Business Uses for Custom Stickers and Labels

Stickers and labels remain an effective inventory management tool despite the proliferation of pre-printed bar codes on packaging and RFID tags. Let’s look at some of the best business uses for custom labels and stickers. We’ll provide practical examples applicable to any business.

Additional Marketing

Marketing departments invest a lot of time and effort in designing packages for their target demographic. However, your customers may put a greater emphasis on specific aspects of the product. Stickers can be used to highlight features and elements that enhance sales. For example, a nationally distributed product is going to have a standard package. If the manufacturer is local, you can put a sticker on it that says “locally made” or “local”. That attracts consumers who want to support the community. You can emphasize organic, all natural, vegan and GMO free products via custom stickers and labels that tout this fact, and you do so without altering the packaging itself.

Discrete Loss Prevention

Stickers and labels can be used for discrete loss prevention. For example, you can put “thanks for shopping with us” stickers on items that are prone to pilfering but went through the clerk. This identifies items that were legitimately sold so that customers aren’t forced to have receipts checked. It also eliminates the need to put tracking devices on items and go through the time consuming effort of removing them at checkout. You can change labels periodically and maintain the same system, whether it is an orange dot or neon green “we love our customers” sticker.

Simpler Sales Management

Stickers and labels are a great way to draw attention to items on the shelf. This is why they’re invaluable when you want a fast, cheap and simple way to move items on sale. It can be as simple as putting a 10 percent off sticker on every product on the shelf you want to move. Tell your customers what sale stickers look like, and they’ll spend longer in the aisles hunting for bargains. One benefit of this approach is that you don’t have to move items you want to clear out to a special discount section. Just stick the sale labels on them and watch them move. A second benefit is that it will alert the few regular purchasers of the item that it is on sale or going to be cleared out. This dramatically increases the odds they stock up on it, and that can clear the shelf for you.

Enhanced Brand Awareness

Stickers can be used to improve brand awareness and turn anything into marketing material. For example, you can put branded stickers on the standard paper bag or plastic sack you put the customer’s purchases in. This is cheaper than making custom printed bags and sacks. It also gives you the ability to try out various logos and designs and find out what customers prefer before you have branded packaging made. Furthermore, you can put stickers on trays, plates and freebies when you’re working with the public. This can attract attention to give-aways while building brand recognition. That’s aside from the fact that a row of stickers can be a giveaway in and of itself.