Ideally, your customer’s experience ordering and receiving your company’s products at their home or office should be seamless. The package should arrive on time and in good condition. Unfortunately, this is not always the case for shipped cartons, sometimes because of poor packaging practices. We created this post as a tool you can use to establish consistent packaging standards to ensure carton safety.
Always Use Strong Outer Packaging
To make sure your products arrive safely and intact, use a new, corrugated cardboard box with quality sturdy packaging paper such as Kraft. New cartons are stronger than those made of recycled materials. When a carton is made of recycled materials, the corrugated fibers get shorter, resulting in a less robust carton. This is especially true when the carton has been recycled repeatedly. Carton strength degradation is particularly acute when recycled cartons are used in extreme climatic conditions.
Never Strap Multiple Boxes Together
It is important to avoid taping or strapping multiple boxes together. If you don't follow this tip, it's possible that unlabeled parcels can become loose and may not be able to be returned to the sender. Either place all items in a larger box or send the items in separate parcels.
Package Size Is an Important Consideration
When a product is put into a carton, it’s important to consider the size of the packaging. If you want to ensure your carton is shipped safely from its beginning address to destination, you should follow some basic principles. First, using boxes that aren’t the correct dimensions will inevitably prove to be a costly mistake. For instance, cartons that are under-filled are more likely to collapse under their weight, while overloaded cartons are likely to burst in transit. It is important to adjust the size and thickness of your cartons to accommodate large or heavy items.
Use Durable Carton Sealing Tape
Carton sealing tape plays a large role in determining your product’s safety when in transit. Your best option may be water-activated tape (WAT). WAT is available in various widths and can be purchased with varying layers of fiberglass reinforcement, depending upon the strength required for the products you are shipping. With WAT, when the adhesive on the tape is activated with water, the tape penetrates the carton material and the tape forms a permanent bond with the carton.
As a result of this “bonding” effect, water-activated tape is extremely difficult to remove from the carton without leaving obvious signs of tampering. This works to deter theft during in transit. However, theft during shipping can occur when cartons are sealed with plastic, pressure sensitive tape (PST). With PST it is easy to penetrate the carton and it is easy to cover up the evidence of entry. With WAT, easy, undetected entry is not possible.
For more information on what packaging tape is right for your business, check out our latest eBook!