How to Consolidate Packaging for Ecommerce

Basically, packaging consolidation is all about sending as many products as possible in the least number of parcels. This approach works well from both ends of the supply chain, whether you’re a supplier or a customer.

Table of Contents

• Consolidating as a customer / consumer
• Consolidating as an E-commerce Supplier
  • Use Packaging that's Flexible
  • Packaging with Integrated Retention

Consolidating as a customer / consumer

If you’re a customer, where at all possible, you’ll only want to pay for shipping once. This is because you’ll be charged the greatest amount for the first kg of weight sent. Adding more items to your parcel, increases the weight, but the cost of postage doesn’t rise exponentially: additional weight being calculated at a far lower rate.

Order all your items separately and you will, of course, find yourself paying that initial higher cost repeatedly. Where possible, it always pays to send multiple items in one shipment.

Consolidating as an E-commerce Supplier

If you’re a supplier, you’ll want to ensure that your customer is able to have their items shipped together. More packages to deliver isn’t a win-win situation for anyone whatever you charge for postage and this includes the shipping companies themselves. It means increased logistics, more fuel, more legwork and more damage to the environment for everyone involved.

Use Packaging that's Flexible

Suppliers, therefore, require packaging that is flexible so they can send multiple and varied items in one box. Here at The Packaging Club, our solution to this is FlyPak, an innovative box specifically designed with flexible internal structural support to enable products of different sizes and awkward shapes to be sent together safely, securely and without the need for void fill (more on that cost saving later).

Packaging with Integrated Retention

FlyPak is a packaging solution we have developed following years of experience in the e-commerce industry; we have seen and experienced first-hand the challenges suppliers face and our aim was to get rid of various niggling issues that mean inconvenience and hassle. We believe we’ve achieved that with FlyPak.

Check out our marvellous little ecommerce box here and before you jump to the conclusion that something so good must come at a higher price, don’t: FlyPak is actually cheaper than standard crash lock boxes and what’s more, the fact that the FlyPak can be stored flat, doesn’t require void fill and is able to be printed single-sided means the savings stack up but the expenses don’t.

Of course, we feel that FlyPak is a brilliant solution, but it isn’t the only option. You could and should consider packaging consolidation by other means. At the end of the day, the most important thing isn’t the packaging, it’s a packaging’s suitability for your product.

Book wraps, for example, are adept at holding multiple products. They’re perfect for printed material be that books or magazines and they’re also great for DVDs, CDs, video games, picture frames, phone cases… the list goes on. Simple and strong, they come with a variable height option and built-in retention: numerous and varied products in one wrap prove no issue whatsoever. Flexible to pack but incredibly robust in transit, the customer will still only need a few seconds to get inside.

Click on the links to check out both FlyPak and our Book Wrap Mailers and Envelopes. To see all our packaging options visit our packaging shop today.