This article explains the difference between on-demand and bulk swag in PerkUp so you can decide which one fits your situation. Both live under Swag in your admin dashboard, but they're built for different needs.
What is on-demand swag?
On-demand swag is priced and printed per unit, per order — there's no minimum quantity and no inventory held anywhere. You browse blank products in the On-Demand catalog, upload your logo once, and either quick-add a product with an auto-generated mockup or open the design editor to customize placement, print technique, and colors yourself. Each product you save is added automatically to your organization's default swag collection, ready for members to redeem.
Because each unit is printed only when it's ordered, on-demand is the fastest way to get a design live and works well for ongoing, individual redemptions — think a single hoodie a new hire redeems, or a mug an employee picks from the swag store.
What is bulk swag?
Bulk swag is priced in quantity tiers with a minimum order quantity (MOQ) per product, and it runs through a production process: you build a cart, choose shipping allocations, get the order approved, pay, review production proofs, and then the order moves through production to delivery. Sample orders of quantity 1 are allowed if you want to check quality before committing to a full run.
Bulk orders can be allocated to a PerkUp warehouse, which stocks the units so you can draw from inventory later — for example, to hand out at events or send through a redemption page — rather than placing a new order every time. Bulk designs are saved automatically and versioned each time you add a customized product to the cart, so you always know exactly which design version shipped in a given order.
How do I decide which one to use?
Use on-demand swag when you want:
A single item or small, ongoing trickle of orders with no minimum quantity
The fastest path from design to a redeemable product
No inventory to manage — nothing is printed until someone orders it
Use bulk swag when you want:
A larger quantity at a lower per-unit price
Kits (multiple items bundled and shipped together, such as a welcome kit for new hires)
Inventory stocked at a PerkUp warehouse for repeated use, or units shipped to specific event locations
A formal proofing and approval step before production starts
What if the product I want isn't in the on-demand catalog?
The on-demand catalog carries a curated set of blank products. If you need something that isn't listed there, the bulk catalog carries a much wider range (subject to quantity minimums), and PerkUp can often source specific products for bulk orders. There's no in-app "request a product" flow for this — contact support through the messenger in your dashboard to ask.
Can I use both at the same time?
Yes. On-demand and bulk products can both live in your published collections and appear together in your swag store. Many organizations use on-demand for everyday redemptions and bulk for larger runs, kits, or items they want stocked and ready to ship immediately.