Packaging Tips For Selling Online

Whether you an independent vendor, an online marketplace or selling from your e-commerce store, it is necessary to choose how to package your products the right way. This step is crucial regardless of the size of your business.

The shopping experience of an online customer is not limited to browsing the online store and placing an order. The first physical contact between your brand and the customer happens when your product arrives at their doorstep. This experience is entirely different from that involved in in-store shopping.

In this article, we will discuss some actionable tips to help you with the packaging of your product the right way.

Product security

The very first requirement is to make sure that your product arrives at the customer’s doorstep in one piece. Poor packaging choices can result in the product arriving misshapen or in damaged condition. Good thing is that remedying these choices is not quite hard.

Adding protective materials such as bubble wrap or packaging tissue can add an extra layer of security to the product packaging, allowing brands and companies to keep the product safe from potential damage. Packaging foam is another material that can keep the product in place. Another advantage of packaging foam is that it is lightweight.

Choosing the right cardboard box

The exterior of the product is just as important as the interior. The option that you can consider in this regard is the use of cardboard boxes, which are hard, lightweight, and recyclable. Cardboard boxes are perfect for e-commerce shipping.

While choosing the box size, take into consideration the dimensions of the product and materials that you will have to use for cushioning. Choosing a too-small box can lead to over-stuffing while choosing a too-large box can result in the need to fill too many packaging materials. Such a box will expose the vulnerable product to damage.

A rule of thumb is that if you need extra tape to secure the box, it is smaller than what you need. On the other hand, if the product is easily tilting inside the box, it is too big.

Adding personal touches to your packaging

Trying to be a minimalist, while designing your product packaging, results in it becoming unattractive for your customers. The most necessary thing to consider here is the first impression. Your product at the doorstep may be the very first point of contact between you and your customer. You will want to make it count. It is the opportunity that allows you to show your customers that you are a trustable service.

For this purpose, you can consider using branded tape to make the outer packaging a bit more attractive. You can also use branded materials inside the package to improve the unboxing experience.

Choosing transit and shipping

Accidents during shipping are not the fault of the seller. Unfortunately, your customers may decide to turn away from your brand if anything bad happens to the product during shipping. That is why it is necessary to choose a professional transit and shipping company. You can contact different companies to get quotes.

A guide to Void Fill

Void fill is something that’s put in both moving and shipping boxes. But what’s good about it? What are the types of void fill? While custom boxes help to reduce the problem, void fill helps with filling those empty gaps and spaces that are there. If you need to use void fill, you can protect the items that are valuable from moving around especially when the box is being shipped. It’s great for protecting items and is very simple for you to use as well. 

Void Fill Vs. Protective Packaging 

Both of these are great for protecting items of all kinds, but they are quite different. Protective packaging goes around where your items are. So if you have a vase, protective packaging is what goes around there.  void fill is basically what goes in between the item itself, and the sides of the box.  Both of these are important for fragile and breakable items, creating a cushion that protects the items from getting damaged by different motions. 

Do I need it? 

The best way to determine if an item needs void fill, is basically the type of product that it is, and the shipping that goes into it. If the box is going to be flipped around and moved about, and if the items aren’t breakable, you probably won't need it.  If you do need to worry a little bit about the item getting broken, then you should definitely look at using void fill.

You should also factor in packaging drops. Drops from several feet updo require you to have some kind of protection most of the time, as boxes usually can only handle so much. 

The Types 

The thing with void fill, is that you’ve got different types, with different benefits and drawbacks to each. First, you’ve got packaging paper, which is basically paper that gets crumpled in some manner, and then is inserted into each of the gaps. This is the most economical way, as it’s usually used when you’ve got that extra paper lying about.

Another type of protection is air pillows. These are literally plastic packaging that are filled with air. The downside to this one is that it’s not very eco friendly, and it does require you to have a way to inflate this, in order to make sure that it protects the entire area. You’ve also got bubble wrap, which is a way for you to protect the packaging. Most people use this if they have it around already, but this is another one that’s not necessarily the most eco friendly, but it does work to reduce the different movements there.

Crinkle paper is another one. This is basically shredded, jagged paper that you toss into this. It’s one of the cheapest ways to fill the void.

Corrugated inserts are another one. This is basically cardboard that’s put inside to separate all of the materials. Basically, they get cut off, offering more protection, and keeping the items separated.

Finally, you’ve got packaging peanuts which are tiny peanuts that are used in bulky ways to prevent movement there. 

This is something that’s great for filling the spaces which are empty within all of this. 

All of these are great ways to protect items from being damaged, and also are good if you’re submitting items to be handled by a lot of people.

The thing with packaging that uses this, is that it’s great for filling in the obvious holes.  There are tons of different ways to use this, but if you want a good, easy way to protect all of your items, this is the way.