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Make Your T-Shirt Packaging Memorable

Posted July 9, 2009 by LizView Comments

When you ship out shirts to your customers, it’s your last chance to make a positive, professional and lasting impression. Beyond the obvious – shipping good product that’s neatly folded and arrives without being all beat up – there’s a lot you can do to go above and beyond and make your customer’s purchasing experience truly memorable. This in turn increases the chance they’ll buy again, or recommend your shop to a friend.

To help you get started (and inspired) we’ve compiled a list of tips (with links for resources) for packaging your tees and some samples of really remarkable stuff that other folks have done.

Tips for shipping your shirts in style:

  1. Invest a few extra bucks in plastic bags to individually package your t-shirts. This looks especially pro when you are shipping multiple tees out to a customer.
  2. Order some hang tags to attach to each shirt. Some of the most memorable shirts I’ve received had tags that are as well designed as the graphics on the tees themselves. Put your company name, website URL, and some amazing artwork on your tag. There will be people who keep them just because they look cool.
  3. Throw in a few stickers (here or here), buttons, or other trinkets with each order. These are cheap to produce in bulk, make sweet little freebies, and are great for promotion if they are cool enough that people will use them. Don’t mention it on your website – just do it without saying anything and be a hero.
  4. Find a way to say THANK YOU. Whether it’s a hand written note, or a pre-printed message, let your customer know you really do appreciate their order.
  5. Include a coupon code good on your customer’s next purchase. Many big-boy retail shops follow this policy to lure shoppers back and turn them into repeat buyers. Even if it’s just 10% off an order, you can easily increase your chances of getting that next purchase.

Really Creative Packaging Ideas

Of course, one of the best ways to stand out is to make your actual packaging unique. If you’re on a budget, just getting some pre-printed mailers is a great way to start. But here’s a few examples of some out-of-the-world packaging to inspire you:

firecracker1

Johnny Cupcakes is a juggernaut in the world of established t-shirt brands. Their packaging, and this is just one example, is always creative. (via lovely package)

oddica3

Oddica has been around forever, and has always had custom printed flexible shipping bags. The design has changed over the years, but the branding is always consistant. (via notcot)

meat

Butchrd Apparel, who we’ve featured before, actually packs their tees in styrofoam meat cases. The idea is perfectly inline with the concept behind their line which is an example of really smart marketing and branding.

1075825504_fef4f13406

Here’s another example of packaging matching up to the brand. Creative + cheap + easy to pull off = a true winner. (via flickr. ldandersen)

Want to share some tips or other outstanding packaging ideas you’ve seen? Post em below!



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View Comments »

  • MJ said:

    Great article, lots of good advice

  • Andy said:

    Great post!

  • Rob said:

    Great post with some very useful tips!!!

  • Wasted Clothing said:

    Thanks!

    Some really good tips.
    I’m going to start using ‘Include a coupon code good on your customer’s next purchase’ right away.

  • liz (author) said:

    Glad ya’ll found it helpful!

    @Wasted – the coupon thing is pure genius I think. Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gotten coupons from online retailers and stuck them up on my fridge to use them the next time I buy.

    Even when I forget to use them, the name of the company is still sitting there staring at me.

  • quicklinks - tee packaging : OMG Tees - Tshirt Blog said:

    [...] just love the example pics in this post on pop culture tees about tee [...]

  • DefunktOne said:

    Awesome post. Thank you!

  • Aaron said:

    Some interesting advice there. Hmmm, plastic wrapping each shirt isn’t particularly impressive, and it’s wasteful. If I got a shirt in wrapping, I would either not care, or find it a nuisance. Also, some of that “smart marketing” packaging is just a bit much. Don’t go overboard.

  • Joe said:

    We started to poly bag our shirts. It ads about $.25 to have our screen printer fold and bag the t’s, but it’s worth it in the long run. We haven’t tried adding the coupon in the order, so that’s a great idea! Thanks for the post!

  • Liz (author) said:

    @Joe – Glad it was helpful!

    @Aaron – I’ve received some packages were the shirts are just all thrown in there crazy like or have tons of dust on them from the packaging. I’m not sure it’s about impressing as much as it is about making sure your shirt stays put and stays clean.

  • T-Shirt Blogs Round Up: Harry Potter, Ript, Okoto and MySpace Marketing | pimpmyshirt.com.au said:

    [...] Make Your T-Shirt Packaging Memorable is a great marketing tip by Liz from Pop Culture TeesOften in the t-shirt industry companies focus all of their attention on marketing and design and not so much on the presentation of the packaging. Yet, I think we can all remember instances of really cool packaging from various companies that we’ve ordered from. Check out this helpful blog post for some tips to improve your packaging. [...]

  • RottenThread said:

    Thanks for this! This was extremely helpful and gets you thinking.

    -Shannon

  • RottenThread said:

    Thanks for this! This was extremely helpful and gets you thinking.

    -Shannon

  • Michael Rad said:

    nice post, will def consider adding coupon codes to orders going fwd. at holstee we're using a fulfillment center, they required that each shirt be individually wrapped… we were bummed b/c this meant an additional layer of packaging / waste… so we did a little research and found ended up using bags from a company called http://www.poopbags.com … they're bags are inexpensive, completely biodegradable / made from renewable resources + can ultimately be reused by our customer for their original purpose… to pick up after their dogs.

  • Kontrolled Khaos said:

    I dig this post and YES Johnny Cupcakes is a Juggernaut in the t-shirt industry!!

  • David said:

    Hahaha nice packings! I really liked the Deli idea :) Nice! I just put em in plastic bags :/

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