Inventory management can be a challenge for any size company. Many start-up companies have limited space but want to offer large product lines to their customers or staff. The challenge is the cost and work involved with managing your inventory in a warehouse. Today’s consumer also expects fast shipping at a low price.

It’s safe to say that major brands like CostSmart have changed the way product fulfilment succeeds in terms of streamlining warehousing, logistics and distribution. The speed at which CostSmart and many other organisations can turn around and deliver orders has created a consumer expectation that affects every commerce business. Off-site inventory management is the perfect solution to this problem.

Cost-Effective Warehousing

The speed at which CostSmart can turn around and deliver orders has created a consumer expectation that affects every commerce business. Off-site warehousing ensures your orders are promptly and efficiently packaged and delivered with a proven SKU processing system, reducing the chance of costly mistakes and consumer and staff dissatisfaction. Inventory can be carefully monitored and analysed according to the flow of demand.

Since inventory management is the specialty of our off-site warehousing solution, we are able to engage in bulk shipping, drastically reducing the shipping costs of products. We also cut costs through methods such as C-Code Methodology. These savings are passed on to your company and to your customers!

Inventory Management Experts

Off-site warehousing provides a reliable level of control over the flow of your inventory in and out of our business, ensuring stock is managed at minimal cost. CostSmart is a reputable warehouse and distribution partner and is well equipped to handle stock, maintenance and distribution of your items because we can leverage our existing logistical pipeline to ensure your products get where they need to go.

Whether you are gathering supplies from third party vendors or storing your own excess products, utilising our off-site warehousing solution keeps everything organised and flowing correctly through the supply chain.

Focus on Other Areas of Business

Adding a warehouse to your operations is like taking on an entire second location, with all the upkeep, cost and administrative burdens that entails. By managing your inventory off site, your company won’t have to deal with all the work and expenses involved with warehousing. This frees up your time, resources and efforts to focus on core aspects of your business, such as growing your brand and attracting new customers.

Off-Site Warehousing by CostSmart

CostSmart provides off-site warehousing, procurement and distribution services for businesses, allowing them to save time and cut costs through smart supply chain management. At our premises, all physical product archiving is stored on site. CostSmart will seamlessly store and manage your inventory or products and can provide full visibility over your inventory.

Find out more about how we can help or get in touch today.

At CostSmart we take pride in our relationships with our clients. Our dedicated and loyal employees have enabled us to secure lasting relationships and we are proud to still be partnering with a number of clients who have been with us since we commenced in 2004.
We recently conducted a Customer Satisfaction Survey and received some excellent feedback from our wonderful partners. Thank you to everyone for your support!

“Love the staff, always helpful, nothing is too much bother, friendly and welcoming.”

“Willing to go outside your comfort zone to provide a solution to our problem.”

“Always been a pleasure to deal with Dan and Jaymie! We’ve never had any issues and always had a great relationship.”

“Extremely reliable and a great partner to have.”

“Friendly and fast service always provided by the team. Nothing is ever too hard or unachievable.”

“Jaymie is absolutely fantastic at coming back to us regarding any request we make, no ask is too big or too small. We are often working to tight deadlines or already behind, and they always go above and beyond to ensure things are delivered in a timely manner. They are an asset to us.”

CostSmart take the time to learn about your business, your goals, and act as a true extension of your team to deliver high-end, creative solutions on time and on budget. Please contact us today to see how CostSmart can help you and your business!

Printed marketing material and visual merchandising can give your brand a space to tell its story or offer more insight into your services. Sometimes a design agency is hired to create the designs for you externally, and other times the concepts are created in-house. Either way, understanding printing principles can arm you with the knowledge to ask for the product that truly aligns with your brand. It also helps when you can provide an agent with the correct specifications from the get-go to avoid the tedious back and forth. Remember that you can always ask for samples of something you might be interested in as papers/print types/coating etc are always more accurate in person.

CostSmart’s printing professionals and partners can assist you with all your printing needs from flyers to large scale promotional signage. If you have any questions about printing techniques or whether a particular out-of-the-box design is do-able (it usually is!), then contact us on 1300100461.

IN THE MEANTIME, HERE IS A LIST OF KEY PRINTING TERMS TO ADD TO YOUR ARSENAL:
Bleed: There are two bleed types, external and internal.

External: When an illustration, background or image is extended beyond the intended edge of the page. This allows for a small amount of movement that may occur when printing is being cut to size. Standard bleed allowance is normally 3mm, but your printer or agent will alert you if it’s different. You can easily add a bleed guide to PDF’s or Adobe Creative files so you can gauge how far you need to extend the design. You might be asked for your artworks bleed size, which would be referring to the size of your artwork including the extra external bleed.

Internal: Also known as the ‘text safe’ space, the internal bleed is when text is kept a certain distance from the trim edge to avoid any chance of it affected during the cutting process. It is also usually 3mm in size.

Celloglaze: This can also be referred to as laminate. It is a protective plastic film that is heat bonded to a page for products like business cards and booklet covers. While gloss is a common finish, Celloglaze also comes in matte or velvet finish. Many business cards now lean towards a clean matte finish, plus it also is perfect for products that may need to be written on.

CMYK: You might know this one just by replacing the ink in your home printer. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are the colours of commercial printing. When designing a print product, it is important that the colours used are CMYK.

Coated Paper: This means that a small percentage of clay has been added into the surface coating of the paper to give a smoother and more even finish, with greater opacity.

Colour Mode: Just as we mentioned earlier about using CMYK when designing print products, Colour Mode refers to the colour setting used to create an artwork. CMYK is one type, as is RGB or PMS.

Crop marks: You have probably seen these little black marks in the corners of a PDF. These crop marks indicated where the artwork will be trimmed to size. Anything outside the marks will be removed. You can easily add to crop marks to a PDF before sending off to a printer.

Die-Cutting: This is a post-press finish that allows packaging and print pieces to have unique cutouts that can vary from simple to extremely detailed. Die-cutting adds a dimensional nature to the product.

Embossing/Debossing: raising and depressing aspects of your packaging gives your customers a tactile experience. Some techniques include:

Sculptured: Often hand-crafted, sculpturing involves raising or lowering features in a sharp or rounded manner. They expertly depict definition and texture in a realistic manner.

Multi-level: This finish allows for multiple angles and three-dimensional definition.

Single-level: This is the most popular and efficient finish, with just one layer of dimension.

Finish Size: This is the final size your artwork will be trimmed to.

Finishing: This could include anything that occurs after printing. Some examples could be trimming, folding, stitching, binding, or laminating.

Foil Stamping: A machine with a metal plate engraved with the desired design stamps picks up a foil and then transfers it onto the document. The result is a document that has a highly reflective image with a bright and dense metallic appearance.

Folding: This one seems straight forward, but there are so many folding options and additional folding instructions that needed to be added to an artwork. There are a plethora of folding options for your standard brochure so be sure clarify specifications before getting started on artwork or briefing a designer. Chances are if you want your brochure to be folded in a certain way, it can be done! Let us know what you have in mind and we will help you make it happen. We can also help with setting the panel orientations and the fold/score positions correctly.

Perfect Binding: This is when the cover and pages of a booklet are bound along the spine using adhesive. Be sure to enquire about glue strengths because quality does vary.

PMS (Pantone Matching System): Pantone colours can be purchased by a printer pre-mixed or expertly mixed by a pressman. This ensures colour consistency and a standardised selection of colours. Pantone Guides can be purchased so you can see a true representation of the colours.

PP (Printed Pages): This refers to the number of printed pages in a document, magazine, or booklet. It does not refer to the number of sheets of paper.

Rasterized Fonts: If you have been advised that there may be rasterised fonts in your soft PDF proof, this, means that some or all of the text in your artwork is made up of pixels rather than vectors. When creating text in design software (e.g. Adobe Illustrator), the text is made up of vector shapes which can be scaled indefinitely without losing quality. Once a design is saved as an image format like JPEG, the text automatically is converted to pixels or rasterized fonts.

Saddle Stitched: A form of binding in which all pages are bound in the centre of the booklet from the outside in using wire staples. Saddle stitching is ideally suited to booklets or magazines in the 8pp to 80pp (printed page) range.

Scodix: A great way to add a tactile and dramatic effect as a raised UV coating. The extra volume brings an added dimension that can accentuate the art of the graphic, as well as invite the intended user to engage and touch the product.

Shimmering/Pearlescent: A pearlescent effect is created by combining coating pigments with transparent layers. The way the different layers amplify or absorb light creates a pearl-like effect. Iriodin is another form of coating that has a similar effect. Alternatively, there are glitter coatings, where large metallic particles are added into UV gloss coating. Glitter is a lot less subtle than the pearlescent coating, demanding much more of the user’s attention.

Soft Proof: A digital PDF file created by the printer from the artwork you provide. Printers will supply a soft PDF proof to the customer so they can receive approval. Always request this if it isn’t offered.

Spot UV: This is a popular clear, high-gloss embellishment used in printing. It is very versatile as it can be placed over specific graphics or patterns to draw focus.

STAX: This is a card type that is extremely thick and has a coloured seam through the centre. It is often used for business cards and high-touch print products.

Text Pages: These are all the pages except for the cover of a book, booklet, or magazine-style product.

Trim Edge: The edge where the job will be cut to size.

Uncoated paper: Papers that do not contain clay in their surface coating. This can also be referred to as bond or laser bond. Standard uncoated paper would be used for products like a letterhead.

Vector text and graphics: As mentioned earlier, they can be enlarged indefinitely without losing quality. Technically, vector graphics and text are created using mathematical equations that define geometrical shapes.

Velvet/Soft Touch Coating: Both Velvet and Soft Touch add a plush and luxurious feel to print materials, while also improving durability. The layer of Velvet coating results in muted colours which is said to add a level of elegance. If you don’t want the colours affected, then Soft Touch coating is for you!

Whatever you’re buying, CostSmart will assist you in sourcing and procuring goods and services; saving you money, minimising risks and creating efficiencies. Our complete supply chain expertise includes Branded Products & Specialised Sourcing, Print Management, Uniforms & Workwear, Analysis, Warehousing and Logistics (3PL) and Customised EStore Solutions. Please get in contact today to see how CostSmart can help you and your business!

Is your packaging ready for 2021 and beyond? Maybe some of these current packaging trends will help you stay on brand but be responsive to your customers needs.

Solid All-Over Colourng

While the colour palette is limited and must align with your brand, this trend undoubtedly catches the attention of the consumer. In 2021, expect to see packaging designs that let the copy and bold colour choices do the talking.

Sometimes the colour isn’t necessarily bright and fun, rather it is a shade that creates a mood and directs the consumers eye to the copy. This builds anticipation for the buyer, rather than giving it all away immediately.

Product names front and centre.

Often the logo or an illustration is the focal point for packaging, with the product name taking a back seat. In 2021, we will see the product name taking front and centre. This is a fantastic trend for product-focused businesses that aim to increase brand awareness. These designs rely heavily on typography that can carry the brands whole aesthetic.

Protective packaging

As a result of flatten the curve measures. 2020 saw a huge increase in e-commerce orders. More items are being shipped overall and shoppers value packaging that protects their purchases from the elements and possible viral exposure.

The National Institute of Health study states that COVID can survive up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to three days on plastic. It is likely we will see more socially conscious businesses using packaging less hospitable to the virus, like porous materials.

Sustainable Packaging

While the use of more sustainable packaging materials might be the first thing that comes to your mind, there other ways of introducing sustainable packaging practices.

Many brands have already taken steps to lower emissions by reducing waste in tailor made packaging. This ensures the product fits better, the weight of the packaging is lessened and gives you more control over the packaging’s End-Of-Life cycle.

There has also been an increase in creative packaging design that gives the materials a second life. Some imaginative examples include:

• A colouring-in-design to use as part of a competition.
• Packaging that contains seeds that can be grown once planted.
• Minimally designed boxes that can be re-gifted.

Immersive Unboxing Experiences

Having a branded box or vessel for your product is a must but adding some extra unboxing touches can turn it into an EXPERIENCE. Delivery is often the final interaction you have with a customer so adding to your brand story through packaging will leave them with a positive impression, an increased perceived value, and boosts your content marketing (in hope they share the unboxing process).

Some details you can add to increase the experience could include:

• The obvious…a branded box! Plain boxes might be cheaper but doing so might mean you miss out on an opportunity for brand recognition.
• The obvious…a branded box! Plain boxes might be cheaper but doing so might mean you miss out on an opportunity for brand recognition.
• Brand aligned packaging materials are practical and aesthetic. This could mean wrapping fragile items in branded tissue paper and secure with a foil sticker or using an eco-friendly filler to accentuate your environmentally conscious brand value
• Make your customer feel seen. Adding a customised sentiment removes the notion of “mass-produced” and makes it feel more personal and relationship building.

Doypacks

Doypacks (often known as stand-up pouches) are usually seen as the standard packing for edible items like coffee or other dry goods. In 2020 we saw brands realising the versatility of Doypacks for clothing like socks and underwear, or skin care sets. The Doypack can be padded for protection and used as a mailing pouch to avoid the need for extra sender packing.

Our account managers and procurement team are constantly scanning for the newest and greatest products on the market. To help keep on top of the latest product trends and ensure a quality product is provided to our clients, each year members from the CostSmart team attend the annual APPA Roadshow.

The Australasian Promotional Products Association (APPA) is the only tradeshow specifically dedicated to showcasing promotional products in the Australasian region. The tradeshow hit the road from the 19th-27th March and stopped in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. From our team, we had Jenni and Michael from procurement and Jaymie from sales head down for an action-packed day in Sydney, sampling all the new goodies in the market and talking to current and future suppliers.

We asked Jenni, our Procurement Manager, her thoughts about the day and the benefits of attending a tradeshow like this and here is what she said:

“The are many reasons for attending an APPA show but the most important one is to be able to bring the latest merchandise available to our customers. Whether it be pens and notepads, or reversible umbrellas and sublimated aprons, it’s important that we can help the sales team provide clients with high-level merchandise options that suit the customers’ needs and expectations. It is also a great opportunity for the Purchasing Team to develop good working relationships with suppliers, have the supplier understand our needs and wants and if necessary, work out which suppliers we can trust with urgent requests.”

At the event were over 90 local and international vendors showcasing a variety of promotional items, marketing collateral, print merchandise, decoration options, corporate gifts and other items used for brand marketing and advertisement purposes. Everything from speciality socks and mugs to Akubra Hats was on display!

Some of the stand out products included:

• Magic Beans: A unique and eco-friendly alternative to greeting cards! Just Open, Water, and Watch your message bean grow to reveal the secret message on the cotyledon. The message will emerge in approximately 3-10 days. Can be branded with a logo or a short message to current or potential clients.
• Branded Tea: These loose-leaf packs come with fully customisable labels that will keep your brand at the forefront for 10 cups of tea. Available in a range of breakfast, green and herbal blends. In addition, the supplier offers other organic fair-trade drinks and eats, and Australian made natural bath products – branded to your desire.
• Collapsible silicone coffee cups: Beat the war on waste with these reusable coffee cups. Perfect for travelling and saving space, it can be collapsed and expanded in seconds. It is available in red, blue, back, green, orange, rose pink. Both the covers and the cup holders can be printed with screen print or a full-colour logo.
• Suede Leatherette Luggage Tag: This stylish executive luggage tag has an adjustable metal buckle strap that secures the tag to your luggage as well as a magnetic closure for easily accessing your information. The suede leatherette is made using PU material and is decorated using a special laser that removes the surface colour from the material. A secondary metallic colour has been hidden under the surface layer which is exposed during decoration. Black material reveals a metallic silver colour and the Brown material reveals a metallic gold colour.
• Can coolers: Step away from your traditional neoprene stubby coolers with these unique designs. Lined with 3mm of neoprene to help keep your can cool, the outer of these coolers can be customised with anything from PVC to faux fur and astroturf.
• Glass & Bamboo Bottle: High borosilicate glass body with a bespoke natural bamboo twist on leak-proof lid. Easy-grip protective coloured silicone sleeve comes in black, grey and white. A stylish gift that can be branded with your logo.

 

CostSmart is an Integrated Product Management Service created to make your job easier. Every day, we help our clients find opportunities to cut costs and create efficiencies through better collaboration with supply chain partners. If you have any questions regarding this content, please do not hesitate to contact us and speak to one of our dedicated and knowledgeable account managers.

 

 

Earlier this year the member for Dobell, Emma McBride, created an initiative to engage young students in Earth Day and to raise awareness about the damage plastic is doing to our oceans and marine life. Emma and her party created an art competition for year five students on the Central Coast in her electorate. The competition required the children to get creative and draw, paint or make a collage of their favourite sea creatures. CostSmart was happy to work in partnership with Emma McBride in sourcing the calico tote bags and coordinating the print of the winning students’ design onto the bags. The bags will be used for handouts at local events.

The competition was designed to engage young children and educate them about the harmful effects of plastics on our environment. Also, it provided the students with a hands-on-way to share an important message. The competition appropriately finished on the 22nd of April – Earth Day 2018. A local Central Coast not-for-profit organisation, Take3 For the Sea judged the competition. In conjunction with the winning student having their design printed on the calico tote bags, their entire class also got to enjoy an educational excursion to Norah Head rock pools with marine educators Ocean and Coastal Care Initiative (OCCI). This was a creative initiative supporting sustainability and environmental education for Central Coast youth.

In addition to the calico tote bags, CostSmart were asked to source ‘eco pens‘, an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional plastic pens. CostSmart really enjoyed working in collaboration on this project with Emma’s team. We are glad to help play a role in supporting sustainability and environmental education for Central Coast youth.

ARE YOU AFTER RESOURCES FOR YOUR OWN INITIATIVE?

If you need help with promotional items for your business or initiative whether it be Branded Products, Specialised Sourcing and Print Management, or designing and coordination, please get in contact and we will determine how our services can be of best value to you.

CostSmart is delighted to announce we have made the finals for the HelloWorld Erina Group Central Coast Business Excellence Awards, under the category of Excellence in Small Business! The Awards celebrate and recognise business excellence throughout the Central Coast region. We are thrilled to be announced as one of the final four!

Our Team – Our Drive

We are driven and managed by people who genuinely love what we do. For this reason we’re committed to achieving and delivering results for our clients because we truly care for them. Over the past five years’ we have been experiencing continual growth, this can be attributed to the hard work of our entire team, some of which have been with the business since the beginning of CostSmart. Our dedicated and loyal employees have enabled us to secure lasting relationships with our clients resulting in a growing demand for our services.

Our Investment

The past two years have seen us invest time and money into several business and service improvements. These have included; establishing a fully customised e-commerce solution for our clients, product catalogues and the purchase of new and improved warehouse facilities. The combination of our dedication to our client’s needs, team culture, and the empowerment of our employees demonstrates our Excellence in Small Business.

Congratulations to all our hardworking team who have contributed to the success of CostSmart over the years. Also, a huge THANK YOU to all of our clients for your continued support. The Awards will be held on the 20th October 2018, at a gala event at Terrigal Crown Plaza. Wish us luck and we will be sure to keep you updated on the results.

We provide assistance on the latest marketing trends, brand compliance and promotional products
Whatever you’re buying we will help you remove links from your supply chain to maximise efficiencies and decrease costs. Our account managers and procurement team are continually scanning for the newest and greatest products on the market. We can assist with the latest marketing trends, brand compliance and which promotional and branded products are the best fit for your project and budget.

Save time by browsing our online product catalogue
Designed to help our clients source branded merchandise, we have developed a smart and effective solution for managing the multitude of items available in today’s market — the online catalogue assists time-poor managers to be inspired by a massive range of proprietary products in one place. Our handpicked suppliers offer a wide variety of quality products in the print, promotional, customer specific and apparel categories. Get in touch today, and we can work out the best pricing structure for you and your company.

Our expertise in sourcing and procurement does not stop at branded merchandise
CostSmart’s procurement and negotiation skills enable the sourcing of specialty items for clients, specific to their needs. With many years of experience, high attention to detail along with quality assurances, we are well positioned to acquire just about any product in the market. In the past, we have helped our clients source office furniture and managed the furniture installation project, sourced office and industrial machinery, footwear and personal protective equipment (PPE). Some of the speciality brand name products we have sourced and branded for clients include UE Boom speakers, Blundstone gumboots, Drizabone vests, Evakool travel fridge/freezers and brand name tools. We are happy to go above and beyond to deliver what you need and at an excellent cost!

 

 

We can help you with your budget cash flows
Our ultimate goal is to help you cut costs, minimise risks and create efficiencies. We have programs in place for current clients that assist with their budget cash flows. CostSmart combines purchasing volumes to achieve greater supply chain efficiencies which give clients the ability to order small quantities at lower costs. Read more here about how we carry out bulk purchasing on your behalf to obtain economies of scale.

THE CHALLENGE

It is evident in any sized business that important documents are generated continuously and require storage either by choice or due to legislation. Often storing in-house can quickly become disorganised, inefficient with documents being misplaced or lost. This can compromise the business in a variety of ways. Hence, it’s essential that clients have fast access to records and a trusted, well secured and organised bulk archiving provider. Also, some clients have documents stored at multiple sites and do not have the time to allocate coordination efforts to consolidate documents into one location. We found this challenge arising in numerous mid-level corporate clients. From this, CostSmart has been able to produce a streamlined document management and archiving service as a solution.

THE SOLUTION

CostSmart has been providing document management and bulk archiving services for mid-level corporate businesses for the past seven years. Our client required the consolidation of 10,000 boxes of documents stored throughout five separate locations. In response, CostSmart organised labour, IT and freight services to coordinate the relocation and consolidation of their stored materials. The organisation of these logistics occurred without any disruption to the client’s business in an “after-hours” time-slot. Now, our client has bulk archived all of their documents in a single location, allowing for efficient processing and access.

THE OUTCOME

This project resulted in numerous benefits for our client. Most importantly, significant cost savings were achieved by streamlining their document archiving services with one provider. CostSmart was able to provide annual cost savings exceeding $150,000 when existing tenancy costs were factored in. To increase efficiencies for our client, we also created an online management and processing tool for collection and retrieval of stored documents. Overall, our client has more effectively organised their archiving by using CostSmart. Additionally, CostSmart provides online reporting, same-day delivery/retrieval of any archived material and secure storage within our warehouse facility.

We are on the move! CostSmart and Smartgear Australia are moving to a new warehouse and office. The office will be closed on Friday 21st September and from Monday 24th you can find us at 4 Lucca Road, Wyong NSW 2259.

UPDATE: EXCERPT FROM NEW AND IMPROVED WAREHOUSE UPDATE:

CostSmart and Smartgear Australia has grown at a steady rate of over 30% annually for the past five years, and more than 50% in the last financial year. CostSmart made the decision to move away from our warehouse lease. Instead we have invested in our very own business infrastructure, premises, plant and equipment to support the business’s rapid development

Between June-October 2018, the CostSmart team and our builders were hard at work transforming the old warehouse into CostSmart’s forever home. The new and improved CostSmart warehouse is a whopping 2000m2, almost 2.5 times bigger than our previous warehouse! Our new high clearance warehouse has a roof line 12 meters above the floor level. The extra space will give us room to stock all our client’s products in the one central location.

In only four short months our fantastic team and builders had the new site ready for us to move in. Our CostSmart team are now enjoying an industrial inspired modern 3-story office building, new bathrooms, and a fully equipped kitchen. Despite our staff moving into the facilities last October, the building is an ongoing project. Soon to be built is a staff breakout area featuring lounges and table tennis, an on-site vegetable garden and client waiting area. There is also the opportunity for CostSmart to extend the current building out on the 10000m2+ block!