It Looks Like a T-Shirt Shop. The Numbers Say Otherwise.

By Sean Goldsmith

Fully Promoted looks like a T-shirt shop. Its sales figures point to a much bigger B2B business.

Fully Promoted sells branded clothing in a market packed with cheap online competitors. Yet it reports average unit sales of $888,000, with its highest-selling location reaching $4.9 million. The interesting part of the business is what happens after the first order.

There cannot be many products easier to buy online than a shirt with your company logo on it. Upload the artwork, choose the colour, enter the quantity and wait for the box to arrive. There are online printers everywhere, local embroidery businesses in most towns and no shortage of suppliers willing to put a logo on almost anything.

That should make Fully Promoted a difficult franchise to explain. An independent operator can buy embroidery equipment, find suppliers and sell many of the same products without joining a franchise. Yet Fully Promoted has more than 300 centres across 11 countries, and its current franchise information, using figures from its 2026 franchise disclosure document, reports average unit sales of $888,000. Its highest-selling location generated approximately $4.9 million.

Those are sales figures rather than profits, so prospective franchisees still need to understand the costs behind them. What they do show is that Fully Promoted can become a much bigger business than the T-shirt shop someone might picture from the name. Much of that comes down to the value of the customer rather than the product being sold.

One Customer Can Keep Ordering for Years

Fully Promoted sells branded apparel, uniforms, promotional products, corporate gifts and other merchandise to businesses and organisations. A good customer may need several of those things during the course of a year, giving the franchisee repeated opportunities to sell without having to find a new buyer every time.

Take a construction company with 100 employees. It needs uniforms when people join, replacements when clothing wears out and warmer clothing when the weather changes. It might also order merchandise for an exhibition, promotional products for customers or branded items for an event. A small initial order becomes considerably more valuable when it introduces the franchisee to a business that could spend money several times a year.

The Bigger Orders Barely Resemble a T-Shirt Shop

The scale of some work inside the Fully Promoted network shows how far the model can move from simple embroidery. Connecticut franchisee Deborah Katz recently secured the largest order in her business's history from a healthcare organisation with more than 800 employees. The job involved sourcing products, decoration, fulfilment and shipping items directly to employees.

Work of that size creates a purchasing and logistics problem for the customer. Products have to be sourced, artwork checked, quantities confirmed, different sizes managed and deadlines met. Once hundreds of employees and individual deliveries are involved, somebody has to take responsibility for making sure the whole thing works. A website can sell the merchandise, but a local supplier that can manage the entire order is offering something more useful than access to the products themselves.

$888,000 in Sales Needs More Than Walk-In Customers

Fully Promoted's reported average unit sales of $888,000 also tell prospective franchisees something important about how the business needs to be run. Revenue at that level is unlikely to come from waiting for somebody to wander into the shop wanting six shirts embroidered for a local event. The owner needs commercial accounts that order in greater volumes and return regularly.

Schools, hotels, healthcare organisations, construction companies, restaurant groups and professional firms all buy branded products. Many already have suppliers, which means the franchisee has to go out and win the business. Fully Promoted is therefore as much a B2B sales operation as it is a retail business, and an owner who is comfortable developing commercial relationships may see a very different opportunity from someone expecting the shopfront to generate most of the sales.

The Internet Hasn't Killed the Local Supplier

Online printing has unquestionably made straightforward orders easier and cheaper. Someone wanting 20 basic shirts can compare prices online within minutes, and Fully Promoted franchisees have to compete in a market where customers know they have plenty of alternatives.

The calculation changes when an order becomes more complicated. A company may need several garments, different sizes, promotional products, employee gifts and deliveries to multiple locations. There may be an event date that cannot move or brand guidelines that have to be followed. Once a supplier has successfully handled those requirements, changing to save a small amount on the next order may become less attractive.

The relationship becomes more valuable with every successful job. The franchisee already has the artwork, understands the customer's requirements and knows what was ordered last time. For the customer, having one person who can sort out the next job without starting from scratch can be worth paying for.

The Franchise Still Has to Earn Its Fee

An independent operator can enter the promotional products industry without buying a franchise, so anyone considering Fully Promoted should look carefully at what they receive in return for the fees they pay. Fully Promoted has been operating for more than 25 years, with its franchise proposition built around established systems, training, supplier relationships, purchasing arrangements, technology and the experience accumulated across hundreds of locations.

The value of that support should be tested during due diligence rather than taken for granted. Existing franchisees can explain where the network saves them time or money, how much active selling was required to build their customer base and which parts of the business remain entirely dependent on the owner.

Fully Promoted's royalty structure also gives owners a financial reason to build volume. Current franchise information lists a 6% royalty on gross revenue up to $600,000, falling to 4% between $600,000 and $1 million and 2% above $1 million. Larger commercial accounts can therefore help the franchisee build revenue while moving the business into lower royalty bands.

The T-Shirt Gets You Through the Door

There is nothing particularly complicated about the demand Fully Promoted is serving. Companies need uniforms, attend events, give products to customers and provide branded clothing to employees. Online suppliers have made those products easier to buy, but they have not removed the work involved when companies need larger or more complicated orders handled properly.

That is why the first order should be viewed as the beginning of the relationship rather than the whole sale. A customer might start with 50 polo shirts and return months later for jackets, event merchandise, employee gifts or another uniform order. For the franchisee, the opportunity is to become the supplier that business calls whenever the next requirement comes up.

It is also why we have added Fully Promoted to The Franchise Entrepreneur’s Brand Opportunity Directory. The business initially looks remarkably simple, particularly in an industry where almost everything can now be ordered online. Look more closely, however, and there is a substantial B2B operation behind the embroidery machines, with repeat commercial customers capable of generating business throughout the year.

Prospective franchisees can now find Fully Promoted in our Brand Opportunity Directory, with more information about the brand, its business model and current franchise opportunity.

What We Can Learn From This

Anyone considering Fully Promoted should spend more time investigating the customer base than looking at embroidery equipment. Ask existing franchisees how much revenue comes from repeat commercial accounts, how long those customers stay and how much active selling was required to build the business. Cheap online suppliers will continue competing aggressively for straightforward orders, so larger customers with regular and more complicated requirements should become increasingly important. A franchisee who becomes a regular supplier to local businesses has a much stronger proposition than one relying on occasional T-shirt orders.

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