Retail-Ready Packaging: Polybag to Barcode

A garment can be stitched perfectly and still be rejected at a retailer's door. Not for the make — for the packing.

This is the part of a first order that brands plan last and regret first, because every one of these items has a lead time of its own and most of them cannot be fixed after the goods are sealed in cartons.

The three labels, and why they are different

People say "the label" as though there is one. There are three, and they do different jobs.

The brand label is the woven one at the neck. It is identity, nothing more. It carries your mark and, usually, nothing that the law requires.

The size label may be part of the brand label or sit under it. Keep in mind that the size written here has to match the size the customer expects in that market, which is not the same number everywhere — how to build a size chart covers that properly.

The care and content label is the legal one, usually stitched into a side seam. Fibre content by percentage, country of origin, care symbols, and in some markets an identifier for the importer. The rules differ by market and they are not optional; clothing label requirements by market sets out what each one demands.

A factory can make all three to your artwork. What a factory cannot do is decide the wording for you, because the wording depends on where you are selling and who is importing.

Hangtags

The hangtag is the card on a plastic or string loop. It is the one piece of packaging that is purely yours — no law touches it — and it is where most brands put the price, the story and the model name.

Three decisions matter.

Where it attaches. Through a buttonhole, through the zip pull, or through the care label in the side seam. Attaching through the fabric itself with a plastic barb leaves a hole, which on a technical shell is a defect, not a detail. Say where you want it or the factory will choose.

What it is made of. Card weight and finish are a cost, and on a small run the die-cutting setup can be a bigger line than the cards. A simple rectangle costs noticeably less than a custom shape.

Who supplies it. You can have the factory source and print it, or send your own. Sending your own gives you control of the stock and the colour; it also puts the lead time on you, and the goods cannot be packed until the tags land.

Barcodes — the part only you can do

This is the item that most often holds up a first retail order, because brands assume the factory supplies it. It does not.

A retail barcode encodes a GTIN — a global trade item number. GTINs are issued through GS1, the organisation that administers the numbering system, and a brand licenses a company prefix from its national GS1 office. The factory prints what you give it. It cannot invent a number, and a made-up barcode will fail at a retailer's scanner and at most online marketplaces.

What also surprises people: you need a separate GTIN for every variant. A jacket in three colours and five sizes is fifteen numbers, not one. Build that list before production, not during.

Apply for the prefix early. It is paperwork rather than manufacturing, so it sits outside your production schedule and is easy to forget until the week the goods are ready.

Polybags

Nearly every garment ships in its own bag. The decisions are small but they are decisions.

Bags carrying a garment to a consumer generally need a suffocation warning printed on them, and in many markets perforations as well. Requirements differ by market and by retailer, and a large retailer's own manual will usually be stricter than the law.

Beyond that: whether the bag is self-seal or heat-sealed, whether it is recycled content, whether it carries your logo, and whether each piece gets its own bag or several go into one. If the goods are going to a retailer, assume one piece per bag unless you have been told otherwise.

Folding and presentation

How a garment is folded decides what the customer sees through the bag. A jacket folded so the brand label and the chest detail face up photographs better and sells better than one folded sleeve-out.

It costs nothing to specify and it is almost never specified. Send a photograph of how you want one piece to look in the bag and the factory will repeat it across the run.

Cartons and marking

Inside the carton: how many pieces, in what size ratio. A solid pack is one size per carton; a ratio pack or assorted carton holds a stated mix, which suits a shop that wants a full size run on the shelf from one box.

Outside the carton: the shipping marks. Your brand, the style number, the colour, the size or ratio, the carton number in the series, piece count, and the gross and net weight. Most importers also want their own purchase order number on the box.

This is not decoration. A warehouse books goods in from the outside of the carton, and marks that do not match the paperwork create a delay nobody can fix by opening the box.

What the factory needs from you

• Artwork for brand, size and care labels — as vector files, with the exact wording
• The care instructions you want to publish, and the market the goods are sold in
• Hangtag artwork, the attachment point, and whether you are supplying them
• Your GTIN list — one per colour and size — and the barcode format required
• Polybag requirements, including any warning text your market needs
• Fold and presentation, ideally as a photograph
• Pack method — solid or ratio — and the shipping marks your importer expects

Send that list with the tech pack rather than after the sample is approved. Everything on it has its own lead time, and the only one you cannot shorten by paying more is the GS1 application.

The short version

The factory makes the garment and can make or source most of the packaging. The brand owns the words, the artwork and the numbers. The orders that go smoothly are the ones where that split was agreed in writing before the first sample, not discovered in the week the goods were meant to ship.