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When you’re shipping for a small business, it can be one of the more expensive parts of your e-commerce company. This is especially true with the shipping demand always increasing. Getting your products to customers quickly, efficiently, and safely is probably the most important part of your company. If your products arrive late, broken, damaged, or leaking, it could very well be the last time you see that customer. To help you out, we’ve put together tips on how to send a package safely and for less money.
Whether you use USPS shipping, UPS shipping, FedEx shipping, or another shipping service, if you ship packages on a regular basis, then having an area dedicated to prepping your shipments for pickup or delivery is extremely important. It will save you money by cutting down on errors with orders, preventing damage to the products being packaged, and recouping time lost looking for misplaced items like packing tape, scissors, and shipping labels.
If you have a larger workspace, get some open racks or shelves to hold your shipping supplies. It’s ideal to have a convenient place to store things like mailing envelopes, shipping boxes, padded mailers, and bubble wrap, as well as items like business cards, coupons, or giveaways you might place in every shipment. Also, have a section where you can keep important order documentation at hand, along with pens, paperclips, and other necessary items.
If you have some free wall space, a small pegboard is great for organizing tools and items like scissors and packing tape. Try using a small shower curtain rod or paper towel holder for keeping bubble wrap, butcher paper or other rolled packing materials neat and organized. If you’re shipping out of a small office or home, use sturdy boxes or plastic bins that you can stack and store when not in use.
Stop by your local UPS or FedEx store to get some ideas of how the professionals set up their shipping stations. Snap a couple of images (with permission of course) to use as a reference when you get ready to build your own station.
To save the most money and keep your products safe, try to match the size of your box as close as possible to the size and weight of your product or products.
Oversized boxes can incur extra charges from your shipping provider, so it’s best to keep your box as small as possible without overcrowding the items. Plus, your customers will appreciate not receiving a box 10 times bigger than the item in it. For heavier products, make sure to use a double-walled box.
When new inventory or even personal shipments come in, try to reuse any boxes in good condition to send shipments to your customers. However, make sure the boxes are sturdy and don’t have any blemishes, tears, or holes. Try using opaque-backed shipping labels, like Avery Trueblock® labels to cover up any pen marks or scratches. TrueBlock shipping labels block out everything underneath the label and are available by the sheet online or by the pack in-store or online.
When your supply of reusable boxes runs out, many shipping providers offer free boxes if you use their service. So, depending on your product’s size and weight, you might be able to get your shipping boxes for free. If you ship products that are small and unbreakable, free envelopes are provided by some as well.
If you’re shipping heavy products, it’s a good idea to send them in more than one box if you can. Heavy boxes can be a burden for your customer. You want to make sure whoever is receiving the shipment can lift and carry it as expected.
For instance, if someone orders a case of wine, they obviously know all 12 bottles are coming in one box. But you definitely wouldn’t put two cases of wine in one box. And the cost can actually be less for two smaller, lighter boxes, than one heavy box. Check with your shipping provider to see what the cost difference would be.
The U.S. Postal Service offers free shipping boxes and mailing envelopes when you send packages using their flat-rate priority service. So, no matter how much your package weighs or where you are sending it, it’s a set price. And delivery is usually in one to three days depending on the destination.
Once your packages are ready to go, you can even schedule a pickup from your business or home. Check the pricing and see what the difference in cost would be if you’re buying boxes and shipping them, as opposed to using flat-rate boxes.
UPS also has a variety of shipping boxes, tubes, and envelopes available at no cost. Some are charged based on a flat rate and the zone, while others are based on weight and zone.
FedEx offers packing and shipping supplies to purchase on its site, but you must call the company to order complimentary express or ground shipping supplies.
To secure fragile products or to ship several individually wrapped items, cushion the smaller boxes inside of larger boxes for extra safeguarding. The extra boxes keep items secure and prevent financial losses from product breakage or damage.
Shipping regularly can mean high costs for foam wrap, packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and air pillows. But like your shipping boxes, reuse and recycle when you can. Many items can be used numerous times before showing wear and tear.
For small upstart businesses, ask your family, neighbors, and friends to save their spare packing materials and old newspapers. However, don’t forget, newspapers can leave ink on some products. You can also check with local businesses or distributors in your area and see what they do with discarded packing materials. Many companies will sell scrap foam and other materials by the truckload for pennies to get it off their property.
One area you don’t want to pinch pennies on, however, is your packing tape. Use sturdy tape that is at least 2″ wide and made specifically for shipping. Basic adhesive tape and masking tape will not hold up during shipping and can lead to boxes opening accidentally in transit.
The unboxing experience is a big deal with consumers today. Unboxing videos of people opening shipments are some of the highest viewed videos on YouTube. So give your customers a little special bonus when they open their box. Don’t just greet them with bland boring wrapping materials. For a minimal cost, you can include a personalized card, sticker, small gift, or promo offer.
As shown in our nesting image above, adding fun personalized labels and stickers to the inside of box flaps is another way to greet customers with quirky, but on-brand messaging. And if you add a coupon or promotional offer, it’s likely to get you another order down the line.
You can order custom postcards for as little as 19 cents each to say thank you to your customers for their purchases. You can also buy printable postcards that allow you to print packaging inserts on-demand.
You can save money by buying your shipping labels online instead of going to the post office or office supply store. Simply order your printable shipping labels online, and personalize and print them through Avery or your shipping provider. Then schedule a pickup. It saves you both time and money.
If you want more professional shipping labels or don’t want to use up your printer ink, you can also order custom shipping labels with your logo and company address and information already printed.
To find the perfect retail packaged labels for your shipping boxes Avery recommends the following:
True Block® Shipping Labels 5.5″ x 8.5″
If you want to learn more, please visit our website metalized labels.
True Block® Shipping Labels 3-1/3″ x 4″
High-Visibility Labels, 2″ x 4″
Melanie NeffWhile choosing font and high-quality graphics has a big influence on customer perception, so does the feel of the label. (This is especially true of products sold through brick and mortar retail.) When consumers pick up the container, they can learn as much about the product’s segment from its feel as they can from your font and graphics choices.
Embossed stickers and labels give you an eye-catching, high end way to highlight text and graphics, as well as subtly change background colors. So, how can you implement embossing in your labels for maximum impact, and what do you need to consider for label designs and application? Let’s take a look.
Does label texture influence buying habits? Thanks to a study conducted by Santa Rita Estates, Avery Dennison and Mind Insights, we finally have a definitive answer.
While looking to update one of their product lines, the winery worked with Avery and Mind Insights to measure the effect of texture on brand perception. This study, published by the Journal of Retailing, found that texture influences customer’s concrete perception of the product by causing them to associate the brand’s qualities with the bottle and the bottle label. In other words, it has a similar effect on brand impression as fonts and graphics, telling consumers about the product’s segment.
With online sales making up a small percentage of the liquor market, it’s easy to see why embossing is such a big trend.
Buyers pick out a bottle, among dozens of others on liquor store shelves, and are actively encouraged to handle the product to read the back of the label to learn more about the product. This makes touch a major part of the buying process. Adding texture with embossed labels to wine labels, for example, gives sellers one more way to differentiate their products from competitors in this hectic market.
Embossing doesn’t just affect a product’s feel, though. Advancements in embossing and label printing technology offer new ways to enhance the look of labels. Combining embossing with print and foil labels helps designs stand out, both physically and visually for pressure-sensitive labels. Add to that techniques for applying varnish to small areas of the label, and you also get a way to add subtle details to blank spaces. Put these elements together, and you can create embossed labels that have increased visual and textural appeal that makes products look more premium.
With embossing and debossing, the first step is to have two plates made: the die and counterdie. The counterdie presses into the paper, pushing it into the hollow spaces on the die.
Debossing just switches the position of the die and counterdie – the face of the label is pushed in instead of out. Setup costs for embossed labels vary, depending on the size of the label stock and the complexity of the design. However, it’s generally in line with setup costs for die cut labels.
There are multiple methods for creating embossing labels. A blank emboss simply changes the shape of the label while a registered emboss presses the label on areas that already have ink or metallic foil. (This requires high print and press accuracy to ensure the graphics and embossing line up.)
Along with classic printing and foil application, spot UV varnishing techniques have become popular in recent years. This process uses UV light to fix varnish to the label, creating contrasting finishes. Pairing this with embossing adds a subtle pop to blank spaces on the label.
Combination embossing applies a foil to the paper stock label material during the embossing process, which is cheaper than separating these two processes. However, the entire embossed area is also foiled. This is a great option for borders and logos, but it only allows one foil color to be used on detailed graphics.
Embossing typically raises the surface of the label by just 1/64 inch, but by making small changes to the shape of the die, it’s possible to increase the illusion of depth. A multi-level emboss uses plates with several distinct levels, allowing for an increase in total height without distorting the paper. Using beveled edges along outlines increases shadow and contrast, giving the appearance of depth. Rounded and chisel (roof) dies create patterns that don’t have a flat shape. These patterns are mostly used for lettering details or borders on custom labels.
Foil stamping is a similar procedure but with a very different end result when compared to embossing. Also known as hot foil, the process uses heat and pressure to imprint lettering or an image onto the front of heavy paper stock. Foil stamping is frequently seen with gold foil, although custom foil designs can be created with full color, and even combined with embossing for an even more dramatic effect.
Simple is usually better. Complex designs can look fine on a computer screen or a flat print, but when you roll labels across a bottle or apply them to odd-shaped packaging, the design template may distort. It’s important to get proof of the completed label from the design service, especially when using registered embossing.
Limit use to small details for more impact. It’s tempting to have an entire logo embossed, but since this is a single stage process, this approach lowers detail. Instead, it often works better to focus on a specific design detail. For example, if you want to emboss a round logo, embossing the edges helps the logo stand out, and gives the label surface a distinct feel. Some labels also apply embossed patterns to blank spaces to add visual interest by creating subtle elements without changing the label color.
Sometimes you can save money by using embossed for elements that can be shared product lines. For example, if you emboss borders or your company logo, you can use these elements for multiple products, and if you want to change the look between products, you can use various inks or finishes on these elements. For example, if you make a beverage in multiple flavors, you can change the embossing colors to match each flavor. This lets you use a single die set for multiple products, and establishes a consistent design language across the brand.
Embossing has no effect on label application. Labels are embossed during the printing process before the adhesive and backing are applied. This keeps the backing separate from raised areas, so your labeling equipment can get a clean peel. However, if you want to use our print and apply applicators to add information like lot numbers to your labels, the print area needs to be separate from embossed areas to avoid distortion.
Embossing is possible but extremely difficult on plastic labels like BOPP. These labels are commonly used on products that face moisture and temperature extremes (such as refrigerated and frozen foods), as well as beauty products used in the shower. However, you may be able to use paper labels in their place with the right choice of protective coatings. Some printers may be able to simulate embossing by applying thicker ink layers. However, there is no simple way to get the right look. The thickness of the ink film varies widely depending on how well the label absorbs the ink and the amount of pigment in the ink. Change any of these factors, and both the color and thickness of the print changes.
If you’re ready to upgrade your labeling, contact CTM Labeling Systems. We have a wide range of labeling equipment that can be tailored to your packaging needs, and our local distributors are happy to work with you and set up a labeling solution that fits your production needs.
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