Why you Shouldn’t Single Source your Packaging

Before the last couple of years, single sourcing your packaging is something that seemed to have worked. But now? Not so much. With the pandemic still happening and people still being shut down in certain parts of the world, it’s a big issue for some people who have been doing the single-source packaging. While single sourcing is great because it’s simple, you’re just dealing with one type of location, you’re going to run into a few issues. 

The pandemic and Shutdowns 

There was something that we saw with the Covid-19 pandemic that we probably hadn’t seen before. 

That is shutdowns. The pandemic shutdowns are something which happened in 2020, and some places in 2021 are still shut down. What this means is, some suppliers are not allowed to work as the government and other institutions work to contain the virus that’s there. So for you as an ecommerce businesses these shutdowns can impact the shipping. It also impacts the global supply chain, which means that the supply is affected not just because of you as a supplier, but also in terms of the overall big picture. 

These shutdowns do create problems for some people, since if they were relying on a singular type of supplier, this eventually does cause a bit of an issue. So if you’re someone who was desperately trying to make sure that they didn’t miss out on something, then they definitely will notice this over time with the global supply chain disruption. For those who have focused on single-source supplying, this is where the problems lie. Why? Because it oftentimes means that there is a chance that the packaging supplier may be shut down for an indefinite period of time, causing disruptions eventually throughout all of this. What’s the best thing for you to do at this point? What can you then accomplish with all of this? Well, the best thing to do is to do an assessment of everything, and ten go from there. 

The Importance of an Assessment 

Assessing each of the different areas is really important for your ability to handle the supply still, so you’re not caught with your pants down on this. 

For example, if you do a QA check on everything and notice differs facets of the supply, it could eventually mean that you’re going to be struggling with the state of everything.

But of course, if you’re noticing as well as you do all of this that there is definitely some alternatives out there, you can definitely benefit from it. 

And you should make sure that if you’re using email, or other slower communication tools, you start to look for ways for immediate sorts of handling and such. So if you know for a fact that there is a problem with how much you’re getting, or maybe there is immediate communication of another shutdown, you can handle it immediately before it gets worse. 

Just remember to look at your options. A lot of people have worked to this point without really looking at the alternatives, the bigger picture, and whatnot. But by doing this now, you’ll be able to build with time a whole lot of better efforts as well for you and your business. 

Understanding and assessing the important factors of each part of your businesses and look for a way for you to make sure that you’re looking for supplier alternatives can help you improve the state of things, help you with better handling everything, and makes it easier for you to properly handle everything as it comes along, and the pandemic continues.