As a consumer, there’s nothing more frustrating than for one of your packages to show up in poor condition. As a business owner, it’s important to consider how you wrap and ship packages, especially if they’re fragile items. In the United States, the shipping industry is only growing so this consideration applies to many of us.
If you want to stand out in a competitive landscape (and compete against giants like Wal-Mart and Amazon) you need to ensure that your shipping procedures are carefully-tailored to ensure professionalism from the moment an order is placed to the second it arrives.
Table of Contents
1. Choose the right supplies for the right products.
Are you shipping smaller goods that need to be individually packaged for delivery? Consider shrink wrap for the base of your wrapping process. Do you need to use a sealer on a pallet of goods that are being sent to distribution channels? Consider vacuum packaging that can speed up the process in your shipping warehouse. And if you’re mass-producing goods, it’s probably time to invest in a shrink wrap machine that comes with a conveyor system and shrink tunnel so you can carefully wrap fragile goods without sacrificing productivity.
With such a large selection of packaging supplies available, it’s often difficult to choose which ones can have the strongest impact on your bottom line. However, you also need to look for a balance of cost against value. If you get the cheapest tubing or stretch film you can find, it’s likely that your customer service department will be inundated with calls from irate buyers who received broken goods. At the end of the day, it’s key to start with your shrink wrap supplies as those are the biggest time-savers.
2. Always add layers.
Simply adding some shrink wrap and tossing a product into one of many poly bags won’t save it from the rigors of shipping. While shrink bags are incredibly popular, they can’t be your only line of defense for fragile products. Shrink wrap packaging is a multi-step process. While you may start with the shrink wrap, you need to add in other layers to ensure there’s more protection. If you don’t have the space or accommodation for a shrink wrap machine, conveyor, or pallet sealer, you may want to reach out to third-party assistance to ensure that all your products are treated well.
Businesses like US Packaging & Wrapping (U.S. Packaging and Wrapping LLC) can handle all of your packaging supply needs, and their customer service is second to none. Whether you need a bar sealer or some shrink film, they can help. Plus, partnering with a packing supply company is a great way to learn more about smart layering during the packaging process.
3. Find the right distributors.
You can use the highest quality shrink film on the planet. You can put a pallet through your shrink wrap machine as many times as you want. However, if you don’t have the right distributor who will ship your goods with care, you could still wind up with a lot of damaged goods on your hands. This can become incredibly problematic. Not only could you find that you’ve got sunken expenses in a less-than-savory distributor but it can also impact your business’s reputation for the long term.
If you have other colleagues who ship pallets of fragile goods, it’s a good idea to ask for referrals. By finding the right distribution partner, you’re making it that much more likely that even the most fragile of products will make it to their final destination without much of a hassle.
