As I mentioned in yesterday's post, custom printed stand up pouches are not simple to make. There are so many pieces to a properly made stand up bag. Assuming that a client knows what size they want or need, and this is a BIG assumption for the sake of this article, but what type of material should they use? How heavy is their product and how thick should their stand up pouch be? Will the stand bag need to withstand extreme conditions like freezer temps or a hot warehouse or truck in the summer months? Who is going to retail the product, a grocery store that will have consistent temperatures or will the stand up bag sit outside a Home Depot in their outdoor gated department? The point with all of this babble is you know what size you want and now we are discussing the material your stand up pouch will require and we haven't even gotten to the artwork and printing cylinders and color matching...and you want to do this overseas, from your office in Peoria, Illinois because you can save 25%? Hmmmm
- Size
- Structure
- Thickness
- Artwork
- Printing Cylinders
- Color Matching
- Production
- Quality Checks
- Shipping and Handling
Don't get me wrong, as I mentioned yesterday, using overseas suppliers is the way of our world, just ask Apple and Dell and HP. But dealing with custom making anything overseas is a really risky move and really, really,
really (did I say really) risky if you attempt to do this yourself without representation. I'm here to tell you, you will lose, you will get burned and it will cost you money and maybe your business.
It may not happen on the first order but just when you think everyone is on board, just when your largest client places a jumbo order and you've put down all the cash you can pull together (remember, no matter how nice you are and how big of a company you are in the US overseas suppliers want paid in advance) there will be a problem. Could be a material problem or your client wants to make a last minute change to artwork, or worse, they place a HOLD on the order...now what, your $$$$ has already been sent and it is a Saturday. If you can get in touch with someone over the weekend to stop production by Monday AM, you are golden, if not, you are screwed. Who are you going to call? Will your contact from Alibaba be on Skype over the weekend? Think he or she overseas is concerned or interested in stopping production on Monday morning? Wait, here is a good idea, jump on a plane and fly over there. Where? Do you have a Chinese Visa (you need one...and I"m not talking a credit card). Do you speak Chinese?
Again, as I mentioned yesterday, this isn't meant to be gloom and doom but it is meant to get your attention. Between yesterday and today we've discussed only a fraction of what is involved when making a custom printed stand up pouch and we haven't even gotten into the printing and color matching part (which could make or break you). Choose your supplier very carefully and by all means, deal with someone you can trust.
