What Is Bulk Packaging? Packaging Tips for Ecommerce (2024)

If you’ve ever read Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, you no doubt remember the demon who seeks to waste the hero Milo’s time by getting him to help move a pile of sand with a pair of tweezers and empty a well with an eyedropper. Milo realizes the demon’s bad intentions not because the tasks are inherently bad, but because the methods are deeply inefficient. 

Now, there are times when you need to move a pile of sand—or flour or sneakers—but successful leaders consistently look for the most efficient way to accomplish a given task. Milo needed a bulldozer, and when it comes to moving large volumes of product from one place to another, business owners need bulk packaging. 

Here’s what bulk packaging is, how businesses use it, and four tips to help you avoid any supply chain demons of your own.

What is bulk packaging?

Bulk packaging is any container that can store or transport raw ingredients, multiple units of finished products, or products sold by weight or volume (also known as bulk products). It can help businesses save warehousing space, reduce shipping costs, and limit packaging material waste. 

Not all businesses define bulk packaging in the same way. Some use the term to describe the containers they use to ship materials or finished goods to intermediate locations like manufacturing facilities, warehouses, or retail stores. However, it can also refer to the packaging for high-volume shipments to end users or bulk product shipments of any size. 

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) applies a strict definition for regulatory purposes, factoring in both container capacity and the material state of package contents. Here are the DOT’s criteria:

• Liquids. Bulk packaging is any container that can hold over 119 gallons of liquid.

• Solids. Bulk packaging is any container that can hold over 882 pounds of a solid.

• Gasses. Bulk packaging is any container for a gas with a water capacity greater than 1,000 pounds, where water capacity refers to the weight of water the container can hold.

What are the types of bulk packaging?

Bulk packagingmaterials depend on the type of product you’re shipping and shipment volume. Here are a few common types:

• Fiberboard boxes or cartons

• Plastic or metal drums

• Corrugated cardboard boxes

• Wooden barrels

• Plastic or glassjars

• Wooden crates or cases

• Pails and buckets

Intermediate bulk container

Intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) are another popular bulk packaging choice. IBCs are reusable containers that transport liquids, semi-solids, and powdered or granulated solids. The reusable container can be flexible, rigid, or collapsible. Here’s an overview:

• Flexible IBCs. Flexible IBCs (also known as bulkbags) are woven plasticbags commonly used for dry flowable products like sand or fertilizer. Flexible IBCs are typically pallet-mounted to simplify transportation and handling. 

• Rigid IBCs. Rigid IBCs are stackable metal, composite, or plastic containers. They’re often used to transport chemicals or hazardous materials. Some hazardous materials require caged IBC totes, which are plastic containers protected by an exterior steel grid.

• Collapsible IBCs. Collapsible IBCs are rigid plasticboxes that you can fold to save space in storage or return transport. Businesses often use them for nonhazardous liquids and pastes and are popular in the food, pharmaceutical, beauty, and personal care industries.

Industries that use bulk packaging

Many industries use bulk packaging at some point in the supply chain. An ecommerce apparel store might receive bulk inventory shipments from its manufacturer, for example, and a business that sells custom-made teak furniture might use bulk packaging to transport raw materials from suppliers to its workshop. 

You can also use bulk packaging as secondary packaging to contain multiple units of smaller individually packaged products. Bulk secondary packaging can protect retail packaging during shipment to warehouses or distributors, simplify storage, and reduce shipping costs.

Bulk packaging is particularly common in industries that involve large raw material shipments. Here’s a sample list:

• Industrial goods

• Food and beverage

• Pharmaceutical

• Agriculture

• Health care

• Automotive

• Construction

• Beauty and personal care

Ecommerce example of bulk packaging

Hypothetical ecommerce company Superfoods sells organic snack mixes that support specific health and wellness goals, such as increasing energy or changing body composition. The company uses bulk packaging to transport raw ingredients like almonds, Goji berries, cocoa butter, and dried cherries to its production facility, where workers assess them for quality and use them to create the company’s signature snack blends. 

Superfoods then uses bulk packaging to ship snack blends to its processing and distribution facility, which packages them into individual retail units and stores them for consumer distribution.

Tips for successful bulk packaging

Bulk packaging can increase efficiency and lower costs. Here are four tips to help you maximize the benefits:

Plan for storage and handling

Bulk packaging can help you save money by lowering shipping costs and reducing the cost of packaging supplies, but it also comes with specific storage and handling challenges. For example, to accept large bulk orders, you may need to rent a warehouse and storage containers, buy a forklift, and hire warehouse staff. You may also need to invest time and money in repackaging. 

Bulk packaging can maximize storage and transportation efficiency in warehouse environments, which have the required space, infrastructure, and staff expertise to manage large and heavy product units. If you decide to take this route, prepare your facility to ensure you have the requisite space and materials to store and redistribute bulk packaging in-house. 

If you plan on shippingbulk packaging to a warehouse, manufacturer, or fulfillment center, contact them first to confirm they can store the package type and ask about additional fees for bulkpackagestorage and processing services. 

Run a cost-benefit analysis

Deciding whether bulk packaging is right for your business is more complicated than comparing the cost savings associated with bulk shipments to the average hourly rate of forklift operators in your area. You might save time on inventory management but increase the burden on your fulfillment team, for example. Or maybe you’ll spend 10 times your yearly packaging budget on reusable IBCs at first but expect that the purchase will reduce future packaging costs by 70%. 

Cost-benefit analyses can help you quantify the total impact of a proposed change on your business. You’ll assign a dollar value to each benefit (such as reduced shipping expenses, estimated time savings, and improved sustainability performance), repeat the process with costs, and compare the two figures. Cost-benefit analyses improve decision-making by helping you weigh multiple effects on your business, including nonnumerical factors like environmental impact, and employee and customer experience. 

Follow industry regulations

Some industries and materials have strict packaging regulations intended to protect end-users and people who contact the package during shipping and storage. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates packagingmaterials for food products, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, for example. 

Other industries can face material-specific requirements: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation (DOT), and United Nations (UN) all regulate the transportation of hazardous materials in the US, and the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) apply additional regulations to flammable materialpackaging. 

Packaging compliance can be complex. Specific requirements vary by material and total shipment volume, and some US states and jurisdictions apply additional regulations. You can research requirements by consulting state and federal websites and other resources to explore provisions relevant to your industry or material. You can also contact a third-party logistics provider (3PL) or compliance expert for guidance.

Consider your branding needs

Whether you invest in branded bulk packaging will depend on who receives your shipments. You don’t necessarily need to worry about branded packaging to deliver bulk shipments to warehouses or other intermediate locations, but you might consider custom-branded options if you ship packages to wholesalers or other resale customers. Investing in a recognizable brand can help you boost recognition and earn repeat purchases. 

Businesses that sell bulk products directly to end users are most likely to invest in custom packaging supplies because, in this case, bulkcontainers double as retail packaging. Examples include branded glassjars, custom-printed plasticbags, or even returnable plastic totes.