Shipping damage can cost companies an excess of 10% in profits

Yes, it is estimated that 1 out of every 10 packages are returned due to shipping damage! These numbers are not made up. This is a report that is generated by the shipping giants USPS, FedEx, and UPS. 1 out of 10… That’s 10%! Not including the cost involved in returns and re-shipments, as well as customer dissatisfaction. Talk about shock and awe!

Cost of Doing Business!

This is a cost that companies routinely accept as doing business. If these companies spent some time with a packaging expert, shipping damage cost could almost be non-existent. For pennies to a couple of dollars, most products could be protected down to less than 1% of a shipping damage rate.

ROI (Return of Investment)

Along with other organizations including several Fortune 500 companies, Zebco has performed cost analysis of all types of shipping and manufacturing issues, and in the process have saved companies hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. One company that Zebco designed a packaging solution for, went from a 90% shipping failure rate to a 0% shipping failure rate.

This company was shipping replacement windshields. They were crating them and doing so as to what they deemed appropriate, yet 9 out of 10 windshields arrived damage. Yes, they paid a little extra for a comprehensive fully designed shipping crate, but the cost savings more than justified the extra cost they put into the new shipping container.

Customer’s Perception affect their reviews and other customers

Manufactures fail to understand the customer’s perception of shipping damage. Once a customer purchases an item, they consider it theirs! That’s right! So when a customer receives their damaged item, you can imagine their disappointment. How many one star reviews have you read associating shipping damage to dissatisfaction with the product. Yet they have not used the product, the review was generated by a frustrated customer.

A recent article pointed to a fact that hundreds of customers were disappointed with their purchases of a expensive Gaming Console. These items were purchased thru a major online retailer and received damaged. They were bubble wrapped and covered in shipping peanuts. Reviews were left by some of these customers that were very negative. Other customers who read the reviews were affected in such a way that they probably purchased the same consoles from a big box store.

Three things ultimately resulted from this. One, customers were disappointed with both gaming and retailing companies; two, costs were absorbed by both companies to replace these consoles; and three, other customers perception of both companies were negative and this affected the future purchase of these products. Plus, it is almost guaranteed that the wrap and peanuts used in shipping, were not of the anti-static versions.

Zebco does more than provide shipping foam and sometimes, just for pennies a carton.

We design a total comprehensive package that will keep your product safe from damage. We understand your product, the nature of it… glass, plastic, electronic, assembled, cold, hot, and customize a packaging solution that guarantees a reduction in shipping damage. After all, we’ve been doing this since 1968! Plus, it is not as expensive as you think! We may be able to just tweak a design we already have in our systems.

Some of the companies that we have helped reduce shipping damage have been so impressed with their savings that they tasked Zebco to design production racks and totes to keep their products safe during their assembly operations. This has helped in reducing assembly damage costs as well as increased production. Zebco does more than provide shipping foam! From crates, to cartons, to assembly racks and totes. give us a call and save some money!

Hello world!

Welcome to Zebco Industries new website. As you may have seen, we do not make fishing reels, although some folks have sent a couple to us to repair. We cheerfully send them back still broken, but wrapped in some of the best packaging they have ever seen. My name is Bill Cipparrone and I am the Sales and Marketing Manager here at Zebco. It is interesting to note that before I started working here I took packaging for granted. Some bubble wrap and peanuts and your all set, right?

Little did I know. Now, that I have had some exposure, I am fascinated by how many different ways there are to package something, each unique to what a company is trying to protect. From furniture to electronics, to assembly parts for washers and dryers, to headlights and driveshafts for automobiles and trucks. From biological cells to strawberry shortcake. You name it and there is a right way and a wrong way to package and protect it.

Now I find myself, not so much looking at the product that was shipped to me as to the packaging that held the product. Unwrapping a Christmas or Birthday present has a whole new meaning for me!

So enjoy this website, look around and take in all that we have to offer. If you have an idea, suggestion, or correction feel free to contact me at bill@zebcoindusties.com and thanks for checking in with us, even if you were looking for a fishing reel. I’d like to think that it was the packaging that kept that fishing reel safe that was the real treasure!

Check back with us often for more interesting blogs on the “Wonderful World of Packaging”.!