How we pack and ship our Whatnot orders (and tips to ship more efficiently)
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Summary
Ever wonder what happens after you win a bundle on one of our Whatnot lives? Grab a coffee and pack 43 orders (that's 108 items by hand!) with me while I walk you through the exact packing-and-shipping system we've dialed in over years of late nights. If you're still taping printer paper to boxes, consider this your sign to stop.
- Why a 4x6 thermal label printer is a total game-changer — print, peel, slap, ship.
- The stacking trick that makes Whatnot labels assembly-line perfectly with your orders, so you never have to rewatch video receipts.
- How we quality-control handmade and vintage items before they ship (and when "as-is" is totally fair game).
- Little love notes, same-day shipping, and double-bagging the fragile and international orders so they survive the postal cage match.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the video.
Hi, I'm Sami. You have time to waste, I'm here to waste it. Pack some orders with me while I yap about our shipping process and give you some tips for making your shipping process go a little smoother. Today, we're packing 43 orders. That's 108 items by hand. It's just me and my beautiful bride and, you know, our label printer, a [expletive] ton of tape, and the love of Christ himself.
We have really dialed in our system over the past few years because honestly we had a lot of late nights. Now it moves much quicker. So first things first, start with labels. If you are still taping printer paper to boxes, you are wasting so much of your time. A 4x6 laser label printer literally changed our lives. Now it's just print, peel, slap, ship. You're done. 10 out of 10, would recommend. Here's a tip: when we're doing our Whatnot live shows, we keep our orders in stacks. We have a branded sticker on the top of each pile with their name written on the back. We keep those stacks in order of when they purchased — first order is at the front of the line, last order is at the end. Whatnot labels print in that same order, so after the show when you print them, you are just assembly-lining straight down and everything matches up. You don't have to watch all the video receipts to see what you should put in each box. It saves so much time.
For things that we sell on our website, my handmade items, they get a little extra love. We pull them off the rack and quality-control each one. They always get a little snip for those loose threads, but sometimes I've got to bring them downstairs and do some real work — finish seams or fix flaws, little things I didn't notice in the moment when I was making it. I really want to spend the time to make the things right because the repairs now are free, but returns are not free and I'm trying to avoid those. Even for our vintage items, I like to clean up the loose threads and fix the little stuff. If it's a clearance show or a fresh-finds show, baby, you are getting that [expletive] as-is. But whenever you spend more, I want to make sure you're getting your money's worth where I can. Also just wiping down things that are dusty, lint rolling, the usual. But if you're doing constant clearance, then maybe you don't want to offer that, and that's fine too.
With the handmade items, everybody gets a note because I am so grateful. Truly, you're supporting my art — that's insane. You're getting a little love note from me. A shipping label is not going to say what I want to say, which is thank you. Holy [expletive], thank you.
Another little tip: lay out your poly mailers and labels for every single order before you ever seal anything up. One label per mailer, down the line. Match it up, because expensive things happen when you make mistakes, okay? It adds up. Everything's matched up to its label and then — shazam — we're sealing them up and getting them out the door. We try to ship everything same day or the next morning at the very latest because honestly, we don't want your stuff in our house. We want it in your hands. So take it, please.
A few other little things. If it's a very expensive order, or if it's international, we like to double-bag those and tape them double, triple secure, because our girl the postal system sometimes puts these packages into cage matches — they really go through the ringer before they get to you. We want them to arrive safely.
To recap: get a fast printer, sticker labels are so much easier, keep things in order and organized during your live shows, take care of the things before you send them out, show gratitude where you can, and find a process that works for you. Let me know what you're doing. And as always, like and subscribe, follow and bookmark and do all of those things. Links for some of the stuff that I love are probably below. I love you. Thank you for watching. See you!
This is what's in those boxes
If you'd rather skip the live show and just shop, everything we pack up comes from the same two racks: handmade and upcycled one-of-ones sewn from vintage fabric, and true vintage from the 1940s through the 1990s. Same quality control, same love note, no bidding required.
New pieces go up in the Tuesday drop, and there's only ever one of each. Want to know before it goes live? Grab the "can we send you cool stuff?" signup at the bottom of this page, or come hang out with us on Whatnot.