Custom USB Emergency Delivery

During Mid-January to Mid-Feb it’s mayhem as companies and schools looking for custom USB sticks scramble to secure the limited amount of stock that is readily available in the UK. Of course if you can wait a few weeks it’s not a problem but if you need them quickly then it’s best to start looking for a supplier that has stock in the UK and can get them printed and delivered in your timeframes. Unfortunately there are very few companies that hold stock and even fewer that can print them and get them delivered in a day or two!

If you find yourself hunting around for custom USB sticks during Chinese New Year you’ll soon realise that it’s not pleasant. It’s a bit like being a parent at Christmas trying to hunt down that elusive “must have” toy for your child – you end up in a war pitted against other parents all after the same thing and all desperately hunting down the elusive toy/gift.

Of course if you’re working on a project, a show or a press event and you’re up against a hard deadline then, the last thing you need is to be told by your supplier that they can’t deliver your order on time.

All the planning and preparation in the world can’t accommodate these little “bombs” when they happen but what you can do is try and factor in a little contingency in your plans. Granted, it’s not always easy and contingency has a nasty habit of just being “absorbed” in the project.

If you do find yourself in a tight spot and you need custom USB sticks in a hurry then don’t panic. At USB2U we pride ourselves on being the “4^th Emergency Service” of the custom USB  stick market. Unlike our competitors we do hold lots of plain, unprinted stock in the UK which we can print and get delivered to you in as little as 24hrs!!

You won’t have the full range of USB sticks we sell to choose from and you might have to compromise of colour and memory size but iif you are up against it or you’ve been let down by another supplier we can normally help.

Just give us a call and speak to one of our experienced sales team – they’ll talk you though the options and our in-house designer will work with you to make sure we can deliver a custom printed USB stick that not only gets you out of trouble but delights you as well!

With Christmas fast approaching we’d like to wish everyone a fantastic festive holiday and a great New Year! Hopefully we’ll see you all again in 2012 with lots of new orders for promotional and customised USB flash drives.

Happy Christmas from USB2U

We have some exciting new products and services to announce in January so please do keep an eye on our web site or better still follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/usb2u) for all the latest news, industry analysis and some great offers!

In addition to some new products and services that we’ll unveil early in 2012 some core things about the service we provide won’t change including:

• Free UK Delivery**
• Free Design and Mock-up service
• Free 4 colour print**
• Free standard gift boxes
• Free data-load of up to 200MB
• Low minimum order quantity of 25 pcs
• Your own dedicated account manager
• Some of the best prices in the UK/Europe

All of this is backed up by our meticulous attention to detail, our determination to be the absolute best at what we do and our absolute commitment to ensure our customers are happy with the promotional USB flash drives we supply.

We intend to let our hair down and have a bit of fun over Christmas – hopefully you can do the same and after the festivities are over we’ll look forward to working with you all again.

**Excludes our UK rush service

To ensure that our range does not grow too big and complicate customers we have discontinued four of the least popular branded USB flash drive models to make way for the fresh new designs.  We have included a small description of each of the memory stick’s personalities to get to know them a little better and how they can better fit your promotional USB needs.

New USB Models

Metal Mini-Twister

The Metal Mini-Twister is just that, a smaller version of the Twister model.  At only 33mm long and 16mm wide this new USB flash drive is certainly neat and compact but still comes in memory sizes from 1GB all the way up to a huge 32GB.  The drive is capless and twists to reveal the USB connector with a snap function holding the drive open or closed.  The Mini Twister is available in three metallic colours of Gold, Silver and Gunmetal and allows for engraving or printing.

Retractor

The Retractor USB memory stick is small but vibrant and has a clear printing space for its size.  The shell of the Retractor USB memory stick encases the USB connecter that pushes out with a slider on the back of the flash drive.  The USB connecter locks in to protect itself and locks out to give a solid entry into a USB port.  The Retractor USB memory stick is made from aluminium and comes in a range of colours; purple, black, blue, red and green.

Charm

Whilst being one of the smallest USB flash drives on the market, the Charm can house the same levels of memory as our other USB memory sticks – up to 16GB. The charm is compact, cute and stylish and can carry your logo / artwork on both sides, either printed or engraved. It is also available in three different metal finishes; gold, silver and gun metal grey. The Charm USB memory stick is ideal for attaching to mobile phones, MP3 players, lanyards and other devices.

Key Classic 3

If you’re looking for something a little different, a little bit classy, something that will fit easily onto a keyring and is incredibly portable and easy to use then the Classic USB Key could be just what you’re looking for. These USB keys are manufactured from polished stainless steel, available in three colours; silver, gold and gun metal they can also be engraved with your logo and fine levels of detail in the engraving can be achieved. Robust, good looking and available in memory sizes from 512MB to 16GB we think these USB keys will be a real winner.

New Standard Offer

We now have a standard, permanent offer that includes the following:

• FREE Delivery to one UK mainland address
• FREE 4 Colour spot printing
• FREE Data load up to 100mb
• FREE Lanyards or Key Rings
• FREE Gift box
• Minimum Order Quantity of 25 units

These great offers apply to apply to every standard order regardless of USB style, quantity, or memory size.

USB2U Offer

Free Delivery
Yes, standard delivery to one UK mainland address is FREE.  This applies to all standard orders regardless of order quantity, style or memory size.  We think that free delivery reduces the complication of different added costs and that it is good to know up-front how much your branded USB flash drives will cost.  Standard delivery is sent first class however; any times deliveries such as guaranteed next-day delivery will be charged for.

Free Printing
All of our flash drives now come with free colour printing up to four spot colours.  Multi-coloured logos and complicated designs are not a problem either as we are also offering free Resin Dome Stickers on our most popular USB model, the Twister.  To find out more about the Resin Dome Stickers click here and to see the Twister USB flash drive in more detail click here.

Free Data Load
We’ll load or copy any data you want onto the sticks for FREE. The only constraint is that the data must be less than 100MB otherwise a small charge will apply. We have our own in-house professional USB data duplication equipment so we can load you data right at the last minute if you struggle to get the data ready till then.

Free Lanyard or Key Ring
With all orders we are offering a selection of free coloured lanyards and key rings to accompany your USBs.  Our lanyards come in a range of 8 different colours, Black, White, Grey, Blue, Green, Orange, Red and Yellow.  Lanyards and Key Rings are ideal for School’s giving the USBs to their students.

Free Gift Box
With every order for branded flash drives we can supply free gift boxes. Please remember to ask for these, as we know not everyone wants them. As well as these free standard boxes we offer a wide range of presentation boxes and tins for your branded USB flash drives and these can be branded up with your logo as well to really compliment the memory stick. Ask for samples if you’re not sure. These can be seen here: USB Packaging.

25 Unit Minimum Order Quantity
Unlike some promotional companies, our minimum order quantity for printed flash drives is set at a realistic 25 pieces. If you just want plain (unprinted stock) then you can order from 5 pieces upwards.

New Homepage

To accompany our new great offer we have also just launched a brand new homepage that looks better, loads quicker and offers easier navigation.

Better Looking
We think that the new style of the homepage is much more tidy and sharp, the same way you feel when you have had a haircut.  The modules separate the different areas and links featured on the homepage easier on the eye and the new slider banner is much sleeker.

Quicker at Loading

Our homepage changes don’t only have an aesthetic appeal; it is now also quicker at loading.  This will make it much more convenient to visit our site and browse through our wide range of USB drives.

Easier Navigation
The new homepage has been revamped so that you can find what you want faster.  We have organised modules so that the more important and more frequently used sections of our site such as the product range, 48 hour rush service and Quote page are more accessible.

So, to see what all of the fuss is about and to view our new homepage click here.

We know there are lots of different suppliers of promotional USB flash drives in the UK and in a crowded market its incredibly important to us and our customers that they are confident in buying from USB2U. After all, we want our customers to come back to us and we want them to be delighted with their order from USB2U.

So, in addition to the QA checks that our factory make during the manufacturing process our own operations and fulfilment team carry out the following additional checks before any order leaves our hands:

1. As the shipments from our factory arrive at our warehouse we carefully unpack every carton to make sure
   

   USB2U Checks

   nothing has been damaged in transit from China. Any crushed boxes are paid particular attention to and photographs taken of any issues. If anything is found to be damaged or missing (it does happen albeit rarely) then we’ll alert the factory and ask them to prepare and ship replacements and we’ll notify the customer of any potential shortfall in their order.

2. Every USB stick is checked visually to make sure it’s the right colour, that the print or engraving is correct (the right colour, in the right place and spelt correctly) and that any key rings or lanyards that have been ordered are attached.
3. A sample of each order is checked for viruses using the latest Trend Micro anti-virus software – this is particularly important where we have been provided with data to pre-load onto the USB sticks.
4. A sample of each order is checked to ensure that the internal flash memory is the correct size. If a customer has ordered a 1GB USB flash drive we double check here to make sure they drives have been assembled by our factory using 1GB flash memory chips.
5. Assuming all of the above tests and checks are passed we then carefully box up the order in a robust USB2U box ensuring when we do this that we count every USB stick to make sure the number sent is exactly the number ordered.

All of the above information is recorded and stored for every job to provide our customers (and us) with peace of mind. We’ve been supplying branded and promotional USB flash drives since 2002 and these processes have been put in place and refined over the last 9 years to ensure that our customers can be confident that they get exactly what they have paid for every time.

To qualify you just need to order at least 50 USB flash drives and let your account manager know when placing the order that you want to take advantage of these promotional offers.

If you’re ordering the popular Twister USB Flash Drives then our FREE pantone-matching offer might tempt you. If you order more than 200 of the Twister USB flash drives then we’ll colour match the body shell of the drive for you absolutely free of charge. Typically pantone matching (because it’s a very labour intensive process and takes a while to set up) costs around £100 per order but during May we’re offering it free of charge – subject to a minimum order of 200 pcs.

Custom USB May 2011 Offer

If you do take advantage of the free pantone matching service please make sure you allow an extra 48hrs for us to manufacture and ship your flash drives to you – this extra time is to enable us to make the flash drive shells in the colour you want rather than just using a standard colour which we have available “off the shelf”.

In addition to these cracking offers when you order your Custom USB Flash Drives from USB2U you can be assured of:

• Working with a supplier that has been dedicated to the supply of USB flash drives since 2002
• Some of the best prices in the market but without the compromise on the quality of the flash drive memory chips or flash drive controllers that some of our competitors seem to use.
• An underwritten guarantee of at least 12-months on every USB flash drive we supply
• Fast lead-times (48hrs if you’re in a hurry) or around 10-days for our standard service.
• A QA process that involves 4 separate checks on every one of your USB flash drives during the manufacture and assembly process followed by a final QA check and virus report before your order is packed ready for delivery to you.
• A named account manager that will take care of your order and look after you from your initial point of contact.
• An in-house design team that can turn around mock-ups in an hour or two and re-draw artwork if needed.
• Next day shipment when your order arrives via UPS.

USB2U a trusted supplier of quality custom USB flash drives since 2002.

usb-people-on-strike

Of course the extent of their “work” is purely promotional and it hardly constitutes “hard labour” but nevertheless the representatives of the USB people are adamant that they should be able to take time off like everyone else and enjoy the Royal Wedding along with the rest of the country.

Feelings are now running so high that we have the unedifying sight of USB people at USB2U refusing to participate in new projects and staging unplanned walkouts. Some have made placards and are picketing the sales team who ironically are only trying to do their job and ensure the long-term support for USB people within USB2U.

The management of USB2U have opened discussions with representatives of the USB people but both sides seem entrenched and an early settlement seems unlikely.  Whilst there is no precedent for going to arbitration it might be the only way this dispute can be resolved.

With time ticking away any resolution is unlikely to be reached in time for the Royal Wedding on Friday 29^th April but if nothing else the USB people want to establish a precedent for other public holidays and ideally they want to ensure they have holiday rights in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

The management at USB2U have moved swiftly to reassure their customers that their will be no impact on its business and all orders for promotional USB flash drives, including any orders for USB people will be unaffected.

FUD in the branded flash drive market can be particularly unnerving if you’ve never purchased USB flash drives before not least because some of the terms within the industry will be unfamiliar to any new buyer.

Branded USB Flash Drives

If you are considering buying branded USB flash drives from USB2U then here’s a few facts to help dispel any FUD being put around by our competitors:

1. USB2U and USBNow are trading names of Secure Living Ltd and have been supplying USB flash drives since 2002. During this time we have supplied USB products to over 250,000 customer including thousands of schools, universities and companies both large and small. Our university clients include Cambridge and Oxford and we’re regular suppliers of flash drives to some of the leading companies in the world including Microsoft, BT, IBM, Orange, Unilver and many many more.
2. We don’t have our own factory because we prefer to partner with a small number of manufacturers including Netac who invented USB flash drives back in 1999 and who hold the core patent for them. Just like Netac all of our partner factories are certified ISO9001 and we visit them regularly to ensure their on-going compliance.
3. Cheaper prices – By partnering with factories we don’t have to pass on the overheads of managing and maintaining a factory to our clients. Instead, by creating a competitive environment between a small number of trusted partners we are able to secure the best possible prices for the flash drives and ensure diversity of supply.
4. Fast Lead Times – the vast majority of our customers will receive their printed drives within 10 working days from order and artwork confirmation and for many its even quicker. Unlike many other suppliers we also hold significant stocks of blank (unprinted) flash drives in the UK that we can get printed and delivered within 48hrs!
5. Always New and Grade A Chips – Our flash drives are built around New Grade A memory chips and you can even request a specific flash module if you have a particular requirement. We can supply Samsung, Hynix, Intel and Micron.
6. In-house design team – we have our own team of designers in the UK who will work with you and our factory partners to ensure you get a top quality product – the amount of repeat orders we get from our customers is testament to the quality of the drives we produce.
7. Our “standard” minimum order threshold is 50 flash drives. We can supply less and have accepted orders for 10 units but the reality is that when you buy less than 50 units each flash drive has to carry a number of “fixed” costs, which in turn makes the drives expensive.
8. We offer 30-day payment terms to all educational establishments, public sector bodies and customers who place a second or subsequent order with us (subject to credit approval).
9. No Fancy London Office – we’re based in Northampton in the Midlands in a comfortable but basic office/warehouse. The price you are quoted for your flash drives reflects this. Our focus is not on global domination but on providing top quality flash drives at the best possible price in the shortest time we can realistically deliver them.

Old School USB

It’s also fair to say that back in 2002 USB flash drives were typically purchased by “early adopters”, mainly men, and mainly men who liked to be the first to get their hands on new “tech” – so nothing much has changed there then! The adoption of Flash drives was relatively slow because they were still relatively expensive (the price for a 128MB was around £30) and Zip Drives, Floppy Drives and CD’s were still the preferred medium for personal data storage.

The styling of the early flash drives was pretty basic, there was limited choice and by comparison to today’s flash drives they were large and “chunky”. But, in their favour was incredible ease of use, portability and the ability to carry significantly more data than you could fit onto multiple floppy disk drives. The roll-out of USB ports onto all PC’s also ensured that flash drives could be used on pretty much any PC;  be that at home, work or school.

Early Models of Branded USB Flash Drives

Given their cost and slow adoption the number of companies buying USB flash drives printed with their logo on as a promotional give-away was small in 2002. Companies that did buy them typically were using them to target “early adopter” consumers or clients or they were high tech companies that wanted to use a promotional product that illustrated their “high-tech” credentials.

Today, some 8 year later, the floppy disk drive and the zip drive have been consigned to the bin, CD’s are nowhere near as popular as they were because they are cumbersome to carry and tiresome to save data to. By comparison USB flash drives everywhere!

USB Flash drives have in 8 short years risen in popularity to become the de facto method for storing and transporting data. Today they are a common business tool and are on the “kit list” for most schools and universities. They have also become one of the most given and most sought after promotional products with millions given away every year.

Early Models of Branded USB Flash Drives

Their popularity has been underpinned by falling prices, larger memory sizes and the development of a phenomenal range of styles and designs. USB flash drives are now within financial reach of pretty much everyone and the type of flash drive used by someone can say as much about their style and fashion habits as their clothing.

DirectUSBStore spun off a separate business (USB2U) to focus on the supply of branded USB flash drives and fully bespoke USB memory sticks and today it is widely regarded as the number one supplier of such products in the UK. If you’re looking to source USB drives with your company logo on or perhaps your school crest then give the team at USB a call – you’ll be in safe hands.

Although our focus during these 8 years has remained firmly on the UK we have seen significant and unsolicited interest from Europe and the rest of the World in our products and our solutions. Germany is one of the largest markets in Europe for branded USB flash drives and will be the first European market that we focus on.

Our German web site (www.usb2u.de) is already live and our German speaking sales team are on-board and ready to support our customers.

As well as supplying high quality branded USB flash drives on highly competitive terms we also offer free design and mock-ups (using our own in-house design team), custom USB design and fabrication, USB data loading, USB packaging, and the supply of any accessories such as lanyards and keyrings.

We look forward to working with our German based client and partners who in choosing USB2U will join an illustrious group of customers including; BT, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Barclays, HSBC, Coutts, RBS, Orange, BP, Porsche and many many more.