If you are the person who manages employee uniforms, onboarding kits, or branded merchandise at your company, you already know how the process usually goes. Someone sends a group email asking for shirt sizes. Half the team does not reply. You place a bulk order, overpay for sizes nobody wanted, and end up with 14 medium polos sitting in a storage room. Six months later, a new hire starts and there is nothing left in their size.
There is a better way to handle this, and it does not require you to become a logistics coordinator on top of everything else on your plate.
This article walks through how company stores work from an HR operations standpoint — what the store models cost, how employee payments are handled, what you need to launch one, and what to expect once it is running. If you are ready to look at the service itself, you can go directly to our custom company webstores page. If you want to understand the options first, keep reading.
Why HR Teams Turn to Company Stores
A company store is a private, branded online shop set up specifically for your employees, customers, or partners. It lives at a custom URL, shows only your approved products, and handles ordering, payment, and fulfillment without HR involvement after setup.
The tasks it removes from your plate include:
- Collecting sizes and product preferences across departments or locations
- Chasing down payments or processing reimbursements
- Managing inventory and dealing with overstock
- Coordinating shipments to employees in multiple offices or remote locations
- Repeating this entire process every time you onboard someone new
Once the store is live, employees log in, choose from a pre-approved selection of branded merchandise, and place their own orders. You get a report. You do not touch the transaction.
Why HR Managers Love Company Stores
HR managers manage countless responsibilities, and handling employee merchandise can often feel overwhelming. That’s where company stores come in, offering a hassle-free solution to common challenges like tracking orders, managing inventory, and collecting payments. Here’s how they simplify HR management:
- No Inventory Requirements: Only pay for what’s ordered, eliminating overstock and waste.
- Purchase-on-Demand: Employees can order items as needed, avoiding bulk order logistics.
- Employee Involvement: Allow employees or committees to choose apparel options, reducing guesswork for HR teams.
- Gift Certificate Integration: Employees can redeem preloaded gift certificates, streamlining the selection process.
- Multi-Location Compatibility: Employees from various locations can order directly through the platform.
- Eliminates Payment Collection: Online payment options and payroll deductions handle transactions seamlessly.
By reducing administrative overhead, company stores let HR managers focus on what truly matters: supporting their teams.
The Two Store Models, and Which One Fits Your Company
Not every company needs the same type of store. Northwest Custom Apparel offers two models, and the right one depends on how your company orders and who pays.
Open/Close Store
The open/close store runs for a set period — typically two to four weeks — and then closes. During that window, employees place their orders. After the window closes, we produce and ship everything in one batch.
This model works well for seasonal ordering, new hire onboarding cycles, annual uniform refreshes, or company events where everyone needs gear by a specific date.
Fees: $2.00 surcharge per item for processing and handling. Net 10 billing is available with an approved credit application, meaning the company receives one invoice rather than managing individual employee payments.
On-Demand Store
The on-demand store stays open year-round. Employees order whenever they need something — a new hire on their first day, a team member who needs a replacement jacket in March, a manager ordering branded gear for a client visit.
This model fits companies with steady new hire flow, distributed teams, or ongoing uniform needs that do not follow a predictable calendar.
Fees: $10.00 surcharge per item. Payment is handled by credit card at the time of order, either by the employee directly or through a company account.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Open/Close Store | On-Demand Store | |
|---|---|---|
| Store availability | Set window (2–4 weeks) | Year-round |
| Best for | Seasonal programs, events, onboarding cycles | Continuous access, remote teams |
| Per-item surcharge | $2.00 | $10.00 |
| Billing | Net 10 (with credit approval) or employee pays | Credit card at time of order |
| Production | Batched after close | Individual orders as placed |
Costs that apply to both models:
- Store setup fee: $300 (one-time)
- Logo setup fee: $100 (one-time)
- Minimum order guarantee: $2,000
How Employee Payments Work – No More Chasing People Down
One of the first questions HR managers ask is who handles the money. The short answer: not you.
Payment is structured based on which model you choose and what your company prefers:
Employee pays directly. The employee enters their credit card at checkout, the same way they would order anything online. HR never touches the transaction.
Company billing (open/close stores). With an approved credit application, Northwest Custom Apparel invoices your company on a Net 10 basis after the store closes. This works well if your company provides branded apparel as part of the employment package or if you want to subsidize the cost for employees.
Gift codes and coupons. You can pre-load store credit for employees. This works well for welcome kits, milestone recognition, or company programs where employees choose their own items within a set budget.
All of these options mean the payment process runs without HR coordinating it. The store handles the transaction. You receive a fulfillment report.
What Goes in the Store
The products in your store are selected from our catalog, which includes everything from custom embroidered polos and caps to screen-printed t-shirts, DTG-printed shirts, outerwear, bags, and promotional products like mugs and drinkware.
For companies running a full corporate workwear uniform program, the store handles the distribution side of what would otherwise be a recurring logistics project.
One practical recommendation from our team: keep your store to four to six product styles. More options create decision fatigue for employees and make production less efficient. Pick the items your team will actually wear — a polo, a t-shirt, a hat, and an outerwear piece covers most programs well. We help you select the right products during the consultation.
A Real Example – How Arrow Lumber Uses Branded Apparel
Arrow Lumber, a building and construction supply company, faced a challenge that many Washington businesses recognize. Their customers such as contractors and tradespeople, spend their days on job sites, not in front of computers. Traditional advertising did not reach them where they worked.
Their solution was to partner with Northwest Custom Apparel and shift their marketing spend toward branded caps and digitally printed t-shirts. Instead of running ads that contractors would never see, they put Arrow Lumber’s logo on gear that contractors wore every day.
The result: their logo showed up on job sites, in lumber yards, and at trade gatherings — worn by people who already trusted the brand. When Arrow Lumber’s CEO Barney Wagner and his team come back to reorder because their shelves are empty, that is the measure of whether the strategy works.
You can read the full story in the Arrow Lumber branded apparel case study.
The lesson for HR teams is the same one Arrow Lumber applied to marketing: when the distribution problem is solved — when employees or customers can order what they need without a coordinator in the middle — the program actually runs. People wear the gear. The brand shows up consistently.
Questions to Ask Before You Launch
If your team orders predictably — quarterly, annually, or during onboarding — an open/close store batches everything efficiently at lower per-item cost. If your hiring is unpredictable or your team is spread across locations, an on-demand store removes the constraint of a fixed ordering window.
If the company covers the cost, use Net 10 billing through the open/close model or set up a company account for the on-demand store. If employees pay for their own gear or for upgrades beyond a company-provided allowance, direct credit card checkout handles it cleanly.
Four to six styles is the proven range for usability and production efficiency. We recommend one embroidered item (polo or cap), one printed item (t-shirt or hoodie), and one outerwear piece as a core set. Add from there only if there is a clear need.
The minimum order guarantee is $2,000 across the life of the store. For most companies running a uniform program, a single ordering cycle covers this. The one-time setup costs are $300 for the store and $100 for logo digitizing.
Standard setup runs 7 to 10 business days from the time we have your logo files, product selections, and payment preferences confirmed. If everything is ready on day one, we can launch in one to two days. There is no complex integration required — the store runs on our platform and links to your existing HR communications however you choose to share it.
How to Get Started
Setting up a company store with Northwest Custom Apparel starts with a short consultation. We discuss what your program needs, which store model fits, how you want to handle payment, and which products make sense for your team. From there, we build the store, send you a review link, and launch once you approve.
You provide: your logo in vector format, a sense of which products you want to offer, and your preferred payment setup.
We handle: store build, product sourcing, order fulfillment, and shipping directly to your office or individual employees.
To see full store details, pricing, and examples, visit our custom company webstores page. To talk through your specific program, contact our team or start a quote and we will get back to you the same business day.
About the Author
Erik Mickelson has been working in the custom apparel industry since graduating from Washington State University in 1996. He is the founder of the Apparel Graphic Academy and the author of the Northwest Custom Apparel blog.
