Branded packaging has a real effect on how buyers perceive your business. A plain grey bag does the job, but a bag with your logo on it says something different. It says someone put thought into this. For small businesses selling online, that impression is often the only physical touchpoint you have with a customer, and it costs less to get right than most people assume.
This guide covers the practical options for printing on mailing bags and shipping bags, from the simplest label-based approaches through to custom printed bags ordered in volume. It also covers how to remove shipping labels from plastic bags cleanly if you need to repurpose or return them.
The three main approaches to printing on mailing bags
There is no single right method. The best option depends on your order volume, your budget, how important branding consistency is to your business, and how much time you want to spend on packaging per order. Here is how the main options compare.
1. Printed labels applied to standard bags
This is the most accessible starting point. You use standard unprinted mailing bags and apply a printed label carrying your branding, alongside or separate from the shipping label. This could be a logo sticker, a branded "thank you" label, a custom address label that incorporates your brand, or a combination of these.
The advantages are obvious: you keep your existing bag stock, there's no minimum order quantity for the bags themselves, and you can update your branding or messaging without writing off a batch of printed bags. A roll of custom-printed sticker labels from a label supplier costs relatively little and goes a long way.
The main limitation is that it does not produce the same effect as a bag with the branding integrated into the material. A label applied to a grey bag reads as an addition rather than part of the packaging. For many small businesses at an early stage, this is an entirely acceptable tradeoff.
If you're going this route, thermal label printers are worth considering for your shipping labels. They produce clean, waterproof barcode labels quickly and without ongoing ink costs. We cover this in more detail in our shipping label printer guide.
2. Printing directly onto mailing bags yourself
Direct printing onto polythene mailing bags at home or in a small office environment is more limited than it sounds. Standard inkjet and laser printers are not designed to handle polythene and will not feed mailing bags through their paper path reliably or safely. Attempting to run a polythene bag through a standard printer is likely to cause a jam, and potentially damage the printer.
That said, there are a few routes that work.
Rubber stamping is the most low-tech option. A custom rubber stamp with your logo or brand name, combined with an ink pad suited to plastic and non-porous surfaces, can be applied directly to the surface of a polythene mailing bag. The result is not high-resolution, but for a logo mark or simple text it can look clean and deliberate if done carefully. Ink pads formulated for plastic surfaces are available from craft and stationery suppliers. Standard fabric or paper stamp inks will not adhere well to polythene and will smear.
Screen printing onto polythene bags is another option, but this is not something most small businesses can do in-house. It requires specialist equipment and is better suited to an external print supplier doing a batch run, which brings us to the third approach.
3. Custom printed mailing bags ordered from a supplier
Custom printed mailing bags are manufactured with your design printed directly onto the polythene during production. The branding is part of the bag rather than applied to it afterwards, which gives a noticeably more professional finish.
This is how to make custom shipping bags that look genuinely branded rather than DIY. The process involves supplying your artwork to a packaging supplier, agreeing on bag dimensions, material thickness and print colours, and ordering a minimum quantity. Minimum order quantities for custom printed mailing bags vary by supplier, but typically start at a few hundred units for simple one or two colour designs.
The per-unit cost of custom printed bags is higher than plain bags at low quantities, but as volume increases the cost premium over plain bags narrows considerably. For a business sending more than a few hundred parcels a month, the cost difference between a plain bag and a printed one can be small enough that the branding benefit is essentially free at scale.
If custom printed bags are something you're interested in, get in touch via our site. We can discuss print options, artwork requirements, minimum quantities and lead times. You can also browse our mailing bags range to get a sense of the base products available.
What to think about before ordering custom printed mailing bags
If you're moving towards a custom printed bag order, a few things are worth working through before you commit.
Artwork and print colours
Custom printed polythene bags are typically printed in one, two or four colours. Full-colour photographic printing is possible but significantly more expensive and usually only worthwhile at higher volumes. For most small business branding, one or two colour printing is sufficient and keeps costs manageable.
Your artwork will need to be supplied at print-ready quality, usually as a vector file (EPS or AI format) rather than a rasterised image like a JPEG or PNG. If you only have a low-resolution logo, you may need a designer to redraw it in vector format before it can be used. Many small brand and logo design services can do this quickly and at low cost.
Bag dimensions and thickness
Custom bags are produced to specific dimensions, so it's worth being precise about the sizes you need before ordering. If you ship a consistent product range, you may only need one or two sizes. If your range varies significantly in size, you'll need to decide whether to order multiple custom bag sizes or standardise on one or two that cover most scenarios.
Material thickness also matters. A branded bag that splits in transit reflects poorly on the business regardless of how good the print looks. Aim for at least 50 microns for standard clothing and soft goods, and thicker for anything heavier.
Lead times and stock management
Custom printed bags have a production lead time, typically a few weeks from artwork approval to delivery. This means you cannot reorder at short notice the way you can with plain bags. Building a small buffer stock into your ordering habits avoids the situation of running out mid-month and having to send orders in unbranded bags while you wait for a new batch.
How to remove shipping labels from plastic bags
If you need to remove a shipping label from a polythene mailing bag, the approach depends on what the label is made from and how it was applied.
Thermal labels with standard adhesive can often be peeled from polythene surfaces cleanly if removed relatively soon after application. Start from a corner and peel slowly at a low angle rather than pulling sharply upward, which tends to tear the label and leave residue. If the label has been on the bag for a while or was applied in warm conditions, the adhesive will have bonded more firmly and a clean peel is harder to achieve.
For adhesive residue left behind after peeling, a small amount of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on a cloth or cotton pad will dissolve most label adhesives from polythene surfaces without damaging the material. Apply it to the residue, leave it for a few seconds to work, and then rub gently. Lighter fluid and cooking oil also work as adhesive removers in a pinch, though they leave their own residue that needs wiping down afterwards.
Where labels are being removed for the purpose of reusing or recycling the bag, it is worth noting that complete label removal before putting bags in a soft plastics recycling collection is good practice. Mixed materials in the recycling stream can complicate the process at the recycling facility.
Making a decision on the right approach for your business
For someone just starting out selling online, printed labels on plain bags is the right entry point. It costs almost nothing, gets your brand on the packaging, and keeps your options open as you work out what you actually need at scale.
As volume grows, custom printed bags start to make financial sense and the per-bag cost premium over plain bags reduces. The switch from label-on-bag to fully printed bags is one of those visible steps that tends to coincide with a business starting to feel more established, and customers do notice the difference.
Whatever stage you're at, the base bags need to be right first. You can browse the full range of sizes and options on our mailing bags page, or get in touch to discuss custom print options for your business.
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