Minnesota Business Highlight: All About Merchology

We're Celebrating Ten Years of Gifting Together

Ten years ago this month, Merchology emerged onto the corporate gifting and apparel scene. It was 2014, and the bulk of custom merchandise was ordered by catalog via in-person salespeople. Merchology’s founders, Dick Ward, Ally Ward Delgado, and Andrew Ward, wanted to take Dick’s 28 years of experience in the corporate apparel industry and create a newer, better business model.

The vision behind Merchology was to design an e-commerce platform that made it faster, easier, and more convenient for companies to order quality branded merchandise. No more circling the products you need in catalogs, struggling to collect your employees’ addresses and clothing sizes, or waiting until salespeople come to you. With just 11 employees at the start, Merchology was launched!

Now, on Merchology’s 10th anniversary, we have more than 250 employees across three locations including Plymouth, MN, Reno, NV, and Harrisburg, PA! Over the last decade, Merchology has worked with more than 65,000 businesses, including 90% of the current Fortune 500, to provide premium branded merchandise. We offer more than 300 brands for businesses to shop and customize! Merchology provides custom apparel, drinkware, accessories, and promotional items to businesses for corporate events, team uniforms, employee appreciation, trade show giveaways, charity fundraisers, and much more.

Merchology Develops Unique Merch Solutions

Further pursuing the vision Merchology was founded upon, we launched a series of unique online gifting tools called Merch Solutions! Included in this toolbox is a group ordering tool that allows teams to easily collect their employees’ information and a merch store tool where employees can shop for branded products from a pre-selected storefront. These choice-based corporate gifting options give employees the chance to opt for products they really want, and it takes the pressure to choose perfect gifts off of administrators.

Also included in the lineup of Merch Solutions is our Buy Now, Ship Later tool! This program allows businesses to order branded products in bulk while inventory is high and have them shipped at any quantity, any time they’re needed. With this delivery option, companies don’t have to worry about storing boxes of uniforms or accessories—we store the orders in our temperature- and moisture-controlled warehouse.

Merchology believes that truly impactful gifts require a personal touch. We created a custom gift box tool for curating and branding unique gift sets! Companies can start from a wide selection of themed gift sets, or build their own entirely! These curated gift sets are perfect for employee recognition, corporate events, and holiday gifts for your team.

Another aspect that sets Merchology apart is that we decorate and customize products in-house! Our facilities have embroidery, laser-engraving, heat transfer, and printing capabilities on location, which allows closer quality control and faster lead times overall. Recently, we added direct-to-film printing to its decoration methods roster. Direct-to-film is a printing method that allows expedited lead times and durable logo decoration designed to last!

Merchology in the Press

Merchology has been publicly recognized on several occasions for its impressive achievements. Due to our rapid growth, Merchology has been named one of Minnesota’s fastest-growing businesses by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal ( three times) and one of Inc.5000’s Fastest-Growing Companies (four times). Merchology has made two appearances on the Newsweek Top Online Shop Awards list and has been named a Star Tribune Top Workplace on three occasions. Our other awards include recognition for sustainability initiatives and its position as a competitive family-owned business.

Sustainability at Merchology

At Merchology, we keep a sharp focus on sustainable, ethical business practices. In 2019, founder Dick Ward launched the in-house brand Zusa. The vision behind Zusa was to offer a complete line of sustainable apparel and accessories so businesses could shop responsibly for company uniforms and gifts. Since its inception, Zusa has recycled more than 6 million plastic water bottles, achieved carbon neutrality, and most recently, announced its B Corp certification!

Merchology partners with 1% For The Planet through Zusa and Patagonia Sales, and we work with a long list of sustainable and ethical brands to provide customers with countless responsibly sourced products!

Merchology’s Core Values

Merchology takes pride in setting yearly goals that align with our five Core Values. In everything, we strive to:

• Be Humble & Hungry: We’re always working to do better than we did yesterday. We stay focused on our goals and grounded in hard work.
• Honor Commitments: We take responsibility for the quality of our products and our services.
• Embrace Change: We pay attention to the evolving needs of our customers and constantly seek new and better ways to serve them.
• Protect the Planet: We seek to manage our business in a way that protects the environment and preserves the earth’s natural resources.
• Win as a Team: When something awesome happens, we all get in on the celebration. We are interdependent and inclusive, and we can only WIN when we do it together!

Reach Out Today

Want to learn more about Merchology and how you can find the perfect custom merch? Reach out to us today!