Comments on: Free Gift Wrapping for Your Business?

By: tradeshow giveaways

tradeshow giveaways — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:23:37 +0000

If you have purchased an item in a store, gift wrapping should automatically free. Especially when they bought a huge amount of stuff. It should come as a complimentary to customers. It adds up as good marketing strategy to companies.

By: Stephanie Gilbert

Stephanie Gilbert — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:53:27 +0000

I just love your Blog all of the comments are interesting and helpful. Way to go Nashville Wraps!

By: Mhills

Mhills — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:00:22 +0000

I have been ordering cello bags for gift giving and fundraising. The bags are beautiful and sturdy. I make homemade biscotti, cookeis and quick breads. Nashville Wraps allows me to make great gifts. All my friends want me to start a gift basket business and if I do, I know exactly where I will be getting all of my great supplies. Nashville Wraps

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:24:03 +0000

My business IS wrapping gifts!! In my place people like to have everything easy, but not expensive. So thanks to Nashville Wraps it’s possible! Pricing is good and merchandise beautiful, which lets me give lower prices and still make large profit and have happy customers! Keep it going! Rachel

By: Tara

Tara — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:23:29 +0000

I’ve been back and forth on whether the gift wrapping option should be FREE. I opened my online maternity boutique (http://www.maternitique.com) in November. Since I opened just before the holidays, I decided to make gift wrapping free. Most of my initial customers selected that choice and I soon learned how costly it can be.

Because I’m an e-tailer, it greatly increases my shipping costs to gift wrap because I have to use more packaging, larger boxes and it increases the overall weight. As I already underwrite some or all of the shipping cost, that cuts down on my margin even more.

I’m still undecided, but I will tell you this: my sales have declined since I pulled the FREE gift wrapping option. So in the end, it may absolutely be worth it in terms of not only building customer loyalty, but tipping the scales in favor of that first sale.

By: K.Green

K.Green — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:01:28 +0000

Good question, Irene! I think you may be right about the bag not arriving in very good shape. Some of our customers use the little sheer organza bags for this purpose. They come is several sizes, colors and styles and are not expensive. Depending on the size of your nesting dolls they would be a good choice. Another thing I thought of was wrapping your items is pretty tissue paper and tying it all together with a little simple bow. This will help protect it during shipping too. I’ll keep thinking and email you if I come up with any great ideas. Thanks for your comments. KG

By: Irene at The Russian Store

Irene at The Russian Store — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:52:22 +0000

I am very happy to come across this blog, which offers so much information for retailers.
Our inventory carries merchandise of different shapes and sizes: from amber jewelry to large Russian nesting dolls. Our problem is to find gift packaging system that would cover all the items of our inventory without creating a “warehouse” of packaging materials. As for jewelry, it is an easier solution. But for nesting dolls it is not, since they come in sizes from 3″ to 24″ toll.

I like the idea of using a gift bag with tissue as a free gift wrapping option, but we are an e-commerce store and I am not sure if the customer will receive that bag in presentable condition. Also, how should we handle our gift box situation? Any suggestions, please?

Thank you for your ideas and suggestions!

By: Edward Boyer

Edward Boyer — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:37:15 +0000

Nashville has a great line of products as many of you folks have found. However, crunch your numbers, and judge them harshly, when making policy decisions such as “FREE GIFT WRAP’ Nothing is Free! It is built in to your cost, and as such you need to determine your resulting net margin, and is it profitable for you.

In the confectionery business, we have offered free wrap for over 20 years, and 2 years ago changed that policy…but also with other dramtic changes to packaging and ribbons!

Please note, the average chocolate gift purchase is $10-$15. Margins are thin! So, adding extras without proper thought to cost giveaways could be harmful.

We currently offer a free tote bag ( custom logo printed) But it is the ribbons that make the difference! We upgraded our packaging from just basic plain boring white, to gold emboseed logo boxes…sales jumped! No need to wrap, saves labor costs, but if a customer wants wrap we charge $1.00.

The ribbons are wired and coordinate with the seasons. Herein lies the expense, and must be reflected in your pricing of the product, as these are included “free”.

You will note on “how to make a bow” the presentation uses 4 yards of wired ribbon. Trust me, that is more than 63¢ shown for organza (see above) That cost factor needs to be in your pricing of your goods, which is difficult when the sale is $10.00. Certainly not a give away. So be careful what you offer as “FREE”. Cleverly, we offer the upgraded version as “free”, with the cost factored into our retail price of the chocolate assortments, however, we do offer a less expensive version, without frills and ribbon for those on a budget, and trust me, just seeing these options helps to educate the consumer about what exactly they are purchasing, and helping them wise decisions.

I do love the feedback from everyone. Your experiences are very useful in helping to make smart decisions. I also love Nashville for this forum. This is the type of information needed to go forward. It will help us buy more, *(Nashville smiling) because we will be buying smarter and more efficiently. I don’t know about you, but we have made our mistakes in buying ribbon, packaging etc., and this is money you don’t recoup.

So,. happy shopping!

By: Alicia Staz

Alicia Staz — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:20:52 +0000

I have always charged for a gift box, but I think after reading this blog entry and the comments I am going to offer it free!

By: Julie Rich

Julie Rich — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:24:28 +0000

GIFT WRAPPING is the ticket. Our cookie company offers “delivered, gift-wrapped, cookie boxes” to be used as thank-you gifts by many professionals.
We have just recently launched, and after hours of research – we selected Nashville Wraps as our supplier. Our company will be as successful as Nashville Wraps because we believe in treating the customer just as they treated us. Great customer service, great products! Hats off to you folks.