Congratulations! You’ve sold an item, now you need to ship it…
While you can buy boxes and other shipping supplies straight from Amazon to ship your item(s), you also have places you can get free shipping supplies!
Did you know you can get boxes and other free shipping supplies from USPS, UPS, and FedEx?
These three companies offer free boxes and other various shipping supplies for using their services. For example, if you’re shipping a package via UPS, they will give you boxes, labels, and label pouches for free!
In this guide, we will show you how to get free boxes and other supplies from these 3 companies, plus other places you can find free shipping supplies around your town.
Contents
Why Do Usps, UPS, and FedEx Give You Free Shipping Supplies?
The major delivery companies do this in an attempt to gain your business. They figure if they give you the shipping supplies for free, then you’ll use their services to ship your items. Getting free supplies works out great for you if you’re already planning to use their services anyway!
How Do You Get Free Shipping Supplies From The USPS?
To get free shipping supplies from USPS, head over to USPS’s website and select the items you need. While the supplies are free, you’ll need to have a USPS account to order them. Luckily this is also FREE! Click Here to be taken to the USPS account registration page if you don’t already have an account.
USPS offers a variety of free shipping supplies. Below is a breakdown of the supplies they offer.
- Boxes
- Usps offer boxes in multiple sizes. We recommend getting one of their Variety Packs to start with. This pack allows you to see the boxes’ dimensions and determine which ones would best fit your business’s shipping needs. They also offer specialty boxes such as ShoeBox and DVD size boxes to ship those types of items.
- Custom Form Envelopes. These are a must-have if you plan on shipping your items internationally. They are large plastic pouch that is large enough (10-1/4in x 7-1/4in) to put all of the necessary customs paperwork needed to ship internationally.
- Envelopes – USPS offers flat-rate envelopes and padded flat-rate envelopes. These are great for shipping items such as clothing, books, and other non-fragile items.
How Do You Get Free Supplies From UPS?
If you ship on Amazon or use Amazon’s FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) program, this should be a no brainer. Amazon gets a deep discount on shipping, due to the fact they ship so much using UPS.
To get your free shipping supplies from UPS, you’ll need a free UPS account. If you don’t have one Click Here to be taken to UPS’ registration page. Once you have an account, go to UPS.com and log in.
From the top menu, Click shipping -> More Shipping Options, then at the bottom of the list click Order Supplies.
- Labels
- 320 – 4″ x 6″ thermal labels in a roll. These are useful for thermal printers like the Zebra TLP 2844 or the DYMO LabelWriter 4XL (Disclaimer: Those are affiliate links). This roll won’t fit inside the printer, but you can feed the labels through the back. The beautiful thing is that you can print for free since you get the labels for free, and you don’t need ink.
- 940 – 4″ x 6″ thermal labels in a roll. These are the same as the previous thermal labels, but significantly more of them.
- 50 – 2 label peel and stick labels (5.5″ x 8″). These sheets measure the size of a regular piece of printer paper (8.5″ x 11″), so they can fit in standard laser and inkjet printers with no issues.
- Pouches
- 50 – 6.5″ x 10″ Address Pouches. These pouches can fit a normal 5.5″ x 8″ sheet of paper. If you don’t use the peel and stick labels mentioned above and instead just print on normal sheets of paper (then cut them in half), these pouches can hold those labels. The whole backside is sticky for easy attachment to your boxes.
How Do You Get Free Supplies From FedEx?
To get your free FedEx shipping supplies goto FedEx’s website. Order free supplies from FedEx, head to their online store. You will need a FedEx login, but you can sign-up for free here, if you don’t already have an account.
FedEx Offers a lot of free shipping supplies. Here are a few shipping supply highlights that FedEx Offers:
- Labels
- 200-2000 – Laser Labels (5.5″ x 8″). These labels are exactly the same as the peel and stick labels that UPS offers, besides the fact that they have FedEx branding on them.
- 300-3000 – 5″ Thermal Labels. – Again, these are the same style of labels that UPS offers.
- Pouches
- 50-500 – International Thermal Label Pouches – By now I’m sure you can guess, these are the same pouches UPS offers. The advantage of getting them from FedEx is the quantity you can order at one time.
Other Places to Find Shipping Supplies
Office Supply Stores
If you just sold an item and can’t wait for boxes to arrive in the mail, office supply stores may be a solution.
Stores such as Office Depot/OfficeMax and Staples carry a wide variety of shipping supplies such as boxes, labels, bubble wrap, etc.
Amazon.Com
Need a specialty box? or a size that’s not available? Amazon will likely have what you’re looking for. You can stock up on supplies easily using Amazon.com
They also have a business account you can sign up for that gives you a discount on certain business items.
Open an Amazon Business Account
Conclusion
As mentioned above, if you use FBA, you’re more than likely going to utilize the free supplies UPS offers. That being said, it’s still very helpful to have free products available from FedEx and USPS when you have to ship out eBay products and other items. After all, free shipping materials greatly help your bottom line!
