There is usually a period of time when various people need to ship furniture to customers. Whether you’re making and selling your own handcrafted furniture as part of a small business, you deal with resale furniture like antiques, or maybe you’ve sold a beloved piece of furniture on eBay or other marketplaces, packaging and shipping your furniture is essential Crucial if you want it to arrive a full!

In this blog post, I’ll share some tips (many from personal experience) on how to properly package your furniture in preparation for shipping to your customers.

1. Never trust a courier!

First of all, never trust a courier to deliver your package with care. It’s no good to have “fragile” written all over the box, if anything, it seems to mean they sometimes don’t handle it carefully enough!

Of course, most couriers will respect your shipments and take care of your packages, but in our experience, the best-known couriers seem to kick our fragile packages down the street no matter how well we pack them!

So keep this in mind and choose your courier wisely, especially if your beautiful furniture is very precious or fragile. Make sure to take a photo of the shipment before it leaves, and choose a delivery service with enough compensation to cover the full value of the furniture in case anything goes wrong.

You’ll also need to check the courier’s own terms and conditions, and if they do damage an item, you may only have a certain number of days to file a claim.

Even if it’s not your fault, if the courier treats your package poorly and damages it, it can negatively impact your business. Some customers don’t blame the courier but will blame you for the courier you choose, or they think your packaging isn’t good enough to prevent damage in transit. In this case, you may lose this customer and their orders, lose their word-of-mouth referrals and reduce your customer lifetime value, which will affect your future profits.

2. Packed according to the courier’s request

How hard you need to pack depends on the type of courier you use. If you use popular and well-known courier and postal services, then pack well as you learned in the last point!

How can you pack furniture? Here are some suggestions:

  • Plain packaging if available. If the furniture can be flat-packed without damaging it, then flat-pack and adequately pack each section. Pack all screws and accessories in a well-sealed bag inside the main package.
  • Protect corners with cardboard and extra padding. If the furniture has corners or any sticky areas, then be sure to protect them with extra padding and cardboard to ensure they are not easily damaged or damaged in transit.
  • Wrap the entire piece of furniture. Once the sticky sections and corners have extra protection, it’s time to wrap the entire piece of furniture for travel safety. Pad furniture with bubble wrap and foam to add a soft layer of protection from damage. You can also use cardboard for the final layer. Wrap it, wrap it again!
  • Use cardboard boxes. Once packaged, pack the furniture in an appropriately sized cardboard box. It is important to make sure the box is cushioned and that the furniture is not loose. It needs to be a comfortable fit to prevent the furniture from rolling and breaking as it goes through the courier’s shipping process.
  • Fixed box. Finally, add a few layers of packing tape to secure the box and make sure it won’t open during shipping.

Some independent and professional furniture couriers are a better choice for furniture shipping. They are usually more attentive and will take your furniture as a whole. Some don’t even require you to pack the furniture at all but use the blankets and proper wraps they provide.

There are many independent couriers who will pick up the item from you and deliver it to the customer the same day. That means it only stays in their van for a few hours, doesn’t go through any sorting centers, and doesn’t get unloaded onto several vans, again reducing the chance of any damage.

3. keep the brand

If you’re sending furniture as part of a business, and you consume a lot of packaging, it’s worth researching your options for custom packaging with corporate branding, and even having the box make a comfortable fit for your product size.

Branded packaging and right-sized packaging will help your business appear more professional when customers receive their shipments. Having your logo printed on the packaging is also a great marketing tool that can increase your brand awareness.

4. think green

Finally, when packing furniture for shipping, don’t forget to make the most environmentally friendly choices possible.

There are now many options for green packaging, from reusable or recycled cardboard boxes, compostable packaging for peanuts, plastic-free bubble wrap, paper packaging, and paper tape with natural plant-based adhesives.

You can also save all the packaging you receive from your own e-commerce courier to keep them from going straight to landfill or recycling, saving on packaging costs in the process.