Packaging and Postage Costs for Postal Bakes
Letterbox vs parcel formats, food-grade inner packaging, and how to fold postage into a price. Links to the brownie calculator.
The short answer
Packaging is a per item cost and belongs inside the price. Postage is a per parcel cost and should be added before your margin, not after, or it comes straight out of what you keep. Both are routinely underestimated because they are bought in bulk and used one at a time.
Step by step
- Cost packaging per item. Divide the pack price by the pack quantity. A £24 box of 50 postal boxes is 48p a box, and you need one per order, not one per batch.
- Include everything in the parcel. Outer box, inner board, void fill, tape, label and any card. They add up faster than the box alone suggests.
- Use the real courier rate for the packed weight. Weigh a made up parcel rather than guessing. A brownie box tips into the next band easily.
- Add postage before the margin. Postage added after the margin is postage you paid for yourself.
- Decide about free postage deliberately. Free postage is fine if it is built into the price. Free postage that is genuinely free is a discount on every order.
What a posted brownie box actually costs
A twelve piece box sent by tracked 48 hour courier.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Postal box | £0.48 |
| Inner board and void fill | £0.22 |
| Tape, label and thank-you card | £0.15 |
| Courier, tracked 48 at 1kg | £3.49 |
| Total packaging and postage | £4.34 |
| Added before a 60% margin, it needs | £10.85 of price |
Charging a flat £3.95 postage on that order leaves you 39p short before a single brownie is counted, and the margin you thought you were making on the brownies is quietly funding the courier.
Why it matters
Postage is the cost most often bolted on at the end, after the margin has been calculated, which is exactly the wrong order. Treating it as a real cost inside the price is the difference between postal orders being profitable and being a favour.