ahead of re-orders.

Holiday Gifting - Custom Point Store

In 2020, Gradient decided they wanted to create a holiday store for all of their customers and employees to pick out their own holiday gifts. Every user was assigned a “point value” between 1-4 points which equated to $100-$400 that they could spend in the store. We created 4 unique Imprint Engine Express shops for them, with one containing only 1 point items, one containing 1 and 2 point items, one containing 1-3 point items, and one containing all items 1-4 points. This enabled each user to be exposed only to items they had enough points to purchase, so they didn’t feel like others had gotten more points than them. The program was wildly successful and has become and annual event ever since.

Annual All Employee Meeting

Every year Gradient hosts an all team meeting for their 700+ employees and advisors. For this event we create an Imprint Engine Express site for all attendees to select the gift items and company branded apparel they receive at the event. Guests are able to quickly select their preferred items and sizes so we can efficiently order the items for the event and ensure everyone gets exactly what they want. We then assemble custom kits at our warehouse that are given out to all guests at check-in, ensuring a high touch experience for all guests. This was all previously handled by the in-house marketing team at Gradient and would take them several weeks of coordination leading up the event, and always resulted in errors and a rocky experience for their guests at the event.