If you’re exploring swag platforms to elevate your brand’s presence and engage your audience, then you’ve probably heard of BlinkSwag. But what exactly does it offer? And are its features and offerings suitable for your swag and gifting needs? Is its promise of comprehensive swag fulfillment accurate? This review explores the answers to these questions and more, so read on to find out!

Blink Swag Overview

BlinkSwag is a swag management platform founded in 2007 and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Its primary goal is to empower you and your company to create, store, and ship custom-branded swag for employees, customers, and events. It also aims to help with logistics management of swag. Currently, BlinkSwag’s CEO is Abhi Goyal.

Main Features

What are the key features of BlinkSwag? Let’s find out.

Reward store

BlinkSwag offers a customizable reward store where you can incentivize your employees through swag and gift cards. It works by setting up your company’s reward store (including your website URL, logo, and brand colors) and choosing items that your employees can choose from. You can automate points allocation based on your set achievements or reward individual milestones manually. In addition, BlinkSwag provides a dashboard where you can easily manage your employees’ groups, track their points, and reward activity.

Rewards campaign

While the rewards campaign sounds similar to the reward store discussed above, it is more about personalizing your recipients’ experiences while maintaining control over your budget. With this feature, you can create single or bulk reward links, which you can then personalize with your recipients’ emails and your chosen budgets. You’ll be able to send these links via email to start your reward campaign. As for the rewards, you can choose gift cards, company swag items, or physical gifts or baskets.

Budget management

BlinkSwag’s budget management feature will allow you to create and set a budget for your various campaigns, particularly for employee rewards and swag. You can also track your expenses and automate distribution for your reward store and campaign.

Users and role management

If you’re a big company or have various departments, then BlinkSwag’s users and role management is one key feature you can leverage. With this, you can assign roles like admin or finance manager, ensuring users can access only the tasks they need to do. Permissions, such as viewing, approving, and creating orders or redeem pages, for each role can also be customized.

Pricing

Using BlinkSwag’s platform is free, so there’ll be no subscription fees that you’d have to pay monthly. However, there are other fees that you do need to pay in order to fully enjoy BlinkSwag’s offerings. Here are some of them.

Storage fees

If you wish to warehouse your swag items with BlinkSwag, there are fees associated with a certain number of items you’ll store, which will depend if the swag was provided by a third-party or by BlinkSwag itself.

For swag provided by Blink Swag

For swag provided by a third party

To give you an example, based on these fees, if you have 200 medium-sized swag items (from BlinkSwag) that take up 300 cubic feet in total, your storage cost would be $390 per month.

In addition, there will also be a minimum monthly fee of $25, which applies whether or not the swag came from BlinkSwag.

Processing and fulfillment fees

There are also other fees related to fulfillment that you’ll need to take note of.

• Product fulfillment fee - $2.65 per order that contains swag from the warehouse

• Product picking fee - $1.00 per swag from the warehouse

• Pack-in fulfillment fee (per order) and receiving and processing - free

Other fees

Other features, such as shipping, custom integrations, and add in 3rd-party items to swag packs/kits also have extra fees. However, the actual costs for these aren’t disclosed on BlinkSwag’s website, so you’d have to contact their sales or support team for more details.

Pros and Cons

Here are some key advantages and disadvantages of BlinkSwag.

Pros

✅ Free to use platform: BlinkSwag offers its platform free of charge, so you can easily access its catalog. However, you’ll need to book a demo to set up your account and see its capabilities.

✅ Availability of other gift options: Aside from swag, BlinkSwag also offers gift cards, physical gifts, and prepaid Visa cards that you can offer your recipients. Despite the range of its offerings, though, options are limited for international regions, especially in Asia and South America, as BlinkSwag is more focused on the US and EU.

✅ Sustainable swag items: BlinkSwag has a dedicated sustainable tag on its eco-friendly swag items.

✅ Ease of managing users, roles, and budget: One of BlinkSwag’s key advantages is that it aims to simplify the management of user permissions, roles, and budget. This is particularly useful if you have a large team or a strict budget.

Cons

❌ Expensive swag prices: The cheapest swag item in the BlinkSwag catalog as of this date is around $5, while the rest are much more expensive. Adding this price on top of shipping costs and fulfillment fees can make prices skyrocket even further. Additionally, because of its swag prices, BlinkSwag may not be the most cost-effective choice for marketing events that require large quantities of inexpensive swag items.

❌ Low fabric or inconsistent quality for apparel: Some customers have noted that BlinkSwag’s apparel doesn’t always match expectations, citing issues with fabric quality and inconsistencies across orders, despite the price point.

❌ Delivery delays: Clients also observed that BlinkSwag’s logistics management and fulfillment need work, as deliveries can sometimes be delayed.

❌ Less focus on On Demand swag: While BlinkSwag excels at managing bulk orders and curated swag campaigns, it may not be the best fit if you prioritize the ability to order swag with a 1-unit minimum.

❌  Product range isn’t as extensive as some competitors: While BlinkSwag offers swag and gift options, its catalog isn’t as broad or diverse. If you're looking for a wide variety of premium or affordable brands across different categories, you may find the selection somewhat limited. 

❌ US and Europe-centric operations: As a company headquartered in the US, BlinkSwag’s operations are centralized in the US and the EU. This means expensive shipping costs and fewer international gift options for companies with global recipients. Additionally, BlinkSwag only handles custom documentation for EU shipments, meaning you’ll most likely need to manage local tax compliance if you have international swag sends outside said region.

❌ Lack of global warehouse network: As mentioned above, BlinkSwag's operations are focused on the US and Europe, including its warehouses. The clear absence of global warehouses in key regions like Asia and South America leads to longer delivery times and higher shipping costs.

Blink Swag is best for…

… companies with US and EU-based recipients 👍

Due to BlinkSwag’s US and EU warehouses and centralized operations, you might benefit more from the platform if you or your recipients hail from the same regions. Specifically, you’ll get cheaper shipping costs and shorter delivery times due to the proximity of the platform’s warehouse locations.

… leaders looking for other gift options 👍

Looking for other options aside from swag? The BlinkSwag may be a good choice for you, as it also offers gift cards, physical gifts, and prepaid Visa cards. Through these options, you can further personalize your offering or opt for non-physical gifts, which are particularly useful if you have remote teams or recipients.

… department heads who want to incentivize employees 👍

With BlinkSwag’s point (reward) system, you can easily incentivize employees by giving them points for each work milestone or goal they get to achieve, and swapping these points for their preferred swag or gift. This approach can especially boost the morale and engagement of your employees.

Blink Swag may not be a good fit for…

… global companies that have international recipients 👎

While BlinkSwag does offer global fulfillment, its strongest logistics and cost advantages are concentrated in the US and EU. As such, if you have recipients in other regions like Asia, Australia, or India, you will face higher shipping costs and longer delivery times, making the platform less optimal for global swag distribution. Additionally, BlinkSwag only handles the customs and tax compliance for EU swag deliveries, which means you’d have to take care of such things for your recipients in other countries.

… enterprises requiring consistent quality across swag orders 👎

BlinkSwag customer reviews suggest that there are occasional inconsistencies in the platform’s swag quality. This can be a considerable drawback, particularly if you have consistent swag needs or require high-quality items for VIP recipients.

… organizations that look for all-inclusive pricing👎

There’s no all-in-one pricing structure, so you may find it harder to manage budgets effectively, especially when BlinkSwag has different fees for warehousing, fulfillment, and shipping. If you’re looking for clear, all-inclusive pricing with no surprises or additional fees, this setup may feel difficult to manage or scale.

BlinkSwag’s strengths lie in its efficient US and EU fulfillment centers, points-based reward system, and its commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly product options. However, its limited global reach outside the US and EU can increase costs and delay compliance for your international recipients. The potential inconsistency in swag quality and the extra costs they charge are also other notable weaknesses that you should factor into your decision-making.

Looking for high-quality global swag solutions? Explore the best Blink Swag alternatives

If your team is mostly based in the US or EU and you're looking for a flexible rewards system with warehousing support, BlinkSwag can be a strong option. But if you need a more globally capable, scalable, or premium-quality solution, you may want to explore alternatives that offer more transparent pricing, consistent quality, and broader reach.

Blink Swag vs PerkUp, the #1 platform for all-inclusive pricing and international and high-quality swag

When considering BlinkSwag and PerkUp, each platform has distinct strengths that may suit different company needs. BlinkSwag is known for capable regional fulfillment in the US and EU and a flexible swag and rewards platform with employee incentive features and good logistics management. PerkUp, on the other hand, is built for global teams, offering reliable international shipping to over 65 countries, a curated catalog of high-quality swag, and comprehensive fulfillment across the US, EU, and beyond.

If you’re trying to decide which platform is right for your team, we’ve broken down the key differences in fulfillment, pricing, automation, and global reach in our BlinkSwag vs PerkUp article. Read this analysis and understand why companies like Microsoft and ChowNow choose PerkUp.