The Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI) of Trevose, PA, announced Top 40 supplier SanMar^® is now directly connected to ASI’s ESP^®, giving distributors instant access to real-time inventory, live product data and direct electronic order entry, along with automatic order status updates.SanMar (asi/84863) is the second-largest supplier in the $22 billion promotional products industry. SanMar joins BIC Graphic and its proprietary brands, BIC^® and Norwood^®, along with The Magnet Group (asi/68507) and Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125), as the first major suppliers in the industry to attain e-commerce-connected status in ESP.

As of today, over 75 suppliers – a mix of Top 40, mid-sized and small companies – are in the process of integrating with ESP, with more than 40 suppliers already offering live inventory.

“The SanMar team is excited to work with ASI to accomplish this automated integration for our mutual customers,” said Mike Knapick, chief information officer at SanMar. “We are confident that this will offer a host of new benefits, features and services, making it even easier for customers to search and shop online for the products they need to succeed.”

Thanks to direct connection with ASI’s ESP, distributors can now order nearly 2,000 products directly from SanMar using ESP Orders, sending orders directly into SanMar’s order processing system. The direct connection provides customers a better buying experience by eliminating the need for most follow-up phone calls and emails.

Suppliers tell ASI that about 70% of promotional product orders sent by distributors are incomplete. By managing all daily business operations in ESP and viewing inventory and product info at a glance, distributors can save an estimated 45 minutes per day, thanks to increased efficiencies.

“As more and more suppliers become e-commerce-enabled in ESP, it propels the industry as a whole toward more modern, efficient business operations,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “Our tech team at ASI is happy to work with any size supplier on direct connection so please reach out – and get started.”

ASI distributors are now also enjoying the benefits of the new ESP CRM and Orders, which allows distributors to easily add existing contacts and view all past conversations by clicking on a company’s profile, where all orders, quotes and shared presentations pop into view, simplifying re-orders.

Since it’s synced with ESP’s robust product database, the new ESP Orders auto-populates all product data, eliminating rekeying of information. Visit www.searchESP.com to start using all of ESP’s latest features.

And, at 2 p.m. ET on October 27, ASI is hosting ESP’s first live demo of the new CRM and Orders features on Facebook Live. Anyone following ASI at www.facebook.com/adspecialtyinstitute will see the live video stream push to the top of their results if they’re logged in during the demo, which will show the ease of placing an order using the new e-commerce-connected features in ESP Orders. Follow ASI any time before the demo to view, or look for the archived video on the company’s page.

SanMar, a leading apparel provider with over 3,500 employees, ranked No. 27 on the recent 2016 Counselor^® Best Places to Work list. Jeremy Lott is company president.  MORE INFO