Shipping is the most dangerous time your products face.

Especially if they include easily damaged components like glass, ceramics, or electronics.

Once you ship them they get loaded, unloaded, processed, sorted, stacked—often multiple times over the course of days or even weeks. Along the way they face bumps, jolts, and drops. And that’s not to mention the weights, pressures, and vibrations of even an uneventful journey.

But your success hinges on your products arriving safely. 

So we put together this guide to help you make sure your packaging is up to the challenge. First we’ll look at what makes shipping so dangerous. Then we’ll show you the key strategies for protective packaging that gets your products there safely.

Let’s dive in.

The Biggest Dangers Your Fragile Products Face in Shipping 

If you want to design a good defense, you need to understand the offense.

So before we get into how to create the most protective packaging for your fragile products, it helps to get clear on what you’re protecting against.

So we broke down the parts of the shipping process that are most likely to damage fragile products.

Shocks and Vibrations

Sharp, sudden movements are often the culprit in breakage during shipping.

These might come from an accident, like a carrier dropping your packing. Or the delivery truck could hit a pothole, sending a sudden jolt to your package.

Either way, too much force is transferred to your product too quickly, causing it to break.

Vibrations are like a million tiny jolts that come in quick succession over the course of minutes, hours, or even days, causing breakage or damage at pressure points.

Internal Movement

Your products face a lot of jostling during shipping.

Loading and unloading. Airplane turbulence and rough landings. Delivery trucks making sharp turns on bumpy roads.

If they’re moving around inside their packaging, that’s a recipe for damage.

Instead of showing up looking brand new, your products arrive with signs of wear and tear or even breakage.

Crushing and Compression

Odds are your package will be stacked with lots of other packages.

Which means it will have weight pushing down on it. Sometimes a lot of weight.

When that weight is transferred to your product, not only could it cause breakage outright, but it makes your product more vulnerable to any movement, shocks, or vibrations it encounters during shipping.

But it’s not just external weight that’s a problem.

Boxes that are too small or overstuffed subject your products to constant compression during shipping, which leads to a similar kind of damage.

The 3 Key Packaging Techniques to Protect Fragile Items

Now that we know what’s causing all the damage, what you can do to prevent it gets a lot more clear.

We’ve worked with many dozens of companies that have fragile products to ship.

Even though each company—and each product—is a little different, applying these three principles to your packaging will prevent a lot of the damage you might otherwise incur.

Use Shock-Absorbing Materials

Odds are, your package will take some jolts during shipping.

The better your packaging is at absorbing these shocks, and not transferring them to your products, the less breakage you’ll have.

That’s why so many companies choose corrugated boxes to ship their fragile products.

Each wall of a corrugated box consists of at least three layers: two pieces of linerboard connected by a layer of wavy, fluted paper called the “medium.”

This fluted medium makes corrugated an excellent shock absorber.

It also gives corrugated boxes just the right amount of rigidity. So they stand up to the rigors of transport but have just enough give to dampen the shocks and jostling along the way.

Depending on your needs we can recommend the right thickness of corrugated, including double-walled options.

Right-Size Your Boxes

Often the culprits behind damaged products are the too-big boxes companies use.

Even when you try to fill them up with padding, products can easily end up banging around and getting damaged.

Right-sizing means dialing in your box sizes to fit your products. Depending on what you sell, this might include cutouts that fit your product perfectly to hold it snugly in place. Or it might just mean boxes with less unnecessary space.

Either way it keeps your products safer.

Leave Some (Cushioned) Headroom

But you don’t want to make boxes too small, either.

It’s important to keep a little space between the walls of your box and the edges of your product, and to fill that space with protective materials.

That way when your boxes are stacked and compressed, it’s the packaging that takes that stress—not your products.

That’s why we offer all sorts of packaging supplies, from biodegradable packing peanuts to custom cut foam inserts so you can give your products the cushioned breathing room they need to arrive intact.

Keep Your Fragile Products Safe with Custom Corrugated Boxes

Shipping is a bumpy, jostling, jolting process.

But your fragile products don’t need to take the brunt of it.

The specific approach that’s best for your company depends on exactly what you’re shipping and how you’re shipping it. But with custom corrugated boxes and packaging solutions you can make sure your customers receive your products in the same brand-new condition you sent them in.

If you need some help keeping your fragile items safe in transit, get in touch here and our in-house design team will help you create the perfect packaging for your business.