Yes, We Specialize in Promotional Products — But That’s Not All We Do
At Net Lobster, we’re often introduced as NetSuite consultants who specialize in the promotional products industry. That’s true — and it’s a key part of our identity. But it’s not the whole story.
The reality is, we’ve built our reputation not just on industry familiarity, but on our ability to untangle complexity, streamline processes, and create lasting solutions. Promotional products just happen to be one of the most complex industries out there — which makes it the perfect proving ground for the work we do.
If your business runs on NetSuite and you’re looking to get more out of it, we can help. Whether you sell branded gear, farm equipment, or financial services, the principles we follow are the same: understand the business, simplify the messy parts, and build solutions that last.
Why Promotional Products Companies Choose Us
Promotional products companies gravitate to Net Lobster because we get it.
One of our co-founders, Jim Nathanson, spent over 30 years running his own promotional products company. He knows the industry from the inside — the client demands, the supplier chaos, the margin pressures — all of it. That level of real-world understanding builds immediate trust with clients.
Our other co-founder, Tony Brown, brings over a decade of NetSuite expertise, much of it spent helping promotional products businesses get the most out of the platform. Together, we’ve seen how the right combination of experience and execution can create massive efficiency gains — and that’s what we deliver.
Why is this industry so challenging?
- Multi-vendor orders are the norm. One vendor supplies the blank goods, another does the decoration — NetSuite doesn’t handle this out of the box.
- Customer-owned inventory adds accounting complexity. Sometimes clients buy product upfront, then “re-purchase” it later, occasionally with revenue sharing involved.
- Ever-changing client expectations make it hard to standardize. These companies manage the look and feel of someone else’s brand — and that comes with high pressure and high variability.
We’ve built solutions for all of it.
What That Expertise Teaches Us About Complexity
Here’s the thing: while promotional products is our niche, the skills we’ve developed apply far beyond that space. The common thread is complexity — and we thrive in it.
We’ve worked with companies that sell:
- Lighting products, where fulfillment and product options can get complicated fast.
- DJ equipment, where inventory must be tracked precisely and customer-facing workflows need to be on point.
- Farm equipment, where bulky products, vendor timelines, and service tracking are key.
- Body armor and protective gear, where compliance, batch tracking, and chain-of-custody reporting matter.
- Investment firms, where reporting, data integrity, and system security are mission critical.
In every one of these industries, the technical challenge was unique — but the business needs were familiar:
- Improve processes.
- Automate what can be automated.
- Integrate systems cleanly.
- Make data easier to access and use.
When you’ve worked with the kind of variability that promo products demands, adapting to other industries becomes second nature.
How We Work With Any Company That Runs NetSuite
Clients from outside the promotional products world often come to us through word-of-mouth. And when they stay, it’s not because we speak their industry’s language — it’s because they can tell we’re listening.
We approach every engagement the same way:
- Start with discovery. We outline the business’s high-level processes and follow that up with user walkthroughs and system tours.
- Shadow where needed. Watching how people work is often the fastest way to spot inefficiencies.
- Ask the right questions. Clients often tell us they appreciate how thoughtful and insightful we are in how we explore their needs.
We don’t silo projects. We take the business as a whole into account. That means when we design a solution, it doesn’t just work technically — it works for the people using it, and for the long-term goals of the company.
We also don’t do lock-in contracts. Every one of our clients is still with us — and we’re proud of that. We build value into everything we do, so clients want to keep us around.
Tools and Solutions That Work in Any Industry
Some of the custom solutions we’ve developed for promotional products clients have broad applications:
- Gift Link: Originally built for client gifting and rewards programs, this solution lets you send a recipient a link to choose a gift and enter their shipping info — no forms, no spreadsheets. It’s great for customer appreciation in any industry.
- Advanced Reporting: NetSuite’s native reporting is solid, but it has its limits. If your team is spending hours exporting multiple reports and stitching them together in Excel, we can give you those insights in real time — no more cut-and-paste gymnastics.
These tools, along with countless process automations, integrations, and UI enhancements, are part of how we help companies maximize their NetSuite investment.
The Bottom Line
Yes, we specialize in the promotional products industry. But that’s because it’s hard. And solving hard problems is what we’re built for.
Our experience in that space has made us better consultants — better at understanding nuance, better at managing complexity, and better at creating systems that actually work for the people using them.
If your company is already running on NetSuite, and you’re ready to:
- Streamline a process
- Automate the repetitive
- Integrate your systems
- Or just make your documents and portals look really good
…then we’re ready to help. No matter what you sell, we’ll help you run smarter.