Fully managed employee stores for Canadian organizations
Your branded merchandise store, built and operated by our team: sourcing, catalogue, inventory, fulfillment, and employee support, so HR never has to manage logistics.
What is a managed employee store?
Ladybug Designs builds and manages branded merchandise stores for Canadian organizations. An employee store is a private online store where your people browse and order company-branded apparel, gifts, and promotional products. A corporate merchandise store does the same for departments, teams, or the public.
With our managed model, we handle the storefront, product sourcing, catalogue management, warehousing, inventory, order processing, fulfillment, and employee support. Your HR, marketing, or procurement team sets the direction and the budget without managing the day-to-day operation.
We are a Canadian company based in Kemptville, Ontario. We ship across Canada from our own facility, serve clients in English and French, and are an OECM approved supplier for Ontario's public sector.
What we manage for you
- Storefront: your branded online store, configured, hosted, and maintained by our team
- Product sourcing and curation: we select, vet, and sample products that fit your brand
- Catalogue management: listings, pricing, photography, and keeping the selection fresh
- Decoration: embroidery and heat transfer in our facility, with screen printing and sublimation available for larger runs
- Warehousing and inventory: stored in our Ontario facility, tracked in real time
- Order processing and fulfillment: every order validated, picked, packed, inspected, and shipped
- Employee support: your people contact us directly about orders, sizing, and returns
- Reporting: visibility into orders, spending, and inventory, with regular program reviews
One store model, four kinds of program
Most organizations come to us because someone internally, usually in HR, employee experience, or employer branding, has ended up running a merchandise operation off the side of their desk. These are the programs we take over most often.
Employee merchandise stores
An ongoing store where employees order branded apparel and merchandise for themselves, within the rules you set. Useful for onboarding, team pride, and everyday wear. We manage eligibility, budgets, and every shipment.
Employee recognition and rewards stores
Stores tied to service anniversaries, safety milestones, spot recognition, and retirement. Employees see only the catalogues they qualify for, and can redeem claim codes for milestone gifts. See our employee recognition programs for the full picture.
Corporate merchandise stores
Centralized ordering for branded apparel, promotional products, and corporate gifts across departments and locations. Role-based purchasing means the right people order the right products within defined budgets. Orders can arrive through the store, by purchase order, email, or phone, and we support integration with e-procurement systems.
Public-facing brand stores
For brands whose customers want the merchandise too, we operate public stores as a turnkey business. Read how we run the merchandise store for a national transportation brand.
Store capabilities
Employee stores handle personal information and departmental budgets, so the controls below are enforced by the platform itself.
Purchasing controls
- Budget limits per manager, per employee, and per department, enforced automatically
- Claim codes: employees receive a code and select their own gift from an eligible catalogue
- Configurable approval workflows for spending that needs sign-off
- Role-based access: Viewer, Buyer, and Manager roles with distinct permissions
- Catalogue visibility rules: people see only the products they are eligible for
- Full audit trails on every transaction
Accounts and access
- SCIM 2.0 provisioning from Microsoft Entra ID: accounts created and deactivated automatically from your directory
- CSV import for organizations without SCIM
- Passwordless sign-in with a one-time email code: no passwords, no VPN required
- Automatic deprovisioning when an employee leaves
Bilingual by design
The storefront, catalogue, packing slips, and end-user support are available in both English and French. More about our bilingual services.
Warehousing, inventory, and fulfillment behind the store
Once someone places an order, the work moves to our warehouse. We warehouse your program inventory in our Ontario facility at low cost, often included in the program, track it in real time with low-stock alerts, and decorate many items on demand so you are not sitting on pre-printed stock.
Every order is validated, picked, inspected, packed, and shipped from our facility to anywhere in Canada, with international fulfillment available for teams outside the country. One anniversary gift to an employee's home or hundreds of onboarding kits to multiple offices: same process either way. Kitting and custom packaging are handled in-house.
See the full fulfillment and warehousing operation, including our eight-step order process and quality checkpoints.
How implementation works
Getting from first conversation to live store typically takes four to twelve weeks, depending on complexity.
| Phase | What happens | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | We define your objectives, products, eligibility rules, budgets, and branding together | Weeks 1-2 |
| Configuration | Store setup, catalogue curation, governance rules, provisioning integration, and branding | Weeks 2-4 |
| Testing | User acceptance testing: your team validates everything before launch | Weeks 4-8 |
| Training and launch | Administrator training, employee communications support, and go-live | Weeks 6-12 |
Transitioning from an existing provider? We include onboarding support: account migration, catalogue configuration, user training, and coordination to minimize disruption. Your program data stays yours throughout, exportable in standard formats at any time, including on the way out if it ever comes to that.
Programs we run today
A private employee rewards store for a national transportation provider
Since late 2024 we have operated a private employee recognition and rewards store for one of Canada's most recognized transportation brands, from warehousing service pins to shipping anniversary gifts across the country. Read the employee rewards case study.
A public merchandise store for the same iconic brand
We also run their public-facing merchandise store as a turnkey operation: product development, photography, e-commerce, fulfillment, and customer service. Read the merchandise store case study.
“Ladybug Designs manages our entire employee recognition program, from warehousing service pins to shipping anniversary gifts across Canada. We do not think about logistics anymore.”
— HR Manager, national enterprise client
Frequently asked questions
What is a managed employee store?
A managed employee store is a branded online store where your employees browse and order company merchandise, run by an outside partner instead of your internal team. Ladybug Designs builds the store, sources and photographs the products, manages the catalogue, warehouses the inventory, processes orders, ships across Canada, and answers employee questions. Your organization sets the direction and the budget; we run the operation.
Can Ladybug Designs store our inventory and ship directly to employees?
Yes. We warehouse program inventory in our Ontario facility at low cost, often included in the program, track it in real time, and pick, pack, and ship individual orders directly to employee homes or offices anywhere in Canada.
Can our company outsource the management of its merchandise store completely?
Yes. Our managed service covers the storefront, product sourcing, catalogue management, inventory, order processing, fulfillment, and end-user support. Your team keeps authority over program direction, policy, and budgets, and reviews regular reports, without handling day-to-day logistics.
Can an employee store have individual budgets or claim codes?
Yes. Stores support per-manager, per-employee, and per-department budget limits enforced automatically, configurable approval workflows, and claim codes that let an employee select their own gift from an eligible catalogue.
Can the store be bilingual, in English and French?
Yes. We operate fully bilingual programs: the storefront, catalogue, packing slips, and end-user support are available in both English and French.
Who handles employee questions about orders?
We do. Employees contact our team directly with questions about orders, sizing, shipping, or returns, so your HR or marketing team is not fielding day-to-day inquiries.
How long does it take to launch an employee store?
Typical implementation takes four to twelve weeks depending on complexity. Simpler stores can be live in as few as four weeks; programs with custom provisioning integrations and multi-tier catalogues take closer to twelve.
What does a managed employee store cost?
Pricing is scoped case by case, based on the products, the services included, and the level of management your program needs. We confirm costs with you up front before anything is built, starting with a conversation about what your team manages today.
Do employee stores require minimum orders?
No minimum order values apply for managed program clients. We stock blank products and decorate embroidered and heat transfer items on demand, one at a time when needed, so an employee can order a single item. Some decoration methods, such as screen printing, carry minimum quantities.
Can Ladybug Designs ship outside Canada?
Yes. Programs ship across Canada from our Ontario facility, and international fulfillment is available for organizations with people outside the country. Shipping fees are passed through without markup.