Choosing packaging supplies isn't just about grabbing boxes and tape off a shelf — it's about protecting your product, controlling costs, and making sure every shipment arrives the way your customer expects. Yet many businesses order packaging reactively, picking whatever's on hand rather than building a deliberate strategy around it.
A smarter approach is building your packaging plan around five core categories, so every shipment goes out protected, cost-effective, and consistent. Here are five categories to include in your next packaging order — and how to cover them with TOTALPACK®.
1. Box & Container Selection
The box is the foundation of every shipment, and the wrong size or strength undermines everything you pack inside it.
Without the right box, you'll run into:
- Wasted space and higher dimensional-weight shipping costs
- Crushed or shifting product during transit
- Excess cardboard waste and disposal costs
Solution: Stock a range of TOTALPACK® corrugated boxes sized to your most common SKUs, plus a few oversized options for irregular orders. For lightweight or soft goods, TOTALPACK® poly mailers cut both material cost and shipping weight.
Tip: Don't forget to standardize box sizes around your top five best-selling products before adding specialty sizes — it keeps ordering simple and reduces overstock.
2. Cushioning & Protective Fill
Even the sturdiest box won't protect a product that's free to move around inside it. Without the right cushioning, damage claims and returns climb, the unboxing experience turns inconsistent, and overusing filler material drives up the cost per shipment.
Solution: Add TOTALPACK® air cushioning bubble wrap and foam rolls for fragile items, along with lighter void-fill options for everyday products. Match cushioning thickness to the fragility of what you're shipping rather than defaulting to one material for everything.
Tip: Keep two cushioning options on hand — a heavier-duty foam for fragile or high-value items, and a lighter air pillow or bubble option for everything else.
3. Sealing Tape & Dispensers
A box is only as secure as the tape holding it shut, and manual taping slows down every packer on the line. Without a reliable setup, boxes open in transit, packing times slow down, and outgoing shipments lose a consistent, branded look.
Solution: Pair TOTALPACK® packing tape with a TOTALPACK® Tape Dispenser with Gun-Grip for handheld use, or an industrial carton-sealing dispenser for higher-throughput lines. Custom-printed TOTALPACK® tape adds a branding touch without adding an extra packing step.
Tip: Match tape width and mil thickness to box weight — heavier boxes need 2-inch tape at a higher mil rating, not just more strips of a thinner tape.
4. Load Securing for Pallets & Bulk Shipments
Pallets that aren't wrapped or strapped properly shift in transit, and that risk multiplies with every mile a load travels. Without the right load-securing supplies, product gets damaged, shipments get rejected at receiving docks for instability, and crews waste labor re-wrapping loads that weren't secured correctly the first time.
Solution: Stock TOTALPACK® hand-wrap stretch film for manual pallet wrapping, and TOTALPACK® steel or poly strapping for heavier or irregular loads. For high-volume operations, a stretch wrap machine applies film more consistently than hand-wrapping.
Tip: Wrap from the bottom up in overlapping layers, and always fully encase the pallet base — it's the most common point of failure in transit.
5. Labeling & Documentation
Even a perfectly packed shipment can get delayed or misrouted if labeling isn't clear and consistent. Illegible or missing information causes delays, non-compliant hazmat labeling creates real liability, and inventory becomes harder to track once product leaves the warehouse.
Solution: Keep TOTALPACK® shipping and handling labels and inventory labels stocked and printer-ready, and — where applicable — hazardous material labels and placards. TOTALPACK® packing list envelopes keep paperwork attached and visible without slowing down the pack-out.
Tip: Standardize label placement across every box type so warehouse staff and carriers both know exactly where to look.
The Bottom Line
A well-planned packaging order does more than fill your shelves — it protects your product, controls your shipping costs, and keeps your brand consistent from the warehouse to the customer's doorstep. By covering box selection, cushioning, sealing, load securing, and labeling in one order, you avoid last-minute substitutions and stay ahead of your shipping needs.
With reliable products from TOTALPACK®, choosing the right packaging supplies is one less thing to worry about.