Buying shopping bags looks like choosing a size and a colour. It is really four construction decisions, and getting any of them wrong produces the same result: a bag that fails in public while carrying your name.

This guide covers those four, then the print and sustainability decisions that follow.

Paper weight, and what it actually carries

100gsm kraft is a light carrier for clothing and gifts. 150gsm is the retail standard and handles about 10 pounds with proper construction. Above that you are into heavyweight stock for bottles, tins and deli loads.

The weight only delivers if the construction is there. A 200gsm bag with no turnover will tear at the handle before a 150gsm bag with one. Paper weight alone is not a strength claim, though it is often sold as one.

The turnover is the whole handle story

The turnover is a folded band of paper glued inside the mouth of the bag. It spreads the load from the handle across the bag’s top edge instead of concentrating it at two glue points.

It is invisible in a photograph, it costs a fraction of a cent, and it is the single most common thing missing from cheap bags. If a quote seems unusually low, this is where to look first.

Base inserts and why bags sag

A card panel in the bottom is what lets a bag stand open on a counter and be packed properly. Without one the base bows, the contents tip, and the bag becomes a sack.

For anything a customer packs at a till, or anything with weight in it, treat the base insert as mandatory rather than optional. It is standard on everything we make.

Handles: twisted, ribbon, rope or webbing

Twisted paper is the everyday retail handle — cheap, recyclable with the bag, strong enough with a turnover. Grosgrain ribbon reads premium and suits laminated totes. Cotton or braided rope belongs on rigid bags and must be knotted inside and capped, never glued to the face. Cotton webbing on canvas totes should be cross-stitched at both ends.

Handle failure is almost never the handle. It is how the handle is attached.

Print: spot colour, litho or heat transfer

One or two spot colours on kraft is the most cost-effective print there is, and on natural brown a single dark colour usually looks better than a full-colour attempt. Litho on art paper reproduces photography and gradients properly and is what laminated totes use. Heat transfer handles full colour on non-woven.

Ask to see the artwork on the actual stock. Natural kraft absorbs ink and shifts colour; a logo that reads perfectly on screen can disappear on brown paper.

Sustainability claims that survive scrutiny

Recyclable, recycled, FSC, compostable and biodegradable are not synonyms and only some of them are regulated. Compostable is a certified standard; biodegradable is an unregulated word.

Print the certification you actually hold, not a mood. We will tell you which marks your chosen stock qualifies for and decline to print the ones it does not, because an unsupportable claim is a real risk for the person whose name is on the bag.

What to send us

The bag style, your finished dimensions or the items going in it, roughly how many, and whatever artwork exists — a photo of your shop sign is enough. Tell us if bottles or tins are involved and we will specify up rather than let you find the limit at the till.