3 Tips To Create Fashionable Shopping Bags for Your Women’s Apparel Brand

As you likely know, your shoppers care about style – why else would they be shopping with your brand? Consumers are craving a more authentic, refreshing, engaging in-store experience when they make the trip to your store. While there are many things that go into creating this experience, custom retail packaging has an important part…

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3 Tips To Create Fashionable Shopping Bags for Your Women’s Apparel Brand

While there are many things that go into creating this experience, custom retail packaging has an important part to play. Here are three ways to ensure shoppers are proudly toting your brand’s custom packaging bags.

Start With a Sturdy, Versatile Material

There is a range of materials you can use for your shopping bags. If you want a paper shopper, kraft paper and dyed cardboard are sturdy options. To make them look and feel more luxurious, choose a coating like gloss lamination, metallic finish, holographic foil, matte or satin varnish.

Going green is in, and sustainable women’s retail packaging can actually entice consumers to buy from you. If this is important to your brand, choose recycled or recyclable paper or FSC-certified materials.

Reusable packaging is another option that gives you the best of both worlds: a sustainable solution that functions as a fashion statement. Reusable totes can also be made with ethically sourced, sustainably certified fabrics such as cotton, jute, rPET, or washable paper. You can customize their dimensions, structure, and handles – which we will discuss later on.

Vary the Textures

Because shopping bags are so customizable, you are also able to choose how intricate or simple you want to make them. While you may have chosen a coating or varnish to create a unique texture, you can use different printing methods to create contrast.

Print geometric patterns, abstract designs, or your logo or brand name through:

Spot glossing, which adds supreme shine and enhances color
Embossing, a printing method that raises the printed content up from the material to create a 3D effect
Debossing, which indents the paper with your design
Hot foil stamping, a relief printing method that transfers foil to your packaging in whatever design you wish

Choose High-Quality Handles

If you are trying to create a fully recyclable component, opt for a serrated top or J-and-T cut handles made with twisted paper. Die-cut handles cut directly into your paper or reusable shopping bag, and reinforced with glue or stitching, are a stylish, durable, and budget-friendly option. Reusable components can also be manufactured with a standard handle that matches the fabric you used for the rest of the bag.

To help carry heavy items like groceries or beauty products – or if you simply want to elevate the experience – choose a handle made of a stronger material, like:

Grosgrain or satin ribbon or cotton rope, which can be secured by being inserted through die-cut handle holes and tied into knots or secured by being glued directly into the top edge of the bag
Braided or twisted rope or nylon, which is secured by being tied on the inside of the bag through die-cut holes

Materials and texture are just one aspect of your shopping bag handles – you can also have fun with their visual appeal. Color-match the handles to the rest of your shopping bag or choose an accent color to make them pop. Make your handles part of your bag’s artwork for a seamless design.

Create Stylish Custom Shopping Bags With Edge2Edge

Whether you feel like you are spinning your wheels with packaging strategy or are trying to design a stylish shopping bag and have no idea where to start, a packaging partner backed by years of expertise can help. Edge2Edge is an end-to-end packaging service provider that has created custom retail packaging components for a range of big-name women’s apparel retailers.

Our vast capabilities, innovation, and dedication to excellence are only part of our formula. More than anything else, we are committed to serving you and simplifying the packaging procurement process so you can focus on your other business needs.