The world of e-commerce is expanding – in more ways than you might realize. Today, items of all sizes can be purchased online and shipped straight to your customer’s home. And as the e-commerce market scales to meet international consumer demands you, the retailer, will find your shoppers placing larger and heavier items in their carts, increasing the distance their purchases must travel before reaching their final destinations and new homes. From small gizmos and gadgets to full-size furniture and other large products, every shopper’s dream purchase is but a click away. Simple for them, less so for you as an online shop owner – or so you may think. The fact is shipping large and heavy items can be quite a load for brands. But once you learn how to ship furniture and other larger purchases to shoppers around the world, you’ll find yourself wondering how you ever operated without this profit-driving strategy.

How to ship furniture and other large items

Step 1 – Locate purchases in your warehouse and determine their dimensions

Before you can settle on how you’ll package and ship your sold items, you will need to know exactly how large and heavy they are. Different shippers have different size and weight requirements. The larger and heavier the item is, the more likely it is that you will need to ship it via ocean freight. So, get your measuring tape ready and be sure to carefully mark down each item’s length, width, height and weight. These dimensions will also be necessary to determine exactly what your shipping costs will be.

Step 2 – Package large and heavy items for shipping

Larger and heavier products should be packaged differently than small items. They will be loaded and unloaded using heavy machinery, such as forklifts, as they make their way from warehouse to forwarder to ocean freight liner to ground delivery service to your customer’s front door. First, disassemble any furniture parts that can come apart, then crate your furniture or other large item in a thicker cardboard box, double box, wooden box, or crate. Wrap delicate areas, such as furniture arms and legs, with protective wrapping (bubble wrap) and stuff the rest of the box with styrofoam peanuts or sheets, for an added layer of protection. Then load your crated item onto a shipping palette and secure it with polypropylene strapping. You can purchase the strapping from shipping supply stores or order it online from a specialty e-retailer. Rugs and other large, pliable items can be rolled, secured shut with twine or bands and covered with thick plastic wrapping to protect it from shipping equipment, vehicles and the elements.

Step 3 – Determine the cheapest way to ship large items

When shipping large and heavy items, you will want to find the shipping service that combines experience, expertise and excellence – without having to shop around before shipping each individual item and without breaking the bank. You want to offer your buyer the cheapest way to ship furniture and other heavy items. You want Ladingo.

Ladingo is enabling e-commerce companies to fulfill international orders, by taking the hassle out of the international shipping of large items – through container sharing. Ladingo’s innovative platform connects online retailers, ocean freight forwarders and customers to enable the shipping of purchases of all shapes and sizes in shared containers. The platform knows how to optimally load the containers with existing purchases AND deal with regulation, customs and taxation issues, enabling the world of B2C e-commerce to have large items delivered to their front door, for cheaper.

Contact Ladingo and learn how you can sell big, ship big, and scale.

For more information, contact us!