Buyer's Guides
The Florist Packaging Starter Checklist (What to Buy First)
New florists almost always buy the wrong things first. The instinct is to order a wide range of colours and a bit of everything, which produces a stock room full of items that do not combine and a gap in the three products actually used on every order.
This is the order to buy in, and the quantities that make sense at each stage.
Buy these first: the items on every order
These five categories cover the overwhelming majority of ordinary retail work. Get them right before adding anything else.
| Priority | Item | Why it comes first | Typical unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matte wrapping paper 58x58cm | Used on every standard bouquet; holds a fold and photographs well | Sheets, by the roll or cut |
| 2 | Ribbon 2.5cm | Finishes every bouquet; about a quarter of the bouquet diameter | 25 or 30 yard rolls |
| 3 | Bouquet sleeves | Ten seconds instead of five minutes on counter handovers | Pieces, usually 25 per bag |
| 4 | Floral tape | Holds the binding point on every hand-tied bouquet | Rolls |
| 5 | Cellophane | The only waterproof option — rain days and transport layers | Sheets or rolls |
Notice what is not on it: boxes, vases, seasonal paper, kraft. Those are second-stage purchases because they serve specific orders rather than all orders.
How much to buy at each stage
Quantities depend on throughput, not on ambition. Use the table that matches where you are actually trading today.
| Item | Part-time / market stall | Single shop | Busy shop / delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wrapping paper | 200 sheets | 500 sheets | 1,000+ sheets, partly by the roll |
| Ribbon 2.5cm | 20 rolls | 60 rolls | 150+ rolls, two colours minimum |
| Sleeves | 100 pieces | 300 pieces | 1,000 pieces |
| Floral tape | 12 rolls | 36 rolls | 100+ rolls |
| Cellophane | 100 sheets | 300 sheets | 600+ sheets or a roll |
| Sleeve bags / hand bags | 50 pieces | 200 pieces | 500 pieces |
| Card holders | 100 pieces | 300 pieces | 1,000 pieces |
Two colours in paper and ribbon, not six. A small palette that combines consistently looks more professional than a wide one that does not, and it keeps the money you save available for stock you will actually sell through.
What to delay until you need it
- Kraft paper — excellent for roses and dried work, but it needs a waterproof inner layer, so it is a specialist purchase, not a starter one.
- Rigid boxes — heavy, expensive to ship, and only justified when you have customers asking for boxed arrangements.
- Glass and acrylic vases — the worst category to stock early: heavy, fragile, and slow-moving until you are doing event work.
- Seasonal colours — red and gold in December, pink in February. Buy them four to six weeks ahead, not six months ahead.
- Custom logo printing — wait until you can use 500 pieces inside a year. Before that, a printed sticker or a branded card does most of the job.
Storage: the part that decides whether your stock survives
Paper is the item most often ruined in storage. Three rules cover it.
| Risk | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Damp | Sheets buckle, print blocks, cellophane clouds | Store off the floor, on a shelf or pallet, away from exterior walls |
| Direct sun | Colours fade unevenly across the stack | Keep paper in its original wrap or in a closed cupboard |
| Crushing | Creases that show on every folded sheet | Store flat, never on edge, and do not stack boxes on top of paper |
| Dust on kraft | Kraft shows every mark | Keep kraft in a bag until use |
| Pests in ribbon | Synthetic ribbon is safe; paper string is not | Keep paper string sealed; rotate stock oldest first |
Store the sleeve and bag range flat and near the wrapping bench, not in a stock room. The point of a sleeve is speed, and walking to fetch one removes the advantage.
Setting up the bench so the stock works
Layout matters as much as the order itself. Set the bench left to right in the order you work, so nothing requires walking:
- Conditioned flowers in buckets, within arm’s reach.
- Pre-cut or pre-bundled filler.
- Floral tape on a dispenser you can pull one-handed.
- Pre-cut paper sheets, stacked by size.
- Ribbon spools — always two of each colour you are running, because one will run out.
- Finished area with clear space for sleeving, labelling and dispatch.
Everything after item six is storage. If your bench has more than that on it, the extra is slowing you down.
The first order, in practice
If you are placing a first order and want the simplest possible version: two colours of matte paper in 58x58cm, one narrower format if you make mini bouquets, two colours of 2.5cm ribbon, sleeves in two sizes, floral tape, one carton of cellophane, and card holders. That is enough to run ordinary retail work and it reaches a better quantity tier than spreading the same budget across ten products.
Add boxes, kraft and seasonal colours once you have a specific order in front of you that needs them.
Costing the starter order before you place it
The worst outcome for a new shop is spending the entire starting budget on stock that does not combine. Work out the split before ordering, using your own numbers in place of the proportions below.
| Share of stock budget | Category | Reason for the proportion |
|---|---|---|
| 40% | Wrapping paper | Used on every order and consumed fastest |
| 20% | Ribbon | Also on every order, but a roll lasts longer than a sheet of paper |
| 15% | Sleeves and bags | High frequency, low unit cost |
| 10% | Cellophane and waterproof material | Weather-dependent, so lower volume but always needed |
| 10% | Floral tape, string, wire | Cheap, essential, and the first thing to run out in a busy week |
| 5% | Card holders and finishing items | Low cost, high perceived value on the finished order |
Notably absent: boxes, vases and seasonal colours. Those take their budget from a later order once you know which specific orders need them.
What to do in your first month of trading
- Write down what you actually used. Count sheets, rolls and sleeves at the start and end of the month. Most shops overestimate paper usage and underestimate tape and sleeve usage.
- Note what ran out first. That is your true priority list, and it is usually not what you expected when ordering.
- Note what never moved. Anything untouched after four weeks of trading is a candidate to leave out of the next order.
- Adjust the split, not the total. Keep the first order’s total budget and move money towards the categories that actually depleted.
After two cycles you have an ordering pattern based on your own trading rather than on guesswork or on someone else’s starter list. That pattern is worth more than any recommended quantity table, including the one above.
Next step
To size that first order properly, read how to choose wrapping paper and how quantity tiers work. To learn the techniques before the stock arrives, start with wrapping with matte paper and tying a ribbon bow.
Browse: wrapping paper · ribbons and bows · bags and sleeves · accessories
