Preparing Custom Pins for Retail

Making the move from click to brick? Or maybe you’re putting up a pop-up shop with your custom pin designs? Going from packaging custom pins for delivery to preparing your product for retail isn’t as simple as throwing pins on a shelf.

Basics of Retailing Custom Pins

Before customers hit payment confirmation, they’ve scanned your pin designs, looked through your curated photos and made decisions based on the look and feel of your website. However, your options in a physical shop are more limited by space, time and the ability to immediately convince people to make the purchase.

However, there are a few advantages that shouldn’t be undersold. For one, retail locations give customers a touchpoint to immediately interact with your pins and more directly visualize how a custom pin might wear on clothes or display in their collection. The convenience of online shopping aside, people love touching and physically holding the things we buying.

Attractive presentation is just as important as an appealing pin design and this remains the same whether you’re selling custom pins online or in-store.

When it comes to retail display, you’ve got three basic goals to fulfill:

• Presentation: A good custom pin design attracts an audience on its own but finding ways to highlight a design helps lure interest. Online, you have the ability to zoom in on a pin or carefully photograph a design for the best possible appeal. But between limited floor space and inherently small product, you’ve got to be more clever about how you present your custom pin designs for retail and market them in a live environment.
• Visibility: You can have a great custom pin design with beautiful colors and a snappy quote but if no one actually sees your design, you’re going to have a hard time actually selling it. Unlike an online storefront, you can’t just look for new communities or places to link your shop too. In a retail environment, visibility depends on the placement of your product and physical strategies to draw attention to them. From raised shelves and art displays, look for ways to increase the look of your small product.
• Protection: Put a custom pin on display and people are going to want to handle it and see how it look worn, this means a lot more hands touching your custom pins and a lot more chance of mishandling causing scratches or scuffs to your retail products. Don’t get us started on the dangers of shipping your pins from storage to display shelf either. Online, you never need to worry about a customer deciding not to take a sale because your pin is scratched or your packaging is bent but you don’t have that luxury when customers are looking right at a physical product. Investing in a bit of extra protection ranging from a simple plastic sheath to solid case goes a long way in protecting your pins during the retail shuffle.

Build Brand and Pin Visibility With Custom Cardstock Backing

One of the best ways of increasing both presentation and visibility of custom pins on a display shelf is to pin it on the back of custom cardstock. Cardstock not only makes custom pin packaging more visible, but it also gives you an extra surface for broadcasting your brand. Bonus points for unique cardstock shapes or adding art that complements your pin design and increases that all-important presentation.

At All About Pins, we freely offer our expertise to clients to find the right cardstock size and color combinations to complement their pins. Some of our clients spend almost as much time working the details and text of their cardstock backing as they did design their pins in the first place! Our advice, always go for bold colors and art with a unique shape for your custom pin’s cardstock backing. It’s much more eye-catching and makes a stronger impression on a customer looking for something outside the box.

Some clients spend almost as much time tweaking designs and colors for their cardstock as they do designing their pins in the first place! However, the end result is definitely a much more visible product.

Model Your Custom Pin Designs on People and Props

Perhaps the biggest advantage a physical location has over an online shop is the ability to touch and handle a product before you buy. Take it up a notch by actually wearing or displaying your custom pins on shirts, lapels, hats or anything else you think your pin would look best on. You’ve probably seen this tactic used in mall shops around the country with employees wearing their store’s clothing or products but this is especially effective with custom pins due to their visual flair.

Wearing your own custom pins can be even more effective in-store if you find ways to pair complementary designs or pin series in an outfit or display that strikes greater pinspiration on how a customer might style it for themselves.

Invest in Premium Presentation Cases

Custom presentation boxes are another great way to present your custom pins as more than another kitsy bauble but a jewelry-grade accessory. Specialty cases might be something you’d more readily associate with fine jewelry, which is exactly why they’re great additions to your pin’s presentation. They help your product stand out from the crowd and that always gives a boost to your sales lift.

While we offer free plastic poly bags with each order, investing in clear acrylic cases or velvet packaging adds an exceptional visual impact to your pin’s presentation that raises your design’s perceivable value. Not to mention, the presentation cases are easier to store and display in a retail space while doing a better job of protecting your actual product.

We hope these quick tips help you make your pin retail-ready! Still need help? AllAboutFPins is an experienced manufacturer of high-quality custom pins in every shape and size. We’re happy to turn your creative designs into eye-catching custom pins. Call us or shoot us an email with any ideas and our team of experts will get to work!