Image by Getty Images via @daylife
For small businesses the costs of gift packaging can add up quickly and can dramatically impact the cost of each item as well as the cost of the day to day operations of the business. Hiring, training, and supervising people to prepare gifts to be sent can cost a business thousands of dollars per year and hundreds of billable hours, not to mention the cost of disappointing customers when their orders are not packaged well or arrive late or damaged. Here are some tips that small businesses can use to streamline their gift packaging and save money without disappointing customers:
Use recycled gift packaging – Environmentally friendly recycled paper packaging will show your customers you care about the environment and save your company money. You can often buy recycled shipping materials for a fraction of the cost of new ones, and you can appeal to an entirely new market by promoting the fact that you are using environmentally friendly or recycled gift packaging to pack and ship your products.
Buy in bulk – Just like buying wholesale products can result in significant discounts you can save a lot of money on gift packaging materials when you buy in bulk. Come up with a signature packaging style and use it on all of your products. That way you can build your brand and buy materials in bulk that can be used on all your products. The best gift packaging looks expensive but isn’t necessarily expensive to purchase.
Hire a fulfillment company – For small businesses the best way to keep gift packaging costs low is to hire a fulfillment company to process and ship orders. Because fulfillment centers work with multiple clients they get significant discounts on packaging supplies and shipping costs due to the volume of business that they do with their suppliers and with shipping companies.
When you hire a fulfillment center to ship your orders you can take advantage of those discounts. For just a low per item fee you can store you gifts in the fulfillment center warehouse and have them packed and shipped by fulfillment center staff. If you want your packages to be shipped with your own personal gift packaging you can always have the fulfillment center use stickers or other packaging materials that contain your business logo, slogan, or other information on them while still using the bulk purchased shipping supplies.
