Top 5 Tips for Saving Your Business Time and Money with Postage Scales

The holiday season is a busy time for retailers that provide shipping for their customers, who expect their purchases to arrive intact and on time. Careful packaging, accurate weighing and correct postage are essential to timely delivery, which is often the key to customer satisfaction.

If you’re a retailer, you want your holiday season to go smoothly. To decrease returns and minimise customer complaints, your shipping department needs to be top-notch. If buyers are pleased with your products, prices, service and shipping, it will pay off in the end when they spend money at your business once again.

In this blog we'll look at 5 tips for saving your business time and money with a simple set of postage scales.

Why do I need a postage scale?

An accurate postage or shipping scale is essential for weighing parcels prior to distribution, as it helps ensure postage cost for delivery is correct. Once a customer has made their purchase, it’s your responsibility to ensure the product is delivered safely and as quickly as possible. That means doing a bit of preparation ahead of time. Make sure your supply of packaging products is adequate. That includes envelopes for smaller products, boxes for larger items, protective padding or filler, packing tape and scales for weighing packages. Your goal should be to protect your items, but also to ship them in the lightest and/or smallest container possible, to keep your shipping costs down.

Top 5 tips for saving your business time and money

Shipping departments are often pressed for time and therefore need equipment that helps operators manage warehouses as smoothly and efficiently as possible. An organised process for product packaging, storage and distribution are crucial for time saving, minimising risk and making your business as cost effective as possible. Whilst shipping is an important part of large-scale business processes, delivery is also a fundamental part of home businesses. Home businesses often work to very small profit margins, therefore accurately calculating delivery costs is essential to ensure that you do not overcharge the customer or eat into your profit margins. Whether you are a large-scale shipping department or a small home-business, the steps below will demonstrate how scales can save you time and money!

1) Use postal or parcel Scales

It’s important for retail outlets that ship products daily to have adequate parcel or postage scales for any time of the year, but it’s absolutely essential during the busy holiday season. Accurate measurement of a package’s weight is important, because you don’t want to face extra charges for the shipment. Not only that, the carrier could decline your package if the weight is listed incorrectly. Bench scales such as the LBX make the best parcel and postal scales due to their compact design, perfectly sized weighing pan and easy to use keypad interface; ideal for weighing packages for distribution. Alternatively, other compact scales such as the Dune Portable Compact Balances also provide fast, easy weighing and accurate measurements that can be used for weighing smaller sized envelopes.

2) Pack small items into envelopes

You can save money on postage if you pack small, lightweight products into envelopes. They save time since they’re already constructed, unlike boxes that usually need to be assembled. You can choose the type of envelope that suits your needs, as they’re available in padded or non-padded versions. Some are constructed of cardboard, while others are plastic, which offers greater protection against moisture. Some mailing envelopes have an adhesive strip already included, so you don’t need tape to seal the envelope. You can use postal scales in order to check the weight of your envelope before shipping to give you an accurate measure of your expected delivery costs.

3) Keep selection boxes for every occasion

Maintain a supply of boxes in a selection of sizes. Postage is based on the size and weight of the package, so you’ll want to use a box that fits the product, since larger boxes cost more to send - We recommend that you check the weight of your package with approved parcel scales prior to dispatch in order to calculate the estimated cost of delivery. By tailoring your package to the size of the box your shipping costs will be minimised because smaller boxes cost less to ship, and boxes that are closer to the size of the product don’t need as much packing material to cushion the item. 

4) Use packing materials!

Don’t scrimp on protective packing, as it can prevent damage to the item inside the box. You can purchase Styrofoam peanuts to fill the excess space and cushion the product, or you can use newspapers, which are free but can weigh a bit more.

5) Keep an ample supply of packaging tape

Tape is available in a selection of strengths, lengths, widths and colours. The choice is yours, but make certain it is strong enough to hold the box together.

Best Value Postage Scales from Inscale

To ensure your holiday shipping runs smoothly, Inscale offers many types of parcel and postage scale that can facilitate the shipping process for retail businesses during the upcoming shopping season:

IBW Portable Bench Scale*

The Inscale IBW portable bench scale offers quick weighing, with simple six-key operation and colour-coded keys for easy operation. The large back-lit display is easy to read and clearly shows weight and weighing units that are being used. A built-in rechargeable battery allows the IBW to be used anywhere without the need for external power sources. Built-in checkweighing and parts counting features allow operators to carefully track and record the weights of multiple identical products to ensure they remain a consistent weight.

CPWplus Weighing Scale

Simple to operate and versatile, the CPWplus series of weighing scales includes bench scales, platform scales and wheeled scales. Models offer durable construction, and are available in a selection of stainless steel platform sizes. CPWplus is suited for many types of weighing on the loading dock or in shipping and receiving areas.

IPS Parcel Scales

IPS parcel scales are specially designed for weighing parcels in home businesses and shipping departments alike. They are extremely well priced and are perfect for users who are simply looking to gain a reliable, estimated weight value for packages prior to posting.

If you need any further help with our selection of postage scale, please contact us by phone (01908972660) or Get In Touch.

Related Blogs:

Using Counting Scales for End-of-Year Stocktaking

Inscale's Guide to Postal Scales

Inscale's Guide to Finding the Best Counting Scales

*Unavailable as of 2023