Why are they so great? Simple – they don't drop their contents when broken. Unlike a regular chest, they hold tight to their contents even when picked up and put into your inventory. Plop it down again, open it up, and there's all your stuff.

What is the point of a shulker box?

Shulker boxes are portable chests: they keep their items when broken, which can be retrieved when placed again. This is different from other containers, which drop their contained items as item entities when broken. A shulker box drops itself as an item if pushed by pistons or destroyed by an explosion.

Why are shulker boxes better?

Uses for Shulker Boxes

Shulker boxes are great for transporting items across a Minecraft world. Unlike other container items, this item will drop itself when it is destroyed. When a chest gets destroyed, the contents will spill all over the place as individual items.