How To Market Your Brand With Eco-Friendly Promotional Shopper Bags and Totes

In today’s world, where sustainability is becoming increasingly important, eco-friendly marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for brands to connect with their target audience. By embracing eco-friendly practices, businesses not only reduce their carbon footprint — but also enhance their brand image and attract environmentally-conscious consumers.

One effective (and cost-savvy) way to incorporate sustainability into your marketing strategy is by introducing eco-friendly promotional shopper bags and totes. These reusable and sustainable alternatives to traditional single use plastic bags can impactfully promote your brand — and at the same time, showcase your commitment to the environment.

In this article, we will look at:-

Tips: How to make your shopping bags and grocery totes promotional
Key benefits: Why go green with reusable promotional bags
Example designs of eco-friendly reusable shopper bag ideas to explore with DTC World

As the Singapore government gears up to implement the “five-cent for each plastic bag“ charge at major supermarket chains commencing July 3 — this is a timely opportunity for brands to introduce promotional grocery or shopper bags. One, you get to echo your brand’s sustainability message by being part of this nation-wide green initiative. Secondly, this is a good business opportunity to offer the “ultimate” grocery bag for your customers — a reusable grocery tote that is perfect for any occasion — so befitting, stylish and convenient that your customers want to carry with them all the time! (Now, won’t you say such walking billboards are effective marketing for any brand?)

How to: Get creative and design promotional bags that speaks to your customers

Are your shopping bags keepers?

Do you encourage fashionable reusable shopper bags?

How to make your reusable shopper bags promotional — and stand out of the crowd?

As the saying goes, a long-term customer is of more value than a single-deal customer — and it’s a lot less expensive to keep a current customer than to acquire a new one.

So, where do custom promotional shopping tote bags enter the equation? Think about it this way, establishing a connection with customers you already have is more important than constantly trying to collect newer ones. Loyal customers who love your branding are more likely to carry a high-quality custom tote bag with them, helping to spotlight your brand in the big wide world. As compared to more transient products like compostable tissue paper might disappear after one use, reusable shopping tote bags last longer.

The next question that’s buzzing at the back of your head would be, “how do I deliver maximum branding impact while ensuring this is something my customers want to carry around?”

While some companies opt for a simpler approach — ie. by branding their bags with their generic logo — styling your promotional bags creatively and making them pieces your customers want to carry helps place you above the rest of the crowd.

Designing eco-friendly promotional shopper bags and totes requires careful consideration to ensure they effectively represent your brand and resonate with your target audience. Here are some key tips you can consider to extend the life of your promotional shopping bags:

1. Make your bag into a keeper

“Keep them for as long as it gets.” That’s right! You want to offer your loyal patrons a good, durable shopping tote that stands the test of time — a keeper they simply can’t bear to part with. Among our favourites are reusable lightweight promotional totes that can be effortlessly folded and tossed into a computer bag or backpack.

Convenient, eco-friendly, easy to store and carry — simply brilliant!

(TL – DR) These bright coloured shopping totes are practically the best of both worlds. The best part? These foldable shopping totes come in various sizes: small to large. Large enough to fit large everyday objects, yet small enough to zip up and toss into your pocket or purse. Easily customisable in the way you want it — a great choice as a GWP promotional gift or corporate swag. Image credit: DTC World

2. Incorporate compelling designs — make it stand out in a crowd

Combine eye-catching aesthetics with high functionality when designing your promotional fashion totes. Make it a functional statement piece. Go for bold graphics, vibrant colour choices or unique materials to make your shopping bags stand out when your customers use them again and again.

(That said, always ensure to keep the design in line with your brand.)

(TL – DR) Talk about bold. Having eye-catching designs on top of durable materials for your promotional shopping totes is a sure-win. Customers would surely fall in love with attractive and stylish grocery shopping totes like this. Whether it’s a regular drawstring canvas tote, or a thermal insulated bag — not only do they make a loud fashion statement, they are spacious and sturdy, too. Multifunctional, perfect for any occasion. Image credit: DTC World

3. Give your shopping bag another life

This is the time to think outside of the bag. How to turn your grocery shopping bag into something more than just a grocery bag? How about turning them into travel bags, picnic bags, or level it up to a ‘clip-on’ grocery tote on your shopping trolley cart.

(L – R) From classy jute tote bags, to chic leather-handle market bags, they are multi-purpose bags that you can carry everywhere. Nice to look at, awesome to use for practically any occasion. And you’ll love the large branding space, too! Image credit: DTC World

Get your shopping done in the most convenient — and stylish — way with this clip-to-trolley foldable grocery bag (bottom) or foldable shopping cart (top). Easily portable, with large storage space it also offers ample printing surface for branding and customising alternatives for your campaigns. Waterproof, easy to clean and durable. Image credit: DTC World

(L – R) Other examples of convenient shopping bags which you can easily clip on to trolley carts. We know just how much your customers will be showing off these ‘tote-ful’ shopping grocery bags to their family and friends. Image credit: Today.com, Pinterest

4. Encourage and educate

Ask yourself what can you do to encourage your customers to keep using your shopping bag.

You may want to suggest that (or remind) shoppers recycle your shopping bags. It doesn’t cost a lot to incorporate some reuse (recycle) tips — and print the recyclable logo on your bags.

Recyclable logo bag

Recyclable prints & logo

(TL – DR) Examples of educational recycle prints and logos you can incorporate into the designs of your promotional shopping bags. Image credit: Etsy, Walmart, Freepik, A Place for Everything

Not To Be Missed!

” Green Gifting: Eco-Friendly

and Sustainable Materials

You Can Opt For “

Apart from making a strong first
impression on your recipients,
eco-friendly gifts showcase your brand’s green initiatives and build brand loyalty. Knowing which eco-friendly material to select for your ultimate promotional gift is beneficial for your overall marketing campaign.

If you missed our previous article, here’s a good blog re-cap on the benefits of sustainable materials — how they extend beyond environmental effects, and enhance your brand image, brand loyalty and versatility.

Add to Enquiry

Benefits of using eco-friendly

shopper bags and totes for your

marketing efforts

In every promotional arsenal, there is always one product that is mandatory — reusable promotional grocery bags! Practical and cost effective, these marketing tools are widely used in shopping malls, conferences, trade shows and most events.

When brands are looking to boost their business, promotional bags are likely to be top on their list. We have shortlisted the top five reasons (and benefits) why you should consider promotional bags for your next marketing campaign.

Costs – Budget friendly

Advertising is expensive — advertising with promotional bags however, is not. They are relatively cheap to produce; and the price is cheaper when you order in bulk. Should you ever need a budget friendly, yet effective marketing tool, promotional bags are the way to go.

Versatility – Multipurpose functions

We all love freebies. In fact, the more, the better! Picture how your guest attendees at trade shows or exhibition fairs will appreciate promotional bags as giveaways. Handy, convenient and practical — promotional bags are especially useful at events like this as they can store other promotional items attendees receive. In addition, the promotional bag’s visibility will garner more exposure for your company. If you’re holding a corporate event, promotional bags are definitely a must-have.

Sustainable and durable

In this day and age, people are getting more aware of our environment than before. Plastic bags are widely discouraged and reusable bags are the new trend! Promotional bags are not only durable and reusable, they are eco-friendly and sustainable. There are grocery bags made from eco-friendly materials, e.g. canvas bags, jute bags or tyvek bags. Regardless of the materials, giving out promotional bags is also a great way to communicate your green efforts to your customers.

Walking billboards

A well-designed bag is like a ‘trusted’ companion, which you will most likely use to carry all your daily essentials wherever you go. Imagine the amount of exposure your brand will be getting if the logo is highly visible on the large surface area of the bag. Furthermore, the reusable nature of bags would mean people would reuse these bags again and again. In other words, people who are carrying promotional bags with your logo on it act like walking billboards of your business.

Flexibility — Endless customisation possibilities

Regardless of what they are used for, promotional bags are versatile and come in a variety of shapes, colours, styles and sizes. Selecting the right bag for your company can be a little challenging — considering the variety of bags we have in the market. Here at DTC World, we offer many different options for you to choose from, whether it’s grocery tote, reusable bags, backpacks or thermal bags, we have it all.

Our previous blog article dives into some of the most-loved shopping bag designs that customers desire. Check them out!

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Closing Thoughts

Incorporating green messages into your promotional gifts is a powerful marketing technique to connect with your customers. And because we are all about the latest trends, custom promotional products, like these attractive reusable shopper bags, offer you endless possibilities to showcase your brand in a trendy (and sustainable) way you can imagine.

We understand you are constantly looking for something distinctive, one-of-a-kind to enhance your brand visibility — and ultimately, elevate your sales volume. So why wait? Embrace eco-friendly innovation and discover sustainable materials for your promotional gifts today.

If you’d love to find out more about any one of the eco-friendly promotional gift ideas we have shared in this article, just put our team to work — and our product and gift experts would be more than happy to fill you in.

Towards a more sustainable future

At DTC World, our focus on sustainability is an ongoing and exciting journey. Over the last year, we have strived to accelerate the pace and strengthen our efforts: our sustainability strategy, and all our actions with regard to our workforce, the planet, our communities, and through responsible business principles. We are delighted to receive the 2021 EcoVadis Platinum medal — as it recognises the continuous effort of our entire organisation in realising our sustainability strategy.

This award demonstrates our unceasing commitment to sustaining our environment, while keeping our social responsibility close to heart. We are proud to be leading the industry in these areas. Learn more about DTC World’s sustainability initiatives in the 2021 Sustainability Report or on our website.