Help Your Customers Select the Right Corrugated Mailers and Poly Mailers

When you help your customers choose the right corrugated mailers or poly mailers, you can provide significant cost efficiencies for their business. The correct mailers also provide safety and security for the items they ship and store and communicate a commitment to quality and sustainability to their customers.

Know Your Mailers. Advise Your Customers. Build Loyalty

Many great mailer options are available. By having a detailed knowledge of their uses and benefits you can become a trusted source for quality products and expert advice for your customers.
 
Two of the primary types of mailers are corrugated and polyethylene (poly). Many businesses stock both corrugated mailers and poly mailers as both offer several advantages in a wide range of applications.

What Are Corrugated Mailers?

Corrugated mailers consist of an inner layer (fluting) of cushioning material that helps absorb shocks and impacts, and outer layers (liners) that provide additional protection and sturdiness. Together, the rugged construction creates mailers that are very reliable, especially during high-stress times of picking, packing, shipping, and storage. Corrugated mailers are available in a variety of shapes, sizes, and formats. Colors are usually white or kraft; choices include easy-fold, side-loading, outside-tuck, and more.

Advantages of Corrugated Mailers

Corrugated mailing boxes offer rigid and sturdy packaging with exceptional strength, durability, and protection. Their construction and versatility make them a great choice for safely packaging fragile, odd-shaped, or otherwise challenging products to ship and store. Overall, because corrugated mailers have a firm structure that holds its shape, they are:

• Durable — they reduce or eliminate damage, especially during rough shipping conditions.
• Stackable — they are reliable under pressure and can maximize storage space by stacking neatly.
• Capable — they are ideal for fragile or heavyweight items as they preserve the integrity of contents.

Beneficial Options for Corrugated Mailers

• Shippers can choose corrugated mailers with convoluted foam inserts that provide a protective top and bottom cushioned cocoon for fragile items or items with accessories that need to stay organized.
• For extra ease of use, they can also select fold-over designs, front outside tab-tuck closures, and mailers scored at multiple depths (including small and jumbo) for size flexibility.
• Corrugated carrying cases can include convenient plastic carrying handles inserted into the case.
• Other mailer options include triangle mailing tubes and square mailing tubes.

Best Uses of Corrugated Mailers

The variety of shapes, sizes, and closures make corrugated mailers an excellent choice to accommodate items, including delicate electronics, books/publications, fragile glassware and crafts, and heavy-duty industrial components.

What Are Poly Mailers?

Poly mailers are lightweight, strong, and flexible. They are made from polyethylene film and are known for their durability and moisture-resistant properties, making them an excellent choice for shipping items that don't require the cushioning provided by bubble mailers or the rigidity of corrugated boxes. Available in various sizes and colors, they offer businesses considerable cost savings by reducing shipping dimensional and weight costs and maximizing storage space.

Advantages of Poly Mailers

Most poly mailers are moisture and puncture-resistant. Some also have easy-open tear strips. In addition to being available in clear and white colors, customers can choose attention-grabbing shades of black, blue, red, yellow, pink, and more.

Beneficial Options for Poly Mailers

• Bubble-lining provides outstanding protection for semi-fragile and low-profile items.
• Peel-and-stick lips deliver a secure, tamper-evident closure.
• Wide openings make product insertion easy.
• Gusseted construction allows for extra room for bulky or irregularly shaped items.
• A double set of self-seal strips makes returning easy for your customer.
• Opaque poly mailers provide privacy while clear mailers showcase contents.
• Perforations make opening easy, too.

Best Uses of Poly Mailers

Poly mailers are more appropriate for flexible items such as clothing, textiles, other soft goods, paper products, and lightweight, non-breakable items. Other frequent uses include auto/industrial parts, publications, promotional items, prescriptions, medical supplies, and cellphone/computer accessories.

Expert Tips

• To deliver the best customer experience, evaluate quality, specific usage, and cost options when choosing between a corrugated mailer and a poly mailer.
• When helping customers select mailing materials, encourage them to consider aspects including strength, size, type of closure, shipping and storage conditions, ease of use for their customers, and security/tamper-evident.
• Sustainability and eco-commitments are important, but evaluating the environmental friendliness of corrugated mailers vs. poly mailers is complicated. All materials have advantages, but a general strategy is to look for mailers with higher recycled content and use of post-consumer waste.

We Are Trusted Partners

Remember, every time you assist your customers with product decisions, you are providing a valuable service, being a trusted partner, and building loyalty. Similarly, BOX is the trusted partner you can count on committed to Helping YOU Sell Packaging®. If you need assistance choosing the best mailers for your customer's needs, we're here to help. Just contact your dedicated BOX account manager or call 800-806-2636.