Avail Swag Overview

Avail Swag, founded in 2008, is a swag management platform based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It aims to help companies source, manage, and distribute swag by handling customization, fulfillment, and distribution. The platform’s offering revolves around custom, branded swag with simplified execution and support.

Main Features

Private labeling

This feature is one of Avail Swag’s key characteristics; it allows the platform to provide you with branded swag that looks polished and truly customized. With this feature, you can add custom tags, woven labels, printed taping, retail-style packaging, and more to your swag items.

Gifting campaigns

Avail Swag will provide you with guidance to ensure that your swag selection fits your goals. To do this, its swag experts will participate in a creative brainstorming session with you where you can develop ideas that are unique and aligned with your brand personality. You can give feedback and select swag items that match your project’s budget and audience.

Swag store

There are three different types of swag stores available for you on the Avail Swag platform. These are fulfillment stores, pop-up stores, and on-demand stores. A fulfillment store allows you to hold inventory and ship orders as they come in. This is most commonly used for ongoing swag programs. Pop-up stores, on the other hand, are time-limited shops, most suitable for launches or seasonal swag drops. It collects and processes orders in batches. Lastly, the on-demand store, as the name implies, offers your recipients made-to-order swag items. This means you won’t need to hold inventory as swag items will only be processed when they’re ordered. All of these types give you more flexibility when it comes to your online storefront.

Project planner

When starting a new swag initiative, Avail can help guide you through the process. Its team will provide you with questions regarding the swag items you want to include, the project’s name and budget, the shipping and delivery timeline, your target audience, and your request options. This can be especially helpful if you’re busy managing other projects.

Pricing

It’s free to use the Avail Swag platform, meaning you won’t need to pay a monthly subscription fee to order swag from its website.

The features included in this free use are the project planner, gifting engine, CRM and HR integrations, and fulfillment. You will also get support from the Avail Swag team and have access to department permissions and top retail brands.

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Free platform sign-up and usage: As mentioned above, Avail Swag is free to use with no recurring subscription fees.

✅ Offers On Demand swag and bulk swag: On the platform, you’ll be able to access both On Demand and bulk swag, which you can leverage depending on your needs.

✅ Curated swag kits: Avail Swag offers swag kits that are tailored depending on your use case, may it be for onboarding or client gifting.

✅ Recipient-choice gifting: With Avail Swag, you can also offer your recipients a branded catalog where they can choose their preferred swag.

✅ HRIS and CRM integrations: Integrations such as Workday and Salesforce are available on the Avail Swag platform.

✅ User-friendly platform: Users commend how easy it is to use the Avail Swag platform.

Cons

❌ Limited visibility into warehousing capabilities: There isn’t enough information about Avail Swag’s warehousing locations and capabilities. This can make it difficult to assess whether the platform can support large-scale or long-term storage needs.

❌ Unclear capabilities on global shipping and fulfillment: While Avail Swag states it offers “global fulfillment,” it doesn’t clarify which countries it supports, how duties and taxes are handled, or whether it has international warehousing partners. That vagueness may pose a lot of questions if you’re shipping to global teams or clients.

❌ Lack of cost transparency: The platform doesn’t clearly outline shipping rates, international surcharges, warehousing fees, or decoration method costs.

❌ Limited gift options outside of swag: Avail Swag doesn’t offer physical gifts, gift cards, charitable donations, or curated experiences, limiting your flexibility if you want to offer non-physical gifting options.

❌ Reliance on swag reps for basic/minor tasks: Some users complain that they need to ask their swag rep to see options for new products. Other users also wish to have the freedom and flexibility to restock their own swag inventory and access decoration method costs by themselves. 

❌ Lack of clear sustainability efforts: Avail Swag has no sustainability page detailing its efforts to ensure sustainability in its swag approach.

Avail Swag is best for…

… US-based companies looking for On Demand and bulk swag options 👍

Avail Swag supports both On Demand swag and bulk swag ordering, which makes it a solid option if your company or recipients are based in the US. Since the platform has its warehouse in North Carolina, you can also be more confident with the efficiency of your swag shipments within the continental US.

… businesses that don’t want monthly recurring subscription fees 👍

Unlike some competitors that require platform or usage fees, Avail Swag operates without monthly subscriptions. That makes it a more cost-effective solution if you want to avoid recurring software charges or long-term contracts. This also makes it a good choice if you only have one-off swag campaigns or occasional gifting programs.

… organizations wishing to use online swag stores for various use cases 👍

With Avail Swag’s different types of swag stores (fulfillment store, pop-up store, and on-demand store), you can select which options are most suitable for your goal or campaign, whether you need On Demand and bulk swag items. It also provides more flexibility when you have simultaneous campaigns requiring swag stores. 

Avail Swag may not be a good fit for…

… global companies with international recipients 👎

Avail doesn’t delve into detail about how it supports global fulfillment. For example, it doesn’t have a publicly accessible breakdown of the platform’s supported countries, customs handling process, international delivery costs, regional warehousing capabilities, and global tax compliance. Such a lack of transparency can make it more complicated for you to know if Avail Swag can truly support your global swag campaigns.

… enterprises with consistent warehousing needs 👎

If you’re looking for a platform with a distributed warehousing network, then Avail Swag may not be it. According to the platform’s public information, its warehouse/headquarters is in  Charlotte, North Carolina; however, there is no other information outlining its warehouse capabilities. If you’re an enterprise managing thousands of swag items across multiple campaigns or departments, this lack of information may cause you to think twice and consider other platforms with more transparency on their warehousing services.

… organizations seeking more swag and gift options 👎

Localized physical gifts, gift cards, and experiential gifts aren’t offered by Avail Swag. This is because the platform is mostly focused on swag; as such, if you’re looking for more flexible or non-physical options for your employees and clients, then Avail Swag’s catalog may feel too limiting.

… businesses that prioritize sustainability in their swag campaigns👎

Sustainability is increasingly important in corporate gifting. Yet, Avail offers no public details about how it sources eco-friendly products, minimizes waste, or offsets its environmental footprint. Specifically, it doesn’t have a dedicated sustainability page or mention of sustainable sourcing practices. If your company values transparency and wants to align its swag strategy with ESG goals, the lack of Avail Swag’s visible sustainability commitment could be a deterrent.

Avail Swag is a good choice if you want to keep swag simple, especially because its strengths lie in the basics: easy campaign tools, personal touches like handwritten notes, and the ability to launch different types of branded swag stores. If you’re a US-based team looking to send swag in bulk or on demand and want no recurring fees, Avail Swag can be it.

That said, Avail Swag’s offering can also feel limited if you’re looking for something more flexible or clearer. For instance, its information on international shipping is vague, the warehousing capabilities aren’t clearly outlined, and many tasks require going through a swag rep. There’s no visibility into key costs like shipping, duties, or decoration fees, and the platform doesn’t offer digital gifts, experiences, or sustainability commitments. It’s focused on swag only, and not always self-serve.

Looking for more comprehensive swag solutions? Explore the best Avail Swag alternatives

If you want to explore broader, more global swag solutions, there are several Avail Swag alternatives like PerkUp and SwagUp that you can consider. Such platforms have more capabilities regarding international warehousing, localized fulfillment, and extensive gift and gift card catalogs. See what other swag platforms offer on this Avail Swag alternatives list.

Avail Swag vs PerkUp, the #1 global platform for flexible swag and gifting options and clear pricing

If you’re weighing your options between Avail Swag and PerkUp, the differences become clear once you look beyond the basics. While both platforms deliver user-friendly swag management and creative branding options, PerkUp is built for true international scale. With fulfillment warehouses across the US, UK, Europe, India, Hong Kong, and Australia, PerkUp provides local and international fulfillment for swag and gifts, while also ensuring transparency across its services. Of course, there are many other differences between these two platforms, so be sure to check out our Avail Swag vs PerkUp comparison. Read it and learn why companies like Wellhub and Gen II trust PerkUp with their swag needs.