Postage and Packaging Help/Tips

scottishgirl87

My mum set up her own business at the beginning of this year. We're going to be launching it online, hopefully in the next month. A small part of the website will be selling products (although not main focus of the website/company at present). Don't expect a massive amount of orders, will most likely be from clients of my mum's already.

Can anyone suggest anywhere to pick up cheap packaging? I've already had a look on eBay, Amazon, etc. which is fine but would just like to weigh up costs to see if there's anywhere who specialises in packaging with better deals. Mostly looking for smallish cardboard boxes and Jiffy bags, I think.

Also in regards to postage, is there anywhere we can sign up to get slightly cheaper postage for a small business or anything else we should be doing in regards to this?

soolin

Ebay is best for packaging usually. I recently bought boxes from this seller:

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/belmontpkg/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

but always compare prices before going on a recommendation because they might not necessarily still be the cheapest. I also buy all my jiffy bags, bubble wrap etc from there

As for postage you need a fair turnover of items guaranteed before you can get any real discounts from Royal Mail.

scottishgirl87

soolin wrote: »

Ebay is best for packaging usually. I recently bought boxes from this seller:

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/belmontpkg/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

but always compare prices before going on a recommendation because they might not necessarily still be the cheapest. I also buy all my jiffy bags, bubble wrap etc from there

As for postage you need a fair turnover of items guaranteed before you can get any real discounts from Royal Mail.

Thanks, I'll take a look! Yeah I didn't think there'd be anything from Royal Mail but thought it was worth asking.

martinthebandit

Depends how much you want,and how much you can store, but these used to be pretty good. Its been a while since I used them though.

http://www.macfarlanepackaging.com/?utm_source=MSN&utm_medium=cpc

Best prices are to be had if you can open a trade account though.

QueenieB

Viking do 3 for 2 offers on mail lite bags every now and then, otherwise I've always used ebay.
To qualify for a RM account and discount (from memory I save about 40%) you need to be spending more than £100 per week.

Premier_2

If you want cheap Jiffy bags, then poundland is a good option ... although they changed away from Jiffy to a different supplier about a year ago, but same type of thing

martindow

It's also worth phoning around local packaging companies for prices - you may find a lot of variation but some are good value.

scottishgirl87

Thanks all!

paulwf

You can get cashback through Quidco with Viking and once you've placed an order they quite often send money off vouchers. Not sure how competitive they are on packaging these days but they used to be good due to free delivery...for office supplies I use them and Poundland mostly.

Savvy_Sue

If you have a CostCo card, they sell small and large 1st class stamps and small 2nd class stamps at discount, also watch out for Superdrug doing the same at intervals.

If your postage is more than 'large' letters, you can still add small denomination stamps to make the price right.