The reason cheap stress balls and many other promotional products are so affordable is because they are manufactured in countries where U.S.-based companies can produce them at very low cost. Asia, of course, is the center of this low-cost manufacturing activity, and China in particular. But that means that if circumstances in that country negatively affect the ability of manufacturing plants to produce or ship promotional stress balls and similar products, the customer here in the U.S. ends up feeling the crunch. The average U.S. citizen may not notice this story on the news, but for companies that regularly buy cheap stress balls in bulk, it could have a real impact. Here’s how manufacturing complications in China—plus a projected hike in shipping prices—may soon make cheap stress balls a little less cheap!
Inspections in China
At the moment, Chinese companies are approaching a deadline that was set for them back in 2013. The deadline concerns pollution created by manufacturing plants, including the ones that produce those funny stress balls that so many companies use in marketing. Government inspections at those plants have ramped up recently, and it’s expected that they will continue to do so for the next six months or so. If plants fail their inspections, the penalties have the potential to bring production to a halt, reducing the availability of stress relief balls, increasing their price for the end users, and causing order turnaround times to become much longer.
Despite China’s eagerness to join the rest of the developed world in reducing carbon emissions and to do its part for the environment, the reality is that over the past decades, the facilities that produce cheap stress balls and similar items were launched in a “wild West” atmosphere, with very few restrictions on what sort of emissions were allowed and in what quantities. Today, those facilities are having to backtrack and alter their systems in order to comply with the government’s new restrictions, a process that costs a lot of money. Over the next six months, those costs are expected to be passed on, in some form, to the end users of those logo stress balls.
To make matters worse, the Chinese New Year celebration takes place on February 18, 2018. This nationwide holiday brings production to a halt, and will restrict things even further for companies that need to get items from Chinese manufacturing facilities to U.S. ports on a deadline.
Increased Shipping Expenses on Cheap Stress Balls
Shipping costs have always been an unpleasant but necessary reality in the process of obtaining cheap stress balls. FedEx, UPS, and other shipping companies seem to have a supernatural ability to get items to your company’s front desk in no time…as long as the price is right.As the logistics and expense of moving mass amounts of cargo around the United States increases, you can expect a rate increase not only for expedited air shipping but also ground shipping every year. Clearly, businesses that order squeezable, sports, and brain stress balls will feel the effects of these higher shipping expenses and may be forced to rethink their marketing budgets.
The Solution for Cheap Stress Balls
So, what’s our purpose in passing on all of this bad news to you? It’s to let you know that you can avoid suffering shipping delays and increased costs for your personalized stress balls by placing your orders before the anticipated effects trickle down to the end users. Looking ahead has always been an important part of successfully managing promotional campaigns, but now it is more important than ever. Instead of waiting to order cheap stress balls until the last minute, you’ll want to anticipate the following year’s promotional campaigns, calculate the types and quantities of promotional products that you will need, and place your orders as soon as possible. Once you get your items shipped at current rates, you can store them and rest easy as production bottlenecks, rising shipping costs, and other issues make things more difficult for those who didn’t plan ahead.
Scheduling and stocking the best stress balls for your promotional campaigns, trade show giveaways, community events, and other efforts months in advance may sound like a daunting task. It does take some careful thought and budgeting, but in the long run it does save everyone a lot of headache, and it helps you avoid a stock issue or situation in which your company is forced to pay additional costs for a rush order on cheap stress balls in order to get them in for a quickly approaching event. Our blog is filled with tips and advice on how to use seasonal factors like sporting event schedules, monthly observances, the school year, and others to help you organize your use of different types of cheap stress balls to most effectively market your services. Linking your company’s recognizable colors, logo, and slogan with popular sports and other symbols through promotional stress balls is something that you can easily do ahead of time, setting your marketing division up for success over the coming year.
Your Source for Bulk Stress Balls
Whatever happens to impact the production and shipment of cheap stress balls to U.S. customers, whether it be emissions inspections for manufacturers, shipping price increases, or something unexpected that’s just around the corner, you can count on one thing for sure. The team at 1001StressBalls.com will be “on the ball” to do whatever is possible to keep your prices low and to get your shipments to you in time for your special events. We’ve been in the business a long time, and we’ve seen a lot of changes in the industry. Through them all, our customers have learned that they can count on us to come through with high quality, attractive promotional products that represent their company, organization, school, or non-profit in the best way possible. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve marketing excellence over the next year and beyond through the use of custom stress balls.
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