Essential Packaging Supplies Your Shipping Department Must Have

If you want to determine which packaging supplies are needed for your products, you can track the products through the steps which are taken when the product is prepared and sent out for shipping. This evaluation of the end line products can help you identify the protective measures which need to be taken to keep the products safe during shipping. It is worth mentioning that inefficiencies in the shipping department can eat away a bigger chunk of your business budget. If you want to avoid this unnecessary spending, you are going to have to stock useful packaging supplies.

In this article, we are going to talk about the essential packaging supplies that you need in order to improve efficiency of the packaging department while ensuring effective protection of the products.

Basic packaging supplies

The most basic packaging supplies are the ones that provide outermost protection to the items you are shipping. These supplies include corrugated boxes, packing tape, and packing list envelopes. These basic supplies ensure protection to your products from most potential damages but they do not necessarily provide protection from all of the aspects.

Protective packaging supplies

Products which may include fragile item, electronics, and oddly shaped products require more than just the basic protection. For this purpose, you need to consider using protective packaging supplies which may include bubble wrap, edge protectors, stretch wrap, and foam and shrink wrap. Quite often, there are instructions printed on the outer packaging telling the handlers about the type of items packed inside and also about the way these products need to be handled. For instance, the ‘Fragile’ label on the outer packaging tells the handlers that there may be glassware or other breakable items in the box; and so the box needs to be handled carefully. If the product needs to be sent to the fulfilling company before it is shipped, the protective packaging supplies will also include strapping materials because fulfillment companies often have to deal with the shipping of pallets.

Shipping supplies and inventory management

To ensure better profitability of the business, it is very important to ensure better inventory management. The items that you are going to need in this regard mainly include packing skips, envelopes, tracking numbers, and pressure sensitive inventory control labels. These items come in handy when you have to process returns and replacements.

Basic mailroom packaging supplies

The mailrooms have to deal with the postage. So the items that you are going to need in order to keep the mailroom fully equipped include envelopes, mailers, postage machine or loose postage, postage scale, adhesives, tape, stapler, and rubber bands.