When you think of items that are suitable gifts and purchase incentives for mailing?for an online store, perhaps?mugs are definitely not the first item that springs to mind! They're breakable, for a start, and they're not the easiest of items to ship, since your every-day postie will not be delivering these larger packages. However, mailing promotional mugs is much simpler than you think. Mugs can really be a great option for purchase incentives for retail stores, but with some creative thinking online stores can also take advantage of the benefits.

Choose your Packaging

Shipping mugs safely requires two things. First, the mug needs to be wrapped such that it can't bounce around inside a box. Second, it needs to be covered completely so that it cannot chip or get scratched by other items it is being shipped with.

Polystyrene mug cases are one of the best options for safe shipping of promotional mugs. These are designed to contain a single mug, and are made in two parts that lock together over the mug contained inside. Polystyrene isn't a material that slips and slides easily, so once the mug is securely contained within the packaging it is very likely to stay that way. As an added advantage, each polystyrene mug case weighs only a few grams, so they will add very little to your shipping costs.

If you're shipping several mugs in the same package, one polystyrene container per mug will work fine; alternatively you can use double-thickness corrugated cardboard boxes that are designed to handle these items. These typically include double-sided compartments with flaps that can be folded down between each mug, keeping them separate from each other to protect them from scratching and chipping.

Choosing when to Give Mugs

The second important point is choosing when to give away mugs as promotional items. In an ideal situation, you won't want to give away mugs with very small or light purchases, as the mug will add a much larger sum to the shipping cost of the entire package. Ideally you will prefer to give mugs away with larger items that have higher shipping costs?this works out more economically for you, as most online stores either charge separate amounts for shipping, or include the cost of shipping in the price of the items they sell.

The easiest way of achieving this goal is to offer promotional mugs only with certain items. You might, for example, choose a range of promotional products and offer a different type of product with each purchase.

If the customer buys small products that are shipped inexpensively, offer small promotional items such as a pen, key ring or badge. You can then offer mugs only with purchases of larger items, so that the mugs contribute less to the overall shipping costs of the package.

This may seem a rather ?down and dirty? way of giving away promotional products, but for the most part online retail stores are able to keep their costs low by reducing overheads, and if you are doubling the cost of your promotions due to shipping costs, you may find that the whole process simply becomes too expensive to provide you with much benefit.