Briefing packaging for a private label towel order — what to decide before the sample

When a private label order goes wrong at the last step, it is usually the packaging and not the towel. The towel was approved on a sample; the packaging was described in a sentence in an email. A towel that arrives in the wrong wrap, with a missing label or a barcode that will not scan has to be fixed after it has been made, which is the most expensive time to fix anything.

Packaging deserves its own brief, written before the sample stage and approved the same way the towel is.

Start with where the towel will be sold

The right packaging depends on the sales channel, so settle that first. A towel sold folded on a retail shelf, a towel shipped to a customer's door from an e-commerce warehouse and a towel supplied to a hotel in bulk are three different packing jobs, and they should not share one brief.

Retail needs the towel to look right in the pack. E-commerce needs the pack to survive handling and to be identified quickly in a warehouse. Hospitality usually needs neither presentation nor individual wrapping, but it does need cartons that can be counted and stored. Say which of these applies, and if it is more than one, brief each separately.

What is on the towel, and what goes around it

It helps to separate the two, because they are approved differently.

**On the towel itself:** a woven or sewn brand label, and a care and fibre-content label where your market requires one. These are part of the product, so they are approved with the towel sample.

**Around the towel:** a band, sleeve or hang tag, an inner bag or wrap, and the retail or e-commerce packaging. These are approved as a packaged sample.

**Around the order:** the outer carton, its marking and the pallet or container loading. Our guide to container loading covers how carton specification affects what fits.

What to put in the brief

• **Artwork files.** Send the brand artwork in a print-ready format with the dimensions and the colours specified, and say which parts are fixed and which can move.
• **Pack format.** Folded size, how many towels per pack, and whether a set is sold as one unit.
• **Barcode.** The barcode number is issued to the brand that owns the product, so it comes from you, not from the supplier. Send the number and where it should sit on the pack.
• **Required text.** The wording the pack must carry, in every language you sell in.
• **Carton marking.** Your shipping marks, carton labels and any reference numbers your warehouse expects on the outside of each carton.
• **Special requirements.** Any rules set by the customer or the platform the towel will be sold through. Marketplaces and large retailers publish their own packaging and labelling requirements; get them before you write the brief, not after.

Labelling depends on the destination

What a label must say is set by the country it is sold in, and that is the importer's responsibility to confirm. Some markets require content in more than one language; others have fixed rules on how fibre content, country of origin and care instructions are stated. Check the rules for your market with your customs broker or the regulator before you finalise the text, and send us the final wording rather than asking us to write it.

Approve a packaged sample, not a photograph

A screen proof of the artwork does not show how a band sits on a folded towel, whether a tag is legible at the size it will be printed or whether a barcode scans. As with colour, the approval that counts is a physical one: a towel in its finished packaging, checked against the brief, before bulk production starts.

Check the finished sample for these points:

• the artwork is the approved version and the colours are as expected
• all required text is present and correct
• the barcode scans
• the pack holds together and the towel folds as specified
• the carton marking matches your instructions

Changing packaging on a reorder

A reorder is where packaging changes by accident. If the artwork is updated, a legal line is added or a barcode changes, say so at the start of the reorder and ask for a new packaged sample rather than assuming the old approval carries over. Our guide on keeping a reorder consistent covers what to keep on file.

What to ask a supplier

• Which packaging elements can be done to your brief, and which are standard options?
• What are the artwork requirements, and who checks them before print?
• Will you send a packaged sample for approval before bulk production?
• Is there a minimum order quantity for printed packaging, separate from the towel?
• How is carton marking confirmed before dispatch?

Send us the towel you are developing, the channel it will be sold through and your artwork, and our export team will confirm which packaging options are available and return a packaged sample for approval before you commit to an order.