How To Design Custom Shipping Products
If you’ve recently ordered a package from a large company, there’s a good chance that it came in a customized shipping material or with custom designed inserts like stickers and stamps. And if you have a business of your own, there’s a good chance you’ve thought about doing this for yourself. Luckily, its easier to make custom shipping products than you might think.
In this blog, we’ll look at a few places where you can design custom shipping and marketing products and really start branding your business.
Uline
As we go through this list, we’ll look at several websites where you can design custom shipping products, covering everything from packing tape to stamps to the boxes themselves. But custom designing every element of your packaging might be a bit overkill as you’re first branching into branding, and if you only need essential, basic packaging without all the bells and whistles, Uline is the way to go.
Though it's not as fun to buy standard packaging as it is to design your own boxes and labels, Uline's plain packaging is practical, affordable, and ships quicker than any other shipping supply company. You can also get just about any kind of shipping material from Uline, like envelopes, bubble wrap, tape, edge protectors, and more. With that in mind, you can mix and match some of Uline’s generic packaging with some fun custom products. Using a standard product box and filling it with inserts like stickers and business cards can still be an effective way to achieve what you’re looking for without spending a small fortune on a customized box.
All of Uline’s products are plain, generic alternatives to some of the items we’ll look at here - but as we mentioned, they’re cheap and get the job done well.
Sticker Mule
Sticker Mule is our favorite spot to go for custom stickers and labels. Not just for the fast and free shipping and the quality of the products either, but for the variety as well. Their catalog includes stickers in several shapes, die-cut stickers, sticker sheets, and more.
Sticker Mule’s selection of tools is also a great way for designers to get their stickers looking perfect. At its most basic, you can use Sticker Mule to upload images or graphics and turn them into stickers. But they also have a studio tool where you can edit designs, a vectorizing tool that turns blurry images into sharp graphics, a tracing feature to take the background out of images, and others.
Sticker Mule also lets you design custom packing tape, which can be a great way to level up your plain packaging even further.
Another great part of going to Sticker Mule for custom products is that they are always running an active deal that rotates out every week. Their deals don’t last long, but they always have an active one running on their site. So even if Sticker Mule is a bit out of your budget for now, if you wait around for the right deal, you might be able to sneak in an order within your price range.
Etsy
Etsy is an online shop where crafts makers around the world can market and sell their handmade products. And while you can find a lot on Etsy, one of our favorite finds are custom stamps.
One unique advantage Etsy has over the other websites on this list is that you can find dozens of highly rated shop owners rather than just getting products from one source. That way, you can shop around to find the perfect stamps rather than being stuck with one company’s positives and limitations.
VistaPrint
VistaPrint is one of the most well-known printing companies in the world. They’re a go-to source for printed material for a lot of people, but arguably the thing they do best is print business cards.
Like Sticker Mule, VistaPrint also runs a lot of a lot of discounts throughout the year on a bunch of different products. You can cut the cost of your order if you find the right deal at the right time, but VistaPrint’s pricing is pretty reasonable with or without a sale.
VistaPrint’s cheapest business card plan lets you order 100 cards for just $17.99. These cards aren’t anything fancy, but they do offer some at-cost customization options. But if you just want to get your branding out there, this is one of the most cost-effective ways to do it. VistaPrint has some other fun design options too if you’re looking to splurge, letting you change up the finish, thickness, and durability of your cards.
MOO
If VistaPrint can’t give you the business cards you need for whatever reason, MOO is a high-quality alternative. One of the things that sets MOO apart from its closest competitors is its emphasis on sustainability, both in the creation and shipping of its products.
Like VistaPrint, MOO does much more with printing and branding than just custom business cards. Though business cards are their specialty, they also offer custom design and printing for postcards, stationery, branded merchandise, and more.
MOO’s cheapest business cards start at $21 for 50 cards, quite a bit pricier than VistaPrint’s most wallet-friendly option, but MOO does use a thicker, more robust paper for their printing. Like VistaPrint, MOO also has options to let you customize the design and texture of your business cards, like letterpress printing, spot gloss textures, different colored foils, and others.
Packola
If you want to go all out with your custom packaging you can start designing your own boxes - and Packola is one of our favorite (and one of the most popular) places for it. Packola primarily specializes in product boxes, mailer boxes, and shipping boxes, but they carry a lot more than that even. You can custom design your own labels, pouches, tape, and more on Packola - but their customizable boxes are really where they shine.
Packola’s prices range depending on the size of your order. For example, if you buy 100 custom 5x3x3 boxes from Packola, they’ll cost $3.46 each - for $346 total. But if you buy 250 boxes, the overall price goes up to $692.50 - but the price per box drops to $2.77. You can also edit the specific dimensions and materials of your boxes for a lower or higher price and product quality.
Packlane
Packlane is one of Packola’s strongest competitors for product boxes, offering a slightly more affordable way to design your custom packaging. For example, while 250 4x4x4 custom boxes on 18-point cardstock with a glossy finish would cost you $3.07 per box on Packola, you can get the same products in the same dimensions for $2.07 on Packlane.
The biggest downside of using Packlane over Packola comes down to the shipping and production speed. While Packola lets you choose between an eight-to-ten and four-to-five-day day shipping plan, Packlane’s options range from 13 to 18 days and 7 to 9 days. But if you’re shopping on a budget and don’t mind waiting the extra few days to get your products, Packlane is a great way to go.
Need help designing custom shipping materials for your business? Book a consultation call today and chat with our team about what we can do for you!
