You’ve invested in eco-merchandising, you’ve distributed the products, you’ve received compliments… but when it’s time to report results to management, you need numbers. The return on investment (ROI) of promotional merchandising isn’t as intangible as it seems if you know what to measure and how to do it.
In this guide we give you a practical framework to quantify the impact of your sustainable merchandising campaigns, with clear metrics and accessible measurement methods.
The 4 dimensions of merchandising ROI
1. Brand impact (Brand Awareness)
Every time someone uses your bottle, bag or notebook with your logo, your brand receives an impression. To calculate the value:
- Cost per impression (CPI): divide the product cost by the estimated number of uses/views. A 6 EUR steel bottle used 300 times a year = 0.02 EUR/impression. Compare with digital advertising CPI (0.003-0.01 EUR).
- Duration of impact: whilst a digital advert lasts seconds, a physical product generates impressions for months or years.
- Brand recall surveys: ask your customers and employees if they remember receiving the gift and how often they use it.
2. Lead generation and sales
For campaigns where merchandising is used as an incentive:
- Unique codes: include a QR code or short URL on the product that links to a landing page. Measure visits and conversions.
- Response rate: if you send merchandising to a prospect list, measure how many respond or book a meeting after receiving it.
- Direct attribution: ask new customers how they found out about your company. «I received a gift from you» is a measurable acquisition channel.
3. Internal engagement (HR)
When merchandising is used for employees:
- eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score): measure before and after merchandising actions.
- Retention: correlate gift programmes with talent retention rates.
- Internal survey participation: satisfaction with corporate gifts influences overall engagement.
4. Environmental impact avoided
This dimension is specific to eco-merchandising and increasingly valued in CSR reports:
- Plastic avoided: X reusable bottles distributed x 167 plastic bottles avoided/year = Y kg of plastic not generated.
- CO2 avoided: calculate the difference in carbon footprint between your eco products and their conventional equivalents.
- Trees preserved: the use of recycled paper and FSC products has a direct equivalent in trees not felled.
Tools to measure
- Google Analytics: set up UTMs in your product QR codes to track visits and conversions from merchandising.
- Post-campaign surveys: tools such as Typeform or Google Forms to measure satisfaction and usage.
- CRM: tag contacts who received merchandising to track their progress through the funnel.
- Social media: monitor mentions and posts where your products appear with a campaign hashtag.
Practical example of ROI calculation
A company sends 500 steel bottles (total cost 4,000 EUR including personalisation) to strategic clients:
- 75 clients schedule a meeting after receiving the gift (response rate: 15%).
- 12 close a new contract (conversion rate: 16% of those who respond).
- Average contract value: 8,000 EUR.
- Attributable revenue: 96,000 EUR.
- ROI: (96,000 – 4,000) / 4,000 = 2,300%.
Although not all contracts are attributable exclusively to the gift, the correlation is clear and measurable.
Start measuring from your first campaign
The best time to set up measurement is before you launch the campaign. Plan your tracking mechanisms when you select the products from our catalogue.
Need help designing a measurable campaign? Get in touch with us and we’ll help you integrate ROI metrics into your next merchandising initiative.
