If you've ever turned down a new account because you were already stretched thin, you already understand the core challenge facing most team dealers today: growth is limited not by demand, but by capacity. There are only so many stores one person or team can build, manage, and process in a season.
The instinct is to hire. But before you post that job listing, it's worth asking a different question: what if the problem isn't your headcount, but your workflow?
Dealers across the country are running leaner and growing faster than ever by eliminating the manual, repetitive work that quietly eats hours out of every week. In this post, we'll break down exactly how they're doing it, with real numbers from real operations.
The Real Cost of an Inefficient System
Most dealers don't realize how much time their current process is actually costing them because it's always been that way.
When you’re using a system that isn’t purpose-built for team dealers and apparel decorators:
- Store builds can take two to three hours.
- Order processing might require multiple people to avoid mistakes.
- Vendor lookups, manual data entry, back-and-forth with customers to confirm sizes and artwork suck out important time in your day.
None of it feels dramatic in the moment. But add it up across a season, and you're looking at dozens (sometimes hundreds) of hours that could have been spent selling, servicing accounts, or simply not working on a Saturday.
That's what Corporate Images discovered when they switched to Chipply. They hadn't set out looking for a better solution. They didn't even know how inefficient their old system was until they had something to compare it to.
"To build a legitimate store, it used to take me two to three hours. Now, I can put a store together in about 30 minutes with more offerings than I would have had before." — Andrew Kohler, Co-Owner, Corporate Images
That's not a minor improvement. That's four or five stores built in the time it used to take to build one.
What Happens When You Give Your Reps Their Time Back
For operations with a sales team, the impact goes beyond the person building the stores. Every hour a rep spends on administrative work is an hour they're not in front of a customer.
At Corporate Images, faster store builds didn't just improve efficiency for whoever was clicking through the platform — it changed how the whole team operates.
"Now it takes my reps a third of the time to build a store. Processing it at the end takes maybe 20 minutes, and then they have the rest of the day to chase new leads, follow up with customers — whatever they need to do to grow the business." — Andrew Kohler, Co-Owner, Corporate Images
That's the compounding effect of workflow efficiency: when the administrative burden shrinks, the time that's freed up doesn't just disappear. It goes directly into growth.
From Four People to One — Without Dropping the Ball
If Corporate Images' story is about speed, Macco's is about scale.
Before Chipply, processing a complicated order at Macco required up to four team members working together to get it done. It was a process that could take three to four hours, and one that left significant room for human error along the way.
Today, one person handles what used to require four. And that same process that took hours? It now takes about 30 minutes.
"With Chipply, it's all so streamlined. It's a third of the time and a third of the staff to process a fairly complicated order." — Stephen McCammon, Owner, Macco Promotions
The secret isn't magic — it's automation. One-click purchasing eliminates manual order entry. Automated work orders move products straight into production without anyone having to re-enter data. Integrations with tools like ShipStation mean that information flows through the system without anyone resubmitting it at each step.
The result: fewer errors, less labor, and a team that's free to focus on selling and serving customers instead of managing process.
Doing More With the Same Amount of Time
For Kami Stroope, Director of Online Sales at Midwest Sporting Goods, the impact of Chipply isn't measured in minutes saved on a single store. It's measured in the sheer volume of what's now possible.
"The amount of stores that I build in a year, there's no way I could do it without Chipply. I'm able to do more with the same amount of time that I have." — Kami Stroope, Director of Online Sales, Midwest Sporting Goods
Midwest Sporting Goods has significantly increased the number of online stores it launches and manages each season; not by adding staff, but by building more efficiently at every step of the process.
"We've been able to build more online stores because I'm able to build them more efficiently, quicker. The whole process from start to finish is more efficient."
That's the goal, stated plainly: same team, more stores, more revenue.
New Revenue That Wouldn't Have Existed Otherwise
Efficiency gains are valuable. But for some dealers, Chipply hasn't just made existing work faster — it's opened doors to revenue that simply wasn't accessible before.
ACE Screen Printing is a strong example. Since adopting Chipply, they've seen a 15% increase in overall sales. But the more significant part of that number is where it came from: customers and organizations they never could have served without online ordering and shipping capability.
"These are sales we never would have gotten before. If it had to be online and shipped, those customers just wouldn't have walked in the door." — Adam Szyfman, Owner, ACE Screen Printing
Online stores didn't just make ACE more efficient; they expanded their market. And once the stores started performing, something else happened: momentum.
"Susie sees a PTO store, then Mary wants one. I'm copying stores, reusing artwork, and suddenly it just keeps growing."
The ability to duplicate and adapt existing stores means that each new account requires less effort than the last. What started as individual projects has evolved into a self-sustaining sales channel, one that compounds over time instead of requiring constant reinvention.
The Flexibility to Run Your Business on Your Terms
Perhaps the most unexpected outcome from any of these dealers comes from IE Planners.
Jesse and his team came to Chipply with a clear, practical goal: save time and reduce labor costs. In their first twelve months on the platform, they increased online sales by $100,000. Efficiency improved across store setup, work order generation, and the purchasing process.
But the bigger change was personal.
Jesse had originally planned to sell his business by the end of 2025 — to step away, spend more time skiing and golfing, and hand the reins to someone else. Chipply changed the equation.
"With the time I'm now saving, my wife and I are both working less, traveling more, and still keeping everything running smoothly. That kind of flexibility has been a game-changer." — Jesse Pike, Owner, IE Planners
He's not selling. He's still running the business, just on his own terms. That's what the right platform can do when the operational friction is removed.
The Pattern Across Every Story
Look across these five dealers and a clear picture emerges:
- Store builds that once took 2–3 hours now take 30 minutes — reported independently by both Corporate Images and Macco
- Order processing that required 4 people now requires 1 — Macco
- $100,000 in new online sales in the first 12 months — IE Planners
- 15% increase in overall sales from entirely new revenue streams — ACE Screen Printing
- Significantly more stores launched per season with the same team — Midwest Sporting Goods
None of these companies hired their way to growth. They fixed their workflow and the growth followed.
What This Means for Your Operation
If your current process has you capped out, if you're turning down stores, grinding through manual work, or watching your reps spend more time on admin than on selling, the answer probably isn't another hire.
It's a smarter system.
Chipply is built specifically for team dealers, decorators, and promotional products distributors who want to grow without adding complexity. From automated purchasing and work orders to integrations with top industry vendors like SanMar, S&S Activewear, and Momentec, every feature is designed to give you back the time you're currently losing to manual process.
The dealers above didn't just get faster. They got their business back.
Ready to see what that looks like for your operation?