Packaging supplies for autumn: how to calculate what you need
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
Late August is a quiet time, and it’s the perfect moment to review your packaging stock. A step-by-step plan including size groups, bundle prices, and the small items that bring your packing station to a halt.
August is the quietest month of the year for most webshops. Few orders, little rush, and a warehouse you can still navigate through properly. That's precisely why this is the time to count what's on the shelves. Anyone who discovers in November that they're out of A5 letterbox boxes will pay rush rates, resort to an oversized box, and lose margin per package that should have been earned during those months.
Below is a method to calculate your inventory that is not based on gut feeling, but on your own order history.
Calculate backwards from your orders, not from your intuition
Use your webshop's export function and retrieve last year's orders, from October 1st to December 31st. Count them. Divide that number by three, and you'll have an average month during peak season. Compare that to your average month now: the difference is the factor by which you should multiply your normal consumption.
If you shipped 200 packages per month last summer and 500 per month last autumn, your factor is 2.5. If you currently use 200 letterbox boxes per month, you'll need around 500 per month in the autumn. This is an estimate, not a hard rule, but it's much better than "just order some extra."
Then, calculate with a safety margin of approximately 20 percent and consider your supplier's delivery time. If you deliver within a week and order monthly, you don't need to stock a quarter's worth of inventory. If your sales peak around specific days, then you do.
Step 1: Divide your orders into three size groups
Most webshops ship an unnecessarily wide variety of box sizes. Three groups are sufficient for most product ranges: flat and light, compact, and voluminous.
For letterbox boxes, pay attention to the height of 28 mm. That's the dimension that determines whether your package fits through the letterbox. Always check the current maximum dimensions and weights with your own carrier, as these vary per provider and are occasionally adjusted.
Bundles of 100 pieces are interesting as long as you use them within six months. For the A6 box, you're looking at about 18 cents per box, and for the A5+, 24 cents. If you buy individual boxes because you lack storage space, you'll pay back that space in unit price.
Step 2: Scale up your void fill and tape accordingly
Void fill material is the item most often underestimated, because you use it by the meter and not count it individually. A rough rule of thumb: calculate about half a meter of bubble wrap per compact package and one and a half meters per voluminous package. Multiply that by your expected numbers, and you'll know what roll size you need.
The same principle applies to tape. A 50-meter roll of tape, when securely taped on a compact box, is good for roughly sixty to eighty packages, depending on how many strips you use. Calculate how many rolls that entails, and only then look at the bundle price.
Step 3: The small items that halt your packing station
You order large boxes because you're running out. You usually only order blades, stickers, and seals when someone is struggling with scissors. Include them in the same order.
Security Seal Stickers VOID, 60 pieces — € 9.95. Visible proof if a package has been opened during transit, useful for more expensive shipments and return discussions.
Order items with long lead times or high volume now: boxes, bundles, and foil rolls. These take up space but don't spoil. Wait with anything you can reorder within a week and whose consumption you can better estimate in October, such as special gift packaging for the Christmas season.
Additionally, set a simple threshold per item in your administration: the quantity below which you automatically reorder. For tape, that might be two rolls; for letterbox boxes, half a bundle. This is less work than an inventory system and catches ninety percent of problems.
In short
Count your orders from last autumn and calculate your peak factor.
Reduce your packages to three or four size groups.
Convert void fill and tape to meters and rolls, not "a few".
Only order bundles if you'll use them within six months.
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