With Ebay & e-commerce now more popular than ever and home based web businesses springing up on a daily basis the need for effective packaging is ever more significant. There are a myriad of packaging mediums available for product protection when despatching goods via the postal & courier networks and it is very likely that the product & it's packaging are all the customer will ever see. Many business owners rely heavily on repeat business and referrals and unless your customers' order arrives in nothing less than perfect condition, they are unlikely to return or sing your praises to their family & friends.



Depending on your product or products you have a huge selection of materials to choose from. Get it right and your customers will return. Get it wrong and your products will return! The following list is just a small selection of the types of packaging you need to consider when making the right choice;

Cardboard Boxes, Mailing boxes, Gift & party style boxes, Wine & bottle boxes, Foam lined mailing boxes, Single & double wall stock boxes, Telescopic boxes, Solid board boxes, Envelopes, Postal mailing bags, Mail despatch bags, Polythene bags, Grip seal bags, Carrier bags, Bubble bags, Postal Tubes, Packing List Envelopes, Labels, Bubble wrap & Foam, Loose fil & Void fill, Edge Guards & Protectors, Silica Gel & Dessicant, Foam Sheets & Pads, Instapack quick foam, Korrvu Suspension packs, Korrvu Retension Packs, Packaging & parcel tapes, Printed tapes & labels, Coloured tapes, Specialist tapes, Dispensers & accessories, Glue guns & glue, Kraft Paper Sheets & Rolls, Tissue & Wrapping papers, Stretchfilm, Strapping, Layflat Tubing & Sheeting, Corrugated Paper, Novia Corrugated wrap, Pallets, plywood & timber cases.

This list is by no means exhaustive but represents some of the more common materials available.

The best advice one can consider when choosing suitable packaging materials is to imagine you are the customer receiving the item. Even better would be to despatch your product through your chosen courier service or postal service and see how it arrives. If you are impressed your customer is likely to be also. If you are not then your customer won't be happy either.

Your customer naturally wants value for money. If the packaging you have used looks cheap and scruffy then your customer will give less value to your product. If the product has a lower perceivable value your customer may feel they can get better value and go elsewhere next time. A product which appears to arrive in less than perfect condition is more likely to be returned by the customer. If the packaging is damaged or appears sub standard the customer will imagine that the product is also damaged and is more likely to find fault with it. In this situation If your customer complains or returns your item you at least have the chance to put it right albeit at your expense. If this happens you are lucky. Often however the customer will not complain, they will just go elsewhere never to return which is in itself a disaster. You can easily avoid this scenario in the first place by using the correct packaging materials. It is common for the importance of the correct packaging materials to be overlooked and for many is an after thought. Don't make the same mistake. Before you send anything to your customers, speak to a packaging company for help & advice on choosing the correct packaging materials for your product. Request samples of various materials and properly test them before you go live. This advice will save you a lot of hassle, heart ache and ultimately the possibility of a failed business. Without happy customers you don't have a business.