Ecommerce Shipping: The crucial role played by packaging

But before highlighting the crucial role that packaging plays in ecommerce shipping, it is important to also emphasise just how important a successful delivery strategy is to any ecommerce business.

Firstly, a recent study by Ipsos has indicated that around 90% of those surveyed expected to receive online orders within a week.

This may seem blindingly obvious however, with a large percentage of those surveyed likely to expect their orders much quicker than this (and particularly those using Amazon Prime – promising next day delivery and even same day on many items).

The study does also go on to indicate that over half would expect the estimated delivery to be accurate to within 3 hours, and that 40% would be willing to pay extra for delivery at the time that suits them most.

Arguably more significant is that in a number of other studies, around 40% of online shoppers would be deterred from making a purchase if the delivery times were deemed too slow.

Going back to the study by Ipsos, the main take-away is that 57% of consumers believe that current delivery options offered by online retailers are not satisfactory.

So whilst this may be all well and good, it can of course be argued that the highlighted problems and dissatisfaction can be attributed to courier services (and the strain admittedly being placed on them).

And this is true. Selecting and paying for a reliable shipping provider is hugely critical to ecommerce success.

But what is often overlooked is that the ecommerce packaging you use can also place a strain on your fulfilment and delivery times. Getting this element of your operations right can give you a strong foundation for achieving customer satisfaction through prompt, efficient delivery.

Get it wrong, and may be near impossible to recover the situation.

Similarly to the above, the actual time it takes to pack your orders can affect your ability to offer satisfactory fulfilment times.

Whilst the box assembly is arguably a part of this, adding the required secondary packaging (e.g. void fill), labels, decorative elements, inserts and fliers, the products themselves and then sealing / labelling can take a surprisingly long time.

But how can this be minimised through packaging?

Firstly, eliminating or at least minimising void fill by using custom sized ecommerce boxes can help, as can printing certain information directly onto the box (for example returns and customer help info) can prevent the need for the additional process of adding additional paperwork etc.

Whilst these may seem like small gains individually, they can soon add up over time.

Talking of void fill, it can have other impacts on your ecommerce shipping besides slowing down packing times.

If you are using too much void fill it indicates that you may be using packaging which is too large. This will almost certainly be costing you money.

Secondly, there is the cost of the void fill itself, and this coupled with the increased shipping costs can make it tempting to pass these costs onto your customers (or alternatively erodes your profit margin).

This can be a mistake however, as offering free shipping has been shown to increase average order values by as much as 30%.

But either way, void fill can be an unnecessary cost.

Finally, void fill is additional packaging for your customers to dispose of, which can prove annoying and also does nothing for your environmental credentials.

One way to avoid excessive void fill is to make use of custom ecommerce packaging.

Not only does this reduce the cost incurred through having to source secondary packaging, but it is also likely to reduce your overall shipping costs too. This is because of the shift to volumetric shipping charges, which mean you can effectively be paying extra to ship fresh air (or void fill).

Any savings that you make with regards to custom sized packaging can be used to offer faster delivery times to your customers.

A note of caution however is that if your orders are extremely varied in size, it can prove prohibitive to have a vast array of custom sized boxes, as this then does not allow you take advantage of economies of scale whilst sourcing your ecommerce boxes.

Going back to the point raised about custom packaging, it is crucial to get your inventory of packaging products just right.

If your inventory is too large it can mean that not only are not paying the best prices for your cartons (as you are buying smaller volumes of a larger range), but that it is most likely slowing down your fulfilment too.

It will be harder to find the correct box, harder to monitor stock levels and generally prove more difficult to manage.

The opposite extreme however – an inventory with too few sizes, will see you incurring additional shipping costs and using too much void fill through nearly always sending boxes that are too big.

As with most things, finding a suitable balance for your business is critical.

Saying that, it is important to remember that the primary function of your packaging is to allow for successful shipping of your online orders.

Whilst speed is arguably one the criteria that defines success, protection in transit is equally important.

It is no use to get damaged items delivered extremely quickly, as they will simply be returned.

This would mean your customers getting a replacement even later than if the first delivery (even if slower) arrived undamaged, but even that is assuming that they ask for a replacement and don’t simply ask for a refund.

Ultimately, this causes additional hassle for both you and your customer, as well as written off stock that becomes unsellable or vastly devalued.

Besides reducing transit damage to help minimise returns caused by broken items, your packaging can help with returns in other ways too.

For this to work however, you have to accept that there will always be a specific level of returns that you need to process. So rather than making this difficult for your customers (and potentially losing future sales as a result), your box can include returns instructions, or can even be used for sending items back.

Many ecommerce businesses find that even their best customers will frequently return items, so it is important to ensure that whole process is handled smoothly and efficiently.

And whilst this may not fall under the strict definition of ecommerce shipping success, the returned item will still need to travel through the same courier and delivery networks as getting your orders out in the first place.

All of this however is only one art of the puzzle.

Besides quick packing times, a good courier that offers a fast service and ecommerce boxes that prevent damage and minimise returns, all aspects of your fulfilment processes must be run smoothly.

This includes everything from how you pick your orders, to the types of picking bins and racking that you use in your warehouse or storage facility.

It is really important to take a holistic view of your picking and packing operation, as problems in one area can hamper success further down the process.

Get it right and you can offer your customers the fast delivery times they are increasingly demanding.

Whilst your ecommerce packaging should undoubtedly be about so much more than just helping to offer quick delivery times (with branding, product protection, ease of use, cost effectiveness and the environment being just five additional considerations), its role in streamlined fulfilment should not be ignored.

And with consumers wanting their orders delivered in ever shorter time-frames, can your business really afford to not focus on the success of your ecommerce shipping?

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