The buyer's experience of your store is almost entirely the parcel. They watched a show or read a listing, and then nothing happened for several days, and then a box arrived. The box is the product as far as memory is concerned.
The gap nobody owns by accident
Between the moment of winning and the moment of opening there is a stretch of days where the buyer can do nothing and knows nothing. They have paid. They are waiting.
That gap belongs to the seller, and it is filled either with information or with doubt. There is no third option — a silent week is not neutral, it is a week of wondering.
What filling it actually costs
Marking it dispatched when you dispatch it, not when you get round to the admin. The buyer's screen is their only window.
Adding the tracking number. This is the single cheapest thing on this page and the one most often skipped. A posted parcel with no tracking is marked delivered after 7 days whether it arrived or not, which is a worse record for you than the truth.
One sentence if something slips. A seller who says "the courier did not collect today, it goes tomorrow" has a patient buyer. A seller who says nothing has a buyer opening a dispute.
Then the box itself
Packing is not protection, it is the first impression. Those are different jobs and the second one is free once you are doing the first.
The item should not move. Nothing should be in contact with the outer wall. Anything that can scratch anything else should be separated. That is most of it.
What costs nothing and is remembered: the item wrapped rather than loose, the box the right size rather than enormous, and a line of writing. Not a printed card — a sentence saying what the thing is and thanking them. People photograph those.
What is remembered badly: a reused box with somebody else's label still on it, newspaper against fabric, a fragile thing in a jiffy bag.
The arithmetic
A return costs you the item, the postage both ways, and the standing. Fifteen rupees of packing against that is not a cost, it is the cheapest insurance available to a seller.
And the buyer who opens a good parcel is the one who comes back, which is worth more than the sale that produced it.
Who owns a courier's mistake
Practically, you do, in the buyer's mind, because you chose the courier and you packed the box. That is not entirely fair and it is entirely true. The seller who treats it as the courier's problem has a buyer who treats it as the store's problem.
Questions people ask
Can I charge the buyer for packing?
Build it into the delivery price rather than adding it as a surprise. A delivery price that does not cover your materials is coming out of your own margin.
Is it worth buying proper materials for a few orders a month?
A roll of bubble wrap and a box of the right size outlast a lot of orders. The breakage you avoid pays for it the first time.
What if the buyer says it arrived damaged and I packed it well?
Photograph what you pack before it goes. It takes ten seconds and it is the only evidence that exists.
More: how to pack an order, how things should be packed, packing collectibles, repeat buyers.