Price of shipping air — packaging’s invisible cost

marketing floship

In ecommerce. every product needs packaging, whether it’s a box or a bag. Yet, how do you choose the most appropriate packaging for your products?

Any ecommerce business owner will need to think long and hard about how to find the perfect balance between making sure their product arrives undamaged and not overpackaging it — quite the challenge. If businesses were successfully able to optimize packaging, it could save up to £39.4 million annually according to new research.

The latest data from DS Smith has revealed that packaging companies are using unnecessarily oversized boxes to pack items for British consumers, resulting in a 9.241-tonne increase in excess cardboard and 480 million m2 of plastic tape. 

However, excess packaging creates another problem for sustainable business owners. Approximately 85 million m3 of air are contained in these oversized boxes — equivalent to more than 34,000 Olympic swimming pools. Additionally, 5 million unnecessary deliveries have generated 85,000 tonnes of easily avoidable CO2 emissions.

Seemingly, the solution to finding the most optimal packaging is complex. There are several factors to consider such as what material protects the product the most, what material will save money whilst providing protection, and if the packaging will promote your brand’s identity effectively. Due to these factors, there is no definite answer, as each response depends on the needs of your brand. 

Floship’s proprietary automated rules engine within its one-stop logistics platform simplifies these complexities to achieve automated shipping optimization and shipping solutions by enabling you to choose unique, product-specific packaging priorities.

Click here to discover how you can begin optimizing your packaging today.

Copy of Lockup Black

Ready To Upgrade Your Logistic Solution?

Speak to Floship ecommerce logistic consultant about improving your global support chain today

Floship Insights

Read More