What We Learned Evaluating One of the Industry’s Largest Online Sticker Printers
Sticker Giant is one of the largest online sticker and label printers in the United States and one of the first companies to truly embrace online sticker ordering. They recently sold to a private equity-backed Resource Label Group after building an impressive e-commerce business.
They also recently introduced a product very similar to one of our most popular offerings, back print stickers.
As fellow sticker manufacturers, we’re naturally curious how other companies approach products like this. So we spent some time evaluating Sticker Giant’s offering to see what stood out. Some things impressed us, a few surprised us, and along the way, we found several interesting manufacturing decisions worth sharing.
Think of this as a little inside baseball from one sticker manufacturer to another.
This isn’t about declaring a winner. Every manufacturer has different equipment, different priorities, and different customers. Instead, we hope this gives buyers a better understanding of how different companies solve the same manufacturing challenges.
They chose White BOPP instead of vinyl.
This was one of the first things we noticed. Sticker Giant built this product using a 2.6 mil white BOPP material and advertises an outdoor life of 12-18 months.
This isn’t a huge surprise because that material looks to be the primary one Sticker Giant uses for their stickers, but it is surprising in the sense that it’s not traditionally viewed as an outdoor sticker material. BOPP is primarily used for indoor label applications.
What’s refreshing is that Sticker Giant doesn’t overpromise. Rather than throwing around marketing phrases to make the product sound like a long-term outdoor durable product, they used realistic time frames for outdoor durability.
Why should you care?
If you are looking for a sticker that will withstand the outdoor elements for more than 18 months, or even the dishwasher, Sticker Giant’s product isn’t for you. This product would work well on notebooks or other indoor applications where the elements won’t degrade the sticker over time.
Their pricing gets really interesting around certain sizes
Overall, Sticker Giant has pretty solid pricing on this product. The price point of the white BOPP material is considerably cheaper than vinyl, and that likely explains how they can offer such good pricing.
What’s interesting is that for certain part sizes, the price can look really inconsistent. At 1,000 stickers:
| Size | Square Inches | Price |
| 5″ x 5″ | 25 sq in | $470 |
| 6″ x 6″ | 36 sq in | $820 |
| 44% Increase in sq in | 74% increase in price |
Sticker pricing is heavily tied to the material usage, so it’s rare to see a price go up by more than the increase in material.
Here’s our best guess: Sticker Giant does not hide the fact that they use HP Indigo presses. It’s all over their social media pages. The image area of their press is likely 11″ x 14.” With a 5″ part size, they can print 2 stickers at once, whereas with a 6″ part size, they can only print one. It’s not rocket science, but it’s interesting!
Why should you care?
Sticker pricing is heavily correlated to material costs and manufacturing efficiency. Slight changes in part size can dramatically change the final price. Most buyers don’t realize that. When printing 1,000 stickers the difference in cost could be minimal, but that’s not the case when quantities get much higher!
The turnaround time is slower than that of their standard products
Sticker Giant lists standard production for backprint stickers at 7-10 business days after proof approval. That stood out because many of their other sticker products list a much faster standard turnaround of 2-5 business days plus shipping.
That doesn’t necessarily surprise us. Backprint stickers are more specialized, and specialty products often require different production workflows.
Rush printing gets a little confusing.
On many Sticker Giant products, rush printing appears to be available for a significant upcharge. From what we saw, the rush fee can be around 95% of the order value.
For example, on a $1,000 order, rush production could add roughly $950.
That is a very large rush fee compared to what many buyers might expect.
For backprint stickers specifically, we noticed something that would be worth verifying before placing an order. During checkout, rush production appeared to be offered. However, in the Production & Turnaround section, Sticker Giant states that rush printing is not available for backprinted stickers.
That may simply be a website inconsistency, but if timing matters, we’d recommend confirming production time directly before ordering.
Why should you care?
If you’re ordering backprint stickers for a product launch, trade show, retail promotion, or event, turnaround time matters just as much as price.
A product that looks available online may still have different production rules behind the scenes.
That’s not unique to Sticker Giant. Specialty sticker products often require more careful planning than standard die cut stickers.
Final Thoughts
One of the things we enjoy most about being in the sticker industry is seeing how different manufacturers solve the same problem.
Looking at Sticker Giant’s backprint sticker product, it’s clear they made some very intentional decisions. From their choice of White BOPP to the way they price different part sizes, everything points toward a company leveraging its label manufacturing expertise to build a polished online product.
Would we have made the same decision? Probably not.
But that’s exactly what makes this industry interesting.
There isn’t one “right” way to build a sticker. Every manufacturer has different equipment, different strengths, and different customers they’re trying to serve.
Hopefully, this little peek behind the curtain helps explain why two products that look almost identical on the surface can be engineered very differently underneath.
Why We Wrote This
At Comgraphx, we enjoy studying the sticker industry just as much as we enjoy printing stickers.
Now and then, we’ll take a closer look at another manufacturer’s products, not to criticize them, but to better understand the engineering decisions behind them and share what we learn along the way.
If you’re as much of a sticker nerd as we are, we hope you found it interesting.
If you’d like to check out our back-printed sticker product, we’d be happy to hear your thoughts!