Five questions from Merchandise World, before you brief the next scheme

Merchandise World is still the January habit that works. Face to face, new ranges on the table, and a room that has to plan the year before the first big brief lands.

The 2026 show ran on 21 and 22 January at the CBS Arena in Coventry. Merch Magazine, writing ahead of the event, said more than 180 exhibitors would be there, and put UK collective market spend on merchandise at more than £1.2 billion. We have not seen the methodology behind that figure. Use it as the magazine’s published claim, not as a Treasury statistic.

The first night was the BPMA Annual Awards Dinner. Merch Magazine later reported 600 guests and 17 awards, voted for by the supply chain. That is the same night the TUI Sand Shaker and FOAMO took their headlines. The more useful story, for anyone selling a corporate scheme, is what buyers were being asked to think about.

Merch Magazine named five trends that would face merchandise users in 2026: sustainability, premiumisation, retail equivalence, personalisation and customisation, and logistical delivery. It did not define them. It said they were crunchy enough to need a conversation, not an email.

Here is that conversation, turned into five questions. The headings are the magazine’s. The questions are ours.

1. Sustainability — can you prove it?

Sustainability is no longer a colourway. If the only story is “recycled” with no mill, no standard and no end-of-life route, a procurement team will smell it.

Ask: what is the material, who made it, which standard applies, and what happens to it after use? If the supplier cannot answer without a brochure, keep walking.

FOAMO’s Grand Prix and WalletMate’s Sustainable Product of the Year were the awards-night version of this question. The working version is simpler. Would you put this claim in a client’s ESG report?

2. Premiumisation — would they still want it unbranded?

Premium is not a thicker card box. It is the moment someone keeps the thing because it is good, not because it was free.

Ask: if we took the logo off, would this still earn a place on a desk, in a bag, or in a kitchen? If the answer is no, you are buying decoration. Useful first. Pretty second.

3. Retail equivalence — could this sit in a real shop?

Corporate merch that looks like a catalogue leftover will be treated like one. Retail equivalence means the product could sit next to something someone chose and paid for.

Ask: would this survive a comparison with the unbranded version on Amazon or in John Lewis? Fit, print, packaging, weight. If it fails that, it will fail the employee shop. Does it look like a product, or like a giveaway?

4. Personalisation and customisation — is it a name, or a fit?

A first name on a bottle is not a strategy. Personalisation that matters is size, colour, role, and the chance to choose.

Ask: can the recipient pick, or are we choosing for them? Kits that ignore this come back as waste, or sit in a cupboard. If you cannot offer a simple choice — two colours, a size run, a shop-front rather than a dump bin — you are not personalising. You are printing.

5. Logistical delivery — can you actually get it there?

The unfashionable trend is the one that kills programmes. Multi-site, multi-country, late art, a drop that misses the conference.

Ask: who holds the stock, who prints, how long, what happens when the date moves? If the answer is “leave it with us” and nothing else, you do not have a plan. The product is only half the brief. The other half is a date and a door.

Brief it like a buyer

These five are not a crystal ball. They are a filter. Merchandise World exists so you can take them to a stand and make a supplier sweat the detail.

If you are selling a 2026 corporate scheme, do not open with a mood board. Open with the five questions. If you cannot answer them, you are not ready to send an order.

Useful merch has always been the job. January in Coventry just put names on the excuses we should stop making.