Pricing gun, price labels and tape: how to label your products without any hassle
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
A pricing gun, the right labels, and enough ink can save an hour or two on a busy sales day. We've listed which parts go together, how many labels you need, and what to consider for the surface.
At a market or in a small shop, you immediately notice it: prices written with a ballpoint pen on a piece of masking tape, three different handwriting styles, and at the cash register, doubt about what was actually written. A pricing gun solves this for less than half a Saturday's turnover. But then you need to have the right combination of gun, labels, and ink, and that's precisely where things usually go wrong.
What a pricing gun does
A pricing gun is a handheld device with adjustable number bands. You set the price, squeeze, and a self-adhesive label with that price on it comes out. The model you'll encounter by far the most in the Netherlands is the MX-5500: one line of text, numbers and a few symbols, labels on a roll.
Important to know before ordering: a pricing gun, the labels, and the ink roller are three separate consumables that must fit together. Labels of a different size will jam in the guide. An ink roller of a different model will cause streaks or nothing at all. If you buy a gun as part of a set, always check whether refills for that model can be ordered separately — otherwise, your device will stop working after 5,500 labels.
How many labels do you really need?
Calculate it rather than guessing. A market stall with 300 items that you reprice each season will use approximately 1,200 labels per year. A shop that unpacks and prices a new shelf load weekly can easily go through 500 to 1,000 per month. That means something entirely different for your order.
Compare those numbers, and the choice becomes simple. For 5,000 loose white labels at € 9.95, you pay approximately € 0.002 per price. The set with 50,000 labels for € 59.95 is well below that, but only makes sense if you use that stock within a few years: adhesive dries out, especially if the rolls are stored loosely in a warm storage area. If you use fewer than a thousand labels per year, take the regular gun with 5,500 labels and reorder later.
White or coloured: when to choose which
White is the standard for regular retail prices. You use colour to show something without having to explain it. The coloured labels in six colours cost € 2.95 for 500 pieces, making them too inexpensive not to use.
Three ways retailers use them:
Markdowns. Red label over the white one. The customer immediately sees that there's a discount.
Marking purchase rounds. Each delivery gets its own colour. This way, you can see at a glance what has been on the shelf for months.
Promotion group. Everything with a yellow label is three for two. Saves signs and explanations.
What you better not do: use colours interchangeably without a fixed meaning. You'll lose track of your own system within two weeks.
Ink is the component everyone forgets
The ink roller in a pricing gun runs out well before the labels do, and a semi-readable price is worse than no price at all. A refillable 20 mm ink roller costs € 2.95; keep two in the drawer as standard. If you notice the numbers becoming faint, replace it immediately instead of squeezing harder — squeezing harder mainly damages the number bands.
Pay attention to the surface the label will be applied to
A price label adheres well to smooth cardboard and foil. It adheres less well to uncoated, rough cardboard and recycled material with an open structure, especially if the box comes cold from storage. Two practical consequences:
Do not apply directly to a cold box, but let the packaging come to room temperature first. This prevents labels from coming off during transit.
If the label needs to be removed later without leaving traces, apply it to a piece of transparent tape instead of directly to the product. For gift packaging and books, this is the difference between selling and marking down.
For everything that also needs to be shipped after pricing, you can find the cardboard and shipping packaging in Packing & Shipping.
The rest of the packing table
Pricing and sealing usually happen at the same table, so set them up together:
From September, the volume in most shops and webshops increases, and you don't want to find out on a Saturday morning that the last roll has run out. Go through this list once:
Does the gun still work and are the number bands legible?
At least two spare ink rollers in stock.
Label supply for three months, plus a packet in colour for promotions.
Enough tape for the peak — count on at least one roll per hundred packages, more for heavy boxes.
Fixed place for everything, so a temporary worker can find it without explanation.
Order or consult
All pricing guns, labels, and ink rollers can be found under Pricing Guns & Labels, tape and accessories under Labels & Tapes and Tape. If you are unsure about the quantities for your situation, or want to know what's in a set before ordering, feel free to email info@verpakkingdeals.nl — a bit of brainstorming costs us nothing and saves you from buying the wrong box of labels.
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