For e-commerce sellers, packaging is the last link between products and customers. A suitable packaging can ensure the safe arrival of products and quietly convey the brand's intentions; if the wrong one is chosen, it may increase costs and cause bad reviews. How to choose between the most common mailing bags and shipping boxes? This guide breaks down the three dimensions of product characteristics, cost, and customer experience to help you find the most suitable solution.
What are mailing bags and shipping boxes
Mailing bags: They look like thickened envelopes, come with seals, and are light and flexible. According to the material, there are plastic (waterproof and tear-resistant), paper (environmentally friendly and breathable), bubble-filled (with self-buffered), and even hard (to protect flat items from deformation). Suitable for "thin, soft, and light" items, you can just put them in and go without additional filling.
Shipping boxes（moving boxes）: Hard boxes made of corrugated cardboard, available in single-layer and double-layer versions, with hardness determining the load-bearing capacity. Common ones include folding boxes, bottom-lock boxes, and window boxes, which can be customized with brand logos. Suitable for "heavy, hard, and pressure-sensitive" items, and foam and air column bags can be stuffed for enhanced protection when necessary.
Types of items suitable for mailing bags
Category 1: Soft clothing
Products such as T-shirts, dresses, and socks are not afraid of pressure and can be folded, so it is most cost-effective to use plastic mailing bags. For example, for a cotton T-shirt, using a 20cm×30cm plastic mailing bag can save 30% of the shipping cost compared to using a small cardboard box. The space occupied by 1,000 mailing bags in the warehouse is only enough to put 300 cardboard boxes, and the logistics efficiency is directly doubled.
Category 2: Small daily necessities
Small items such as lipsticks, headphones, and key chains are just right for bubble mailing bags. The built-in bubble layer can prevent bumps and does not need to be stuffed with waste paper - customers can tear it open and take it when they receive it, and will not complain that "the packaging is larger than the product." Some sellers have tested that the same headphones are shipped in bubble bags instead of cartons, and the customer praise rate is increased by 12% because "there is no extra garbage."
Category 3: Flat rigid items
For flat items such as postcards, posters, and notebooks, it is best to choose a rigid mailing bag (similar to a thick cardboard envelope). It can prevent folding and is lighter than a carton. When mailing, it is charged according to the "letter" standard, which is 20% lower than the "parcel" freight of a carton.
Types of items suitable for delivery boxes
Fragile items that are afraid of falling and bumping
For products such as glass cups, ceramic bowls, and electronic screens, transport boxes are the bottom line. The buffer layer of corrugated cardboard can absorb impact force, and combined with air column bags, the breakage rate can be reduced from 15% to less than 3%. A seller selling handmade ceramic cups tried: using bubble bags to ship, 12 out of 100 were broken; changing to double-layer corrugated boxes + air column bags, only 2 out of 1,000 were broken. Although the cost of a single package is 1.5 yuan more, it saves nearly 1,000 yuan in after-sales losses.
Multi-piece combination order
The customer bought 5 products at a time? Don’t use several mailing bags for packaging. A medium-sized shipping box is more suitable. For example, if you sell cosmetics, customers buy lipstick, eye shadow, and makeup remover and put them in a box with the brand logo printed on it. This not only avoids loss during delivery, but also gives people a stronger sense of satisfaction when they unpack the box. Data shows that when combined orders are packed in shipping boxes, the customer repurchase rate is 8% higher than when they are packed in separate boxes.
Brands that need to create a sense of unboxing ritual
High-end brands (such as luxury samples and customized gifts) must use shipping boxes. Unboxing stickers with brand stories, layered inner trays, products wrapped in ribbons... these details can only be carried by boxes. There is a niche fragrance brand that uses hot stamping shipping boxes + sulphate paper for packaging. After receiving the products, the customer's order-posting rate increased by 40%. The traffic brought by free exposure on social platforms far exceeds the extra cost of packaging.
Environmentally friendly packaging
Now customers are increasingly concerned about whether the packaging is environmentally friendly. When choosing mailing bags or shipping boxes, you have to consider the "environmental protection account":
Mail bags save more materials - a plastic mailing bag weighs less than 10 grams, while a cardboard box of the same capacity weighs more than 50 grams. From the perspective of transportation carbon emissions, mailing bags are better. But you have to choose the right material: look for "100% recycled plastic" or "compostable paper" to avoid ordinary plastic bags causing bad reviews.
Although shipping boxes cost materials, they can also be environmentally friendly if you choose the right one: boxes made of recycled corrugated paper have a recycling rate of more than 90%, which is better than non-degradable plastic boxes. If you must use a box, it is recommended to print the "recyclable" logo and add a sentence "Please reuse the box" to increase customers' recognition of the brand's environmental protection.
Finally, packaging is an "invisible service" of e-commerce. If you choose it right, it will silently help you save money and retain customers; if you choose it wrong, it may become an overlooked "loophole". Spend some time testing the two options and find a balance, which is the best choice.
Post time: Jul-29-2025
