So you started your own small business selling products of your own creation and hard work. You open your own website, design it meticulously in the exact way you want it, and put up your products on it for sale. And voila! You get your first customers in a few days who order your product…but there is one slight problem – they live hundreds of kilometers away.
Let’s be honest – shipping isn’t that cheap, especially when you need to send out large quantities of shipments for individual products. While big commercial giants like Amazon and Flipkart can afford countrywide shipments without considerable effort, small businesses can’t. They need to ensure the shipment costs as little as possible without affecting the product inside but many shipping services don’t cut down on shipping charges
According to verpakgigant, the only aspect where you can save money is in shipping supplies. There are various cheap alternatives to standard shipping and packaging materials that can save you tons of money, especially in the long run. If a small business aims to cut down on shipping costs as much as possible, then these supplies can support that perfectly.
But what exactly are the cheapest shipping supplies that can be used by small businesses? In this article, we’ll answer that with our extensive list of various items that cost almost nothing. Read the article till the end so that you don’t end up missing out on crucial details.
1. Tissue paper
You can find tissue paper in almost every household, no matter what. It is one of the most commonplace commodities and is often quoted to be a household essential item, which basically means that you will never find it in shortage. Tissue paper can serve as excellent packing material, especially for covering the items inside the package.
If you roll them up, they can even serve as filler material for your package. The options with tissue paper are seemingly endless and with its availability everywhere, only the sky’s the limit for your options.
2. Foam peanuts
You may be surprised to know that foam peanuts, as useful as they are, are actually quite cheap and inexpensive! You can go to any major delivery service warehouse and they would be more than willing to get rid of the foam peanuts they have. These foam peanuts are one of the most excellent filler materials you can get, especially for large packages where there is a lot of space to move around.
3. Clean newspaper
Just like tissue paper, newspapers too are extremely easy to find anywhere! You can use the newspaper from your old pile, go to a recycling warehouse and pay a minuscule amount to buy bundles of newspapers, or ask your friends and families to give you any old newspaper piles they have.
Arguably, a newspaper is much easier to obtain than tissue paper, especially due to the pandemic when a major tissue paper shortage was created. You can roll the newspaper up, layer it on your items to act as insulation and dust protection, or simply use it to form a thick layer around the item to prevent damage.
4. Reused old packages
You, your friends, and your family must have often ordered from delivery services like Amazon, Newegg, etc. These delivery services ship in huge boxes of their own label to ensure your package travels safely. Well, it is a great idea to use these very boxes as packaging boxes for your items.
Since these boxes are shipped by reputed commercial giants, you can be assured of their quality and strength. Using these boxes for your small business is a much better option than leaving them lying around in a dusty corner of your house. You can even ask your friends and families to contribute whatever boxes they may have. Remember, when you are looking for ways to save money, every bit counts!
5. Used grocery or retail boxes
If you visit your local grocery or retail store, you will notice that these shops order items and commodities in bulk and they are delivered to them in boxes. After the store owners extract the items they need from these boxes, they don’t really have any use for them and usually throw them away or give them away to recycling.
Before that happens, you can swoop in and ask them to give them to you instead. Since they have no inherent use for them, most shop owners would be just happy to get rid of these boxes. Others might charge you a little, but only pay them if you think the amount is reasonably fair. These retail boxes are quite large and spacious and can store tons of items in them that you can use for shipping.
6. Packing tape
The most crucial part of purchasing packing tape is ensuring you are buying from the right spot. Retail and Stationary shops charge you a lot for packing tape, especially considering how low its actual value is. If you want the absolute best deal on packing tape and want to buy lots of them cheaply, then go to a delivery service warehouse and ask around a bit.
These warehouses, more than often, have tons of packing tapes lying around which they are willing to depart with at a small sum. Don’t worry though because the amount you pay them is much, much lower than what you pay at the retail stores around you. This packing tape is often industrial grade and can seal up packages quite easily.
7. Labels and stickers
Along with packing tape, delivery services like UPS also give you various labels and stickers to tag your shipment with. The best thing about these labels is that you can buy them online in bulk and also from any of their centers available throughout the country.
These labels cost zero to nothing and are worth every penny because they help you label your package about its contents. This gives your shipping service a better idea of how they should handle the package.
Conclusion
There are various cheap shipping supplies that you can buy for your small business that will save you hundreds of dollars in shipping costs which you can utilize elsewhere in your business. We hope this article was helpful for you and if it was, please consider following our website for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.
