Beginner's Guide to Ecommerce Packaging

If you are about to ship your first orders, this is the short version of what you need and what it costs.

The four things you need

1. Something to put the product in — a mailer for soft goods, a box for anything rigid or fragile.
2. Something to stop it moving — void fill or protective wrap, if you are using a box.
3. Something to close it — tape for boxes; mailers self-seal.
4. Something to address it — thermal labels and a desktop printer, or printed labels on adhesive sheets to start.

That is genuinely it. Everything else is optimisation or branding.

Sample first, then buy one size properly

We supply in bulk only — 1,000 units is the smallest order on any product — so the sequence matters more here than it would at a retail supplier.

Step one: get the size right on paper. Measure your product at its widest point in each axis, add the clearances set out in the guides above, and check the result against the internal dimensions published on every product page. If you are between two sizes, send us the dimensions and weight and we will tell you which we would use.

Step two: order one size, properly. Order 1,000 of the one size you have specified rather than spreading a first order across three you have not. A single well-chosen size costs less and teaches you more than three guesses.

A workable first bulk order for a new seller:

• 1,000 mailers in the one size you have specified, or 1,000 boxes
• 1,000 metres of void-fill paper if you are using boxes
• 1,000 rolls of tape only if you are already shipping at volume — otherwise wait
• 1,000 thermal labels

Mistakes that are expensive to undo

• Custom printed packaging on day one. High minimums, long lead times, and you do not yet know which size you will settle on.
• Buying several years of stock to get a better price. Ties up cash you need elsewhere, and locks you into a size you may abandon. Buy to the next tier, not to the biggest one.
• Too many sizes. Splits your buying volume and slows the bench down.
• Under-protecting to save a penny. One damaged order costs more than the saving on hundreds of parcels, and loses the customer as well.

A rough starting budget

At a 1,000-unit minimum, a first order of mailers, void fill and labels lands in the low hundreds and covers roughly a thousand parcels. Boxes cost more per unit than mailers, so a box-based first order is higher. Print and custom sizes move it up again, which is why it is worth being deliberate about when you take those steps.

Then what?

After a hundred orders you will know which size you reach for, where products get damaged, and what slows the bench down. That is the point to consolidate onto fewer formats, buy a tier up, and start thinking about print.

Tell us what you sell and roughly how much and we will put a starting list together with prices.