Is it more effective to buy your PACKAGING SUPPLIES in bulk even if you are a small business?
It has always been said that you will have more bargaining power if you purchase in bulk. While this is true in most cases, it may not make economic sense for some small businesses to purchase large stocks. This is because they may not have constant business to ensure that the stocks are fully utilised. Start ups usually struggle with this problem as most of them may not yet have the customer base to ensure frequent stock turnover. With packaging supplies however, one can hardly go wrong by making huge orders as these are items that do not spoil. All you need to do is store them safely in a place free of moisture and they will be ready for use whenever the orders come in.
Items such as cardboard boxes are best ordered in packs if you are serious on saving. Most vendors of these boxes offer attractive prices for these packs and will even offer you free delivery should your purchases exceed a specified value. Theboxwarehouse.co.uk for instance will sell you each standard sized double walled box for £2. But if you buy a pack of over 180, you will spend just £1.54 per box. Another vendor will sell you two cases of padded mailing bags for £35 per case whereas you will save £1 per case if you buy more than two cases. They are even willing to negotiate further if you buy more than seven cases.
The same principle of discounts with larger purchases applies to other packaging materials such as adhesive tapes, padded envelopes, polythene bags etc. It is clear that ordering packaging supplies in bulk is beneficial not only in terms of discounts on purchases, but also in terms of savings on delivery costs.