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Get the Package There in Great Shape
Spending countless hours picking out the perfect gift or working hard at your business, don’t waste all that time and effort then drop the ball when you ship your item. Once your package is out of sight, you are trusting the shipping company to get your package to its destination in one piece, not to mention on time.
There are some things you can do to make sure the package arrives the same way it left you. Do not use old shipping boxes and shipping labels. Boxes used more than once will start to lose rigidity because of exposure to the elements and constant shuffling in and out of the back of shipping trucks. Old labels just look cheap, so get rid of them. You can get free boxes and shipping supplies from most of the major shippers and postal service. You can pick up the supplies at each office or order what you need online.
You can tape the box to look like a jumbled mess or it can look clean and professional. Use the H-method when you tape all of your boxes. The H-method simply means to tape all the seams on the box. If you are shipping any irregular size, be sure to tape all along any seam you see.
If you aim to make your packaging look as professional as possible, do not use duct tape or cellophane. All the major carriers caution against this type of taping, so it is best to heed this advice. Use reinforced paper tape or plastic, 2” wide will give the best looking results.
Suppose you want to ship fragile and very expensive items, use the box in a box method. The idea here is to firmly secure the item within a smaller box using crushed newspaper or packing popcorn. The next step is to place the box inside of a larger box at least six inches larger on all sides. Use the same packing material as used in the smaller box and securely tape all sides. Do not forget to pack down everything as securely as possible.
A word of caution here: using crumpled up newspaper as your packing material, be careful of ink bleed into what you are shipping.
Shipping food for the holidays to your relatives, there are additional steps to take to secure the delivery. Any hard baked goods will ship a lot better than a soft moist frosted cake. If possible ship cookies and brittle in tins, then ship securely in a packed box. Use a cake tin when shipping cakes or anything moist and fragile. Take a lot of care to wrap the tin securely in a new box to keep it from being jostled around in transit.
Planning for a product or family present to arrive on a specific day, always check the shipping delivery schedules. Don’t assume everything you ship will get to the destination overnight. Check the pick-up schedules; you do not want a perishable cake or cookies to sit in the heat for an extra day. Call the office of your preferred shipper to find when it will leave and arrive.
The holidays can be the most crucial time of the year to plan your shipping.