25 custom sticker ideas for small businesses.
A sticker does not have to be your logo on a circle. Packaging, QR codes, cups, windows, hard hats, giveaways: here are twenty-five places to put your brand where someone will actually see it, each with a size and finish to start from.
Almost every small business is already handing customers a blank surface. A mailer, a coffee cup, a paper bag, a jar lid, a toolbox, the front window. A custom sticker is the cheapest way to turn any of them into something with your name on it.
The useful ones usually do a job as well. A seal that has to be broken to open the box. A QR code that saves someone typing. A label that says what is inside and when it was made. Decoration is fine, but a sticker that is needed gets ordered again.
Twenty-five ideas below, grouped by where they end up rather than by what they look like. Skim the headings. Steal what fits.
In the parcel.
If you post anything, this is the group that pays for itself first. The packaging is already costing you money; the sticker is what makes it yours.
The packaging seal
One sticker across the flap of a plain mailer, doing the work of printed packaging at a fraction of the cost. It has to be broken to open the parcel, which means it is doing a real job as well as carrying your logo, and it turns a generic satchel into something that looks considered.
Order these kiss-cut on a sheet rather than die-cut. Peeling 200 individual stickers off backing paper at 9pm is how people stop using them.
Start from 40–50 mm round · kiss-cut · matte · 500
Thank-you stickers
Two words, your mark, and a bit of warmth on the inside of the lid. Cheap, and the thing people photograph when they unbox.
Start from 50 mm · kiss-cut · matte · 500Tissue paper seals
Wrap in plain tissue, close it with a sticker. Costs a few cents and looks like custom-printed tissue, which does not.
Start from 35–45 mm · kiss-cut · matte or clear · 500Branded shipping boxes
Plain boxes plus one large sticker beats a minimum order of 1,000 printed cartons you have to store somewhere.
Start from 100–150 mm · die-cut · matte · 250A free sticker in every order
The one that leaves the parcel and goes onto a laptop or a drink bottle. Your cheapest advertising is the sticker you gave away.
Start from 70–75 mm · die-cut · holographic · 500+On the counter.
Anything a customer holds, carries out the door, or walks past. This is where cafés, takeaway shops and market stalls get the most out of a single print run.
Coffee cup stickers
A logo seal on the lid, or a small mark on the sleeve. Keep it simple, keep it small, and go matte so it does not glare under the shop lights or in every photo taken of it. Cafés that run one design a season give regulars a reason to notice the cup at all.
Start from 50–70 mm · die-cut · matte · 500Takeaway packaging
Kraft boxes, noodle boxes, paper bags, chip cartons. One sticker turns generic catering stock into your packaging.
Start from 60 mm · kiss-cut · matte · 1,000Product labels
Ingredients, batch, best-before, weight. Waterproof vinyl survives a fridge, a cool room and a wet hand.
Start from 30–50 mm · kiss-cut · matte · 1,000Window stickers
Hours, delivery badges, the logo on the door. Print on clear vinyl so there is no white border floating on the glass.
Start from Any size · clear vinyl · 1–20Market stall stickers
Bags, boxes, jars, the cash tin, the sign. Buy one run, use it across the whole stall for a season.
Start from 50 mm · kiss-cut · matte · 500The ones that do a job.
These are the stickers that earn a second order, because they replace something you were doing badly by hand.
QR code stickers
Menu, booking page, care instructions, Wi-Fi, a how-to video. Print it at 30 mm or larger with clear space around it, and test the printed one before you order 500.
Start from 40–50 mm square · matte · 250Review-request stickers
A QR on the receipt, the bag or the invoice, pointing at your Google listing. It asks for the review at the one moment the customer is still holding the thing.
Start from 40 mm · kiss-cut · matte · 500Loyalty and reward stickers
Small marks for a card, or a numbered sticker for a challenge board. Cheaper than an app and nobody has to download anything.
Start from 15–20 mm · kiss-cut · gloss · 1,000Social handle stickers
Your @ and nothing else, stuck where the phone already is. Works on a stall sign, a mirror, a fridge door, the back of a laptop.
Start from 60 mm · die-cut · gloss · 500Asset and equipment tags
Name, number, phone. Put it on anything that leaves the shed, and gear starts coming back instead of disappearing.
Start from 50–80 mm · die-cut · gloss laminate · 100Same idea. Different finish.
The finish changes the personality of a sticker more than the artwork usually does. These are real samples, rendered the same way the builder renders yours.
Matte, gloss and satin are the same waterproof vinyl wearing a different laminate, so the choice there is about glare, not durability. The four foils are a different thing: the effect sits under your ink, which is why holographic barely shows through solid dark fills and sings through open space and outlines.
Rough rule: matte for anything that gets photographed or sits under downlights, gloss for anything outdoors or on a rough surface, clear for glass, holographic for the one you are giving away. Not sure which suits your job? Compare all eight properly, or look at them on the finishes panel.
Find your shop.
The same twenty-five ideas, sorted by who tends to order them. Four starting points each.
Cafés
- Logo seals on takeaway cups
- QR sticker on the table for the menu
- Branded seals on kraft packaging
- Loyalty marks instead of a stamp
Barbers
- Mirror decals in clear vinyl
- Booking QR at the till
- Labels on retail product
- A logo sticker in every bag
Clothing brands
- Parcel and mailer seals
- Tissue paper seals
- Sticker packs sold as merch
- Limited-edition drop stickers
Tradies
- Hard-hat and toolbox stickers
- Ute and trailer decals
- Asset tags on tools and plant
- Contact sticker left on the job
Gyms
- Water bottle stickers for members
- Challenge and PB reward stickers
- Mirror and floor decals
- Sign-up giveaway packs
Breweries & food brands
- Can, bottle and jar labels
- Limited release stickers
- Holographic merch stickers
- Giveaways at every event
Market stalls
- Paper bag and box seals
- QR sticker for payment or socials
- Price and product labels
- A free sticker with every sale
Online stores
- Thank-you stickers inside the lid
- Large logo sticker on plain boxes
- Tissue seals
- A free sticker in every order
Out in the world.
Stickers that leave the shop and keep working. These want gloss or a laminate, because they are going to get rained on, scrubbed, or dropped.
Vehicle decals
A ute door, a trailer, a rear window. It is the largest sign most small businesses will ever own, it parks outside the job all day, and it costs less than one week of paid ads. Keep the phone number bigger than the logo. People read it from another lane at 60km/h, not from the footpath.
Going bigger than a decal? The same press does corflute site signs and vinyl banners.
Start from 150–300 mm · die-cut · gloss · 10–100
Hard-hat and toolbox stickers
Crew identity, and a fast way to tell whose gear is whose on a shared site. Gloss laminate handles sun, dust and a pressure wash.
Start from 75–100 mm · die-cut · gloss · 50–100Laptop stickers
The classic giveaway, and the one with the longest life. If it is going on a lid next to other brands, make it good enough to compete.
Start from 60–75 mm · die-cut · matte or chrome · 500+Water bottle stickers
Curved, wet, and washed constantly, so keep them under about 70 mm and print on laminated vinyl. Gyms and clubs go through these fast.
Start from 50–70 mm · die-cut · gloss · 250Giveaway stickers
A bowl on the counter, a handful in the bag, a stack at the stall. Free stickers only work if they are good enough that someone chooses one.
Start from 70 mm · die-cut · holographic · 1,000Drop the art in and look at it.
Upload a file, cut the background out of it if it needs it, pick a size and a finish, and see your sticker with the cut line drawn around it before it goes anywhere near the press.
Make a sticker →Worth keeping.
The last five are the ones people choose to hang onto. That is a higher bar than "has our logo on it", and it is worth designing for.
The logo sticker, done properly
Everyone starts here, and most people stop too early. A logo on a white circle is a label. The same logo cut to its own outline, with breathing room and one good colour, is an object. Upload it and the builder draws that contour for you, with a slider for how much border sits around it.
Start from 70–90 mm · die-cut · matte · 500Limited-edition stickers
A date, a batch number, a run of 100. Scarcity does the work that a discount code usually gets asked to do.
Start from 75 mm · die-cut · holographic · 100Holographic logo stickers
The upgrade that actually earns its cost on merch. Design with open space so the rainbow has somewhere to show.
Start from 70 mm · die-cut · holographic · 500Sticker packs
Several designs kiss-cut onto one sheet, priced as one item. The format that genuinely sells at a stall rather than being given away.
Start from A6 sheet · kiss-cut · gloss · 100–250Event stickers
Markets, expos, launches, race days. Date it, hand it out, and it becomes a souvenir instead of a flyer someone bins on the way out.
Start from 60–75 mm · die-cut · gloss · 250–500A sticker is the cheapest sign you will ever buy.
It costs cents, it goes where a sign cannot, and somebody else carries it around for you. That is the whole pitch.
Not sure what to print?
You do not need to commission anything to place a first order. Five starting points that almost every business already has.
- Your logoThe file you already use on your invoices is usually enough, transparent background or not.
- Your mascot, or your drawingThe dog, the van, the coffee machine, the thing on your sign. Hand-drawn beats generic every single time.
- Your best-selling productA phone photo of the thing people actually come to you for is enough to start.
- A phrase customers already associate with youThe line you say at the counter, or the one they say back. It works because it is yours, not because it is clever.
- A QR code to somewhere usefulMenu, booking page, care instructions, your socials. Add your name underneath so it still means something when nobody scans it.
A photo is a fine starting point now. Upload it, press Remove BG under the preview, and the builder cuts the subject out on your own device, free, before you order anything. Then it draws the contour cut around what is left and you set how much border sits around it. How the background remover works covers what it does well and where it needs a hand.
Every order gets a free digital proof before we print anything, so nothing goes to press on a guess. Minimum is 10, prices start at $18, and we print in Brisbane. The artwork guide covers resolution and colour shift, the FAQ covers everything else, and if you are local, custom stickers in Brisbane has pickup and turnaround.
More Fresh Press.
Matte, gloss, holo or chrome?
An honest guide to the eight finishes, and which one your job actually needs.
Read it →Lose the background. Keep the subject.
Turn a phone photo into a die-cut sticker without opening a design app.
Read it →Artwork that actually prints well
The six things we flag on proofs, and how to fix them before you upload.
Read it →How many should you actually order?
Why 500 often costs less per sticker than two runs of 100, and when it doesn't.
Read it →