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Inexpensive Label Source


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I just got an order of labels from

 

http://www.uprinting.com/label-printing.html

 

3 cents each, with a 3000 quantity (including $15 shipping).  I have never seen a label for this low of a price before.   3000 for $85,  2.5 inch x 3 inch.   Square corners (rounded costs  2x more)   The labels on the roll cost about 3x more. You just bend the labels to take off sticker backer.  The quality is outstanding.   I got the matte finish, which I like with all of my bags.  At 5000, prices drops to 2.5 cents.  I only got 3k because I was skeptical about the quality.

 

I use those paper bags for small gifts.  The 8.5 x 11 costs 9 cents.  1 piece of brown kraft tissue costs 1.5 cents, making total wrapping costs 13.5 cents.  This is a fault of mine ... I do nothing without calculating a cost to sales ratio.  Packing on $7 items runs about 2%.  Gift packaging for the whole  business comes in at about 1.5%.    I also put business cards in all bags, which will bring cost up by 2 cents.  I'll keep putting both the sticker and the card with gift sales, as this is also promotion.

 

These inexpensive stickers upscale the packaging.  I won't buy printed bags.   A little too expensive but mostly because the free freight goes away on printed orders.

 

 

 

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I get my 2-part carbonless receipts printed at u-printing. They have great prices. Your labels are making my brain gears spin. That is so much cheaper than custom printed bags! I need to ask myself, how much time do I want to spend putting labels on bags? I might try it just to find out how hard it is.

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Rather than make it a separate activity to label all the bags, I would make it part of the purchase/bagging.  I once considered becoming a professional organizer ... one of their big things is "touch something once".  ie when you bring the mail in, immediately pitch/recycle the junk mail and sort the remaining into bills/correspondence, etc.

 

If you label all the bags at once, you have to get them out, setup a work area, apply the labels then gather the bags back up and store them again.  So far you've "touched" them 3 times and you haven't even got a purchase yet!

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I print my bag labels using Avery labels -- they have a round kraft label that looks nice on my kraft bags.  I prep my bags before a show . . . labels attached, business card and listing of upcoming shows inserted into the bag.  Doing that ahead of the show saves time when you are waiting on a customer and processing a sale . . . all I need to do is wrap the purchase in tissue paper.  Customers like not having to wait while you find the business card to add to the bag and it makes you look more professional and business-like. 

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I'm on the other end of this as far as added value on wraps-My sales table is small and I process volumes of customers at busy times-My bag box fits under table with 3 sizes of bags-I drop a card in each bag as I go-the cards are in a pile on sales table which fits a cash register and smart phone and a card holder with cards for customers (separate than my pile of cards for bags)

My table top is 18 x 30 if I recall-all pots go onto during a sale.I buy my bags by the bale at a grocery supply store.The pots get wrapped in unprinted newsprint on a roller that sits vertical next to my chair. Its very efficient and I can move thru customers fast so they do not have to wait. At big shows I have a helper who only wraps-we take turns working register and wrapping.I do 5 shows with help as its to busy for just me has the line would be unmanageable . I can keep the line moving very fast with two no matter how many customers I have .

My most unique item on that table other than my pots they buy is my card holder-I'll take a photo and post it on this thread-Its always a talking point.

Pots sell themselves I just need to wrap them fast and move on.

 

I priced out the foil wrappers that I buy about dishwasher and microwave safe and they cost less from aftosa and they are still pricy in 1,000 rolls-thats an item I would like to find for less than 25 cents apiece.

Mark

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This topic has me thinking ... I only shop in malls about once a year at Christmas time and one big thing I notice is the retailer always wants to put your 'already purchased elsewhere ' stuff in their bag ... Even if you have three smaller bags they will pull out their largest so they can get top billing ( so to speak ). They want other shoppers to see their walking advertisement and head for their store.

So ... Opinions please ...

Wouldn't this same psychology work at Craft Fairs? Wouldn't you want your name big and bold on your bags? Granted, if you are already selling like crazy this won't make a difference, but I tend to think a distinctive bag would pay back the investment.

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I do this when I see someone carrying multiple small bags too. But also, when I see someone carrying a large bag that isn't full, I will say "do you think we can fit the pottery in there?" just because I also like conserving my bags. 

 

I personally get a charge out of seeing people walking around with my bags, but whether it works as advertising I'm not sure. I do one show where the show organizers provide bags for us. So all of the artists are using the same bags, but still this is always one of my biggest sales events of the year. 

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This topic has me thinking ... I only shop in malls about once a year at Christmas time and one big thing I notice is the retailer always wants to put your 'already purchased elsewhere ' stuff in their bag ... Even if you have three smaller bags they will pull out their largest so they can get top billing ( so to speak ). They want other shoppers to see their walking advertisement and head for their store.

So ... Opinions please ...

Wouldn't this same psychology work at Craft Fairs? Wouldn't you want your name big and bold on your bags? Granted, if you are already selling like crazy this won't make a difference, but I tend to think a distinctive bag would pay back the investment.

 

Is it this alone or also to create a subliminal message of "care" about their purchase. If you go to the time and expense of packaging their purchase in a more upscale method than say newsprint and a recycled grocery bag then I'm guessing they might hold a greater perceived value to their purchase.

 

I have my husband help at most of my markets, he wraps pots like he folds laundry, just kinda balls it all up and done. Drives me nuts.

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I will offer a larger bag if I see a customer struggling with multiple small bags.  I will also double bag an item if needed . . . mostly just to be safe.  I also use brown kraft bags that are easily recyclable. 

 

A lot of this has to do with perception.  If you want customers/public to see you as a professional, then you have to present yourself and your pottery as professional.  That means going the extra step . . . a professionally printed business card, a clean bag and wrapping, a sales receipt with your name on it, etc.  Investment in your business pays dividend in sales.

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One thought not talked about is not using bags as an envormental consideration-I do two shows a year where reuse -recycle and -repurpose are king pin ideas.One is called the Whole Earth Festival in Davis Ca. The other is our own local North Country Fair (next weekend is my 42nd annual show. that's no typo 42 years of doing this show.

At these shows my new brown paper bags are frowned on and most folks turn them down for thier own brought cloth bag-like you do or should do at the store.Not sure if this is popular in the east but out here its very much part of everyday life.

Now I should should add that I'm on a board of the local show and our town was one of the 1st in the nation to open a recycling center so we to are working towards a zero waste at our event. We control all food vendors and have them use recycleable compostable containers and utensils. Items that can be easy to recycle are key elements in this thought process.

I try to keep this in mind during my process in ceramics as well-weather it be clay boxes or simple packing materials-from using recycled shipping boxes (never new ones) to wraping in unprinted newsprint at shows.

I make sure what you carry my pottery home is easy to recylce or use again-its good business as well as good stewardship of our planet. Or as gramma said it a'int fancy but it works

Mark

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This topic has me thinking ... I only shop in malls about once a year at Christmas time and one big thing I notice is the retailer always wants to put your 'already purchased elsewhere ' stuff in their bag ... Even if you have three smaller bags they will pull out their largest so they can get top billing ( so to speak ). They want other shoppers to see their walking advertisement and head for their store.

So ... Opinions please ...

Wouldn't this same psychology work at Craft Fairs? Wouldn't you want your name big and bold on your bags? Granted, if you are already selling like crazy this won't make a difference, but I tend to think a distinctive bag would pay back the investment.

 

Shopping bags are a BIG factor in malls.  Stores "bag count" their customers to see which other stores are popular with their customers.  Mall management "bag counts" to see which stores are popular.  We did "bag counts" in our mall stores as well.  A nice bag was a selling point when signing a lease.  Shopping bags in indoor malls help create store/brand awareness.   I cringe when I think about the money I spent on custom bags but there is no doubt that a well done shopping bag will build store awareness and recognition.  I did a lot of research on bags before chunking out a substantial amount of money.    Nice shopping bags have a longer afterlife than plastic bags, especially those plastic thank you bags.

 

I know for a fact that nice/distinctive bags worked back when I did Junior League shows.    I have a client that does these shows and I have insisted he stop using those flimsy thank you bags.  That's how I stumbled upon these inexpensive stickers.   We're actually using the label on a clear bag so people can see his sparkly ornaments, large snowman tree toppers, trays, etc. Next year, if his profitability increases to the point I am projecting, I may have him in a better bag, possibly in a printed one.    This will come when he has plenty of merchandise OTB (open to buy) and excess profit.  But the sticker plus a sturdier bag is a decent presentation and does some promotion as well.

 

The question for us "is that custom printed bag worth it"?  As pointed out, many of us are near the 100% sell through rate.  Attached is the holiday bag we used in the mall stores.   We avoided a big name and went for a distinctive, gift bag look, only putting the website on the bag.  This custom bag cost me less than a cub size bag including FOB to Carthage, MS.   This was the first bag we had done in China.  In subsequent designs, we used a much larger "acesori" printed on all 4 sides of the bag.  I can't come near that quantity to buy that type of bag now.     But I still want some sort of presentation.  That's why I was delighted to find a 3 cent label.   I'll probably buy 10K next time and cut down the cost to 2 cents.   I have a lot of $5/$6 jewelry and ornament purchases.     I just can't see spending 25 cents of a label for that.  I"m pretty insistent that packaging not exceed 2% of the sales price.

 

I've found packaging is something you sort of "grow" into.  If you're profitable, you may decide to invest in a better bag.   I haven't researched an import printed bag in over 7 years and it's possible the quantities might have dropped.  I bought from Nashville Wraps before my mall stores expanded and bought from them again when I dropped to one store.  I'm buying from them for this business now.  I would totally do the imprint bag if they had the free freight.  I have a mental block about paying freight IF I know of a source that offers caps or free freight.  Example I would love to buy 3 cases of a bag from Uline but refuse to pay 30% shipping.   I operate a business on margins and have always included freight. 

 

A shopping bag can enhance your brand image.  Some of you are in some higher end shows where I don't see a plastic thank you bag as acceptable.  I only envision pottery in a Kraft or sturdy translucent shopping bag with a cardboard bottom.  A shopping bag can create artist awareness at a show.  A nice shopping bag can have an afterlife.  About 2 years ago I saw one of my old shopping bags at the Canton flea market .... 5-6 years after the mall stores closed.    Once at a mall, a shopper saw me getting out of a store van and said "I love those store bags and one of these days I'm going in that acesori store."  Another consideration is if you have a retail location where you can point customers ... a bag can do that.

 

As for labeling the bags, I do that while taking a break or employees do in the showroom while waiting for customers to check out.  I'm using less than 10k of bags a year, including those small bags for jewelry.  The bag labeling also goes in my TV watching tasks.

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Thank you for the link.

Their lable prices are pretty good.

 

I use bluegrassprint out of Kentucky for buisness cards post cards and full color banners because their close to Ohio. I usually order ahead of time when they have a sale because thier sale prices are often hard to beat and the quality is top notch. I would not order from them if you needed prints in 24hrs, but they ship with in a reasonable time frame, I usually get the order at my door in seven buisness days or less.

 

Do you use Uprinting for our buisness cards? How are they? For quality comparison, Vista has some low quality full color buisness cards that I have seen and would not use.

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