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Long distance sales are no new thing; they are the basis that every empire ever created has been founded upon. They are the bread and butter of international trade, the lifeblood of a commercial system that spans the globe. Entire trading markets are based on the rise and fall of demand in these global trades, without ever actually touching the commodity themselves.
With such intricate logistics and convoluted negotiations going into the creation and maintenance of these trade deals, it can be easy to forget one of the simple building blocks of the whole enterprise – the humble packing boxes. These heavy duty cardboard boxes are what allow us to have postal businesses, the guarantee that our products will reach our customers undamaged and in good working order.
Why Packing Boxes Matter In The Modern Marketplace
While postal services have always been a component to any business, whether it was local, national, or international, there has been recent developments in the internet that have affected the demand for packing boxes. The change is the resurgence of ecommerce.
Ecommerce is nothing new, having existed in one form or another for over 40 years. One of the world’s largest brand names, Amazon, was one of the few online business that survived the “Dot Com” bubble of the 90s, mostly due to it being an ecommerce platform. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength, diversifying into many areas. It’s core income, however, still comes from it’s ecommerce platform, which in turn relies on it’s packing boxes.
Ecommerce platforms have leveled the playing field. Where once online business was solely the domain for the international players, easy to install ecommerce platforms have allowed everyone down to Margaret the Local Muffin Maker to be able to display their wares online.
An ecommerce platform is essentially the online version of a store front; businesses can display their wares in the window, making the window as big or small as possible. This window draws customers in, where they can be converted to bigger sales, and as such, bigger packing boxes. By organising the store in the correct manner, businesses can increase sales with little active input. This has helped the small business person no end, allowing for the rise of niche markets that would previously have struggled to compete.
What Makes Good Packing Boxes
Custom shipping boxes come in many shapes and sizes. Small packing boxes for candles, large packing boxes for printers and PCs, and the huge packing boxes that chase me in my nightmares, shouting “Why don’t I tape up your flaps?!”. There are several qualities that all packing boxes share, however: durability, structural integrity, low cost, and low environmental impact.
Structural integrity matters as the packing boxes are going to be stacked on top of each other for a long duration of time. Durability matters as they will pass through many hands, along many conveyor belts, and endure many different conditions. When looking at boxes for moving products around, a business must ensure that they are going to protect their products from the production line all the way to the client’s doorstep.
Pricing, of course, also matters. This is why buying in bulk is always a good idea; the economy of scale forces the individual price of the box down. This saves money for the company and reduces costs on the consumer’s end, resulting in cheaper product prices, which in turn encourage repeat business. Who knew that large cardboard boxes could have such an impact on brand loyalty?
Last, and arguably most importantly, is the environmental impact. Now more than ever the state of the environment is important to both us and the generations that follow. Since it’s inception, packaging, in this case packing boxes, has been a bane of the green movements. Thanfully, up to 80% of modern packing boxes are made from recycled material, with the rest coming from ethically sourced materials.