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Five box alternatives for internet retail fulfilment

Retailers across the UK are experiencing huge surges in demand, fueled by shifts in shopping habits initially created by the pandemic and lockdown restrictions. Demand doesn’t seem to be slowing down, which means the packaging to ship and fulfil orders is in demand too. This means many online retailers are being challenges created by corrugated shortages.

If you’re struggling to get a hold of your usual cardboard boxes, you could consider these five box alternatives to fulfil your orders:

  1. Mailing Bags

One of the main advantages of mailing bags is that they’re flexible, so can often be delivered through letterboxes (providing they’re suitably sized). This can help you avoid the dreaded “sorry we’ve missed you” card that can inconvenience your customers.

Mailing bags are ideally suited to non-fragile items like clothing or soft furnishings and are available in a wide range of sizes if you opt for ones made from plastic. If you prefer something more sustainable and easier to recycle, there are 100% paper mailing bags now available too.

  1. Cushioned Envelopes

If you ship more fragile items that could incur damage you could try cushioned enveloped. Available in a range of linings including bubble wrap or paper fluting, they all offer excellent cushioning to protect your products from knocks and drops in transit.

  1. Solid Board Envelopes

For slimline products like books or video games, solid board postal envelopes might be a good packaging choice. The rigid outer provides good product protection and envelopes are gusseted to expand to a width of 30mm, making them suitable for use with a variety of items.

  1. Postal Wraps

Somewhere between a box and envelope is a postal wrap! Designed to wrap tightly around flat profiled items, they’re great for books, DVDs, jigsaws, and board games.  All our stock postal wraps have a self-seal strip, so you eliminate the need for tape as well!

  1. Postal Tubes

Postal tubes aren’t just for posters! They can be used to ship longer or “odd” shaped items – like gold clubs, cooking utensils and even umbrellas. Postal tubes have plastic end caps to hold goods in place, but if the items you’re shipping are particularly heavy, we recommend using extra tape to secure them.

Ask for more information

If you’d like more information about any of the products in this blog, get in touch with the Network Packaging team by emailing contact@networkpack.co.uk.