5 Ways to Protect Your Products While Shipping

The USPS can do a number on your carefully-selected packages. Shreds of paper, torn packaging, and half-opened boxes are enough to frustrate anyone. When your customers receive damaged products, it reflects poorly on your whole company and reduces their confidence overall. One of the best ways to protect your fragile products is by utilizing protective packaging. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the different types and designs of protective packaging, as well as the different uses.

1. Start With Corrugated Outer Box

A lot of products these days ship with cheap mailer envelopes. Even with bubble wrap, these envelopes don’t provide enough structure to protect packages from dings, scrapes, and scratches while in transit. A corrugated box will provide resilience and durability to protect whatever you are shipping, especially when paired with additional protective materials. The primary purpose of packaging material should always be to protect the content inside, so make sure you set your package up for strength and protection.

2. Use the Correct Package Size

Items that fit tightly will definitely take less damage in transit. Your package company should have multiple options for package dimensions so that you can get fairly close to the actual size of your items. The next steps will make that fit even better.

3. Add Filler

There are several options for internal cushioning in your packages. Filler materials should serve two purposes. They should help prevent your items from shifting around inside the container they are shipping in, as these shifts can not only damage the item inside, but they increase the likelihood of the box getting damaged at the corners or at the tape.

A traditional filler option is styrofoam packing peanuts, but there are better options. Styrofoam has a high environmental impact, and it makes your brand seem a little lower class, while also sending the message that your company doesn’t care about the environment. Some great substitutes are molded fiberboard inserts or corrugated corner wedges (depending on the shape of your products). These products can be recycled in most communities along with the box after the item is unpacked.

4. Add Cushioning

The other purpose of filler material is to provide cushioning. The corrugated box has some degree of softness, at least when compared to concrete, but its primary purpose is structural integrity. Cushioning materials will help protect your items from jostle damage while items are being sorted at warehouse facilities, tossed around on trucks, or dropped on doorsteps. Historically, this would be bubble wrap, but the lower impact version is now made with  shredded paperboard filler. This can be made from scraps from the production process of corrugated board, or purpose-made from recycled materials.

5. Seal it Tight

Use strong tape intended for packages to seal your boxes shut. It doesn’t matter how well you package the materials in the box if the bottom falls out or the top comes open and spills your packing material. Another way you can help your packages to stay sealed is by using custom packaging that has closing tabs and flaps. These boxes want to stay closed, so the tape will just be there to make sure it stays sealed.

It’s not always easy to keep fragile products safe and sound. Protective packaging is the perfect solution for ensuring they arrive to their destination in one piece and in style. contact a custom corrugated products supplier today to start designing the perfect packaging for your brand that will be as effective at marketing as it is at protecting your items.