Buy packaging supplies online: A cost-saving checklist for ecommerce brands
Every eCommerce business will have to buy packaging supplies online, but if you don’t know what you’re getting it can be very easy to fall into the trap of over or under buying, forcing the business owner to deal with either excess expenditure, or a shortage of resources. So how do you know if you’re getting the right number, or kind, or packaging supplies? Fortunately, we have a handy checklist you can use to ensure that you’re getting exactly what you need, to get your customers exactly what they need.
Check what you ship most
Once you’ve been running your business for a while, you should have a pretty good sample size of what your business ships most frequently. Go back through your orders, categorise what you’ve sold by item, then you’ll be able to plan ahead for your shipping supplies needs in the future.
Some good categories to organise your past orders into are product types, allowing you to anticipate single item orders against bundled orders, parcel sizes so you know what size and type of packaging material you need (for example do you get more use out of poly mailers or boxes?), and how easily damaged certain items might be in transit, allowing you to anticipate packaging supplies with protective innards or the purchase of additional protective materials like bubble wrap.
Less packages = more efficiency
You know how when you get an order online and the box is several times bigger than the item itself? There is a reason for that.
After looking at your most common orders, you should have the ability to choose to deal in only certain types of packaging. Acknowledging that all of the orders for the last month could all fit in a medium-sized box means that you can safely order only medium-sized boxes, taking the work out of deciding what packaging to use for what orders. This will streamline your packing process, and translate into faster returns for customers.
Lower supply costs
Lowering costs wherever you can without compromising safety and quality is a key business operation. Looking at your past orders can tell you a lot about what supplies you need, and where you can trim excess costs. Combined with limiting the type of packaging you use with other practices such as buying in bulk, dealing in as large a size of packaging as possible, and using shipping partner deals to mitigate shipping choice and costs, there are loads of areas where you can save money in your packaging operations.
Quality test
Of course, we would never suggest that you should save money by cheating your customers out of a quality experience, and for that reason it’s important that when dealing with your packaging supply dealer you know what you’re getting.
Take the time to examine some samples of the product you’re thinking of using, and look out for qualities such as the strength of a box, the thickness of padding in poly mailers, and the adhesive strength of tape.
Choose reliable suppliers
When you buy anything online, it should be common practice to look at the reviews of that product. It’s exactly the same concept with packaging supplies.
When looking at suppliers or business partners, you have to look at reviews, or talk to other companies that use that supplier, and get an idea of their stock, delivery speeds, and customer support capabilities. Only when you’re running smoothly can your customers have the experience they deserve, and only when you’re working with good partners can your business run smoothly.
Plan stock levels
This is a crucial step in your operation, and stems from checking what you ship most. Making notes of your common orders, and doing regular stock takes to make sure you have what you need means that you can anticipate shortages before they happen, reorder any necessary stock and packaging supplies before they happen, and keep your business running like clockwork.
The packaging is often the first impression that a customer will have of your business, so making sure that you’ve got good quality stock and that you’re well supplied means that you can avoid delays, or being forced into a situation where you have to use sub-par shipping products to have your items delivered.
Run the checklist
Every business lives or dies on the back of its customer loyalty, and customers are loyal to the brands and businesses that reward them for their expenditure and support. Making sure that you have the requisite amount of shipping and packaging material on hand is crucial to ensuring that you fulfill customer expectations, and therefore allow your business to thrive through the continued support of your clientele.
Therefore set a regular time at which to run through this checklist, and you will always be well-stocked and in good standing.