While laminated bags can serve a wide variety of purposes, they are perhaps most popular in retail. After all, people need something in which to carry out all those lovely or delicious purchases, right? Given that, it’s important you have a bag for them to use.

Of course, it’s nice to avoid standard disposable bags. We all know that plastic takes a huge toll on the environment, and paper isn’t far behind in terms of its use of virgin resources and its long decomposition time in landfill. Contrary to popular belief, neither of these is environmentally friendly.

The solution? custom laminated tote bags, of course. These are the perfect solution for any retail shop looking for totes to serve their customers – and create a solid brand presence at the same time. If you want to use laminated bags well, and take your marketing game to the next level at the same time, here’s how to work them into your shop today!

Match Your Brand Carefully

First and foremost, you must match your brand carefully when adding any new physical marketing product. Most likely, you already know how important a good brand scheme is. You probably already have one for:

• Your shop signage
• Your product logos
• Your store décor
• Your business cards and brochures
• Your trade shows and events
• Your company cars
• Your customer loyalty gifts

… and more. And by extension, you already know how important it is to match each of these to the others, so that you create on solid presence overall. Customers like walking into a well-branded setting, because it makes them feel safe in their belief that you’re going to provide – and keep providing – the products and services they know and love.

The same goes for laminated bags (or any type of wholesale reusable grocery bags of any kind): They must match with the rest of your brand presence. Before you jump the gun and order bags, spend some time talking with a designer (or with the experts here at Reuse This Bag) about how best to make sure your custom wholesale tote bags integrate well. Take into account:

• Brand colors
• Logo or logos
• Products

… and anything else that makes you you. Without those, you not only fail to match the rest of your brand, but you waste the opportunity to advertise to the wider world when your shoppers leave the store. That’s no good! Instead, think through the entire process carefully, then order.

Advertise Your Name and New Products

One of the best things about laminated bags is that they make it easy to advertise your name. Most companies know to put that name and logo front and center, but they don’t know what to do with the bag then. Sure, you can hand them out to customers or sell them, but what else?

The missing ingredient is marketing the rest of your products and services. One of the best things about ordering bulk reusable bags is how easy they are to restock, and each time you restock, you can adjust them design-wise. Consider advertising a new product with each bag, while keeping the rest of your colors/logos/branding the same.

Or you could subtly modify your logo for each batch of bags, playing up a different product, service or ethic each time. (By the way, this is a great way to work in an environmental stance, maybe highlighting a charity event you’re doing that month or advertising a cause in which you believe.)

Bottom line: Make sure you use those bags well. You’re paying for them, so you might as well use them to best effect.

Make a Plan for the Register

The most obvious use for bags is for customers to carry out their purchases. While there are other places to put your bags (discussed below), the best one is therefore the register. Don’t just stack them willy-nilly under the counter, though. Instead, make a streamlined plan beforehand. Questions to ask include:

• What types of other bags will you use?
• Will you sell your bags for money?
• How much will they cost? (The price depends heavily on whether you’re an upscale boutique or an Everyman’s outlet.)
• Will you give them away for a certain purchase amount?
• Do you offer your bags in any other way (for instance, in a raffle or along with the purchase of a certain item)?

Once you decide how your bags fit into your marketing plan overall, you can decide what to do with them at the register. Today, the standard is to sell bags right before the checkout stand for a dollar. That way, customers who have forgotten their other reusable bags can just grab as many as they need for that trip, right before they check out.

Choose Highly Trafficked Locations

Other than the register, you should make sure to place your bags in other highlight trafficked locations. If you’re a beverage shop, for instance, you’ll want to hang a selection of bags right by your cold-case, so customers can grab them and fill them as they’re choosing their bottles. Word to the wise: If you’re going to take this approach, make sure you only use it for bottles or large bulk items. Letting your customers fill bags with smaller purchases such as jams, cheeses or clothing is an invitation to trouble!

Fill Your Bags!

One of the best ways to get the most out of your laminated bags is to turn them into items of décor. For instance, attract window shoppers by getting some fake food and putting together a picnic in a bag – think a plastic baguette, grapes, bottles of wine (See wholesale wine bags) and a Swiss cheese. Or, if you’re a retail clothing shop, you could fold down the edges of your laminated bag to make a cute beach tote, then fill it with a towel, bathing suit, sunblock and shades. See our 10 best custom retail bags & totes.

The point is, you’ve already taken the time to create lovely, visually stunning bags … so why not use them in place of other decorations? The branding couldn’t be easier, and you’ll make customers that much more likely to want to buy the bags themselves … which could provide another revenue stream.

Work with the Right Company

No matter what you do, you want to make sure you have the right partner on your side. If you work with a disreputable or little-known company, you majorly up the chances of buying bags that fall apart, flake or fade – and that doesn’t look good for you. Instead, work with a company that has a solid reputation here in the U.S., and don’t be swayed by cheaper prices at the expense of quality goods. Want to learn more? Give us a call at 877.334.5323 today!