Tips for Improving Your Holiday Shipping and Packaging Materials

As the holiday season approaches, you may need to ship and package items to send to your loved ones. While this is often a daunting task, there are a variety of tips that you can follow to improve the process.

Properly Display Address Labels

It is important that when you are shipping items over the holiday season that your address labels are filled out and placed properly. Make sure addresses only appear on one side of your package and don’t contain additional punctuation. It is also best if your addresses are written parallel to your package’s longest edge.

Use Two Boxes for Fragile Items

In order to avoid potential damages this holiday season, box the most breakable items twice. Place them into a regular sized box, and then use resilient packaging materials to secure that box into a larger box.

Protect Shipping Materials in Wet Weather

If you need to ship an item during wet weather, be sure to protect the shipping materials. Place clear packaging tape over the shipping address and your return address. Be sure to avoid covering up any barcodes that may need to be scanned during transport.

Reinforce Packaging

Use reinforced, paper, brown, or clear packing tape in order to tape the seams and openings of boxes. Never use twine, string, cord, or basic tape in order to reinforce your boxes for shipping.

Ship Perishables Monday-Wednesday

This will ensure that they don’t get stuck in very cold or hot temperatures for several days over the weekend, which could happen if shipping is done on Thursday or Friday. It is also important to send them for next-day delivery.

Get Insurance

If you will be shipping valuable items, investing in low-cost insurance for your packages is a good idea. You may also want to consider photographing your items and keeping receipts as proof of your shipment.

Monitor the Weight of Your Packages

By simply reducing the weight of your packages by a couple of ounces, you can save a significant amount of money on your shipping costs. Likewise, adding even a small item to your package can have you paying a higher rate, as your item may jump up to a heavier weight class.

Use an Extra Address Label

It is recommended that you include an extra shipping label inside of your packages. In the event that the original becomes unreadable or detaches from your package, this will help your shipping provider to get the package to its original destination or back to you.

[12/23/2013]