As a small business, your packaging can sometimes take a back seat as price can outweigh other core values. When we first started we were using plastic bags left, right and centre and bubble wrap to protect most items. After years of changing it up we feel we have finally cracked the perfect mix of elements to create a well protected and attractive looking set up!
Tape
Branded tape is perfect if you're planning on using plain cardboard boxes. It makes your packaging stand out on delivery and is super strong and durable. We compared prices and production on a few companies but Sticker Mule definitely stood out the most. Their pricing means with one 90m roll you can seal over 100 packages. One roll at £23 has lasted us 3 months already, and as you can see from the photo, there's still plenty left! Made from reinforced Kraft, this water activated tape is great for the environment and can be recycled with ease.
Our tape dispenser is from Amazon and is really easy to use, just fill the front compartment with water and you're good to go.
Branded boxes
Although we've used cardboard boxes for a few years now, branding them was of huge importance to us. We've used plain boxes with a custom stamp from No Issue before, which is a great alternative if you're trying to keep costs down, but they can take a serious amount of time and commitment. No Issue are leaders in eco-friendly branded items!
We tried numerous companies and settled on WooHoop for our packaging as they're UK based and reasonably priced.
Paper Lucky Dip Bags
Only a small change, but a big one in the long run. Our original Lucky Dip bags were Aluminium Heat Seal bags. After the pure carnage left all over the Bloodstock grounds from our Lucky Dip bags, we knew we needed to make a change.
Switching anything to paper based is easy and doesn't break the bank. That's why we opted for these paper bags from Ebay. They're the perfect size for jewellery, pins and patches!
Tissue Paper
Tissue Paper looks great, protects well, is good for the environment and is cost effective. We choose Kite Packaging for our Tissue Paper, it's available in 12 colours and is 100% recyclable and bio-degradable.
Thank you cards, Business cards & Envelopes
Most business cards and flyers are recyclable, and InstantPrint have always been our choice due to their strong sustainability outlook.
In their words "We're certified (and constantly working to) a set of environmentally management standards called ISO 14001:2015. This means, once a year, we're inspected by external auditors (not as scary as it sounds) who measure our environmental impact."
Their items are also delivered in 100% recyclable packaging, winner!
Paper Stickers
Stickers are available all over the internet, but we choose to make our own because 1. we can change them up whenever we fancy, 2. we have total control over the end product, 3. it saves money. We use an average Canon Pixma printer and a Cricut to make our very own custom stickers.