To post a bottle, wrap it in several layers of bubble wrap or honeycomb paper, put it in a double wall cardboard box with about 50mm (2 inches) of space on every side, and fill that space until the bottle cannot move. Then seal every seam with tape, label the box, and check your carrier's rules on liquids, alcohol and compensation before you hand it over. You post a bottle the same way whether it holds wine, spirits, olive oil, hot sauce or shampoo.
This guide goes through the packaging for bottles one piece at a time: what you need, which box size suits which bottle, how to wrap it, how to pack it step by step, and how to seal and label the parcel. We sell plain boxes, wrap and fill, and we do not sell bottle boxes with dividers or moulded pulp bottle packs, so there is a section on when you should buy those from a specialist instead.
In This Guide
- Quick picks for posting a bottle
- What packaging for bottles do you need?
- What size box does a bottle need?
- How do you wrap a bottle for posting?
- How do you pack a bottle in a box, step by step?
- Should you buy bottle boxes or wine boxes with dividers?
- How should you seal and label a parcel with a bottle in it?
- How much bottle packaging should you buy, and what does it cost per parcel?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Quick picks for posting a bottle
One box, one wrap and one fill cover most single bottles and small mixed orders.
Best for the outer box
Double Wall Cardboard Boxes
Corrugated boxes with two layers of fluting, stiffer than single wall and suited to heavier and fragile goods.
- 11 sizes, 9 x 6 x 6" to 24 x 24 x 24"
- Sold per box, supplied flat
- Minimum 5 boxes for most sizes
From £0.59 ex VAT (£0.71 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView product
Best for wrapping the bottle
Small Bubble Wrap
10mm bubbles that sit close against the neck and shoulder of a bottle.
- 300mm or 500mm wide
- 100m per roll
- Sold one roll at a time
From £9.00 ex VAT (£10.80 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView product
Best for filling the gap
EcoFlo Biodegradable Packing Peanuts (5 Cubic Feet)
Loose fill that pours in and settles round an awkward shape such as a bottle.
- 5 cubic feet per bag
- White, blue or mixed colour
- Adds very little weight to the parcel
From £13.00 ex VAT (£15.60 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productWhat packaging for bottles do you need?
You need five things to post a bottle: something to seal the cap, a cushioning wrap, a stiff outer box, void fill for the space around the bottle, and tape and labels to close and mark the parcel. None of it is specialist kit, and the same setup works for a bottle of gin, a litre of olive oil or a glass bottle of bath oil. Only the box size changes.
| Job | What to use | What we stock |
|---|---|---|
| Stop the cap leaking | Tape over the cap or cork, then a sealed plastic bag round the bottle | Tape, yes. We do not stock grip seal bags, so use a freezer or food bag from home |
| Cushion the glass | Three or more turns of bubble wrap or honeycomb paper | Small bubble wrap, 300mm or 500mm x 100m. Honeycomb paper, 395mm or 500mm x 250m |
| Take the knocks | A double wall box about 100mm longer, wider and taller than the wrapped bottle | Double wall boxes in 11 sizes |
| Hold the bottle in the middle | Void fill under, round and over the bottle | EcoFlo packing peanuts in 5 cubic feet bags |
| Close the box | Tape along the centre seam and both edge seams, top and bottom | Fragile tape, 48mm wide, packs of 6 rolls |
| Mark the parcel | A fragile label on the top and on at least one side | Fragile labels, 89 x 32mm, 1000 per roll |
If you only send a bottle once or twice a year, you may not need to buy much at all. A clean, stiff box you already have, saved bubble wrap from a delivery and crumpled newspaper as fill will do the same job, as long as the box is in good shape and the bottle cannot move inside it. Buying by the roll and by the box makes sense once you post bottles regularly, because the cost per parcel drops and every parcel is packed the same way.
Check before you pack. Carriers set their own rules on liquids and on alcohol, and some will not carry them or will not pay compensation if they break. Read your carrier's current prohibited and restricted items list first.
What size box does a bottle need?
A bottle needs a box that is about 100mm longer, 100mm wider and 100mm taller than the bottle once it is wrapped, which gives you roughly 50mm (2 inches) of fill on every side. The gap is there to take the knocks. In a box that fits the bottle snugly, every knock on the cardboard goes straight into the glass. In a box that is far too big, you pay for more fill and more postage and the bottle has further to travel if the fill shifts.
Measure the bottle first: its height, and its width at the widest point. Many 75cl wine bottles stand around 300mm tall and 75 to 90mm across, but sparkling wine, tall spirit bottles and square decanter shapes vary a lot, so measure yours. Add about 20mm to each measurement for the wrap, then add 100mm to each for the fill. The result is the smallest internal box size to look for.
We would use a double wall box for any glass bottle. Double wall cardboard boxes have two layers of fluting, which makes the board stiffer than single wall and better at holding its shape under other parcels. They are sold per box from £0.59 ex VAT (£0.71 inc VAT), in sizes from 9 x 6 x 6" (229 x 152 x 152mm) up to 24 x 24 x 24" (610 x 610 x 610mm), with a minimum of 5 boxes for most sizes. The table below takes 100mm off each dimension to show the largest wrapped bottle each of the smaller sizes can take with 50mm of fill all round.
| Double wall box size (L x W x H) | Largest wrapped bottle with 50mm of fill on every side | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 9 x 6 x 6" (229 x 152 x 152mm) | About 129mm long and 52mm across | Miniatures, dropper bottles, small sauce and sample bottles |
| 12 x 9 x 9" (305 x 229 x 229mm) | About 205mm long and 129mm across | One short bottle lying down: toiletries, half bottles, small oils and sauces |
| 12 x 12 x 12" (305 x 305 x 305mm) | About 205mm in each direction | One short, wide bottle or jar standing up, or two small bottles with wrap between them |
| 18 x 12 x 11" (457 x 305 x 279mm) | About 357mm long, 205mm wide and 179mm high | One full size wine or spirit bottle lying down, or two slim bottles side by side with padding between |
| 18 x 18 x 18" (457 x 457 x 457mm) | About 357mm in each direction | Tall bottles standing up, or several bottles each wrapped separately |
A single full size wine bottle fits the 18 x 12 x 11" box lying on its side, and that box will look large for one bottle because of the space left for fill. A box of several full glass bottles gets heavy quickly, so check the weight against your carrier's limit and split the order across two boxes before you overload one.
For more on choosing board grade and box size for heavy contents, see our guide to heavy duty cardboard boxes. If your bottles are small, light and plastic, a single wall box may be all you need, and single wall vs double wall cardboard boxes explains where the line sits.
How do you wrap a bottle for posting?
Wrap a bottle in at least three full turns of cushioning, with extra round the neck and enough overhang at each end to fold over the base and the cap. Seal the cap before you start. Run a strip of tape over a screw cap and down onto the glass, or over a cork or stopper, so it cannot work loose. Then put the bottle in a plastic bag and seal it, so that if the cap does leak the liquid stays in the bag and does not soak the box or the parcels next to it.
Start with the neck. Wind a narrow strip of wrap round the neck until it is about as thick as the body of the bottle. That turns the bottle into something close to a plain cylinder, which is easier to wrap and has no narrow point taking the strain. Then roll the whole bottle in the main sheet, fold the ends in and tape them down.
You have two wraps to choose from in our range. Small bubble wrap has 10mm bubbles and comes on 100m rolls, 300mm or 500mm wide, from £9.00 ex VAT (£10.80 inc VAT) a roll. The 500mm width suits a full size bottle because it leaves around 100mm spare at each end to fold over. The 300mm roll is the one for miniatures, toiletries and small sauce bottles, and for building up the neck.
The paper option is honeycomb paper. It is 80gsm paper that opens into a honeycomb pattern when you stretch it, and it comes on 250m rolls, 395mm or 500mm wide, from £28.00 ex VAT (£33.60 inc VAT). Pull it tight as you wrap so every cell opens. The cells grip each other, which holds the wrap in place on a smooth round bottle with little or no tape. It is made of paper, so sellers who want less plastic in the parcel use it in place of bubble wrap.
Best paper wrap for bottles
Honeycomb Paper Rolls (80gsm)
Paper that stretches into a cushioning honeycomb and wraps round a bottle the way a sheet of bubble wrap would.
- 80gsm paper, 250m per roll
- 395mm width for bottles, jars and cosmetics
- 500mm width for wider items
From £28.00 ex VAT (£33.60 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productSending more than one bottle? Wrap each bottle on its own before they go in the box. Glass against glass is how most multi-bottle parcels fail, so there should be wrap and fill between every pair of bottles as well as round the outside.
How do you pack a bottle in a box, step by step?
Pack a bottle by building a layer of fill in the base, placing the wrapped bottle in the centre, and filling round and over it until nothing moves when you shake the closed box. The whole job takes a few minutes once the materials are on the bench.
- Seal the cap. Tape over the cap, cork or pump, then seal the bottle inside a plastic bag.
- Pad the neck. Wind a strip of bubble wrap or honeycomb paper round the neck until it is level with the body of the bottle.
- Wrap the bottle. Roll it in at least three turns of wrap, fold the overhang over the base and the cap, and tape the ends down.
- Make up the box. Fold the base flaps and tape the centre seam and both edge seams, so the tape forms a capital H. A bottle is heavy, and the base seam carries the weight.
- Fill the base. Pour in about 50mm of packing peanuts or press in crumpled paper to the same depth.
- Place the bottle in the centre. Lay it down or stand it up, whichever leaves an even gap on every side. Keep it off the walls.
- Fill round and over. Add fill down the sides, work it into the corners, then cover the bottle. Slightly overfill, so the top flaps press down on the fill when you close them.
- Do the shake test. Hold the flaps shut and give the box a gentle shake. If you feel or hear the bottle move, open it and add more fill.
- Seal and label. Tape the top in the same H pattern, then put the address label and a fragile label on the top of the box.
For the fill, EcoFlo packing peanuts suit bottles because they pour into the gaps round a curved shape and add very little weight. They come in 5 cubic feet bags from £13.00 ex VAT (£15.60 inc VAT), in White EcoFlo, Blue EcoFlo Ultra or Mixed Colour EcoFlo, and the manufacturer describes EcoFlo as biodegradable. A 12 x 12 x 12" box is one cubic foot, so one bag holds enough to fill five of those boxes with nothing in them, and more once the bottle is taking up its share of the space.
Loose fill has one weakness with heavy items. If the box is underfilled, a heavy bottle can work its way down through the peanuts during a long journey and end up near the base. Packing the box full, with the flaps pressing on the fill, prevents that. If you would sooner use paper, crumple it tightly and pack it hard round the bottle, since loosely scrunched paper flattens under weight. Our guide to void fill compared covers peanuts, paper, air cushions and bubble wrap side by side.
The same method works for jars, vases and drinking glasses, which we cover in how to pack ceramics and glassware for posting.
Shop bubble wrap and void fill
Should you buy bottle boxes or wine boxes with dividers?
Buy purpose made bottle boxes if you post bottles of the same size every week, and use a plain double wall box with wrap and fill if you post them now and then or in mixed shapes. Pack Solution does not sell bottle boxes with card dividers, wine boxes with inserts, boxes for beer with cell dividers, or moulded pulp bottle packs. Our boxes are plain stock cartons with no fittings inside. We do not sell custom printed boxes or gift boxes either.
Purpose made bottle packaging is worth its price in a few situations:
- You ship the same bottle all the time. A wine merchant, brewery or distillery sending one, two, three, six or twelve bottles of a standard size gets a faster pack and a consistent fit from a divided box or pulp pack made for that bottle.
- Your carrier asks for it. Some carriers and some services expect approved or tested bottle packaging before they will carry glass bottles of liquid or consider a claim. If yours does, a plain box with fill will not meet the condition, however well you pack it.
- You send six or more bottles in one box. Dividers keep every bottle apart without you wrapping each one, which saves a lot of time at that quantity.
- The unboxing matters. A gift bottle in a fitted pack looks more finished than one lifted out of loose fill.
A plain box, wrap and fill is the better route for a seller on eBay, Etsy or Vinted posting the odd bottle of whisky or perfume, and for a food business with oils, vinegars and sauces in several bottle shapes. You hold one or two box sizes and a roll of wrap, and they pack whatever the order turns out to be.
Plenty of sellers use both: a specialist bottle pack for the standard lines and plain cardboard boxes for mixed orders and odd sizes. If you are not sure which you need, ring us on 0161 706 1246 and describe what you send. If a divided bottle box would suit you better, we will tell you so.
How should you seal and label a parcel with a bottle in it?
Seal a bottle parcel with tape along the centre seam and both edge seams on the top and the base, and put a fragile label on the top and on at least one side. The tape matters more than the label. A bottle is heavy enough to push through a base that has only one strip of tape down the middle, so always tape the edges as well.
Fragile tape does both jobs in one pass. It is packing tape with the word FRAGILE printed along its whole length, so the warning shows on every seam you seal. We stock it 48mm wide in packs of 6 rolls, from £5.50 ex VAT (£6.60 inc VAT): a 48mm x 66m roll in 42 micron acrylic polypropylene, and a BigTape 48mm x 150m low noise roll at 43 micron for benches that pack breakables every day.
If you already seal your boxes with plain tape, add a label. Our warning labels come on rolls from £10.00 ex VAT (£12.00 inc VAT). The Fragile label is 89 x 32mm with 1000 on a roll, and there is a Caution Heavy label at 148 x 50mm, 500 on a roll, which is worth adding to a box of several bottles so the person lifting it knows what to expect. We do not stock This Way Up or liquid warning labels. If your carrier asks for a particular label on liquids, use the one it specifies.
Tape and labels ask for care, and they tell the person at the other end to open the box gently. They do not cushion anything, and parcels are sorted by machines that cannot read them, so the bottle still depends on the wrap, the fill and the box. We have written about this at more length in fragile tape and fragile stickers: do they protect parcels?
Before you book the collection, check three things with your carrier. First, whether it carries liquids at all on the service you have chosen, and in what quantity. Second, whether it carries alcohol, since some carriers restrict or refuse it and the rules can differ by strength and by destination. Third, whether glass and liquids are covered by its compensation, because many carriers exclude them or limit what they pay. These rules change, so read the current list on the carrier's own site instead of relying on a forum post or on us. If you sell alcohol, the licensing and age check rules that apply to you are a separate matter from the packaging, and you need to meet those too.
How much bottle packaging should you buy, and what does it cost per parcel?
Buy boxes by how many bottles you post in a month, and buy wrap, fill, tape and labels one roll, bag or pack at a time, because each of those lasts for a lot of parcels. The box is the only item you use up one per parcel. Everything else is shared across dozens of them, which is why the cost per parcel is lower than the basket total suggests.
- Box. At our starting prices, all ex VAT, double wall boxes start from £0.59 per box (£0.71 inc VAT) and go up with size. The minimum is 5 boxes for most sizes, and the price per box falls as the quantity rises.
- Wrap. A 100m roll of small bubble wrap from £9.00 works out at 9p a metre at that price. Three turns round a bottle 80mm across uses about a metre once you allow for the wrap getting thicker, so one roll covers somewhere near 100 bottles.
- Fill. A 5 cubic feet bag of EcoFlo peanuts from £13.00 fills the space in several boxes. How many depends on the box size and how much room the bottle takes up.
- Tape. A pack of 6 rolls of fragile tape from £5.50 is about 92p a roll for the 48mm x 66m size.
For a first order, a sensible starting kit is 5 or 10 boxes in the size your usual bottle needs, one roll of 500mm small bubble wrap, one bag of peanuts and one pack of fragile tape. Pack a few parcels, see what you run out of first, and reorder that. Many of our products have volume pricing, so the price per box, roll or pack falls as you buy more, and the tiers are shown on each product page.
Royal Mail Tracked 48 delivery is free on every order with no minimum, and orders placed by 2pm Monday to Friday leave our Manchester unit the same working day. If you are local, click and collect from Cheetham Hill is free and usually ready within 2 hours, and we run same-day van delivery within 10 miles. A VAT invoice comes with every order. Regular buyers can apply for a trade account, and you can reach us through the contact page or on 0161 706 1246 if you want help choosing a box size. The full ranges are in cardboard boxes, protective packaging and packing tapes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best packaging for bottles in the post?
The best packaging for bottles in the post is a double wall cardboard box with the bottle wrapped in bubble wrap or honeycomb paper and about 50mm of void fill on every side. The wrap cushions the glass, and the fill holds the bottle in the middle of the box, away from the walls. Sellers who post the same size of bottle every week may be better served by purpose made bottle boxes with dividers, which Pack Solution does not stock.
What size box do I need to post a wine bottle?
A box for one wine bottle should be about 100mm longer, wider and taller than the wrapped bottle, so there is roughly 50mm of fill on every side. For many 75cl bottles that points to our 18 x 12 x 11" (457 x 305 x 279mm) double wall box with the bottle lying on its side. Wine bottles vary in height and width, so measure your bottle before you order boxes.
Do you sell wine boxes or bottle boxes with dividers?
No. Pack Solution does not sell wine boxes with dividers, boxes for beer with cell inserts or moulded pulp bottle packs. We sell plain double wall boxes, bubble wrap, honeycomb paper, packing peanuts, fragile tape and fragile labels, which together pack a bottle of any shape. If you ship standard bottles in volume, or your carrier requires approved bottle packaging, buy divided bottle boxes from a specialist supplier.
Can I post alcohol or liquids with any courier?
No, you cannot assume every courier will take alcohol or liquids. Carriers set their own rules on liquids, alcohol and glass, and many restrict them or exclude them from compensation. Check your carrier's current prohibited and restricted items list, and its compensation terms, before you pack and post a bottle.
Do fragile labels protect a bottle in the post?
Fragile labels and fragile tape do not protect a bottle by themselves. Fragile labels ask handlers to take care and warn the recipient to open the box gently, but parcels are also sorted by machines that cannot read a label. The protection for a bottle comes from the wrap, the void fill and a stiff box, so use fragile labels as an addition to proper packing.
