Of course! The retail bag industry is huge. Just about everyone uses a bag of some sort to package merchandise leaving their store. They range from the really cheap generic white plastic "grocery-style" bag, to really expensive laminated paper bags embossed with a shiny foil logo, to outrageously expensive fabric bags with a stitched logo.
If you're concerned about your image, you most likely have a bag with your own logo printed on the sides. Why go to all this trouble and expense? For three reasons:
• The First Reason
It establishes a sense of credibility for your customer. You've been around a long time, and plan on being around for a lot longer. Otherwise, why bother going to all the trouble to have such nice bags made.
• The Second Reason
Customers appreciate getting a nice bag. It adds to the perceived value of their purchase.
Compare your reaction to the following imaginary shopping experience: In store A, you buy an expensive leather coat for several hundred dollars. They stuff your purchase into a generic white plastic bag, and send you unceremoniously out the door. In store B, they carefully wrap your purchase in tissue paper, and then place it in a sharp-looking paper bag, with a full-colour store logo on the sides. Who makes you feel appreciated as a customer? Where are you more likely to return for a subsequent purchase?
• The Third Reason
A nice-looking bag is a form of advertising. You expect that other people will see the bag as the shopper walks around with their purchase.
A nice-looking bag also conveys a sophisticated image for your business. Image is everything in retail, which is why most businesses spend so much time and money on the store décor, to get that "look" that draws in new customers and brings existing ones back.
Limitation to shopping bags as advertising
There's one major drawback to the use of shopping bags an advertising medium and corporate image enhancer. They are terribly short-lived. It is estimated that more than 95% of all retail bags are thrown away when the consumer gets home (some of that number are recycled as garbage bags - not the noblest ending for your expensive investment).
Why are they thrown out like that?
Well, the bags may be constructed so that one use is all you can reasonably get out of them. Another reason is that standard plastic bags, no matter how glossy or well made, are not generally the kind of thing that a consumer will voluntarily take out on their next shopping trip. Even an attractive paper bag may tear or disintegrate when wet, and is still usually a one-use only item. The exception to this rule-of-thumb is a fabric bag, but they are so expensive to manufacture that they are rarely used at the retail level.
This is where Pop Packaging comes to the rescue...