Case study: a Surat kurti seller packing in tamper-proof bags

Nine hundred orders a month sounds like a lot until you divide it. Over about 26 working days, it is roughly 35 parcels a day. That is one packing table, two people and a few hours every afternoon. It is also 35 chances a day for a parcel to come back with the wrong kurti inside, or for a customer to say it arrived empty.

This is a worked example. The business is illustrative, put together from situations small sellers commonly face. The product details and the maths are real.

The short answer first.

If I were running this packing table, I would ship every order in a tamper-proof courier bag in just three sizes, 10x12, 12x16 and 14x18 inches. I would record every pack on a phone, write down every packed weight and check every return before signing for it. The bag shows whether a parcel was opened. The routine proves what went inside.

Who is the seller, and what keeps going wrong?

The example business is a kurti seller in Surat with two packers and a small godown on the ground floor. It sells cotton and rayon kurtis, kurti sets with a pant or dupatta, and combo packs of two or three kurtis. Most orders come from Meesho and Flipkart, with a few from its own Instagram page.

Today the team uses plain, unbranded polybags, closed with a strip of clear tape over the flap. Three problems keep coming back.

A customer says the parcel arrived empty, or with one kurti missing from a combo.
A return comes back with an old, worn kurti in place of the new one that was shipped.
An RTO parcel comes back with the tape lifted and pressed down again, and nobody can say when it happened.

A taped polybag cannot answer any of these, because tape can be peeled and put back.

Why tamper-proof courier bags, and what else did they consider?

We sell our tamper-proof courier bags in 60-micron LDPE film, as stated on the listing. The film is opaque and waterproof. The adhesive strip seals permanently, so if anyone opens it on the way, the bag tears and it shows. Each bag also has an attached POD jacket for the invoice. We stock six sizes, from 6x8 to 14x18 inches, and we print them in inches because that is how sellers ask for them.

For comparison, Delhivery's packaging guidelines (updated November 2024) suggest 60 to 80 micron LDPE polybags for flexible items like apparel. The same guide suggests tamper-evident bags for high-value items costing above Rs 7,000. A kurti costs far less than that.

This seller wants them anyway, because the fight here is about proof, not about the price of one kurti.

The team weighed three other options.

Keep the plain polybags. Cheapest, but they give no evidence at all.
Padded paper mailers. Good for jewellery and books, but a kurti does not need padding, and in heavy rain paper loses to plastic.
Cartons. Strong, but slow, bulky and more than a folded kurti needs.

One honest point before we go further.

These bags are plastic. If your brand promises plastic-free packaging, they break that promise, whatever they do for security.

Which bag size suits which order?

Measure the product as it ships, folded and in its own poly. Add its thickness plus about 1 inch to both the width and the length. Pick the first bag that covers both numbers. Our courier bag size chart shows typical products for every size, and the courier bag size finder does this maths for you.

The folds below are typical. Fold your own kurtis the way you always do and measure them.

Order type	Folded size (inches)	Space needed	Bag
Single kurti in its poly	8 x 9.5 x 0.75	9.75 x 11.25	10x12
Kurti set with pant and dupatta	9 x 12 x 1.5	11.5 x 14.5	12x16
Combo of 3 kurtis, stacked	9 x 11 x 2.5	12.5 x 14.5	14x18, because 12.5 is too wide for 12x16

Three sizes cover the whole catalogue. The 6x8 and 8x10 only matter if the seller adds stoles or accessories.

A stack of neatly folded tops held in two hands, ready to be measured for a bag size — Photo: Ron Lach on Pexels

What does the daily packing line look like?

This is the order I would set up, for one packer at the table and one at the label printer.

Print the day's labels in the morning and sort them into three piles by bag size.
Fix a phone on a stand above the table. Start one recording per order.
Show the label to the camera with the order ID readable. Show the kurti front and back, with its size tag.
Slide the kurti, still in its poly, into the bag in the same shot. Check the colour and size against the label one last time.
Peel the liner and press the strip from the centre outwards. Run your thumb along the full strip again. The strip cannot be reopened, so step 4 matters.
Put the invoice in the POD jacket. If the courier label also goes inside the jacket, tape its opening, as Delhivery's guide asks, so the label cannot slip out.
Weigh the sealed bag with the scale display inside the frame. Write the weight against the order ID. Stop recording.
In the evening, open every return and RTO parcel on video, label first, before anyone signs for it.

What the seal proves, what it does not, and how marketplace claims work are all in tamper-proof courier bags and return fraud. This case only fits that routine into a 35-parcel day.

A 12x16 inch tamper-proof courier bag with the POD jacket holding a packing slip

The numbers: bags, minutes and phone storage

Assume the 900 orders split like this: 60% single kurtis, 30% sets and 10% combos. Take your own split from last month's order report.

Two extras go on top. Replacements and exchanges go out in a fresh sealed bag, and I assume about 4% of orders need one. I also add about 2% for packing mistakes, because a sealed strip cannot be reopened. So each size gets about 6% extra.

Size	Orders a month	Bags a month (orders x 1.06)	Reorder when stock falls to (10 working days)
10x12	540	about 573	about 220
12x16	270	about 287	about 110
14x18	90	about 96	about 37
Total	900	about 956

The reorder point is 10 working days of bags. We dispatch in 1 to 2 working days and delivery is free across India, but transit to Surat varies by courier, so I would not run it closer than that. Order all three sizes from our courier bags range together, and check the listing for today's price and pack options for each size.

Now the time. Showing the label, the product and the seal to the camera adds roughly 30 seconds to each order. At 35 orders a day, that is around 17 to 18 minutes a day. Time it on your own table for one day before you believe my number.

Then the storage, which most sellers forget until the phone is full.

Record one normal packing clip and check its file size in the gallery. Say it is 30 MB. Then:

900 clips a month x 30 MB = 27,000 MB, or about 27 GB a month.
Keeping 90 days of clips means about 81 GB stored at any time.
A 128 GB memory card or drive holds that with room to spare. Move each month's clips off the phone and name the folder by month.

A lower video resolution makes each clip smaller. Keep the lowest setting at which the order ID is still easy to read.

What should this seller watch?

A stretched bag. If the team has to pull the film to close it, the seal sits under strain, and a strained seal can lift at a corner. Move that order type up one size.
The monsoon. The film keeps water out. Water gets in only through a badly pressed strip, so the second thumb run in step 5 is not optional.
The festive peak. If your orders rise around the festive season, take last year's order count for those weeks and scale up the reorder points before the rush, not during it.
The limits of the bag. A tamper-evident bag does not stop a customer from opening the parcel at home and then claiming it was empty. Only the packing record answers that, which is why the phone stand matters more than any bag we sell.

To judge the change, count three things for 60 days before and 60 days after: empty or missing-item claims, swapped returns and claims the seller wins. The bag and the routine are designed to move those numbers. Your own count will tell you if they do.

How would you set this up for your own shop?

Pull last month's orders and split them by order type.
Fold each type the way you ship it, measure it and pick a size.
Order a courier bag sample first, or a small quantity in each size, and pack a real day's orders.
Multiply orders by about 1.06 per size, and set a 10-day reorder point.
Fix the phone stand and the scale on the table before the first bag goes out.
Record one clip, check its size and work out your monthly storage.
Write down how you check returns, and make it the same every evening.

Questions sellers ask

Do we still need packing list envelopes? No. The invoice goes in the POD jacket on the bag. Packing list envelopes are for cartons.

Can we use one big size for everything? You can, but I would not. A single kurti in a 14x18 bag slides around, the extra film flaps and catches in the courier sack, and you store and buy more plastic than you need.

Sellers often tell us about these problems when they order courier bags. In my view, the ones who win their claims are the ones with the most boring routine. Set the phone stand up tomorrow and pack your first 35 orders on camera. By evening, you will know whether this fits your table.