Holiday Prep for Handmade Business, Part 1: Shipping Materials

The Holidays are rapidly approaching, and a handmade business needs to be prepared. Customers' orders should be shipped promptly. Having suitable packaging materials ready to go will accelerate the process.  

The jewelry I send is first placed into a gift box. This keeps pieces secure during mailing, and the item arrives ready to be given as a present - no additional wrapping required.  I consider the dimensions of my handmade goods when deciding which size gift box will work best.  A few more things to contemplate:  Is there a particular item that is popular with buyers? Will I be selling custom orders? If so, I may need more of one specific size box than others. Estimate and plan for this.  Rio Grande has a nice selection of jewelry packaging. Their gift boxes are available in a number of sizes or can be purchased in variety packs.

Once gift boxes are resolved, it is time to choose shipping materials.  I do a fair amount of online shopping.  This occasionally leaves me with bubble wrap and kraft wrap.  If clean and like new, the wrap can be reused for my own shipping purposes. I simply store it away until needed.

A box full of boxes

 Boxes for mailing my jewelry must be small, yet big enough to accommodate the aforementioned gift boxes.  I recently ordered from  Uline.  Their shipping boxes come in every shape imaginable. I am a visual person, so I drew the length and width of the shipping box that I was considering buying onto a piece of paper.  Then I  placed a gift box inside the lines to evaluate the fit. Keep a ruler handy to check the height.  Most boxes are sold in bundles, which allows Uline to have competitive pricing. However, they only send orders via UPS, so plan for this extra expense.

How do you streamline holiday shipping?