El Cambio grabs attention with circle stickers 

* __About El Cambio:__ El Cambio Trading Co. is a sustainable clothing company, whose mission is to promote art, charity and sustainability through fashion. 
* __How they use stickers:__ They used stickers to get the word out about the company before formally launching a new website and brand.  
* __Results:__ Within a few months, Alex turned his Etsy store into a known brand with a social media presence.

> I always carry our logo stickers around with me."

What is the best way to start a clothing company? 

For two college students, the answer is simple; do it while studying, traveling the world, with a partner that you’ve never met in person, and with a mission that goes beyond the clothing.

Alex began selling his hand drawn designs and tanks through an Etsy store. After selling out of all of the designs, he decided to make it into a company. Through a friend, he found Sami and asked her to help with his social media presence and to create an online shop.

Without investors or startup cash, they were looking for a way to grab attention for the new company. He wanted to start right away without paying for a large advertising campaign.

![how ElCambio turned its Etsy store into a brand](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/42218b2c426bb52b53256567556c210cf25ea767)

## Getting the word out (without going broke)

Alex and Sami realized that the answer was staring them right in the face. The best way to get the word out was to make it easy for their friends, family, and even strangers to connect with the brand and tell others about it.

They wanted something that was easy to give out, inexpensive, and could be seen by lots of new people.

> It was our version of a business card! We'd hand them out to friends, people we met, anyone that asked about the design.

After designing a new logo from scratch, Alex and Sami put their logo on circle stickers.

Before launching the new website, they were handing out El Cambio Trading Company stickers, placing them around the world, and giving them to friends.

"We ordered our stickers from Sticker Mule before we ever bought business cards," says Sami. "In fact, it was our version of a business card! We’d hand them out to friends, people we met, anyone that asked about the design."

People loved the stickers and started spreading the word by snapping pictures of the stickers and tagging it with #ECTC. Soon, the stickers were showing up all over social media with photos of the stickers on [water bottles](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/water-bottle-labels), [laptops](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/laptop-stickers), lightposts, and more.

Each sticker, photo, mention, and hashtag helped Alex and Sami launch their new clothing company.

## Generating conversations and sales

With word spreading, El Cambio started selling their unique tanks online through their new website.

To drive referrals and sales, each order gets a few stickers inside the box. El Cambio also uses their stickers as tape to get all of the packaging together. From the wrapping of the tank, to the outside of the package, their message goes everywhere the packaging goes. The stickers added the benefit of giving people confidence in El Cambio as an established company. 

> The reality is you only wear a shirt once in awhile but if you put a sticker on something you use every day it gets in front of more people and generates conversations.

Although giving away something free helps spread word about your business, it can be tough to give away the actual product for free.

Handing out stickers with a logo is a great way to leave customers (and future customers) with something of value without breaking the bank. "I always carry our [logo stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/logo-stickers) around with me," says Sami. "They are in my bag right now! When people ask what I do, I simply grab one and say, 'Here’s a sticker, check it out!'"

## A global idea localized

These two college students launched their clothing company. But, it is much more than cool designs on tank tops, El Cambio Trading Company is a sustainable clothing company whose mission is to promote art, charity, and sustainability through fashion.

Started by Alex Kinczel in 2014 , each El Cambio design represents a different international charity and has been inspired by Alex’s years traveling the globe with his school LIU Global. 10% of the profit from each sale is donated to the charity represented by the design. “We believe that businesses have the responsibility not to exploit, but to give back to the earth and those who we work with,” says Alex.

Currently, Alex and Sami sell their tanks online, but they’ve found success selling the shirts on the ground as well at festivals and markets.

Anyone that stops by gets a free sample of their logo as a sticker or button. Giving visitors something to take with them is an easy way to help someone who is interested but not ready to buy right away. They ask visitors to take the sticker, put it on something they own, and then tell people about it if they ask.

## What's next

As the business grows and graduation looms, Alex and Sami plan to keep using stickers to grow and grab more attention as they look into growing their business into brick-and-mortar spaces and other online stores.

Their plan is to sell new designs as stickers and to use them in a photo contest to generate more interest through word of mouth and social media.

There are countless ways to promote your own clothing company, product, or brand using stickers. Check out more ways Sticker Mule can help you grab attention.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

Within a few months Alex turned his Etsy store into a known brand with a social media presence using circle stickers.

Sticker Mule goes to Italy

Today we officially launched [Sticker Mule Italy](https://www.stickermule.com/it) so it seemed fitting to explain how we got here. 5 years ago when we started Sticker Mule our vision didn’t reach beyond the United States. International business is complicated and we were a small startup. We thought it best to focus on growing at home and set out telling everyone we could about Sticker Mule. 

Our background made us inclined to engage with designers and developers so we tried our best to befriend these communities. It didn't take long to realize that that the Internet is international and many of the best developers and designers live outside the United States. 

To properly engage these communities we needed to ship internationally at a minimum. So, early on, we contacted UPS to get rates, added international ship methods to our web site and naively thought we were done. Shortly thereafter, the complaints came in: "my order is stuck in customs" "my order is late" "I got hit with an unexpected $80 charge to clear customs." It turns out selling internationally isn't as simple as adding international ship methods to your web site. 

We eventually developed our roadmap on [how to become an international ecommerce business](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/building-international-ecommerce-company). This guided our progress as we quietly made numerous improvements to help our international customers including:

1. Shipping worldwide quickly and with tracking. 
2. Ensuring orders clear customs without problems.
3. Eliminating import duties (we pay them for you).
4. Reducing shipping costs worldwide.
5. Introducing free shipping to Western Europe.
6. Supporting the metric system.
7. Supporting the Euro.

Along the way, our team grew to become international as well. More than 50% of our core team lives outside the United States. [David North](https://twitter.com/davidnorth) has been with us since our inception and lives in England. 

[Brian Quinn](https://twitter.com/bdq) works out of Ireland. [Lucas Húngaro](https://twitter.com/lucashungaro) is in Brazil. And, [Andrea Giannangelo](https://twitter.com/Facens) & [Stefano Di Luca](https://twitter.com/pennadl) are in Italy. Already, we've seen tremendous growth internationally, year over year we grow faster abroad than in our home country and that will accelerate as we execute our roadmap. 

If it seems as though we stumbled into becoming international that's because we did. We didn’t plan to have an international team or sell internationally. Our sole intention was to build an amazing customer experience and it turns out expanding beyond the U.S. and hiring the best people in the world were necessary to pursue that goal. 

Admittedly, we even stumbled into starting our international expansion in Italy. One night, I came across the [Unixstickers](https://www.stickermule.com/unixstickers) website and started a live chat session with Stefano Di Luca who happened to be Italian. You don’t have to chat for long with Stefano to realize you would love to work with him so we kept in touch. 

Eventually he introduced us to his partner Andrea Giannangelo who also left an amazing impression on us. We immediately knew we wanted Andrea & Stefano on our team and I’d like to think they knew right away they’d enjoy working with us. A few months later Sticker Mule Italy was born. We haven’t decided what country we’re headed to next, but if you’re interested in being a part of our journey [we’re hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers "Sticker Mule careers"). :-)

We recently launched an Italian version of our website. Here's a brief overview of how we stumbled into the Italian market. 

Introducing wall graphics 

Today, we’re introducing [custom wall graphics](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics). Our wall graphics (commonly known as wall decals, wall stickers, or wall art stickers) are an easy way to add style and decor to businesses, offices, homes, kid’s bedrooms and nurseries, and more.

<YouTubeVideo videoId="eDCFI9Mie4o?rel=0" />

Sticker Mule’s vinyl wall graphics are made from a special self-adhesive fabric that looks awesome and won't damage your walls. They are designed to adhere to drywall (a standard painted wall), laminated wood, glass and other smooth surfaces. You can remove them easily from most wall and painted surfaces without causing damage.

Colors appear bright on a matte fabric-like textured finish that diffuses light and matches the texture of your wall

![Grand Bycycle Center Wall Graphic](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/3aa979df95ed2462f459cce1f98ad8a3fc8ed6fd)

## Ordering your wall graphic
Every wall graphic is completely custom. You can upload your own high-resolution photography, an artistic reproduction, a company logo, football team logo, or an image of your favorite Star Wars character. Simply pick an approximate size and we will adjust your pricing to match the exact size.

For example, if you want a large wall decal that is 4 feet tall but don’t know the width, simply enter 48” x 48.” Our proofing team will update the size and the price during our free proofing stage using our [automatic discount](https://www.stickermule.com/automatic-discounts) feature.

Next, upload your artwork. Although it is best to upload a high resolution or vector image, you can upload any artwork and we’ll work with you. 

Within 4 hours you’ll have a free digital proof that you can approve online or request changes to. Once approved, we’ll begin production and ship your wall graphics to you in a sturdy mailing tube that protects your wall graphic.

![Famebit Wall Graphic](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/7b3097f7115e3992bea5dc2ba79076b5b0d69180)

## Installing your wall graphic
<WistiaVideo videoId="soj8h3a3s0" />

Sticker Mule’s wall graphics are easy to install. We include printed instructions with every order and can be done in a matter of minutes. We recommend cleaning the surface and letting it dry before you start. It can also be a bit easier to install your wall decal if you have help from a friend or coworker. 

Although our wall graphics are designed to be single use only, they can be removed and reapplied during installation. After the initial installation you should not expect to move and re-use them at a later date.

Follow these [instructions for vertical wall graphics](https://p-pnf75vn.b0.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com/items/12u7LJ10/93ff8e42-7240-4c06-b3b7-87d0ab603622.pdf?v=9a3b65c9438bbfb38684009d9677339d) (taller than it is wide).
![Ember Wall Graphic How-to-install](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/2b5e668d48e78df715a7874a69e8182e822be20b)

Follow these [instructions for horizontal wall graphics](https://p-pnf75vn.b0.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com/items/Kou9jrW0/aa23df35-aefb-46c8-94c9-e5e44835958b.pdf?v=8927d5b6a3a767c3d675abf98aa140bf) (wider than it is tall).
![Docker-Wall Graphic Horizontal How-to-install](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/5b6c49c81bae264bcc48e37aed65ec9fa65ca436)

When you’re ready, place your [wall graphic order here](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics). If you have questions read our [wall graphic FAQs](https://www.stickermule.com/support/wall-graphics) or [contact us](https://www.stickermule.com/support/contact). 



Our custom wall graphics are an easy way to add style and decor to businesses, offices, homes, kid’s bedrooms and nurseries, and more. 

How to order custom stickers 

<YouTubeVideo videoId="AaGNbXMv0PM?rel=0" />

We created a short video of our ordering process. A few highlights:

1. Every product page (e.g. [die cut stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers) or [vinyl decals](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers)) has a "custom size" option. Pricing changes automatically as you manipulate sizes.
2. You can use drag & drop to upload your artwork on modern browsers.
3. You can select from 3 delivery dates during checkout including a free shipping option for U.S. customers.
4. Proofs are provided after checkout within 4 hours.
5. We ask for your credit card upfront, but we do not charge it until you approve all proofs.
6. You can request unlimited changes to proofs and we'll make them for free until your happy.
7. You can cancel any time prior to approving your proofs at no cost.

Hope you like our 1st attempt at video production. We'd love to know what you think. Leave a comment or tweet [@stickermule](http://twitter.com/stickermule).


We created a short video of our ordering process. 

On phone support 

We discontinued phone support recently. Our rationale is explained below:

### Phone support is difficult to scale.
You can't easily put a new person on the phone since you have limited control over the difficulty of calls they take. By contrast, you can let newer support agents respond to easy emails until they are comfortable handling more difficult ones.

### Phone support is difficult to monitor.
It's time consuming to listen to calls, but scanning emails is quick and efficient. It takes me an hour per day to read all of our customer service communication, but it's incredibly useful. Our core team reads the majority of our emails as a source of ideas and to keep a pulse on how we're performing.

### Phone support increases head count.
Phone support is more human capital intensive than email support. It's difficult to maintain the quality of your organization when head count grows quickly. Erring on the side of needing fewer people makes it easier for us to ensure all of our people are top notch.

### Phone support is difficult to automate.
Email support can be automated by developing faqs, macros, videos and efficient routing systems. It's not possible to automate phone support to the same extent.

### Phone support is not concise.
We aim to be clear, concise and comprehensive in how we respond to your questions. Often that means taking a moment to research an answer and review our response with coworkers before replying. It's not possible to handle a difficult phone inquiry in this manner without putting you on hold or calling you back later.

### Phone support is not documented.
Special arrangements made on the phone must be documented by an agent who could record them inaccurately. By contrast, all email inquiries are associated to your account and can be viewed by our entire team so that we are all familiar with your needs.

### Final thoughts...
Since implementing this change, we have been diligently reviewing every customer interaction, documenting problems and developing solutions to prevent common problems from recurring. Most support inquiries exist because we failed in some regard. Either our process had a hiccup or our ordering experience was confusing. Already we have fixed dozens of small problems and more improvements are coming soon.

### One small, related bonus...
We removed the phone number field from checkout for all US customers. Filling out forms isn't fun, but we hope cutting one needless field makes checkout a bit more pleasant.

Contemplating a similar decision? You may want to read [Wistia's](http://wistia.com/blog/scaling-support-why-we-removed-our-phone-number-from-our-website/) blog posts on this topic.


We discontinued phone support recently and explain why in this blog post. 

Shipping custom stickers worldwide 

Effective today, we're shipping [custom stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-stickers) worldwide via USPS.  If you're an international customer, just enter your address during checkout and we'll provide you with an option to use USPS as your shipping provider.

Happy we finally added support for international shipments? Thoughts on how we can better handle international orders? Leave a comment or tweet [@stickermule](http://twitter.com/stickermule).  As always, your feedback is appreciated. ;-) 


We just updated the site and we're happily supporting customers worldwide.  All international orders for custom stickers ship via USPS. 

Choose your delivery date 

It's now possible to pick a delivery date during checkout.  If you ever bought flowers online you might be familiar with how this works.  Online flower companies are intimately familiar with the importance of hitting your desired delivery date.   Rather than ask what shipping method you want, they simply ask when you need the flowers to arrive.  In the background, they pick the optimal ship method for you and, if necessary, hit you with a rush charge.

In our opinion, your [custom stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-stickers) should be on equal footing with flowers for that special someone.  So, starting today, you can pick a delivery date during checkout and there's a rush option too.  In the background, we pick the ship method for you and if you want rush production we charge an extra $50.00. Here's a quick example:

Say you're planning an event for Wednesday, December 22nd and you want 500 custom stickers to hand out to attendees.  If you order today, you'll see four delivery options:

**December 23** (Thursday)
+$0.00 for 10 day production & UPS Ground

**December 20** (Monday)
+$16.60 for 10 day production & UPS Second Day Air

**December 17** (Friday)
+$25.82 for 10 day production & UPS Next Day Air

**December 13** (Monday)
+$75.82 for 5 day production & UPS Next Day Air

While our free shipping option might not meet your date, for an extra $16.60 you can have them delivered by Monday, December 20th. ;-)

We're super excited about this improvement to our ordering experience, but this is only our first attempt to tackle a difficult problem.   Your thoughts and feedback are much appreciated. Leave a comment or tweet [@stickermule](http://twitter.com/stickermule).


Curious when your custom stickers will arrive? It's now possible to pick your delivery date during checkout and a rush option is available too. 

How to print high quality custom stickers 

There's no reason why every custom sticker can't be awesome. The cost difference between printing the best possible sticker versus something average is minimal. That's why we only use the highest quality material and printing methods.

Here's a quick overview of what Sticker Mule means by "high quality" stickers:

## High resolution printing

We print stickers at 1440 dpi. That means we can easily match every color and print even the most complex designs. Even highly detailed images always come out awesome. You can even send us your low-res artwork as is and we will redraw it from scratch to ensure optimal print quality. 

## Extra thick vinyl

We called a list of material vendors, including some large paper companies, and asked them a simple question: what's the best quality vinyl material we could use for custom stickers? Inevitably, we decided on an extra thick 6 mil vinyl. It provides a great look and feel and lays down nice. Combined with a sturdy paper backing and protective laminate, our stickers are made from the best materials you'll find. 

![Extra thick vinyl for high quality stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ad7d83a5d111a26cf6c3ef44763b6453ef7ebe85)

## Sturdy paper backing

We use a sturdy paper backing to boost the overall strength of the stickers so that they keep their quality when stored in your backpack or pocket. It also helps make them easier to peel whether your sticker is [die cut](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers), [kiss cut](https://www.stickermule.com/products/kiss-cut-stickers) or another [style of sticker](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-stickers).

![Sturdy paper backing for high quality vinyl stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ef24eac7748df0cd34bf49380bdf38076789c820)

## Strong adhesive

We know that a sticker is only as good as its adhesive. Like the vinyl we use, we set out to find the best quality adhesive. All of our stickers have a very strong adhesive that still keeps the surface intact if it needs to be removed. 

We use a permanent adhesive for [die cut stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers) and [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers). While [bumper stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/bumper-stickers) and [wall graphics](https://www.stickermule.com/products/wall-graphics) use a special removable adhesive. 

## Weatherproof

We make our stickers to withstand exposure to wind, rain and sunlight. In addition to premium vinyl, the stickers are coated with a high quality protective UV laminate that makes them super durable and resistant to fading, scratching, tearing, and water. Our stickers are fade resistant for 3 to 5 years, even in the toughest conditions. They can also be safely run through a dishwasher repeatedly. 

<WistiaVideo videoId="si3kckqeps" />

## Final thoughts...

Our philosophy is simple: only sell products that we are ridiculously proud of making. The steps above are how we know with certainty that we always turn out the highest quality stickers possible.

<ButtonCta text="Try the best stickers for $1" href="https://www.stickermule.com/samples?ref=blog" />

We only use the highest quality material and printing methods. Here's why. 

Making Sticker Mule simpler 

Just pushed some changes to make life simpler.  Among them:

## 20% less header

![Comparison of the old and new Sticker Mule logos](https://cl.ly/2G2c2I0H3v2w/new-sticker-mule-logo.png)

We shaved 20 pixels off the header and we're sporting a new logo.  Logo design isn't exactly our expertise, but we felt the original logo had too much flair so we toned it down a bit.

## Clutter-free artwork uploads

![Screenshot of our new artwork upload screen](https://cl.ly/0V1r130R3U3k/simple-artwork-upload-screen.png)

A ton of pointless junk was removed from this screen.  All that's left is a large "select file" button and a new progress tracker.  A side benefit of the change is the page looks even better. :-)

## Send artwork later

There's a new experimental option to send your artwork after ordering.  We had a bit of a debate about this idea, but eventually decided to release it and see what people think.  If you want to buy and don't have your artwork handy,  you can email it to us at a more convenient time.

![Screencast of our send artwork later feature](https://cl.ly/2R3W2f2M3s23/Screen%2520Recording%25202016-05-31%2520at%252009.55%2520PM.gif)

## Checkout gets a facelift

![Screenshot of our new checkout screen](https://cl.ly/2p431J3g0n1j/new-checkout-screen.png)

Our checkout screens are prettier and simpler. It's not fun filling in forms; hopefully a little extra style and clarity make it more bearable.  You can checkout without creating an account now too.

## What's next

We're having a lot of fun building Sticker Mule.  The good news is, we're far from done.  As long as it's possible to make [sticker printing](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-stickers "Sticker Printing") simpler, faster and more fun we'll keep pushing updates.

Hopefully you like what we've done so far. Leave a comment or tweet [@stickermule](http://twitter.com/stickermule) with your thoughts.

A few design changes make Sticker Mule even simpler and more enjoyable. 

41 custom sticker design templates 

Custom sticker design templates in PDF, EPS and PSD formats are available for download.  They're simple and quick to use if you know your way around Photoshop or Illustrator.

Use of our [custom sticker templates](https://www.stickermule.com/templates) is optional. If you'd rather just send us a simple image file that works too.  We accept all file formats so send us anything and we'll make it work.

Custom sticker templates are available for the most popular sizes and styles.

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