5 Ways Shrink Sleeves Improve Your Product
Every year, more companies are turning to shrink sleeve solutions for their product’s packaging.
According to a market report done by AWAreness, the shrink sleeve market today claims a remarkable 18 percent of the global label market, and it continues to grow at a steady annual rate of 5.5 percent.
With a massive amount of companies transitioning from traditional labels to shrink sleeves, companies not yet convinced that shrink sleeves are a good fit for their product might be wondering how shrink sleeves could help them.
Shrink sleeves provide a multitude of solutions, but for the sake of time, we’re going to give you the 5 most common ways shrink sleeves can improve products’ packaging--including yours.
#1. Increased Label RealEstate
Shrink sleeves wrap around the entirety of your product, covering up to 100% of the container’s surface. Increasing the real estate on your label means several things for your product:
Your product is bolder and more likely to stand out from competitors -
When your product is covered head to toe in colors, designs, and images, it’s naturally going to attract eyes before a product that is using a label covering only an inch or two.
Shrink sleeves are impossible to ignore on any shelf or ecommerce site, and, as a result, they have been proven to increase sales and brand awareness quickly.
Your product can include all important or additional information on your label without risking a crammed or cluttered look -
Between increasing FDA regulations, consumer demands for more nutritional details, or the popularity with products that tell a story, labels need to include lots of information. A cluttered or crammed label is not appealing and can even turn a consumer away from purchase. Having enough room to include all this information in an aesthetically-pleasing manner is extremely important.
Shrink sleeves offer plenty of room for all the information your label needs!
Increased real estate means those extra images and designs can comfortably be included -
Never again will your team have to sacrifice an image or a design because there wasn’t enough room for it on your old traditional label. Increased space on your shrink sleeve label allows you to include those elements that are only going to benefit the overall aesthetics of your product and attract more consumers and sales.
#2. Visible Consumer Safety and Spill Prevention
With the rise of Tik Tok, Instagram, and Snapchat, new trends are surfacing, some of which are incredibly disturbing.
For example, a new trend on Tik Tok involves young adults spitting in, licking, or consuming parts of a product before purchase, and then placing the product back on the grocery store shelf for the unsuspecting final consumer.
It’s disgusting and scary at the same time. Consumers should not have to be worried about their product’s safety or purity when purchasing.
Shrink sleeves allow for a visible display of tamper evidence so that consumers can be 100% sure that they and their family members are safe when consuming your product.
Traditional tamper evidence, such as an induction seal, accomplishes the same goal as a shrink sleeve tamper evidence, but is often not visible to the consumer. The consumer might not even realize it’s there until they get home. This might affect their purchasing decision in the store. If a consumer has the option between a product that possibly has tamper evidence vs. a product where they can clearly see tamper evidence, it’s likely they’ll go with the visible display of protection.
For more on tamper evidence and the benefits they provide, check out our 4 Benefits of Tamper Evidence blog.
But shrink sleeve tamper evidence actually does more than just keep things out. It also works to keep the contents in.
There is nothing worse for a consumer than getting home and realizing that a product spilled everywhere in the backseat of their car. Even if it wasn't your product's fault, it can leave the consumer with a negative impression of your brand.
Since shrink sleeves wrap over the cap and around the neck of the product, they naturally prevent anything from getting in or out. You can read more about this in our Preventing Unwanted Spills blog.
For an all-in-one option that is guaranteed to save your team time and money, check out our full body over-the-cap sleeves that are great options for just about any product.
#3. Impressive Label Durability
Nothing screams “cheap product” more than a peeled or scratched label.
Did you know that a majority of consumers associate the quality of the product with the quality of the packaging around it? This means that if your label looks cheap because of scuffs, tears, or peels, your consumer might assume that the product within is also cheap and not worth their money, even if your product is actually the best one on the market.
Damaged labels can even be dangerous for a consumer. If your label’s information has been peeled or scratched so badly that a consumer can’t read important information, ingredients, or handling instructions, safety can be compromised.
Your product needs a durable label that will be able to withstand the tough terrain it will face between production, delivery, and shelf life. This is critical for success amongst consumers.
Shrink sleeves offer a unique durability that many other labels do not: shrink sleeve ink is applied from the inside rather than the outside. This inside-out printing means that the label is protected from peeling or scratching.
Shrink sleeves make for excellent labels for any product that wants to look just as clean and fresh on the shelf as it did when it left the production line.
#4. Fit To Any Size Container
Shrink sleeves are incredibly flexible. During their heat application, they will apply smoothly to any size or shape container. No wrinkles!
This is a huge advantage for companies wanting to attract consumer attention to their product through the use of a unique or even oddly-shaped product. These companies can experiment and implement any size, shape, or set of curves for their product, and be guaranteed that a shrink sleeve label will fit.
With a shrink sleeve, all shapes, sizes, and curves are welcomed and encouraged! You are no longer restricted to traditional, basic shapes.
#5. Sustainability
There is no perfect solution for sustainability.
In fact, all we have at the moment are BETTER options.
Shrink sleeves can be a wonderful BETTER solution for brands trying to pursue greater sustainability.
Shrink sleeves are heat applied, which means no sticky adhesives are necessary. Sticky adhesives can cause packaging to become unrecyclable according to The Association of Plastic Recyclers.
There are also additional elements that can be implemented to shrink sleeves that makes them an even more sustainable packaging option….
Better Material Options - shrink sleeves can be made out of materials that are easier to recycle, such as PET, rPET, PET without glycol, or crystalline PET. For more information, check out our blog on choosing the right plastic for your shrink sleeve label.
Washable Inks - To avoid issues like chemical contamination or discoloration of PET during the recycling process, we offer labels with washable inks, which are conveniently washed away during the washing phase. These washable inks maintain the quality of PET and offer the highest recyclability for a product using decorative labels. For a great example, check out Snapple's new shrink sleeve labels that include washable inks.
Mono Material Packaging - Multi-material packaging needs to be separated before the recycling process can begin. On the other hand, mono-material packaging requires no extra work at recycling facilities, and thus has a significantly greater likelihood of being recycled. We provide packaging solutions, like a PET label on a PET bottle, that allow brands to get ALL their products into mono-material packaging, and thus drastically increase their product’s likelihood and capability of being recycled.
Light-Blocking Films That Allow For Clear Containers Rather Than Opaque - Opaque or tinted bottles are difficult, sometimes impossible, to recycle. But they’re often needed for light-sensitive products. To solve this problem, we supply full body shrink sleeves that contain a light blocking film inside. This keeps out any harmful light, while also allowing brands to use the more sustainable clear container.
Perforations - Perforations run down the side of a shrink sleeve label and allow for consumers to easily remove and separate the label from the container (a necessary step in the recycling process).
Ready To Put A Shrink Sleeve On Your Product?
Putting a shrink sleeve on your product is not as difficult as you may think.
If your team thinks it time to take advantage of all the benefits that come from shrink sleeve solutions, our team at Tango would love to help and make this transition as simple as possible.
Step 1. Schedule a complimentary packaging consultation with one of our packaging experts. We’ll walk you through the different shrink sleeve solutions tailored specifically to your products, and what that would look like from a practical standpoint.
Step 2. We’ll send you complimentary samples to test.
Step 3. We’ll provide you with a quote.
Simply fill out our contact form, email us at info@tangopackaging.com, or call (844) 33-TANGO [82646].