Case Study: How To Deliver Gifts to 13,000 Employees Nationwide

Last October, Estes Express Lines’ executives kindly decided to thank employees for their efforts during the year by giving holiday gifts. The concept was that everyone in our company would receive a gift code that could be redeemed on our web store for an item of their choice. It was a very thoughtful idea, but time was tight.

The time crunch presented us with a few challenges. We didn’t have a chance to customize the existing web store for the program—fulfillment and tracking would have to be a complex, manual, and (potentially) risky process. Additionally, we had little time to add new gift items to our web store. Of course, delivering gifts to employees, nationwide, was also a bit daunting!

Though we were approaching Halloween and the holiday season was still a month away, we quickly got to work like busy little elves. In a matter of days, adform proposed new and exciting product ideas that we could add to our web store. Within two weeks, we received samples and made a decision on Estes-branded gifts including stadium seats, outdoor chairs, softshell jackets, Bluetooth speakers, duffel bags, and backpacks.

With roughly 260 Estes shops and terminals nationwide, we could offer employees free shipping by utilizing our own logistics services! Shipping gifts to Estes locations enabled us to add a very special touch: Each employee had their gift personally delivered by their supervisor.

In the end, over 13,000 Estes employees across the country received holiday gifts! Everyone liked the program. The feedback was very positive.  All our hard work was worth it.

Currently, we are reviewing “what if” scenarios to find improvements. For example, what if we started planning earlier? This would allow time to customize and test the program. What if we loaded the employees’ information in the web store in advance? This would make ordering easier for employees. It would also streamline the fulfillment process dramatically over the manual, spreadsheet process we used.  No doubt, we will come up with more improvements for this year's program!

Adform was terrific, throughout. They were like an extension of the Estes team. We could count on adform, every step of the way—from the gift items and designs to warehousing and shipping arrangements.  Their designs, products, turnaround time and fulfillment are what made this program a success!

Angie Cahoon
Program Manager, Procurement
Estes Express Lines