The economy is changing and how we shop is vastly changing even in 2021. We all know that this is due to COVID-19 and our government's response to it. There is no doubt that we are now moving to an online-based economy in 2021 and that the little things like where you are getting your packaging supplies from is ending up being the difference between surviving and going bankrupt. This is why I think this topic is so important and may be vital in keeping your companies shipping department thriving and giving you a competitive advantage. But what are the things to look for in your company and what types of products may cause such a huge shift in profitability? There are a lot of things you can do to save money and I want to touch on just a few of those to make sure we are all thriving this year.
Ecommerce flat out means shipping. It is what has to happen to get products to your buyers. Unless you are an online service. This is the area that will most likely make or break your margins and allow you to keep inventory in or get extra marketing out of your current cash. The fact is that now every single item you sell will have to be shipped and if you are not keeping your shipping department moving and operating at peak performance then you are losing out. There are a lot of ways to save depending on your company. My company saved a lot of money on tape and how we applied it.
Amazon was our go-to for purchasing and we didn't really put a ton of thought into it. That was a big mistake and a costly one. Just like most people we used a lot of packing tape. Like a lot of it. We really didn't think much of it but we saw that any returns we received happened to be on boxes that only had a few strips applied. So we talked with the packer who always overpacked and he knew that the weight of the items in those boxes was too much for the tape we were using. My research led me to a lot of places and I called up some big companies for help.
I learned about water-based tape or gum tape. I also found out that billion-dollar business were using it to speed up and cut down on product cost too. The thought of these different tapes never crossed our minds. They were more expensive and after we went through our product weight and shape and the boxes we were using they made a suggestion. They suggested we try this thicker more expensive tape but only to use one strip per side. They swore up and down it would hold and be even stronger than the ton of strips we were using. They did the math and we would save about twenty percent of the cost with the gum tape and the machine that cut it to the direct length of the box would increase speed by over half. After working on it, we found it was worth it. It took one day to work with our team on the new product. Then we enjoyed the savings and the time we didn't have to spend on it. That was an incredible win for us.
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