Yesterday I ventured into the metropolis for some upmarket seasonal shopping activity, courtesy of the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Having survived the trip up and down the King’s Road, emerging relatively unscathed albeit with a much-depleted purse, I found myself studying fellow passengers on the tube on the way home.

Pretty much everyone was clutching a luxe printed bag of some form. One woman was virtually festooned in them, including a John Lewis ‘bear and hare’ paper shopper, a glossy Daylesford rope-handled version, and an interesting square-shaped variant that I couldn’t get a close enough look at but was clearly from some sort of upmarket emporium. Space NK, Penhaligon’s… the list goes on.

Be it a well-known brand or your local equivalent of ‘I saw You Coming’, no retailer worth their salt will pass up the opportunity to complete the brand experience in this way, while at the same time gaining a walking promotion.

And per our recent feature on online shopping, even when the purchase takes place over the internet, savvy brand owners are realising that it’s still important for goods to arrive suitably packaged.

It’s an area of promotional print that isn’t going away any time soon, and the value-add of some relatively inexpensive print and some tissue paper is immense. 

And by the way, if you're in the vicinity you MUST go and see the windows at Peter Jones. They are a-mazing.