5 tips for ordering cheap(er) stickers

Need cheap stickers for your association or foundation? Or perhaps for promotional purposes? In short, are you looking for stickers but is your budget limited? Then you've come to the right place at Dr. Sticker. In this blog, we'll tell you more about our 5 tips for ordering stickers more affordably.

Order stickers on sheets or rolls

An easy way to order stickers more affordably is to order them not individually, but on sheets or rolls. Despite a large part of our process being automated, there is still manual labor involved in producing the stickers. The stickers need to be manually removed from the cutting machine, which we call "picking". When picking individual stickers, each sticker needs to be individually removed from the machine, but with stickers on sheets, only the sheet needs to be removed. Depending on the size of the stickers, a large number of stickers can be removed from the machine at the same time.

With stickers on rolls, this is even easier. The stickers are printed on long strips using a digital HP Indigo 6900 printer. Then, the stickers are cut on the roll using laser cutting. This saves die-cutting costs and allows for easily cutting different shapes and sizes. The strips are automatically rolled up on the 76 mm core. The only manual labor involved here is packaging the rolls.

Order through the online design tool

As indicated in the previous tip, a large part of our production process is automated. By ordering through the online design tool, your stickers go directly into this automated process. The first manual step is moving the printed roll to the cutting machine, or if you've chosen laminated stickers, moving the roll to the laminator.

This skips two important steps in the process: manually entering your order and manually setting up the print and cut files. The online design tool does all this work for us, saving a lot on sticker costs.

Higher quantity = cheaper stickers per piece

Producing stickers always incurs setup costs. A sticker isn't just set up and ready to be produced. Snijlijnen (cutting lines) need to be added to the sticker, which can be done manually or by our automation, but there are costs involved even if this is done automatically. Then, the right material needs to be hung in the printers. After the design is printed, they are cut, but settings need to be adjusted per sticker here too. For example, if it's a thicker material, a different cut thickness needs to be set, and sometimes even a cutting blade needs to be changed.

These are fixed costs that need to be passed on, but with a larger quantity of stickers, you only pay these once. You understand that the cost for 1 individual sticker is therefore much higher than the cost per sticker when you order a higher quantity.

Let's explain this using a scale. This time we'll use square stickers of 5 x 5 centimeters on standard glossy sticker vinyl (prices include VAT and exclude shipping costs).

Standard shapes and sizes

Another way to save costs on stickers is to choose a standard shape and size for your stickers. We offer the option to order stickers in your own format and shape, but this requires us to create a special cutting file on our side. However, if you order the stickers in a standard shape and size, we already have the corresponding cutting files ready.

Using standardized cutting files allows us to cut multiple orders of the same shapes and sizes at once without having to reset the cutting machine. This results in faster order processing and also makes the stickers cheaper to produce.

Standard material

Our final tip of the five tips for ordering cheaper stickers is to order stickers on standard material. Dr. Sticker offers its stickers on a wide variety of materials, so the stickers can be used for different applications. Do you need stickers that stick extra hard? Then we have the right material for that. Or maybe you're looking for the opposite? Then we also have special materials that are easy to remove after use.

As Dr. Sticker, we are proud to be able to deliver stickers on all these different materials, but if you're looking for the most cost-effective option for the stickers, it's smart to choose one of our standard materials. Choosing standard glossy, matte, or transparent sticker vinyl means you're choosing one of our most common materials. Why is this more cost-effective for you?

If you choose one of these three materials, there are likely many other orders on this material besides yours. We can print all these orders on 1 long roll and then process them one after the other on the cutting machine. The printer only needs to be set up once, and no other material needs to be hung in the machine. After that, all orders on this same material can be cut one after the other, as the machine is already set up for the right material.

These three materials are also the cheapest for us to purchase. All three materials are of monomer quality and perfect for indoor use or temporary applications like promotional material. Because these materials are the most common materials in our production, we can buy the rolls in large quantities from the manufacturer, saving us costs, and this advantage is passed on to your stickers.

In short, there are plenty of ways to order cheaper stickers at Dr. Sticker. Choose the tips that apply best to you. Maybe you're not quite sure if the files are suitable, then it's wise to request an extra proof. This means that the order won't be picked up by our automation, but in this case, you can choose to use a standard shape or size. Do you need individual stickers for a promotional campaign and therefore sheets or rolls of stickers are not an option? Then you can choose to order a larger quantity and save costs that way.

Still have some questions about how you can order your stickers as affordably as possible? Feel free to contact us via info@drsticker.nl, call us at 0165-534026, or fill out our contact form.