4 Tips To Save On Product Packaging

Your product packaging is what sets the first impression on your potential customers. In this day and age when the competition is stiff, you’ll want that first impression to be good. In marketing, it’s a well-known thought that your product packaging sells your product for the very first time.

It plays a significant role in getting your products noticed in a sea of others on the shelf. The item itself is what sells your products the second time around.

So, when you’re in the wholesale or retail business of selling products, there’s one thing identified as a classic constant: product packaging. You’ll always need this, so that expense is an add-on to your product’s price.

While that bill is footed by the paying customers, if your products are too expensive, you’re going to lose potential customers. You’ll need to be able to apply certain tactics to save on product packaging.

In this article, you’ll come across four of those tips:

1. Avoid Over-Packaging

Take a good look at your products today. Especially for e-commerce businesses, are you certain you aren’t over-packaging your products? Over-packaging happens when you’re using too much packaging than what your products actually need.

Do you need to have all that tissue paper or Japanese paper? How thick does your bubble wrap have to be? Are you using any excessive and extra plastic?

If you think you may be over-packaging, perhaps it’s time for you to re-think and change how you’re packaging your products, starting with choosing the right shipping boxes, for instance. Apart from the fact that excessive product packaging is expensive, it can also potentially turn off some of your customers, especially those who are very conscious about their environmental impact.

2. Maintain Your Packaging Machinery

If you’re in the manufacturing industry, your packaging machinery plays just as significant a role as the packaging itself. If your machinery isn’t working properly, it could cost your business more money.

For instance, instead of being programmed only to use this much packaging, a glitch in your machinery may result in more waste with products that are wrongly packaged.

Whether your equipment is as simple as a tape dispenser to one as complex as a conveyor belt, they all have to be in good working condition. To avoid any wasteful errors due to faulty machinery, make it a point to stay on top of your regular machinery maintenance.

3. Reduce The Time It Takes For Packing

For smaller businesses, manual packing of your products may not necessarily be a problem as of now. But, as your business grows and expands, your manual packing may no longer be efficient.

Especially now that the competition is getting tighter, you need to step up with your packing system. This means reducing the time it takes for packing through automation.

While it’s an added expense to invest in packing machinery, that expense will eventually translate to profits. When time spent packing your products is drastically reduced, you’ll be able to finish more within any given time. This also means you’ll be able to sell more. Those situations are the earmarks of an efficient production system.

For instance, some of the areas in packaging wherein your employees may be too engulfed in time-consuming tasks include:

• Taping and securing the boxes;
• Constructing and forming corrugated cardboard and boxes;
• Inserting stuffing materials or dividers.

4. Don’t Buy In Bulk If You Don’t Have To

This fourth tip may send some eyebrows raising. It’s true that buying in bulk from suppliers can often save you costs in the long run. But, that’s only if you absolutely need to buy in bulk. If you don’t have to, then you shouldn’t have to be compelled to think that such is necessary.

For instance, say the supplier offers a significant discount if you order 1,000 units of a specific packaging type you’ll use for your business. But, at the moment, you’re only a small business still in the startup phase.

So, ordering 1,000 units may not be the most practical choice. If, one day in the near future you decide to give your brand a facelift and change your packaging, what are you going to do with the remaining 500 units of packaging you weren’t able to use?

You can like this thought of extreme couponing. Yes, you can save more than half the price if you buy 20 jars of the same jam. But, do you really need to have that many without making it past the expiration date?

Buying in bulk will save you money. But, always set a limit to how much that bulk order will be.

Conclusion

All that you’ve read through above should make you better understand how there’s a lot that goes into getting the product packaging right. A good product packaging isn’t just one that sells.

But, it’s also a cost-effective one. This means striking the perfect balance between what’s a good product packaging that sells and one that fits the budget.

Businesses are always on the hunt for cost-cutting measures and your product packaging is certainly one of those areas where you can significantly cut down on your expenses. The tips above can help you achieve that goal.