Packaging for ecommerce
Packaging material for e-commerce
In order to be able to deliver the orders from your webshop, you need packaging material. Think of the shipping box, but also of filling material to prevent the product from sliding in the box, of the adhesive tape to seal the box or even of foil to seal a pallet that you give to the parcel service.
Packaging material seems quite simple at first glance. It must ensure that your products arrive at the customer undamaged. Yet there are many differences. In terms of sturdiness, for example, because what happens to your shipping box if it rains or falls? And besides the primary task of keeping a product undamaged, packaging material can serve a few other tasks. Think of the marketing, sustainability and logistics of your online store.
The packaging material you need for orders is covered by the costs of your warehouse.
What requirements must ecommerce packaging meet?
For ecommerce, the packaging must be affordable and manageable, otherwise you might as well not have received the order. Packaging material has many price differences. The larger suppliers can arrange the best prices, but sometimes you have to purchase huge volumes. Then it is often important that you can purchase larger quantities.
Sometimes it can therefore help to buy together with a fellow online retailer, or to stock up on packaging material for a longer period of time. It also doesn't hurt to compare rates from different providers. In addition, small players sometimes offer more customization. Such as in the field of printing or sustainability.
The actual logistics costs often lie in the shipment itself. For example, a shipping box itself is not that expensive, but it does provide a higher rate with a carrier than, for example, a letterbox package or bubble envelope. They can go through the letterbox and that saves space and money. The disadvantage of these solutions is that you often do not have standard track & trace codes and letterbox mail is also not insured as standard. Multiple shipping packaging can therefore ensure lower logistics costs for the web store!
Within ecommerce, the packaging of orders is extremely important!
Safe packaging for webshops
The primary task of the packaging is that the product arrives safely and undamaged at your customer. So you can think of a sturdy shipping box, which is well sealed and is even suitable for a possible return. In addition, you do not want your product to be damaged when it falls from the box. So good filling material or better yet, a well-sealing packaging, is important.
But what if the box is stolen? There is even packaging material that contains special radio signals. Usually this only works at a short distance and a stolen package will therefore not be able to be found via this signal, as is possible with cars, for example. But it can be seen until when the signals have been picked up. Did it end up on the delivery man's bus, but never delivered? Then the delivery person may have delivered the box incorrectly or overlooked it!
Packaging helps webshop with marketing
An online store that uses colorless packaging therefore does not score points with the consumer, with the result that more and more companies are studying the possibilities of shipping packaging. When you sell something in your online store, the shipping box is the first thing your customer gets from the delivery person. The box must of course be sturdy and clean so that you immediately make a good impression. But wouldn't that first impression be even better if the packaging already looks like a gift in itself?
Web stores such as Zalando, Coolblue or Bol.com have therefore had the shipping box made entirely in their own house style. Not only is the outside of the packaging taken care of, the possibilities of the inside are also used.
For example, Bijenkorf has chosen to provide both the inside and the outside of the box with the characteristic yellow hue. ICI Paris also uses a chic interior. Although this player deliberately keeps the outside of the box neutral to prevent theft.
The inside of the packaging also offers marketing opportunities! Although the shipping box gives the first impression, when you open the package you want that to feel like a present. So also what is in the box, such as filling material, folders or even the tape with which you seal the box, should also be considered from a marketing point of view!
Durability: biodegradable material and no more than necessary
Not only uninspired packaging can count on little sympathy from the customer, packaging that is too large and excessive use of filling material also cause the necessary irritation. Everyone agrees that sustainability is important.
This of course makes a difference for the environment, but also for the efficiency of your webshop itself. Just think of the space it takes up in your warehouse, in the mailbox of the parcel deliverer and the shipping costs that will undoubtedly increase if you use unnecessarily large packaging, or simply the purchase costs of unnecessarily large material. Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers and the government and industry organizations are also looking at this.
Source: ecommercenews.nl