What secretly runs out on your packing table? Tape, seals, stickers, and envelopes, calculated
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
It's not your boxes that cause delays, but your tape and stickers. This is how you calculate consumables per 100 packages and set up an ordering schedule that survives the busy months.
You order boxes on time. You see them, they take up space, and you know exactly how many are left. The items that really bring you to a halt are the small ones: the last roll of tape that runs out halfway through an order, the roll of stickers in the price gun, the seals you use for valuable shipments, the envelopes for the packing slips. They're not in plain sight and you never count them — until one Friday afternoon you're standing with fifteen folded boxes that nothing else can go into.
September is the time to rectify that. From October, the volume will increase, and that's precisely when you don't want a single roll of tape to bring your entire batch to a halt. Below is a way to calculate your consumables instead of guessing, with concrete ordering times.
Calculate per 100 packages, not per week
Calculating per week doesn't work, because your weeks vary. Calculating per 100 packages does: that number remains the same whether you send 40 or 400 per week, and you can directly compare it to the contents of a bundle.
Measure your actual consumption once. Seal a box as you always seal it, then peel off the tape and measure its length. For most small shipping boxes, with the seam plus two cross-strips, you'll end up somewhere around one and a half meters. Take that number and multiply it by a hundred.
Item
What you measure
Calculation example per 100 packages
Packaging tape
Meters per box
1.5 m × 100 = 150 m — that's three 50-meter rolls
Security seals
Seals per shipment where you apply them
Only on valuable orders: 1 per 5 packages = 20 units
Envelopes
Packing slips or cards per shipment
1 per package = 100 envelopes
Label stickers
Stickers per product, not per package
With 3 items per order: 300 stickers
That last line is the most common mistake. Labels, price stickers, and warning stickers are consumed per item. For orders with multiple products, this rate is three to five times higher than your package count.
Tape: the item you always order too late
If one thing brings your packing table to a halt, it's tape. Therefore, always keep at least one unused roll per dispenser on hand, and determine your reorder point at the second-to-last roll — not the last one.
For individual replenishment, KINZO Packaging Tape 50 meters x 48 mm (€3.00) is handy: one roll, quickly ordered. If you ship regularly, you buy in bundles. Tape Rolls 6 Pieces 48x66mm (€21.00) covers a normal month for most small webshops; Tape Rolls Box 36 pieces - 48x66 mm (€108.00) is the stock box that will get you through the entire fourth quarter. Calculate your price per roll before choosing: that's the only fair comparison.
A security seal shows if someone has tampered with a package en route: if you remove it, a visible mark remains. Security Seal Stickers VOID - 60 pieces (€9.95) is not an item you use on every order, but it is for shipments of higher value and on orders that have previously been subject to dispute. Agree on one rule internally — for example: everything above a certain amount gets a seal — so it doesn't depend on the packer's mood.
Price and label stickers are the classic example of something you consume per item. White Price Stickers for Price Gun MX-5500 - 5000 pieces (€9.95) sounds like an enormous quantity until you start calculating: with three items per order, you'll go through them after about 1,600 orders. If you work with color codes for purchase week or promotional price, then Price Stickers for Price Gun - 6 colors - 500 pieces (€2.95) are practical.
Every shipment with a packing slip, return form, or handwritten card uses an envelope. White Envelopes 156x220 mm - 500 pieces (€3.00) is the standard size for a folded A4 and lasts a long time. If you send individual cards or smaller documents, then C6 Envelope White 114x162mm 50 pieces (€4.00) is the smaller variant.
Staples are never on any order list and are always out. Staples 3000 pieces (€2.60) should be in the same order as your tape, not in a separate office order you only place when it's absolutely necessary.
Bundles: where it pays off and where it takes up space
For items you're guaranteed to use up—tape, stickers, envelopes—a bundle is almost always cheaper per unit and takes up little space. With boxes, it's different: they are cheap per unit but require a lot of space, so you buy them based on your actual expectations.
Write two numbers next to each consumable: the quantity at which you reorder and the quantity you then order. "Tape: order at 2 rolls, then 6 rolls." "Seals: order at 15 pieces, then 60." Stick that list on the cupboard where the stock is kept, not in a file that no one opens.
Set that reorder point wide enough to cover the delivery time and a busy week. In November, waiting two days for tape is not a theoretical problem, but a pile of orders that remains untouched. Review the list once a month—five minutes, with the box in your hand—and you won't have to think about anything for the rest of the quarter.
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