From the moment someone walks into your clothing store or visits your website, you’ve done the hard work to brand yourself right. The colours, the lights, the clothing choices and the shopping bags are all you. But once someone places an order for shipping, you can be reduced to just another brown box out for delivery. It’s in the hands of a stranger, someone who isn’t invested in you and your customers the way you are.
Thankfully, with a little extra branding and some smart planning, you can take back that brown box and make it all your own. Here’s our shipping tips for helping clothing stores make a name for themselves.
Everything Starts and Stops with Dim Weight
Dimensional weight shipping charges are the combined dimensions and weight of your parcel. The smaller you can make your shipment (without sacrificing protection), the lower your shipping costs will be. Thankfully, you don’t need to ship clothing in massive boxes—provided you do things right.
You Need a Packing Station
Create a permanent, open space stocked full of the packing supplies your clothing store needs. You will save your business from wasted space and supplies, workload headaches and even payroll hours.
Wondering what to stock your packaging station with? Check out our list of essential supplies for e-commerce businesses, paired with these shipping tips, it’ll give you a great start.
If you’re able to take advantage of it, customized packaging will do your shipments a world of good. Custom boxes with your brand colours inside and out will never fail to please. Custom bubble wrap shapes like hearts, thank you or dog bones will surprise and delight (and their convenient dispenser box will speed up your packing times!). Don’t forget supplies for creating thank you notes, coupons or gifts of candy.
You Need to Train Your Team
Untrained people can cost you, big time.
Packing clothing with little protection risks damaging it. Packing clothing into a huge box is a waste of space and will hit you with high shipping charges. Either way, these mistakes can cost you time, money and reputation.
Thankfully, all it takes is a few minutes to turn an employee into a veritable packing machine.
Know How to Pack—And What to Pack With
Customers know waste when they see it. If you overpack, your business comes off as shoddy, inexperienced and uncaring about the environment. Choose the right kind of packaging, in the right amount, and your reputation will skyrocket.
Fold clothes to fit the container they’ll ship in. Don’t roll them up—they’ll wrinkle or shift, and that looks bad on you when the parcel arrives on your customer’s doorstep.
Speaking of containers, choose the right one. Not every shipment needs to be a box, and plenty of clothing travels well in courier bags. Their material is tear, puncture and moisture-resistant, making them perfect for jeans and t-shirts. If the clothing is more delicate (or custom-made), bubble poly mailers are a nice step up in padding and protection.
Packing Tip #1: Shipping labels are often attached to courier bags and mailers after they’re packed. But once it’s full of clothing, the mailer’s surface can be uneven and the label can bunch up. Instead, attach labels before packing up clothing. They’ll be flat and crisp and ready to ship.
If you do want a box, think about trying e-commerce boxes. They’re a shipping container and display case in one. Since they’re perfect for unboxing purposes, you can really shore up your shipment’s looks with tissue paper or packing paper inside.
Packing Tip #2: Never spare the packing tape. You’ve done a brilliant job packing that box for sure, but shipping can be rough on it. In the wrong hands, it can get damaged, ripped, or even tampered with.
Don’t Miss the Chance to Say Thanks
Interacting with customers doesn’t have to end once they leave the store, or click the order button online. There’s room in your shipments for extra gifts or personal touches. Thank you cards, stickers, discount coupons and even candy are simple yet great ways to let them know you’re grateful for their business. You’ll give them a reason to keep coming back.
Stylus Concierge: Doing it Right
We’re so lucky to have the clients we do, and we’re sure they feel the same about their clients. Stylus Concierge is a great example of the kind of shipping habits all clothing stores (in-person and online) should aim for. Here’s a little more about what they do, and how our shipping tips and packaging helps them do it.
Clothing stores (and stores of all kinds) are shipping more items than ever before. A smart business sees this not as an expectation, but as an opportunity to build their brand and keep their customers happy. In fact, with these shipping tips and the right kind of packaging supplies, you can make your customers ecstatic.
