If you want to start an online cake decoration business, you’ll need to also think about how to ship cake decorations safely
This will involve buying a lot of boxes, packaging materials, and researching postal rates.
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Safe Packaging.
The basic things to remember are that you’re responsible for getting the product to the customer in a decent amount of time and in good condition.
If there’s damage in transit, you need to refund or replace, so it’s to your advantage to pack things securely in the first place.
You also need to have a business that look professional, so reusing shipping boxes to send your items isn’t the best thing.
It saves money, but nobody wants to receive an order of edible cake decorations in a box marked “diapers” on the outside.
I reuse things like bubble wrap and I cut shipping boxes into pieces that I use as trays to support items when I wrap them, but I buy all of my shipping boxes new.
I use Staples, Valuemailers, and Uline, depending on who has the best prices on the sizes that I need.
Remember that the cost of packaging needs to be included in the cost of your items or the shipping cost!
Food Safety
You’ll also need to make sure that the packaging you use is considered food-safe.
Whether it’s plastic wrap or baggies, you can find packaging that’s approved for food use.
I’ll be going over ways to ship each item as I talk about them in this series.
To see my list of business supplies that I use, including shipping supplies, click here to go to my Amazon shop homepage.
Things to use for shipping.
Like I mentioned before, start hoarding bubble wrap. It’s also a good way to recycle it, and if you can
inform your neighbors that you’ll take packing peanuts and bubble wrap off of their hands it can cut your costs.
The specific materials that you’ll use to package your products will depend on what they are.
Some things will need a lot more padding than others, and some will just need to be kept flat.
My standard is that I should be able to kick the package across the parking lot at the post office without worrying that the item will be damaged. If I can’t do that, it’s not packed correctly.
Damage in transit is unusual, but it does happen, and it may or may not be insured depending on the type of postage you paid for.
Don’t use flimsy boxes that aren’t made for shipping, and make sure that things won’t bend as they travel.
Use boxes that are big enough. Don’t try to fit something into a box that’s too small and doesn’t have enough clearance around the item when it’s packed.
The photos of the smashed boxes that I have with this article were sent by customers.
In each case, multiple items were in them but only one item in each box was damaged.
If the box is bigger than the product it gives you some wiggle room for this kind of tragic event.
Before you sell: Research what size boxes you would need to package your items safely and see what the cost is on various websites. Check on bulk packaging rates, and don’t forget to include the cost of shipping the packages to you as part of the overall cost of the item!
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