Let’s assume your products come to you pre-packaged in poly-bags from the manufacture, and let’s further assume Amazon always re-boxes your items in Amazon’s own shipping boxes. Is it worth it for you to use your own custom printed branded box? That’s the question we are going to tackle here — using custom printed boxes vs poly bag — and our questions revolve around the effectiveness of branding and marketing on shipping bags vs shipping boxes. Is any of it worth the expense and why?
This is a question that comes up from time to time and budding e-commerce sellers along some of the more seasoned business veterans. It can be difficult to track and evaluate marketing expenses especially when it comes to printed materials. While in-house A-B testing can help us evaluate marketing strategies, testing one’s branding is a different story. Branding involves a much larger process of interrelated parts — from where your products are made, to customer service, to packaging, to your products themselves, it all comes together to form your brand.
In the end this is a question of whether creating a “branded packaging experience” and is worth the effort and expense. This is a question we’ve looked at in some detail in previous posts and we think there’s a very strong case for creating a “branded experience.” In our last post we covered the question: Why Market to Existing Customers, which includes statistics and studies published in the Harvard Business Review (that’s a post worth reading if you’re looking hard at the value using of custom boxes, strictly in terms of return on investment).
In the last post we looked at metrics such as customer retention where “increasing customer retention by 5% increased profits by 25% to 95%.” In this post we are going to look at how branding your shipping boxes can affect your digital marketing strategy.
How can my shipping boxes affect my digital strategy?
The relationship between the cardboard box and the internet becomes more clear when you consider that for most Amazon sellers, customers will only directly experience your physical presence through your shipping boxes and your products. They won’t see your store, they won’t meet any sales staff. Their first impression of you is either going to be from plastic bag a corrugated cardboard box.
Let’s consider Amazon the process of Amazon reviews for instance. Amazon frequently asks customers to rate their experience with sellers; let’s say a customer gains confidence in your business through a seamless shipping and packaging experience and enjoys your product as well. When they are rating you as the seller, they might not think of your box in particular, but it will mostly likely influence their perception of you.
Brand Strategy & The Edge of Chaos
While the difference between plastic or cardboard may seem trivial, it’s important to remember that when it comes to complex systems like a company’s brand or identity, the smallest changes can have large, far-reaching consequences. For example, something as simple as the colour of your box and print can have a dramatic unintended influence; let’s say it matches the colours of a popular political party in your customer’s country, or it’s a lucky colour in their culture, or something else that you may have never considered. The idea here is using symbolic references and associations to help your brand form a positive feedback loop. Sometimes it only takes a few good reviews in the right place and time for a brand strategy to emerge and become self-reinforcing.
One Sure Thing
This is why the branded packaging experience even for cardboard shipping boxes is so important: it’s one of the only marketing tools in your kit that you know for sure will be directly in your customer’s hands. While a plastic poly bag may be cheaper at the outset, the cost of poly vs custom printed boxes has to be weighed in respect to your overall marketing strategy.
Buying Wholesale Shipping Boxes Direct
If you are considering getting custom printed shipping boxes for your eCommerce business, it often helps to find a wholesale box manufacture that’s in your region and buy direct. If you have any questions on pricing and which services we can provide your business, give Racer Boxes in Vancouver B.C. a call at (604) 270 – 8205 .
This series of posts for small businesses in Vancouver BC, our Box Manufacturing company in Richmond BC provides responses on important questions for startups and small businesses in eCommerce that rely on shipping boxes or wholesale cardboard mailers in one form or another.
This post concerns the types of boxes and the boxes sizes that are recommended to send to Fulfillment by Amazon and how to get the best bang-for-your-buck, cost wise. If you haven’t been following our eCommerce series so far, you may want to also check out our previous posts: Printing your own Label Stickers vs Custom Printed Boxes, 3 Tips to Boost Efficiency for Vancouver eCommerce, and Buying Wholesale Boxes: China vs Vancouver Canada.
Tips for Amazon’s FBA
Use Double or Triple Walled Corrugated Cardboard
Amazon sellers will often recommended against using single walled boxes, in order to ensure your products get to Amazon’s Fulfillment Centres (FCs) safely. As one Amazon seller states in the Amazon seller forums: “I highly recommend that whatever box size you use, make sure they are double walled or triple walled, as that will help protect the contents inside and the box will show up to the FCs in much better shape than a single-walled box will.”
Also, another reason to go with double walled corrugated cardboard or more is that you can’t rely on Amazon to double box and safely package your items. While Amazon typically does re-box (or double-box) items at their FCs, they don’t always do so. So it’s necessary to ensure your products are protected in the event they ship from the FC with nothing more than the packing you’ve provided.
Buying Wholesale Boxes from the Manufacturer
If you’re an Amazon seller looking to use the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, you can save a great deal on ordering custom wholesale shipping boxes directly from the box manufacturer. Box manufactures, like Racer Boxes in Vancouver BC, are able to make your boxes to order, providing custom dimensions, die-cut designs, in-house box printing services, along with industry leading customer service.
Min-Max the Box Size
It’s a balancing act to stay within Amazon’s box size pricing structure and allow enough room to fit various sized items. An advantage of ordering directly from the box manufacture is that it allows you optimize your boxes sizes in accordance with FBA box dimension requirements. As a wholesale box manufacture, we can provide the flexibility you need to meet your sizing, branding, and protection needs.
Vancouver Wholesale Custom Mailers & Box Printing
Get the perfect eCommerce shipping boxes from Racer Printing and Box Manufacturing. We manufacture and sell custom mailers and shipping boxes in Richmond B.C., Canada. And we also now provide wholesale shipping supplies for the Vancouver Area, allowing you to streamline your ordering process.
Give Racer Boxes a call today at (604) 270 – 8205 to get your high quality custom shipping boxes with custom box printing.
The Resurgence of Mailers
Remember when Netflix used to mail DVDs in its iconic red envelops? Guess what, that business model is still alive and well. Netflix currently has 33 physical distribution centres that process around 3,400 discs per hour!
While physical retail store fronts have lost ground, mailers are doing well and growing in leaps and bounds. As such, in the following post, we’ll look at how custom mailers make good business sense in terms of marketing, ROI, and in light of disruptive industries in e-commerce.
Leveraging Disruptive Business Models
By leveraging new technologies and services, such as automated checkout and shipping services, startups and small businesses can gain a strong competitive advantage over traditional retail stores.
Take DollarShaveClub.com as a recent example. With a disruptive marketing campaign and an even more disruptive business model, known as the “subscription box model” or “subcom”, the dollar shave club has grown from a tiny startup to boast “hundreds of thousands” of monthly subscribers.
The subcom industry is highly disruptive and an exciting way to break into established markets and competition against the big-boys in the retail space. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We will delve deeper into this subject in our upcoming post: “Understanding the Subscription Box Marketing Strategy”
Gaining The Competitive Advantage: Custom Mailers
Custom mailers (or small die-cut shipping boxes) are of big importance in the disruptive ecommerce industry. Netflix uses iconic red mailers and Amazon uses a friendly arrow that looks like smiley face. In both cases, when you see their custom printed boxes, your decision to use their service is instantly reinforced.
But Why Market to Existing Customers?
Some business owners may wonder why they should bother custom printing their shipping boxes. “These boxes go to our customers; i.e., our marketing has already worked on them! So why bother?” In a word: retention.
In a study published by the Harvard Business Review, the researchers show that for traditional businesses in most industries, “increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.” This is due to the incredibly low return on investment for new customer acquisition.
The study then followed this trend in a marketing study on ecommerce and found the value of retention is even more pronounced. In fact, “web customers tend to consolidate their purchases with one primary supplier, to the extent that purchasing from the supplier’s site becomes part of their daily routine.”
For any e-commerce business, the researchers make it clear: “you cannot generate superior long-term profits unless you achieve superior customer loyalty.”
This is Where Custom Mailers Earn Their Stripes
A branded packaging experience requires a thoughtful selection of your packaging and shipping materials, as well as the deliberate presentation of your products. Its purpose is to provide value for your customer as well as your business by creating a memorable experience.
Whatever your branded packaging experience is, the upshot of shipping custom printed boxes to your existing customers is the return on investment provided by customer retention and brand loyalty.
Vancouver Wholesale Custom Mailers & Box Printing
For your custom mailers in the Vancouver area, consider the savings and benefits of ordering from local box manufacturer! Racer Printing and Box Manufacturing makes custom mailers and shipping boxes locally in-house in Richmond B.C., Canada.
Craft the perfect branded packaging experience, give Racer Boxes a call today at (604) 270 – 8205 to get your high quality custom shipping boxes with custom box printing.
Our Upcoming eCommerce Shipping Boxes & Mailers Series
The e-commerce business in Vancouver B.C. has blown up in recent years through the confluence of technologies, services, and consumer-sentiment that now allows individuals and small businesses compete with traditional retail outlets in ways that used to be impossible. Whether it’s through Amazon, eBay, etsy, or direct through a subscription based “subscription box” services, the retail space has changed and it drives up the demand for gaining a competitive advantage through branded packaging.
Here at Racer Boxes in Richmond B.C, we work with a lot of folks in eCommerce. We manufacture wholesale shipping boxes for both growing as well as well established eCommerce companies who are making waves throughout Vancouver, B.C., Canada, and the United States. So over the years we have accumulated lot of insight that can help you understand both the advantages and disadvantages of investing in custom boxes for your business.
In this series of posts we are going to focus on important questions for startups and small businesses that rely on shipping boxes or mailers in one form or another. In this vein, some of our previous eCommerce shipping box related posts include: Printing your own Label Stickers vs Custom Printed Boxes, 3 Tips to Boost Efficiency for Vancouver eCommerce, and Buying Wholesale Boxes: China vs Vancouver Canada.
Our Upcoming eCommerce Topics
In the following series of posts we will look closer at key eCommerce marketplaces and important marketing strategies behind using custom mailers and custom shipping boxes within those channels. The upcoming topics will include:
- Competitive Advantages in eCommerce: Custom Mailers 101
- How to Order Wholesale Custom Boxes for Amazon FBA
- Amazon Product Packaging: Custom Printed Box vs Poly Bag
- Understanding the Subscription Box Marketing Strategy
We might add to this list as time goes on as well, but in the mean time stay tuned for our first post in this series later this month: Competitive Advantages in eCommerce: Custom Mailers 101!
About Racer Boxes Custom Wholesale Boxes in Richmond, B.C.
Racer Printing and Box Manufacturing manufactures all of our boxes locally in-house, in Richmond B.C., Canada, so we’re able to make your orders affordable and offer great flexibility. Get exactly the right kind of shipping boxes you need, along with custom printing, tailored for your business.
To learn more about our custom shipping boxes and our printing services, contact us today at (604) 270 – 8205!
Custom Shipping Boxes Printing Vancouver Canada
Racer Printing and Box Manufacturing understands the importance of having custom printed boxes for Vancouver businesses. So we make and sell affordable shipping boxes with excellent pricing and superior quality for both low volume and high volume requirements.
Even for relativity small businesses, using printed labels for your logo, branding, and descriptions isn’t very attractive, efficient, nor price effective when done in volume. As a local Canadian business based in Richmond B.C., we understand the needs of our customers and we put a top priority on providing exceptional customer service.
Save on your Custom Box Printing
There’s a lot of advantages working with Racer Boxes for your shipping box printing services; but as always, the first box to check (no pun intended) is the price. While we pride ourselves on high quality workmanship from start to finish, we’re equally proud to be able to offer affordable pricing to our customers.
One of the ways we are able to offer great pricing without cutting corners on quality and service is because we’re able to provide both the box manufacturing and the box printing right here, in-house. That saves the added time and expense of ordering cartons and then sending them off for printing.
For local Vancouver companies we also provide the added bonus of reduced shipping cost. There’s no sense in buying overseas and paying for freight, when we’ll beat them on price, quality, and service — all done locally and done right!
Get Exactly the Right Shapes & Sizes of Shipping Boxes Printed
Because we manufacture all of our boxes right here, in-house, we’re able to offer you unprecedented flexibility on your shipping boxes. Get exactly the right kind of shipping boxes – the right sizes and shapes – along with custom printing tailored for your business.
We’ll work with you from start to finish to ensure you get exactly the shipping boxes you want. To learn more about our custom shipping boxes and our printing services, contact us today at (604) 270 – 8205!
Printed Boxes Vs Sticker: Marketing & Brand Management
How you package and present your goods is a critical component of marketing and brand management for all businesses. So here’s an important question to evaluate: should your company be using printed labels (or stickers) for your shipping boxes and product packaging; or, is it better to print directly onto your boxes and package itself using a custom box printing service.
Here we will go over some of the pros and cons of using stickers vs custom printed boxes, as well as offer local price estimates and further assistance for businesses in the Greater Vancouver Area.
Where Custom Box Printing & Packaging Makes Sense
For customer facing cartons and packaging — such as delivery boxes, cake boxes, pizza boxes, packaging, and so on — custom box printing and custom packaging is usually well worth the upfront cost. It provides confidence in your product and your brand, giving them a cohesive, professional, and established appearance.
Conversely, stickers on plain cartons may appear unprofessional and rushed when compared to the colourful, custom printed carton.
That said, if you are a small startup, printed labels on your boxes can work — sometimes they can work quite well in fact!
Where Stickers on Boxes May be a Good Idea
Transparent Labels on Transparent Film: Let’s say you have a bakery startup using bakery boxes with a see through window on top. This style might work fairly well aesthetically. One could print labels on transparent stickers and maintain a functional yet clean aesthetic.
Trendy Startup Aesthetic: Another way where stickers might work is if you build your marking and image around to embrace it. Take Earnest Ice Cream on Fraser Street in Vancouver for example. Their use of printed labels on plain brown cardboard builds into their brand recognition in powerful ways. Compared to the home-printed labels of many low-budget startups, Earnest gets it done right!
Scaling, Where Stickers on Boxes Doesn’t Work
In-house printing doesn’t scale very easily. This is why printing companies still exist. When scaling operations up, the cost of labels, ink or toner, and the labor to operate the printer and physically apply the labels all adds up in cost, time, space, equipment, and effort.
If you plan to do it all in-house, be sure that printing 50 box labels per month is a whole different game than printing 15,000 box labels a month.
As such, for most companies, printing labels yourself should only be a temporary solution or used in low volume circumstances.
Return on Investment
This is where a box printing service has immediate return on investment. Industrial sized box manufacturers and box printers like Racer Boxes operate in economies of scale. And because we purchase our supplies at such high volume, we are able to pass the savings to our customers.
Vancouver’s Custom Cardboard Box Printer
If you are in the Greater Vancouver Area and want to evaluate whether custom box printing is right for your company, call Racer Boxes at 604-270-8205 or contact us online anytime.
What corrugated cardboard means
You are familiar with the term cardboard, but what does corrugated mean?
Corrugated cardboard is the most common type of cardboard box type, and it is most popular for its durability and cost. This cardboard is stiff, strong, and lightweight and is made up from two layers of brown kraft paper.
The term corrugate comes from the converting process of which wood pulp is corrugated and made into paper; it’s rolled over to create the famous corrugated waves, and then the paper is cut to size and glued together to form its final shape. Corrugated cardboard was first developed in 1884 by a Swedish chemist who developed the process for pulping wood chips into this most popularly strong paper we use today.
Why use corrugated cardboard
We manufacture corrugated cardboard because of its extreme efficiency for the packing and shipping needs of our customers. It is also an environmentally friendly process to manufacture this product, which we at Racer Boxes are proud to support. Corrugated cardboard uses only 10% freshly-cut tree, the remainder of which is form recycled paper and board or woodchips, shavings, and sawdust leftover from other operations.
How to order wholesale corrugated cardboard
Corrugated cardboard is a standard for cardboard boxes we use at Racer Boxes in Vancouver BC. Call us at 604-270-8205 or contact us online to find out more or to place a wholesale order of affordable, high quality cardboard boxes.
Get Ready for Holiday Orders, Custom Printed Cardboard Boxes
The leaves have gone and the season is shifting over to winter. It’s the time of year pumpkin spice, early Christmas preparations, and perhaps a bit of cleaning before friends and family come over for a visit. It’s time to make way for a new season.
Custom Printed Boxes for Holiday & Seasonal Themes
Label-makers and thick black permanent markers will be a handy sidekick in your organization. And for festive and seasonal use, consider our box printing services where we can print decorations or anything on your custom boxes. Custom printed holiday or Christmas themed delivery boxes are great for e-commerce, packaging, & delivery boxes, including Holiday Bakery Boxes and Christmas Themed Delivery Boxes.
Standard Folding Boxes for Organizing & Storage
Our standard folding boxes are ideal for storing out-of-season goods. Neatly pack them away for the winter till summer rolls around again, because now it’s time to bring out the wool.
Speaking of wool, our standard folding boxes are great for keeping winter blankets and Christmas decorations in the flip months.
Last year we published an article on our blog about How to Organize with Corrugated Cardboard. We spoke about how easy it is to accumulate stuff and the trend for getting sidetracked and accumulating even more stuff in the act of trying to get organized.
Its smart to plan ahead and prepare by keeping in stock a variety of Stock Cartons and Delivery Boxes. When it comes to getting organized, we find that the best way to be efficient and really save money and time is to have a simple organization strategy and a couple dozen cardboard boxes.
Our cardboard boxes are also great for day-to-day storage, such as for keeping sports equipment or party hosting supplies organized.
Contact Racer Boxes to arrange the boxes you need for this upcoming holiday season. Call us at 604-270-8205 or contact us online anytime for your affordable, high quality delivery cardboard boxes – made any way you like!
Racer Boxes Stands Out in Vancouver
There are many cardboard box manufacturing companies on the market and it can be a difficult task to determine which company to choose from. We at Racer Boxes take pride in what we do and believe that you can benefit from our professional services. Here are our top 3 reasons why you should choose Racer Boxes as your cardbord box manufacturer:
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Superior quality, affordable pricing
Racer Boxes offers flexibility to customers with any size volume requirements while maintains affordable pricing and superior qualities. In comparison to our competitors, this difference is recognized by our loyal customers.
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Great customer service
Racer Boxes is reputable for its exceptional customer service that includes on time delivery and dedication to our customers. Founded by two Hong Kong immigrants, the company understands the value of hard work and patience for good customer service, and continues to uphold this value as the once small operation continues to provide a service to returning customers.
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Local and sustainable company
Racer Boxes was founded in Richmond, BC where the company operates fully. We also use sustainable business practices that ensure our stewardship is met with our ethical business practices throughout.
Let us help you with your next cardboard box order. We offer free estimates with no obligation. Contact us today at 604-270-8205 or at racerboxes@gmail.com.
3 Tips to Boost Efficiency for Vancouver E-commerce Businesses
If you’re a company with a product and sales are online, efficiency in getting your product to your customer is one the biggest components of your business. Here are three tips on how to increase your efficiency in ecommerce shipping:
1. Manage your shipping account online
Whether its UPS, FedEx or any private shipping company, registering your company’s information on an online account will save you time and reduce the chances of misinformation by being able to store your information ahead of time. Online accounts with such shipping companies can allow you to also track delivery and offer enhanced services for online customers only.
2. Standardize procedures
Once you have an standardized system of procedures down pat, your company will reap the benefits of organization and efficiency. This goes for all departments, but especially for shipping, this will also eliminate the chance for errors after repeated practice.
3. Keep a variety of delivery boxes on hand
Be prepared for dispatch at anytime! Shipping either requires an envelope or a box. Envelops are more easy to obtain in emergencies, but its smart to plan ahead and prepare by keeping in stock a variety of Stock Cartons and Delivery Boxes on hand when orders need to be sent out as soon as possible. Always be ready to ship an order!
For preparation, contact Racer Boxes to arrange for a variety of boxes on hand. Your customers are sure to appreciate the increased efficiency of your ecommerce business with these great tips!