Okay, so I admit it.
I bought myself a little Christmas present already, before I’d even thought about what I was going to buy others.
Not only that, but when it arrived in the mail, I opened it. Happy Holidays to me.
Here’s what I found when I opened the envelope. (You can click on the photo to see details):
- A unopened (that is, still flat) brown Kraft paper “lunch bag” holding my purchase
- Embellished by a half of a paper doily glued right at the edge of the bag.
- The business card of the creator, hole-punched right through the bag
- Tied with a bit of black satin ribbon
- With a “thanks for your business” note in an envelope
Total cost to this Etsy merchant, White Owl? Pennies and a few minutes. The lesson learned by us frugal shopkeepers? Priceless.
Because think about this: how much more likely am I to buy from this vendor again? How likely am I to tell all my friends (that would be you, dear Reader) about how nice it was to buy something from this company? Doesn’t this make me feel like a queen, even though I didn’t spend a fortune? Am I not a thrilled customer of White Owl?
Don’t you love the simplicity, the sustainability, of this merchandise presentation?
Oh, did you want to see what was in the packaging?
Don’t you love it? It’s lace!
More thoughts on packaging your customers’ purchases… and on the whole holiday gift-wrap scene:
- Would you pay a quarter to get your town talking about the ELEGANT consignment or resale shop?
- A small-town, shop-local, be-a-part-of-the-solution gift wrap possibility.
- Such gay holiday wrappings… such disgusting trash!
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] The two packaging posts that consignment shop owner was referring to? A silly penny more or less and Packaging can make all the difference. […]
Hi Christi,
I think what you want to do is build your shop name/ recognition, right? So what I would do is create a reason for these bags to be noticed, reused, remarked upon… and since you have white bags…how about the biggest holiday stamp (I’m thinking snowman?) and under it, your store stamp… your bag has now become a coloring page for the kids!
Hopefully this will get to be so popular, that you’ll end up with a yearly wardrobe of giant stamps: a trio of tulips, a personable sun, a schoolbus… and then you’ll also have a “special occasion” gift for your little ones…a box of crayons! (Probably someone like Oriental Trading has a 4-crayon pack cheap…)
You can become known as the “coloring book store” as in “Mommy I want to go to the…”! (see http://howtoconsign.com/snowpeople.pdf and http://howtoconsign.com/halloweenpunkins.pdf and
Click to access fallcolor.pdf
for the HTC take on this idea…)
(I’d avoid the ribbon idea with babies around…wouldn’t want them chewing on them…who knows what toxic waste China’s put into ribbon…)
I just bought some white paper bags and I’m still trying to decide how to embellish them for the holiday season. I have a kids resale shop. Any ideas would be appreciated. Originally I was thinking of printing stickers with the store logo or a stamp but I like the idea of a ribbon holding our business card too.