Damaged packaging during shipping

[Jon12345]

I received my first delivery from a supplier in China, for my private label product to sell on Amazon. I was very disappointed with the number of boxes damaged. It was delivered by DHL.

My private label product is inside a cardboard box with my branding on it. That is inside a 5 ply cardboard box that contains 28 units. The damage rate out of 112 units was as follows...

- 17 bad or 5%
- 18 a bit iffy or 16%
- 77 ok, or 69%

The worst of the damage was on the boxes stored at the top of the 5 ply box and at the bottom, on the outside corner . Looks like its where most of the damage gets done.

How do you deal with this scenario? What do you say to the supplier? What is the solution? How common is this?

Thanks,

Jon

 

[GuyMor]

Who was in charge of shipping? what were the incoterms used?

 

[Virtual Reality Hire]

Maybe ask your supplier to use a more durable packaging solution going forward. Like tri-wall cardboard boxes or something of that nature.
In regards to your current stock, are they going on display anywhere or will they be sold online? If the latter, I wouldn't worry to much about the packaging as long as the product inside is OK. Maybe offer a small discount if any customer is unhappy with the state of the packaging when they receive it?

 

[Maple Sourcing]

You are talking about only the situation that products are bulk shipped from China to UK (in a carton containing 28 pcs), packages were damaged with protection of 5-ply master carton. Have you thought about the shipping of individual unit from Amazon to end customer? I suspect the damage rate will be even higher.

So, instead of changing 5-ply carton to 7-ply carton (triple layers) --- it helps, but not much, I'd suggest you use better unit package (contains a single product). The single unit package must be strong enough to survive Amazon courier.

If your unit box is stronger, you may not need to use better mater cartons. However, 28 pcs/carton seems like a big carton, maybe you can consider a smaller carton which contains 16 pcs, 12 pcs, 8 pcs or so. The carton is lighter, the chance of being damaged is lower.

 

[Jon12345]

I like the idea of smaller boxes. I haven't heard of that before.

Its only a concern from China to the UK, not from Amazon to the customer.