Packaging Guide
Packaging Guide For Efficient Freight Shipping. What does a perfect freight shipment look like, exactly? Sure, every shipment is unique. But, hazardous materials aside, freight packaging best practices and materials remain largely the same regardless of what’s in your boxes, bins or crates, or stacked on your pallets. The Full Guide to Product Packaging Design. We work with a lot of small businesses who sell a product requiring some form of packaging design. If you are completing package design for the first time, we empathise. Like doing anything in business for the first time, there’s a lot of questions about the process. UN packaging requirements involve a series of protocols to guarantee safety during the transportation and storage of these goods. What is UN packaging testing? UN packaging testing is a series of tests and requirements to determine the integrity and safety of the package when facing various situations. Anyone importing goods from abroad needs to understand which of the different types of packaging may be best suited to their products and budget and this guide will introduce you to 8 common packaging materials, dunnage, and packaging with very specific roles, such as for electronic products or components.
ECommerce packaging is the closest your business will come to giving your customers a personal touch. The best eCommerce packaging for the optimal unboxing experience involves a mix of the right box and the right infill. These small details take packaging your product from an everyday delivery to a truly custom package.
What is ECommerce Packaging?
Ecommerce packaging is the way you protect your product, establish your brand identity, and control your shipping costs. It can both enhance your customer’s experience and improve your profitability.
How Should I Package My Products?
Weight and costs are important considerations. Your eCommerce packaging choices will affect your production and shipping costs. Packaging and infill can impact your bottom line in another way: returns. A well-packed order will arrive in perfect condition. ECommerce packaging that can’t survive the delivery process will lead to damaged goods and disappointed customers.
Your package design can enhance your customer’s experience and improve your profitability. It’s important to understand your options so you can make the best choice for your business. Here is your ultimate guide to eCommerce packaging and infill (and don’t forget the tape).
To Box or Not To Box?
First on the list is the box or bag all your products will be packed in. It’s what your customer will see first when they look in their mailbox. Branded packaging is an option that may be worth the price if it creates a memorable experience (especially because some people reuse their boxes). As the number and types of products shipped via eCommerce has grown, so have the choices for outer packaging.
The type of eCommerce packaging that best suits your products depends on several factors. The first is weight. For heavier items, a sturdy box is needed to ensure safe delivery. The second is breakability. A fragile product, even if it’s lightweight, needs protection during shipping. The final factor is the value of the product. When you ship high-value items, spending a bit extra on protective packaging can be a good investment.
The cost of packing materials can vary greatly, depending on type and quantity. If you outsource your shipping, you’ll pay for your eCommerce packaging through your 3PL services provider. Your fulfillment warehouse is a volume purchaser of cardboard boxes. Even with a markup, you’ll probably pay less for packing supplies through your fulfillment center.
Cardboard Boxes
Corrugated cardboard boxes are still the eCommerce packaging of choice for much of the industry. Cardboard is sturdy, doesn’t add much to the weight of your package, and it’s recyclable.
For very heavy or very fragile products, double-walled cardboard provides an extra layer of protection and strength. In some cases, a product comes in its own box that is suitable for shipping. However, in some cases, it makes sense to add a plain brown cardboard box on top. If you’re shipping a high-value item or a highly desired item, such as a flat-screen TV or an X-box, an outer box that obscures what’s inside is a good security measure.
One of the most common mistakes in choosing a packaging solution is using boxes that are too big for the products inside. Customers don’t like to deal with boxes that are too large. In addition, oversized boxes require more infill, increasing the weight of the box and raising the cost of shipping. The DIM weight pricing models used by UPS, FedEx, and USPS penalize shippers for sending products in oversized boxes. With DIM weight, the shipping charge is calculated using the greater of the weight of the package or a formula based on the dimensions of the box.
The cost of cardboard boxes depends on several factors. If you can use a standard size and buy in quantity, your price will go down. If you need a custom size or want your logo printed on the box, that will be an added cost. Double-walled cardboard is pricier than standard corrogated boxes.
Bags and Envelopes
If you sell something that is light and not fragile, a plastic mailing bag, a poly mailer, or Tyvek envelope can be a great choice. Bags and envelopes are lightweight, strong, easy to store, and self-sealing. They work well for shipping small clothing orders. You can also place a small boxed item inside an envelope or bag instead of over-boxing it.
As an added benefit, these mailers are waterproof. On the downside, neither plastic bags nor Tyvek envelopes are recyclable.
Padded Mailers
For shipping small or flat items that need a bit of extra protection, a padded envelope is a good option. This is a great way to ship CDs, jewelry, or other flat but delicate items. Some mailers are padded with shredded paper, so they’re easy to recycle. Padded envelopes filled with bubble wrap are very protective but a less green choice.
Custom Boxes
Creating a custom box can elevate your brand beyond the simple cardboard box. You can create an experience that your customer will enjoy, appreciate, and remember. They might even share it with their followers on Instagram. A custom box can have the added benefit of fitting your products more precisely than standard-sized boxes. This ensures your orders will ship snug and secure.
A custom box can go beyond a logo or design on the outside. There are experts who can help your business achieve a one-of-a-kind experience for your customer. FastKit is a great example of a high-end company that will deliver a high-end custom masterpiece. It’s worked with some big names (Domino’s, Swiffer, and Marvel to name a few).
The best part about these custom options is that they’re more accessible than ever before. You don’t have to break your first million before you invest in custom packaging. You can give your customers a high-end experience without a high-end cost.
Services like Packhelp or Lumi let you design your own packaging elements. These companies allow you to view a 3D image of what the final product will look like. Websites like Cratejoy are an excellent place for packaging for subscription box-based businesses. A custom package may be even more important if you’re selling a monthly subscription box.
Choosing the Right Tape for Your ECommerce Packaging
Tape may seem like the most boring part of eCommerce packaging but it’s a key to packaging success. If you ship your orders in boxes, packing tape is literally the glue that holds it all together.
Basic clear acrylic tape is fine for boxes holding up to about 15 pounds. It’s inexpensive and, with a good tape dispenser, easy to use.
For a more professional look, water-activated tape is a better option. Reinforced, water-activated kraft tape provides a strong seal that will hold together packages of 25 pounds or more. You’ll need a dispenser to wet the tape if you choose this option.
Infill is the Key to Successful ECommerce Packaging
When you ship products in a box, in most cases you need to add infill to keep them from moving around during shipping. Infill adds extra padding and stability to ensure your orders arrive undamaged.
There are many types of infill to choose from. Amazon, one of the largest shippers in the world, uses a combination of air-filled pillows and brown paper. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to infill. You’ll need to strategize based on your specific product and shipping. You may decide, like Amazon, that you want to use more than one type of infill to protect your products during shipping.
Packaging Guide
Kraft Paper
Brown kraft paper is one of the most versatile and flexible types of package infill. You can easily rip it into whatever size sheets you need or crumple it to fit any infill need. Kraft paper also has the benefit of being completely recyclable. It takes less chemical input to make kraft paper than to make bleached white paper products. As a bonus, you can source kraft made from recycled paper.
Air Pillows
Air pillows are the air-filled plastic sacs that are an increasingly common type of infill. They are one of the lightest forms of infill for eCommerce packaging. If you’re concerned about the weight of your package and need a lot of infill, air pillows may be the cheapest choice. They can be recycled under some circumstances, but it’s a safe bet that most of them end up in the landfill.
Packing Peanuts
Peanuts are the classic infill but can be messy and frustrating to work with or receive. The original Styrofoam peanuts are feather light – but that’s part of the problem. They have a tendency to escape the box and float away. This can cause problems on both the packing and receiving end. Styrofoam is not recyclable.
Packing peanuts made from cornstarch are much more ecologically friendly and easier to dispose of. They can even be composted or dissolved in water. However, the individual peanuts still tend to float around. Most customers consider either kind of packing peanuts a nuisance. Think carefully if you’re going to use them.
Bubble Wrap
Bubble wrap is great for wrapping delicate items. It’s also fun to pop the bubbles. Your customers may consider bubble wrap infill a bonus treat and not just packaging.
Foam Wrap
Foam wrap is an alternative to bubble wrap for wrapping fragile products. The fact that it is thin, light, and easy to work with makes foam wrap appealing. Unfortunately, this product is not recyclable and can create environmental problems. Fortunately, innovations in infill give you excellent green alternatives.
Shredded Cardboard
Shredded cardboard infill is a great way to recycle and wrap at the same time. All you need is the machine that turns old cardboard into accordion-like sheets. These sheets can securely wrap around fragile items to protect them during shipping. This choice is the ultimate in eco-friendly packaging. On the receiving end, it’s easy for customers to remove and recycle.
Ecological ECommerce Packaging
Going for the green vibe is a sure win these days. Customers are getting more eco-conscious and want to support companies that they feel align with their values. Using eco-friendly packaging made of recycled, recyclable, or biodegradable materials will position your brand as environmentally conscious. Whatever you do, don’t use an infill like Styrofoam peanuts to pack a product marketed as green.
There are many places to source eco-friendly eCommerce packaging. EcoEnclose offers a full line of compostable, biodegradable, and sustainable boxes, mailers, and tape. The company is committed to being earth-friendly, down to the soy-based ink on their boxes. They’ll also work with you to come up with a packaging style that fits your product perfectly.
Extra Touches in ECommerce Packaging
ECommerce packaging isn’t just about the materials you use to get your orders safely to your customers. What you put inside the box in addition to the products can made a big impression. Think of it as the physical manifestation of your brand voice.
Here are some items to consider as you figure out what you want to ship with each order.
Include the Receipt
The receipt is a surprisingly important component of the packaging experience. Your customers expect an itemized receipt for the order but it often gets forgotten. Don’t just include a receipt; make the receipt memorable. Make sure it fits with and furthers your overall branding. Spend a little time to make sure that it doesn’t detract from the experience. With a little creativity, your receipt can complement your order.
Offer Rewards
The perfect place to further your branding efforts and encourage loyalty is in the box. Your next sale starts when your customer opens their order. Include a coupon with a unique discount code for additional purchases within a certain amount of time. Or add an invite to a loyalty-based rewards program or early access to an upcoming product launch.0010
Add Color with Tissue Paper
Tissue paper is delicate, and we associate it with gifts. Using it to wrap your products will impart that sense of luxury and fun to the customer. Tissue paper boosts the perception of quality.
Tissue paper can also help reinforce your branding. Use solid, on-brand colors or get custom-printed tissue. Companies like DigiWrap and NoIssue sell both options.
Use Stickers
Probably one of the easiest and cheapest options for in-box branding is stickers. You can use them to secure tissue paper around the product, or to decorate the outside of the box or the carrier bag. You can include a few extra stickers as a free gift. That will give you free advertising in the process.
There’s a plethora of custom design tools and websites that allow you to print stickers in any color, shape, and size you want. Uprinting, VistaPrint, and Moo are good places to start. If you’ve never used custom packaging for your products, custom stickers are an inexpensive way to try it out.
What Does Your Packaging Say About Your Products?
Every aspect of your eCommerce packaging, from the box or envelope to the tape and infill, conveys a message. On the most basic level, a well-packed box tells your customers that you take the time to carefully ship their orders. The extra touches you add help build your brand and boost customer loyalty.
If you outsource your fulfillment, you can turn to your fulfillment company for expert advice about eCommerce packaging. Test your order fulfillment company by having orders shipped to yourself. That way, you can better understand your customer’s unboxing experience.
Don’t view your packaging and infill as static. Keep improving your packaging process and materials. As your business grows, you may want to upgrade the look and feel of your eCommerce orders. And, as packaging materials and techniques evolve, you will be able to choose from newer, greener, and more appealing packaging and infill options.
What sort of packaging and infill does your business use? Leave a comment and tell us what works for you.
So, you’ve made your goods and you are ready to ship them. You may think that it’s a simple matter to use any old pallet or crate and send them off. In fact nowadays packaging is not that simple.
Packaging regulations and customer requirements now frequently demand specialist attention, both in the UK and abroad.
If you are in the food or pharmaceutical business your customers will be looking very closely at the health and safety of the packaging you use. Pallets may carry diseases including E Coli. This leads to demands for treated hygienic plastic pallets and boxes, or at least heat treated wooden ones. And when you begin to export, the challenges are greater still.
International Packaging Regulations
Wooden packaging
Wooden pallets (also packing crates, drums etc.) dominate the worldwide market. Growing trees sustainably for pallet making is environmentally responsible. Wooden pallets get 8 trips on average before being repaired or broken up. The broken ones can form part of new pallets or be recycled into chipboard, biomass or garden mulch.
The International Plant Protection Committee (IPPC) has a regulation about the phytosanitary standard for wood packaging, known as ISPM15. The purpose of this is to restrict the spread of wood-borne pests such as Pine Wood Nematode and Asian Longhorn Beetle. These can be found in untreated packaging.
Anyone exporting to countries outside the EU should abide by ISPM15 and insist that their pallets and creates carry its unique stamp: although not all countries have adopted the standard, it is an increasing trend and the costs of a Customs rejection or local treatment of the packaging can be very severe.
Treatment can take the form of Heat Treatment (coded HT) or Fumigation by methyl bromide (MB): however MB has been banned in the EU since March 2010 so in practice, heat treatment is the method to choose.
However, life is rarely that simple and you should get professional help from your freight forwarders on what local regulations are at any given time. For example, Australia has brought in a requirement to treat a particular pest that means that UK exporters are recommended to get their pallets etc. kiln-dried to <20% moisture in addition to heat treatment, and add the KD code. And in Portugal, there is a nematode risk so exporters and importers are recommended to adopt ISPM15 for this country.
The advice to users of pallets is to use a Timber Packaging & Pallet Confederation (TIMCON) member, registered with the Forestry Commission.
Exempt from the regulation are manufactured wood by-products such as fibreboard (plywood), orientated strand board (OSB) and chipboard. Plastic and metal pallets are also exempt.
The heavier 4-way entry pallets are longer-lasting than simple 2-way ones: 4-way pallets are often supplied by rental/return networks such as Chep, whose blue-painted pallets may be seen all around Europe. They maintain the quality of recycled pallets and are often specified by end users.
Plastic packaging
These pallets and boxes are long-lasting, stackable and can easily be made hygienic. Some are made from recycled PET drinks bottles. There are heavy-duty versions for racking use, and lightweight ones that are ideal for airfreight. APME administers a European plastic pallet re-use scheme.
The disadvantage is the cost, up to 10 times the price of wooden pallets. They are also fire hazards, being easily to catch light and emitting dangerous toxins.
Metal packaging
This comprises pallets for specialist uses, including the military, automotive and tyre industries. They represent less than 1% of the market.
Standard steel pallets are strong but expensive and heavy, and they rust over time. Aluminium ones are also strong but lighter, and are good for airfreight. Stainless steel pallets are used for clean room applications. Both are 2 to 3 times the price of regular steel.
Pallet sizes
There is no universal standard, much to the annoyance of freight forwarders and shippers, but there are 6 recognised ISO sizes:
1016 x 1219 mm (40” x 48”) North America
1000 x 1200 mm Europe, Asia (in practice very similar to the North American one)
1165 x 1165 mm Australia (it fits their trains)
1067 x 1067 mm (42” x 42”) Worldwide
1100 x 1100 mm (43” x 43”) Asia
800 x 1200 mm Europe (the best-known ‘Europallet’ size, designed to go through a standard door)
Packaging Guidelines
The other recognised size in North America is the widely-used American Grocery Manufacturers’ Association (GMA) 50” x 48”partial 4-way pallet.
Professional assistance
Your freight forwarder may well be able to help you with arranging various aspects of packaging, which can include the selection of pallet type and size, palletising goods, creating and filling crates, ensuring compliance with export regulations and expert packaging (a specialist job in itself but one which pays back in terms of avoiding damage en route and rejections at the port of receipt).
Don’t be tempted to skimp on this very important function or your business may suffer.