Work-from-home packing jobs promise big payouts for easy work at home. Some reputable job boards advertise them, but the opportunities are seldom what they seem. Many jobs are scams as businesses need people on-site to pack and mail merchandise or use mailing equipment.
Working from home to pack and ship items seems like a dream job that offers a big payday. It may seem like a more probable opportunity than stuffing envelopes. Unfortunately, most, if not all work from home packing job postings are not legitimate, and they fall into the “sounds too good to be true” category.
This is the case not only in the U.S. but also worldwide. If you want to land a packing job, keep in mind that you can hardly do this at home due to mass automation in modern manufacturing.
What are these jobs supposedly about? Is there a difference between WFH packing jobs and dropshipping? What should you pay attention to when it comes to scammy packing job titles and descriptions?
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What Is Packer’s Work From Home?
Packing jobs from home involve packing various goods into envelopes or boxes and mailing them to the customers’ addresses. These jobs seem similar to warehouse worker or distribution center manager roles but are supposedly done at home.
Are Packer’s Work-From-Home Jobs Legit?
Most work-at-home packing jobs are scams. Unlike real packer job opportunities from well-established retailers such as Amazon, remote packing jobs are typically sketchy.
Let’s take stuffing envelopes as an example. At first, you would think there may be a real need for someone to outsource putting written cards in envelopes and sending them out. However, this process is fully automated nowadays, as businesses use envelop stuffing machines.
Looking further into those job ads, you will find that they are actually pyramid schemes — not packing jobs. You will likely be required to purchase a product or a kit before you can start, which is a red flag on its own. Then, you will realize you need to sell it to others to earn, so nobody is paying you to just pack and send.
Even the Federal Trade Commission warns about these scams, so be wary if you come across “too good to be true” opportunities. Vet the company online, and you’ll likely find poor reviews warning about the scam too.
Is Dropshipping A Viable Work-At-Home Opportunity?
Dropshipping is an order fulfillment model where a seller is a middleman that operates by setting up an online store. They do not have a warehouse with physical goods, nor do they order stuff in advance.
Once they receive an order from a customer, they outsource it to the supplier (manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer) that has shippable products in stock, and then pay for the items. Wholesale products are cheaper, so the seller earns money by keeping the difference.
Dropshipping is legal. However, if you’re a buyer, pay attention to certain red flags to avoid getting scammed:
- The origin of the products is not clear
- Company photos are fake/stolen (do a Google reverse image search to check its credibility)
- Poor customer reviews on social media
Even if the company info checks out, you are still at risk of:
- Overpaying for an item
- Receiving counterfeits
- Having issues due to the lack of refund/return systems
As a worker, you run the risk of not getting paid after you have bought materials to do the work. Just like with stuffing envelopes, think of the logistics involved as a company would provide products that you would have to ship and store in your home.
Services like Indeed claim that some opportunities might exist for these at-home jobs, but be careful.
How Can You Separate The Opportunities From The Scams?
It can be difficult to spot real packing job opportunities due to so many scams constantly popping up. You’re more likely to find an on-site than a remote job in this industry. Here are some warning signs if you decide to look online:
- High advertised salary for a simple job with few responsibilities
- A job description full of inconsistencies/grammatical errors
- The description vaguely mentions recruiting other employees
- Not enough company info online
- A requirement to pay for a starting kit, other products, or even access to a packing job directory
- Receiving random spam “hiring” emails
What adds to the problem is that many reliable job boards like ZipRecruiter offer thousands of opportunities to pack products from home or dropship. When checking out jobs under this category, they are not remote.
What Is The Problem With Packing From Home Jobs?
There are numerous obstacles regarding these types of jobs. Even if hypothetically legit, some of the issues you would run into are:
- Availability of machinery to automate packing
- Potential for theft
- Logistical problems of getting products to your home to pack
Just think. You may find multiple opportunities to package cannabis at home. How likely is it that a company would allow large quantities of this product to be released out of their warehouse to a home shipper?
Are Packing Jobs In India And Other Countries Real?
Just like in the US, the majority of work-from-home packing jobs are illegitimate across the globe. These jobs are not viable for the same reasons explained above, regardless of the country.
What Is The Best Way To Find A Work From Home Packing Job?
Even though remote packing jobs are likely scams, they are still listed on many job boards. However, the links often don’t lead to real jobs — they may have been deleted if they were proven scams.
In rare cases, a company may pay packers to pick up and drop off certain items. While this would technically be a remote or hybrid position, you would likely be required to live near the main office, have your own transportation, and drive to and from specified locations. Therefore, it’s not a work-at-home packing job.
You can find legitimate part-time or full-time work-from-home data entry packing-related jobs such as producing shipping invoices or coordinating quality control at Indeed, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, etcetera. Set up a job alert to be regularly notified of new job postings.
Another way to find real WFH opportunities is to visit official company websites, look at their career pages, and contact them directly if you come across your preferred job type. However, keep in mind that on-site packing and delivery full or part-time work is more common.
What Is The Average Pay For Packing Jobs?
According to Indeed’s packer salary data in the United States, the average annual salary is $49,570 plus around $4,362 overtime. Keep in mind that this is not remote work data. Since most home packing jobs are nonexistent, the high salary is too!
WFH job seekers need to be cautious of high advertised rates for most likely fake work-from-home packing jobs.
