Why Packaging Costs Matter: Ways to Reduce Material Expenses

Every company that ships products to its customers knows the importance of high-quality packaging. Your packaging does more than just house goods — it also provides sales and marketing benefits, such as improving brand association, attracting consumer interest and increasing product value. With these characteristics in mind, it’s clear that packaging plays a valuable role in the manufacturing industry.

Discover how you can resolve challenges in packaging costs to reduce overall expenses. We help you optimize packaging to ensure the highest quality while keeping costs as low as possible. 

Common Challenges in Packaging Costs

How much does it cost to package a product? There are several elements that contribute to your overall packaging costs, from the type and quantity of materials to design complexity. Without proper implementation of price strategies, businesses may face problems in packaging costs, such as: 

  • Inefficient storage and material usage: Poor use of warehouse space and material storage can result in rising operational expenses, such as heating and lighting costs. 
  • High shipping costs due to dimensional weight: Packages that take up a lot of space can increase shipping costs, even if your products are small and lightweight.
  • Lack of automation in packaging processes: Manual packaging can slow down processes and require higher labor costs. 
  • Failure to optimize packaging design for durability and sustainability: Subpar packaging design can result in material waste and product damage.

Strategies to Reduce Packaging Costs

Here are several ideas for cost reduction in manufacturing warehouses, minimizing packaging expenses while maintaining brand and product integrity.

1. Optimize Material Storage and Warehouse Layout

As your business grows, so does the need to improve material storage and warehouse layout to boost operational speed and efficiency and save money. It’s a good rule to categorize similar materials together to streamline order fulfillment and reduce administrative workloads. Try assessing your current product packaging inventory, group like items and sort infrequently used materials into one area. 

Also, avoid ordering packaging materials in bulk. Though bulk purchasing is generally a better deal, it often leads to higher storage costs, which may outweigh your initial cost savings.

2. Embrace Automation for Faster and More Precise Packaging

Manual packaging tasks can take up hours of valuable company time. For example, the time an employee takes to construct corrugated cardboard, insert stuffing materials and tape boxes could easily be used elsewhere. That’s why it’s wise to cut down time spent packaging products by hand by introducing automation technologies into your warehouse.

Investing in packaging automation can help: 

  • Minimize waste: Automated machines use the exact amount of materials needed, eliminating waste from manual packaging.
  • Increase output: Because automation significantly speeds up the packaging process, your company can see higher profits.
  • Enhance brand reputation: Automated machinery performs packaging processes more precisely than humans can, producing packaging that looks clean, polished and professional.
  • Reduce workplace injuries: Cutting down on manual labor in your facility reduces the risk of on-the-job accidents.

3. Use Smaller, Custom-Sized Boxes to Reduce Dimensional Weight Costs

dimensional space vs weight

Many companies don’t realize the impact that dimensional weight has on their shipping costs. Dimensional weight is how much space your packaging takes up rather than how heavy it is. That means a package’s dimensional pricing can boost a company’s shipping costs, even if products are relatively light and compact.

For example, if you’re shipping bags of cotton balls in large, wide boxes that take up too much space, the dimensional weight of the packaging will hike up your shipping costs despite the fact that the cotton balls weigh practically nothing.

If you spend too much on shipping due to box sizes, consider these low-cost packaging alternatives:

  • Use padded envelopes: Padded envelopes are ideal for smaller products, generating significant space savings compared to boxes.
  • Ship multiple products in one box: When you fit as many goods as possible into a single box, you can maximize packing space and ship more products at once.
  • Use different box sizes: You can pick and choose your box dimensions depending on shipment sizes, minimizing dimensional pricing rates.
  • Automate packaging solutions: These solutions are designed to select the ideal box size for each product you ship.

4. Focus on Durable Packaging to Minimize Returns and Product Damage

Though a damaged product here and there may not seem like a significant loss, product returns can cost businesses thousands of dollars a year. Why? Because when a customer returns a damaged product, the company loses more than just the money spent manufacturing the product itself. They also incur expenses from packaging, shipping and returning the item. Not to mention, customers who receive damaged items from poor packaging may develop a negative perception of the company and urge other consumers to choose its products.

Packaging optimization helps protect your products during shipping. Improve the durability and resiliency of packaging for impact protection with effective stuffing materials such as: 

  • Bubble wrap
  • Corrugated rolls
  • Air cushions
  • Packing paper
  • Packing peanuts
  • Padded dividers
  • Packaging foam

5. Diversify Packaging Materials for Specific Needs

What many organizations don’t realize is that you don’t have to commit to just one type of product packaging — every packaging model has individualized benefits, so why commit to just one? When you diversify your packaging with a mix of different methods and materials, you can achieve more desirable outcomes for your business. Discover packaging options that would yield a bigger benefit to your company. 

Choose lightweight packing for smaller products with a lower risk of breakage. This packaging material can reduce dimensional pricing expenses. You can also consider impact-resistant packaging for fragile items that need added protection from transit damage.

Industry Trends and Innovations

Stay on top of the competition with innovative technologies and sustainable packaging trends. Implementing effective strategies like Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory allows you to fulfill customer orders as they are needed for production, minimizing packaging costs. You can integrate smart packaging technologies such as IoT-enabled tracking and 3D printing to streamline processes and reduce waste. 

It’s also important to consider your packaging materials and how they affect the environment. Converting to greener packaging tactics can also create a more favorable reputation for your brand. Many customers value companies that prioritize sustainability and choose to support sustainable products. That means implementing environmentally conscious packaging methods can attract more customers to your company and boost revenue.

Sustainable Packaging Trends and Eco-Friendly Materials

Achieve more eco-friendly packaging by:

  • Using biodegradable material alternatives like mushroom packaging.
  • Investing in recycled products made of cardboard or paper.
  • Incorporating collapsible materials into your boxes.

The Role of High-Quality Equipment

Your packaging line should feature cutting-edge machinery designed to produce high-quality products with optimal speed and precision. When your equipment improves your production line, it reduces staffing errors, increases efficiency and raises revenue.

If you don’t have the necessary machinery in your facility to produce the best packaging outcomes, you can partner with a company that does. Sometimes, it’s more cost-effective to outsource your packaging manufacturing to an experienced business that has the advanced tools, knowledge and resources needed to deliver the best results. This way, you won’t have to invest in expensive machinery yourself and spend time learning how to use it and training employees.

Why Companies Trust Us

Bolt Boxes focuses on reducing operational inefficiencies, cutting unnecessary costs and providing sustainable, high-quality solutions that competitors may lack. We stand out by offering a comprehensive and tailored approach to packaging solutions, delivering capabilities such as: 

  • Sustainability focus: We prioritize sustainability, producing 100% recyclable packaging made with 60%-95% post-consumer waste.
  • Expertise and experience: With over 60 years in the packaging industry, trust us to deliver high-quality, innovative solutions that solve operational challenges.
  • In-house production: By producing packaging in-house, we eliminate delays and ensure precision and quality while reducing the need for multiple suppliers.
  • Customization capabilities: Choose us for custom-sized boxes designed for maximum efficiency, minimizing dimensional weight and shipping costs.
  • Speed and reliability: Our industry-leading lead times with a 99% on-time delivery rate ensure businesses get what they need when they need it.

Optimize Packaging Costs With Custom Solutions From Bolt Boxes

At Bolt Boxes, we set ourselves apart from other manufacturers with unbeatable lead times, top-of-the-line printing capabilities and next-level design expertise. Contact us today to get started with your low-cost packaging.

Optimize packaging costs with bolt boxes