Thanks for submitting us @alexisohanian! We've added Poly Mailers to our lineup as it's been by far the most requested product by our customers.
We think they'll be a great complementary item to our boxes with their cheaper cost, lighter weight to ship, and general versatility.
While most suppliers have 10k unit minimum orders for Poly Mailers, we, namely @chase_ortega, have been searching the nation to find quality suppliers to do volumes as low as 25.
We've also applied the concept of "crowd-batching," as well as a 100% designable online interface to our Poly Mailers, which made our boxes so popular at their cost.
Now that we're all set up, we'd love to hear your feedback. Our size and colors are somewhat limited now, but we'll ramp up quickly! We promise!
And a little about Pakible.com, we graduated YC in W'15 and have been focusing hard on mainly our boxes. We've shipped to over 1400 customers, and have done packaging for companies like Soylent, Twitter, and Samsung. We think Poly Mailers are the next step! Thanks!
Have been following Pakible for a while now. All products look spot on!
Questions to makers:
1. You were talking about poly mailers since the beginning. Was there a reason you launched them only now?
2. Is communication/making deals with manufacturers one of your biggest challenges?
3. Where do you imagine the packaging industry will be in the next 3 to 5 years?
4. Any thoughts on expanding to UK (or Europe in general)?
@vytasbu Appreciate the kind words and the questions. Thanks for the support!
1. Like you said, people have been asking forever. We've gotten to a point where our internal processes on boxes (preparing boxes for manufacturing, customer support, shipping) have been streamlined and even automated to a point, which has opened up some bandwidth. Thus, here we are!
2. Definitely. In an industry that is archaic and un-transparent as packaging, there is no Yelp for our industry. We've gotten samples from literally dozens of manufacturers to find the right ones who mix great quality and cost to bring our customers. Many manufacturers are family-run businesses with websites from the 90's, have never heard of an online customizer or crowd-batching, so finding the ones who are open-minded and think long term is key.
3. I hope that it'll be as easy posting on Thumbtack, or getting a project sourced on Upwork/Freelancer. Essentially, a very transparent but open marketplace, efficient, and in the 20th century. In fact, I hope it gets there, much quicker than 3-5 years, hopefully < 1.
4. We have thought about it, but the US packaging industry is alone a $100B industry. With Saas companies, it's easier to distribute horizontally, but with tangible products, with lining up manufacturers and logistics, it's a bit tough. Even if we used our domestic and some overseas manufacturers, boxes and bags are much heavier than people think which can make shipping difficult. That being said, we have shipped internationally on larger orders, and we'll take it on a case by case basis.
Thanks again for the questions!!!
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