Shipping supplies come in all shapes, sizes, and materials, and a number of online shipping supply dealers carry a wide selection. We looked at the most popular options and rising stars and decided to review Uline, Packaging Supplies, Shipping Supply, and eSupplyStore. These cover the range of options in terms of selection, pricing, shipping, and customer service.
If you’re handling order fulfillment yourself, you’ll need to be familiar with a range of shipping supplies. Once you’re ready to ship, you’ll need a shipping software, like Stamps.com, to send your orders out. Stamps.com makes it easy to fulfill your own orders by providing a free shipping scale, automatically importing your orders and emailing tracking information to your customers. Click here to start a 4 week trial and get $5 in free postage.
Best Shipping Supplies Source For Small Businesses: Uline
We chose Uline as the best source for shipping supplies for small businesses because they have the best selection, good base pricing with generous volume discounts, 8 nationwide warehouses to ensure the fastest possible shipping, and highly praised customer service.
Best Shipping Supplies: Uline vs. Alternatives
| Selection & Product Search | ||||
| Prices on test products | ||||
| Shipping Cost (test order detailed below) | (1 day) | (2 days) | (2 days) | (3 days) |
| Returns | ||||
| Customer Service | ||||
| Customizable Products | ||||
Uline
eSupply Store
Packaging Supplies
Shipping SupplyBest Shipping Supplies Source for Small Businesses: Uline
Uline has the best selection of shipping supplies, plus carries anything you could possibly need to run a shipping operation and warehouse. Of our 4 contenders, the Uline website was the easiest to use, followed by Shipping Supply and eShipping Store, with Packaging Supplies’ antiquated website taking last place for website ease-of-use.
Of the 4, Uline carries the largest variety of boxes, mailers, envelopes, and fill materials. The Uline website’s “search by dimension” feature makes it very easy to navigate the huge selection and find exactly what you’re looking for. Uline also has the most custom branding options, including labels, retail bags, tissue paper and packing tape that you can special order with your company logo or other branding. This is ideal if you want to create a branded unboxing experience or launch a subscription box company. Of our 4, only Shipping Supply also offers customized labels, but none offers custom-printed shipping boxes.
As far as pricing goes, Uline is neither the cheapest nor most expensive, however, it has 8 nationwide warehouses, so chances are there’s a Uline within 1-2 shipping days from your location. That helps cut down on shipping costs plus speeds up delivery times compared to our other contenders. In fact, most orders arrive in just 1 day to many US locations.
Uline is the only shipping supplies dealer to offer 24/7 customer support, and if you order in volume they assign you a service rep who can negotiate even lower prices for you. In researching reviews of Uline, even those who complained of receiving damaged or incorrect orders spoke highly of the customer service, saying they were personable and helpful, which has been our experience, too.
In-Depth Review: Uline vs. Packaging Supplies, Shipping Supplies vs. eSupply Store
Shipping Supplies Selection & Product Search
All 4 or our top shipping supplies sources sell boxes, envelopes, bubble mailers, tape, labels, peanuts, bubble wrap, and plenty more. Of the 4, Uline has the best selection, with Shipping Supply being a close runner-up. Both offer many different styles of boxes and packing materials as well as a vast array of warehouse supplies.
Shipping Supplies Prices
We compared the prices of our 4 contenders across a variety of common shipping supplies such as padded envelopes, boxes and mailers, and packing materials. There’s no clear cheapest-across-the-board winner when it comes to shipping supplies, so it’s a good idea to price-shop to find the cheapest supplier for your specific needs.
Here’s how our 4 contenders stack up in a price comparison of 5 common shipping supplies.
Shipping Supplies Quick Price Comparison
| Kraft Bubble Envelope 6”x10” | ||||
| Small White Mailer Box 11x8x4 | (closest match 12x6x4) | |||
| Average Shipping Box 14x14x10 | ||||
| Recycled Peanuts 20 cu. ft. bag | ||||
| Small-cell Bubble Wrap 1’ by 175’ Roll | (min 4 rolls) | (min 4 rolls) |
Shipping Costs
Shipping costs add up fast with bulky shipping supplies. If you order in small batches, shipping can easily double your costs since these orders ship via UPS or FedEx ground. If you ship regularly, you can save money on shipping supplies over time if you order in bulk to take advantage of freight discounts vs regular ground shipping.
All 4 provide real-time shipping estimates online before you ever enter your payment information or complete your sale, so you always know what you’re paying up-front. Here’s a look at our shipping costs on a test order.
Shipping Supplies Shipping Cost Comparison
| Test Order: 75 14x14x10 boxes shipping to Houston, Texas | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shipping Cost & Delivery Time to our location | (1 day) | (2 days) | (2 days) | (3 days) |
Order Returns
Everything with Uline is easy, including returns. All 4 contenders accept returns, but you will pay the return shipping unless they made a shipping error on your order. Because shipping supplies can be rather bulky, returns can cost more than your actual order, so keep that in mind when considering a return.
Customer Service
Each of our 4 contenders offers both phone and email support, but Uline’s 24/7 customer service blows the competition away if you need fast answers at any time.
The Bottom Line
Between the wide selection, sleek website and praised customer service, we feel you’re likely to have the best shopping experience on Uline for packaging supplies. The cheaper and faster shipping options are the icing on the cake. But, if you need specific products, you can find cheaper shipping supplies with different suppliers, so always price-shop for your specific needs.
Plus, if you’re geographically close to one versus the others, actual shipping rates can make them the cheapest option.
Where do you get your shipping supplies from? Uline or another supplier? We’d love to hear who works best for you in the comments below.
Doug Byrom
Uline can be hard to compete with because of their size but for people looking for an alternative that actually has lower prices and can provide custom products, give Crosscorpusa.com a shot. Three locations in midwest and east coast make shipping comparable. Folks on the west coast might find shipping a bit high.
Krista Fabregas
Hi Doug,
Thanks for adding another alternative for readers to check out.
Cheers!
Krista
mark horgan
I must say one of the things Uline does very well is their online website. I work for Pacific Packaging Products, we are the largest independent packaging distributor and New England and one of the largest in the United States. We’re not only a packaging distributor: Pacific is a master convertor and manufacturer, that prints, die cuts, fabricates, slits and sheets virtually all types of packaging material, enabling Pacific customers to get exactly what they want in flexible quantities. If you have any questions or would like a quote on any product (especially if your buying from Uline) you can contact me at mhorgan@pacificpkg.com thank you.
Krista Fabregas
We’ll take a look at your site. Always interested in seeing who offers what – and specialty packaging is one thing we love here! Cheers, Krista
Sarah
Hi Patrick!
My company uses Royal Mailers https://www.royalmailers.com/home.php
I have found them to be significantly cheaper than other companies like Uline, but the quality is still there. I think they manufacture their products, so that would make sense. We are located in California and we get our products the next day! Free shipping too- which is much better than other companies I’ve found. The only problem we’ve ever had was one time we received products that looked pretty beat and damaged in transit. I called their customer service and they sent out my replacements that day!
I recommend checking them out.
Jeremy Marsan
Hi Sarah — thanks for dropping in! Prices from royalmailers are slightly higher in lower quantities, but the free shipping is likely to make up for that.
Patrick
I’ve been using Uline for 10+ years and I hate them. I started way back when they offered free shipping for orders above $300 and I was able to keep that even when they changed their policy. Sounds great right?
One, their customer service sucks. Over and over and over I’m contacted them about larger orders and how I simply cannot have an 18 wheeler Con Way freight truck deliver to my location. They tell me 1)there’s nothing they can do 2)Con Way doesn’t use big trucks (they DO and always have when I’ve used them) or 3)I can simply pay a surcharge for UPS. When I told them their web site doesn’t show a surcharge, it shows the full price (typically several hundred dollars on large orders) they snarkily implied it wasn’t their problem. When I have bitten the bullet and had the shipment via Con way I typically have numerous items damaged and I have to deal with reporting it back to Uline.
And last but not least for me, Uline is owned by a right wing family that supports Trump. It was right there in their last catalog. Since I’m assuming you folks don’t want a political rant I’ll stop there. But buyers should know who they’re giving their money to – a family that supports Trump.
These aren’t my only gripes with Uline, but they’re the easiest to explain.
I wish I could find a company that had comparable prices. I use Jiffy Rigi Mailers and the cheapest I’ve found so far compared to Uline is bisonoffice.com which has free shipping, but their prices are about $15 to $20 more expensive per item purchased in bulk. That can mean about $100 on a typical order. I would love to stop using Uline, but I’ve yet to find a company to replace them with.
Jamie Schnur
Uline does a great job at stocking items. Their website is great also, especially for me when Im comparing their prices everyone is paying to the same items I sell. They’re prices are very high. Sometimes I do find an item that I just can not compete with price wise but its usually something a customer would buy once.
We are a 100+ year old independent Paper distributor on the east coast. We also supply packing and shipping supplies, jan san products, office supplies and toner. We deliver freight free on our own trucks if you’re within our service area from P.A down the east coast to S.C. We buy direct from Sealed Air that makes the Jiffy Rigi Mailers. Our advantage is we pick up from their plant which saves us on freight and stop off charges. The only time we would charge shipping is if you weren’t in our service area. Freight is freight no way around it. Anyone advertising free freight has it built into the price. The seller isn’t getting free shipping costs from an LTL carrier, FedX or UPS. Free freight just sounds nice. Uline does offer free shipping over a certain dollar amount. Reason is they have enough profit in that $800 order to cover it and the cost of the free gift with their name on it. Hence the word “free” again. Its not free. You’ve paid for it in the cost of the items you’re buying. We dont have a snazzy website to browse every single item we offer. What we have is experienced sales reps at your fingertips and customer service. A box is a box all we need is a size color and weight. We cross reference Uline item numbers also. Contact me if you’d like a quote and Id be happy to give you something to compare. Thanks. bwwilson.com
Krista Fabregas
Hi Jamie,
Thanks four input. You’re right — you can find lower costs that Uline elsewhere and it’s always good to shop around. But I do compare their right column pricing because any commercial buyer quickly qualifies for that (generally) — left column is crazy high.
Cheers!
Krista
Kari
I order from Uline monthly. Anywhere from $200-$700. My shipping has been between $70-$150. I agree ULINE has the best quality. For me it arrives in 2 days and usually I’m ordering when I run out of something so I need it ASAP.
So because shipping usually cost the same for one or 20 things I order more. I purchase the larger boxes so everything comes freight. ULINE has the best customer service. I actually have a Rep coming down next week to meet with me and see if she can better serve my company.
Leonnardo Singleton
Try Rylex Packaging Supply, they have 10% off this month. Code SAV10. They have a large amount of products in stock and ship items really fast like Uline. They have fulfillment warehouse in Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania and California. Pricing is comparable and or less on many items. The quality of the boxes is very good, not those cheap flimsy ones.
Krista Fabregas
Always a good idea for shippers to have several suppliers on the list to compare pricing and find unique packaging. Thanks for reading and commenting! Cheers, Krista
Krista Fabregas
I agree! Can’t beat free freight on $300 or more. And how about the free gifts? I filled half my Christmas list some years with their NFL hoodies!