Packaging Items & Free Gifts: Turning Your Warehouse Into a Wizard’s Workshop

Every so often, the warehouse gods grant us a feature that feels suspiciously like magic
Packaging items are one of those

In Helm, you can treat any stock item as packaging and have it automatically deducted from inventory whenever you use that packaging to send an order

Better yet, you can use the same mechanism to include free gifts with orders, without losing track of your stock

This article walks you through

• How to set up a packaging item

• How to link it to a package type

• How it behaves when you ship

• How to use it cleverly for free gifts

What is a packaging item

A packaging item is simply a normal inventory item that you mark as packaging in its advanced settings

Once you link that item to a package type and use that package in a shipment, Helm automatically deducts the packaging item from inventory each time the package is used

This means you can

• Track boxes, bags, envelopes, branded sleeves and similar materials

• Track promotional items or gifts that accompany an order, like pens, stickers or keyrings

You get accurate stock levels without manually adjusting every time someone picks a box or adds a little trinket to delight the customer

Step 1: Choose or create your inventory item

Start with the item you want to use as packaging or as a gift

This might be

• A branded box

• A decorative bag

• A pack of pencils you want to give away with certain products

Make sure the item exists in Inventory and has physical stock, for example 500 units in stock

Step 2: Mark it as a packaging item

You can now turn an item into packaging in two ways: via Settings as before, or directly from the item itself using a shortcut toggle

1. Open the inventory item

2. Scroll down to the advanced settings section

3. Enable the option to set this item as a packaging item

4. When you enable this toggle, Helm shows a confirmation pop‑up

5. Confirm the action, complete any required credential fields, and Helm links this inventory item as a packaging item behind the scenes

This shortcut saves you from navigating separately to the package type settings just to mark an item as packaging. Once enabled, Helm will treat the item as something that can be tied to package types and consumed automatically when shipping

Step 3: Create a package type and link the item

Now you tell Helm how this packaging item is used in practice

1. Go to Settings

2. Open the package type settings

3. Create a new package type, for example ”Test” or a more descriptive name like “Gift Box with Pencils”

4. In the package configuration, link your packaging item to this package type

5. Set the quantity that will be used each time this package is selected, for example “5” if you want five units to be consumed per shipment

So if you set the quantity to “5”, every shipment using this package type will use 5 units of that packaging item from inventory

Do not forget to set the package type as active, or it will not appear during shipment creation

Step 4: Use the package in a shipment

Now for the satisfying part

1. Go to the single shipment screen

2. Create a new shipment for a customer

3. Add whatever product you are actually selling

4. In the package selection, choose the package type you created earlier, the one linked to your packaging item

5. Create the shipment as normal

Behind the scenes, Helm now consumes the packaging item according to the quantity you set for that package type

Step 5: Watch the inventory update

Return to Inventory and locate your packaging item

If you started with 500 units and your package type consumes 5 units per shipment, after creating one shipment your physical stock will now show 495

• No manual adjustments

• No guesswork

• Just clean, automatic stock control for packaging and gifts

Using this for free gifts

This feature is perfect for promotional items and surprise gifts

Imagine you run a campaign where

• Every book order gets five branded pencils

• Every jewellery order gets a cleaning cloth

• Every gaming order gets a sticker pack

You can create a packaging item for the gift, link it to a package type, and set the quantity to match your offer

Whenever you choose that package at shipment stage, Helm automatically deducts the correct quantity of the gift item

You get to delight customers with free gifts while maintaining accurate inventory, rather than wondering where several hundred pencils mysteriously vanished

Using order rules and your sales channels

You do not have to rely only on package types to add free gifts. You can also use order rules so that Helm automatically adds a gift item whenever an order meets certain conditions

For example, you can create an order rule that says: when an order contains a particular SKU, or reaches a certain order value, Helm should quietly add the gift item you have chosen. If that gift is also set up as a packaging item and linked to a package type, it will still be deducted from inventory automatically, just like any other packaging

In many cases, though, these promotions are already handled by your sales channel. Your marketplace or webstore might be configured so that when a customer spends a certain amount, or buys a particular product, a free item is added to the order before it ever reaches Helm

For instance, you might configure your channel so that any order over £10 automatically includes a free scarf. In that case, the scarf line arrives on the order directly from the channel, and Helm simply treats it like any other item in the shipment and keeps your stock levels accurate

Tips and clever uses

• Use meaningful names for gift packages, such as Freebie, Gift Pack or Jewellery Care Pack

• Keep an eye on stock levels of your packaging items so you know when to reorder promotional material

• Use different package types for different promotions, so you can report and experiment with various gifting strategies

• Combine this with marketing campaigns, safe in the knowledge that Helm will keep the numbers honest

• Be cautious with free gifts on international orders, as items with a declared value of 0 cannot legally be shipped across borders and will typically cause label creation to fail for international shipments

With packaging items configured correctly, your warehouse can behave like a very organised magician’s hat

Products go in, delightfully packaged orders come out, and the system quietly keeps score of every box, bag and bonus gift along the way