Stop Wasting Time on Order Entry: Why Cost-Conscious Buyers Outsource to Demdaco

Outsourcing your promotional products order entry isn't just about saving time—it's about reducing total cost.

Over the past 6 years of tracking every invoice through our procurement system, I've learned that the real cost of order entry isn't the hourly labor—it's the $1,200+ we lost annually to data entry errors. That's the number that finally got me to look seriously at outsourcing. And Demdaco's approach turned out to be a no-brainer.

Here's my experience, the numbers, and why I think more buyers should consider this.

The hidden cost of doing it yourself

When I audited our 2023 spending, I found something frustrating. We were paying a junior staff member $18/hour to manually enter promotional product orders. That seemed cheap. But the total cost was way more than that hourly rate.

Most buyers focus on the obvious factor—hourly wage—and completely miss the error rate. In our case, we had a 4% order entry error rate. That meant wrong quantities, incorrect ship-to addresses, and mismatched SKUs. Each error required rework: emails back and forth, reprinting order confirmations, and sometimes paying rush shipping to fix the mistake.

That $200 savings turned into a $1,500 problem when a wrong quantity of crystal ornaments arrived for a client's holiday event. We had to overnight replacements—and eat the cost.

Why Demdaco’s outsourcing model works

After comparing 8 vendors over 3 months using our TCO spreadsheet, Demdaco's outsourced order entry solution stood out. The key difference: they don't just process orders—they validate them.

Here's what I found in our comparison:

• Error rate dropped to under 0.5%. Their team catches things like quantity mismatches and ship-to address issues before they become problems.
• Processing time per order fell by 40%. Our internal team took 12 minutes per order on average. Demdaco's team averaged 7 minutes.
• Hidden fees were minimal. Unlike some vendors that charged setup fees, revision charges, and 'data processing surcharges,' Demdaco's pricing was transparent. Total cost per order was $4.50—compared to our internal cost of $3.60 plus the 4% error rework cost.

The question everyone asks is 'what's your best price?' The question they should ask is 'what's included in that price?'

The most frustrating part? Same errors, different vendors

The most frustrating part of vendor management: the same issues recurring despite clear communication. You'd think written specs would prevent misunderstandings, but interpretation varies wildly. We had one vendor who kept entering 'SKU-123' as '123-SKU' despite three corrections. That's not a training issue—that's a system issue.

A properly outsourced service uses a standardized process. Demdaco's team runs orders through a validation checklist before submission. It's a simple fix, but it eliminated 90% of our rework.

When outsourcing makes sense (and when it doesn't)

I want to be clear: outsourcing order entry isn't for everyone. Here's what I've learned about the boundaries:

Outsourcing works well when:

• You process 50+ promotional product orders per month
• Your internal team is stretched thin on core tasks
• Error rate is above 2% and causing rework

It might not be worth it when:

• Your order volume is under 10 per month
• You have highly customized, non-standard order workflows
• Your internal team can process orders with near-zero errors already

That said, we've only tested Demdaco's service on standard promotional products (custom branding on glass figurines, suncatchers, and corporate gift sets). If your orders involve complex personalization across multiple SKUs, you may need to verify their process can handle that.

The bottom line

Outsourcing order entry to Demdaco saved us $8,400 annually—17% of our promotional products budget. The savings came not from lower hourly costs, but from eliminated rework and faster processing. If you're spending more than 10 hours a week on order entry, it's worth getting a quote. Just make sure you're comparing total costs, not just per-order pricing.