Glossary
Terms used in employee merch & swag collection
Quick definitions for HR, people-ops and event teams running corporate merch programs.
TL;DR: A merch roster is a structured list of recipients plus the shipping, sizing and dietary data needed to fulfil branded merchandise. The terms below explain the moving parts of running one well.
- Merch roster
- A merch roster is a structured list of recipients (employees, attendees or clients) together with the data needed to ship them branded merchandise — name, address, t-shirt size, dietary preferences and product picks. SoRoster replaces the spreadsheet-and-Slack workflow with a single shareable link.
- Swag form
- A swag form is the recipient-facing form used to collect shipping and personalization details for corporate gifts. A good swag form is mobile-first, takes under 60 seconds, and lets recipients edit their answer until the order closes.
- T-shirt size collection
- T-shirt size collection is the process of asking each recipient for their preferred apparel size before placing a bulk order. Industry standard ranges are XS–4XL for unisex and XS–3XL for fitted cuts. Always include a fit guide and a 'prefer not to say' option.
- Dietary intake form
- A dietary intake form captures food restrictions and preferences (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, kosher, allergies) ahead of catering for an event or shipping consumable gifts. It must allow free-text allergy notes for safety.
- Transactional email
- Transactional email is a one-to-one message triggered by a specific user action — for example, sending each recipient their private roster link. Unlike marketing email it does not require explicit opt-in, but it must include a working unsubscribe header (RFC 8058) and respect bounces.
- GDPR consent (for merch data)
- Under GDPR, collecting an employee's home address or dietary information requires a clear, freely-given purpose statement and the right to withdraw. SoRoster shows recipients exactly what is collected, why, and gives them a private edit link they can use any time.
- Order-ready CSV export
- An order-ready CSV is a flat spreadsheet with one row per recipient and columns matching what a merch vendor or 3PL needs (full name, address lines, country, postal code, size, variant SKU, quantity). SoRoster exports this directly so you can hand it to your supplier without reformatting.
- Per-recipient invite link
- A per-recipient invite link is a unique URL pre-filled with the recipient's identity, used so each person fills the form exactly once and can edit later. It is more reliable than open public links when you need accurate one-row-per-employee data.
- Bounce and complaint handling
- Bounce handling is the practice of removing email addresses that hard-bounced (invalid) or marked your message as spam, so you stop sending to them. SoRoster centralises Mailgun bounce and complaint events into a suppression list automatically.
- Swag onboarding
- Swag onboarding is the workflow of welcoming a new hire with a branded merch kit (t-shirt, hoodie, notebook, sticker pack). Best practice is to send the merch form on day-one, ship within 14 days, and keep one canonical roster per cohort.
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