If you are an online seller, don’t let the cost of packing materials eat into your profit margin. Instead of buying shipping supplies, optimize your earnings by taking advantage of the boxes, containers, fillers, labels and other materials that are available for free in various sources. Here are some ways to get your supplies without spending a dime.
Visit your local post office and ask for free Priority Mail shipping supplies. Better yet, go to the USPS website and order boxes and labels for free. They even deliver the supplies right at your doorstep! Use the free supplies when shipping items via Priority Mail.
Talk to your neighborhood grocery store manager and ask when they get deliveries in and if you can get some boxes. These stores just discard boxes after placing their contents on the shelves so they usually give them out for free to those who shows interest. Make sure you are there when the store unload their deliveries so you can get the boxes before they are sent elsewhere for recycling.
A great source of free bubble wrap, packing peanuts and other filling materials are stores selling breakable items such as china, stemware and crystals. Their merchandise usually come packaged with bubble wrap and peanuts which are rendered useless as the sold items are wrapped in tissue paper and put in a bag. You can ask for the bubble wrap and peanuts.
Visit the dumspter. Don’t raise eyebrows yet. Dumpster bins behind malls and plazas are great sources of good cardboard boxes. It may take some great timing to get boxes in pristine condition but it’s worth a try specially if you need big boxes.
Use your social media accounts to ask friends and family from nearby neighborhoods to save the boxes, bubble wrap and peanuts when they get packages in the mail.
Use your imagination and look for items around your home that you can useas shipping supplies. For example, egg cartons can be used to line cardboard boxes when packing a breakable item. Shred old calendars, mazines and spam mails and use them as alternative box fillers.