The Fundamentals of Package Packing

by Chelsea Camper | Last Updated December 30, 2015

Packing is the last stage in order fulfillment before the package is shipped. It’s an important part of your order fulfillment process that you should look at carefully when designing your fulfillment process. There are some technical and marketing duties of a good package as well as some fundamental basics most businesses can follow.

Duties of a Good Package

Why is good packaging so important? If care isn’t taken in correctly packaging the products it could result in the products being damaged and/or an unhappy customer! Here are the duties of a good package:

Protect and preserve the product
Serve as an easy way to store the product
Keeps the product contained
Allows for easy measurement of product

There are also some marketing advantages of a good packaging job:

Promotes the business
Informs customer about how to reorder or what the package contains
Can help sell more products to the customer
Provides the customer with a positive experience with your company

Not every company has the budget to do an elaborate packaging scheme like Apple, but there are some affordable ways you can market your business with your package.

Print labels with your business information on them to place on the package
Create your own business brochure to place in the package
Insert a “Thank You” card
Customize your shipping label and packing list then place your packing list in the package for the customer

How Can You Pack Like a Pro?

While every business will have unique packing issues they will need to overcome (some need to be completely sterile, some need to be at a certain temperature, etc.) there are a few basic ways you can beef up your packaging strategy.

Environmentally Acceptable

Being environmentally conscious is becoming a bigger desire in businesses. Sending a box with an unacceptable amount of packing material to a customer can make your business look like it’s environmentally unconscious. This can put a bad taste in the customer’s mouth about your company.

Use recycled products whenever you can and try not to use too much packing material. Sometimes less is more, so long as the integrity of the product isn’t put in danger.

Balance Between Automatic & Manual

Automation of picking and packing can be good…to a point. Having a completely automated system with little to no human interaction leaves wide openings for error if just one thing goes wrong.

Find a good balance between automated picking and packing and manual picking and packing. Always make sure there is some kind of human intervention to make sure each package is being sent to the correct customer with the correct items neatly packed inside.

Pick Orders Directly Into Package

Your company may find it helpful to pick orders directly into the package it will be shipped in. Doing this will eliminate the need for extra containers and will allow the product to only be touched once. Whether a one touch is best for sterilization purposes and/or speed of packing depends on the business.

Without having to re-pack the package after picking all of the items into a separate container, your pickers can move quickly onto the next order. This will keep your order fulfillment system running smoothly.

Tape Corners to Prevent Moisture from Getting In

Some products are especially sensitive to moisture. By taping not only the cracks where the flaps fold but the corners and edges as well, you can help prevent moisture from getting into the package.

Adding extra tape on any crack of the box can also help to keep the package contents sterile or at a specific temperature. Adding a little extra tape can help keep your product safe.

What else do you think is a fundamental of packaging products?

Check out our series on Speeding Your Order Fulfillment for more tips on fulfilling your orders!