Friday, April 16, 2010

At Peace With Packaging


Huzzah Vintage Packaging

After a lot of experimentation over the last year that included messy stamp pads, wasteful tissue paper and decorative salvaged buttons, I've finally decided on a packaging repertoire for the shop that meets all four of my basic needs:

1) Eco-Friendly ~ No excessive packaging or permanent branding that prevents re-use of the box and bag (Note: If anyone knows where to get biodegradable plastic apparel bags, do tell! The thought of my shipping supplies swirling about a desolate part of the Pacific Ocean for centuries keeps me up at night...for a few minutes, at least.)
2) Suitably Protective ~ Preserves items against damage resulting from rain/moisture and rough handling in transit
3) Inexpensive ~ Permits me to keep shipping and handling costs down without resort to dumpster diving
4) Professional ~ cleanly branded and consistent with that of most major retailers (who ship goods, not gifts)

Ingredients: twine (practically free, East Bay Creative ReUse), USPS Priority Mail boxes (free) or white plastic bubble mailers for smaller items (wholesale), plastic apparel bags (wholesale), shipping tape (wholesale), mini safety pins (wholesale), click 'n ship adhesive labels (wholesale), Moo hang tags (retail)

VOILA!

9 comments:

Jessica / Lola Vintage said...

Genius! I love it, but have yet to learn click and ship, can you believe it?

rachel red lips said...

Very inspiring! I like the look of the plastic bag..so clean and simple...tissue paper drives me crazy...all the taping and folding! ugh. Maybe when I run out of tissue paper I'll look into plastic bags!

Jessica, you must get into click-n-ship! it's amazing...i never go to the post office anymore

Rust Belt Threads said...

Loving the look of your new packaging! I'm getting sick of tissue paper too, so these plastic bags may be the alternative I'm looking for. Do you think they're sturdy enough for people to reuse them?

Huzzah! Vintage said...

thanks, guys!

Amanda ~ yes, they're sturdy (and clean) enough to be re-used any number of ways (though I would advise against hauling rocks in 'em)

Rachel ~ tissue paper sorta drives me nuts, too. Thinking of sticking with it for the fancier chiffon frocks, but that's it.

Jessica ~ guuurl, Rachel's right! You must get an inexpensive postal scale and start clicking and shipping! It'll change your life. seriously. (and you get nice rate discounts)

alexkeller said...

i've been recycling boxes & bubble mailers, tissue paper, vintage pages from books, ribbons, peanuts - whatever comes my way. i include a little hand made ty card with a very basic business card and try to make it look nice. and i'm using the neighbor's newspaper - jk

kimar9791 said...

Shipping has to be my least favorite part of selling stuff! I want it to arrive safely but hate paying for expensive shipping materials and all of the waste. I usually try and reuse stuff and have lately started making my own shipping envelopes. Thanks for the peek at how you so it!

Good Girls Studio said...

Looks very professional. I'm trying to rework my shipping as well!

Annie, The Friendly Fox said...

I love this! I was on the tissue & stamp pad thing for a while, but now after 90+ sales, it's getting so time consuming! Instead of enjoying wrapping up each item, I resent tissue paper as much as anyone could resent wrapping material.
Thanks for the idea! oh, and I can't seem to figure out how to do first class postage for lighter items online...only priority. do you know about this?

Huzzah! Vintage said...

Annie ~ I think the trick to taking advantage of First Class click 'n ship for lighter packages is to make sure that the package is at least 3/4" thick so that it will in fact be counted as a package and not a letter. Everything I ship usually ends up being thicker than this, but I understand many people just add two styrofoam peanuts or a balled-up piece of tissue paper to 'thicken' up their flat packages.