A Beginner’s Guide to Custom Packaging Boxes
What are custom boxes?
With the continuous development of the e-commerce industry, product boxes are not just a means of transporting products. For brands, high-end packaging boxes could tell many stories about your company.
Excellent product packaging can give your product significant advantages. It enhances the buyer’s shopping experience and brand image while maintaining product integrity.
We’ll share some of the best ways to package your products and make an impactful first impression on your customers.
What are the materials for custom boxes?
When customizing the packaging box, it is very important to choose the appropriate packaging material, which is related to the packaging box’s practicality and aesthetics. Finding the right packaging material for a product will depend on several factors. For example： the size of the product, the type of product, the budget of the box, etc. The following is a brief introduction to the commonly used materials for packaging boxes.
- grey board
Greyboard is made of recycled paper. It is popular in the packaging industry due to its hardness and good toughness, smooth and delicate paper surface, and not ease to deform. The plasticity of greyboard paper is very strong and can be designed into various novel structures. Besides, the surface of the greyboard box can also be pasted with various beautiful papers, such as pearl paper, art paper, white card paper, flannel, binding cloth, PU leather, and so on.
- card paper
The pressure resistance of the card paper box is not as strong as that of the grey board box. But the structural design of the card paper box is similar. Card paper packaging is one of the most common packaging materials in the market, such as SK II essence water packaging boxes, Armani lipstick boxes, etc. There are many types of card paper, the common ones are white card paper, black card paper, gold card paper, and silver card paper.
- corrugated paper
Corrugated paper has the advantages of low cost, lightweight, easy processing, high strength, excellent printing adaptability, convenient storage, and handling, etc., and is usually used as a material for shipping boxes. Although corrugated paper is rarely used in product boxes, its appearance is not inferior to the grey board pasting box and card paper box after design.
How to design your package?
At first, customers could use our custom design configurator to create the designs they needed. Customers could choose sizes, colors, materials, and other elements.
Also, our designers could provide different solutions according to the customers’ budgets and requirements. For example, to adjust the packaging box’s material and size, use high-quality packaging boxes to reduce packaging and product packaging costs, or reduce the overall cost of products.
How to make your detailed packaging plan?
- Product requirements – You need to know the size and quality of the product and you should be clear about whether it is sensitive to heat or light and other unique characteristics. This is important in determining package size, material, and overall production cost.
- Packaging Production Plan – How much packaging do you need to customize? The amount of packaging customization can seriously affect your packaging budget.
- Time – You need to determine when the product will be on the market, making sure the box is in place before it goes to market.
- Customer detailed requirements – When deciding on product packaging details, the customer’s taste and preference should be the main reference.
- Competitor Analysis – For more inspiration, you could take a look at your competitors’ boxes. Especially for well-known brands, you should consider the color, design, size, and labels. And then think again about where your brand’s packaging could be improved.
- Brand Information – You also need to think about the information you want to convey in the box. Choose colors, graphics, and other design elements that convey your brand’s core information.
Printing techniques used in custom packaging boxes
- Flexographic Printing (Relief Printing)
In flexographic printing, what needs to be printed is on the relief of a printing plate made of rubber. The plate is inked and then the inked image is transferred to the printing surface. The process can be used to print on paper as well as plastic, metal, cellophane, and other materials. Flexo is mainly used for packaging and labels. The most obvious sign of flexo printing is a slight halo around the print.
- Gravure printing
Gravure printing is usually used to make publications such as magazines and catalogs or packaging boxes. This process relies on an engraving cylinder. Due to the high cost of plate making, the printing volume must be large, and it is not widely used in customizing packaging boxes.
- Lithographic Printing (Offset Printing or Litho Lamination)
Offset printing is a type of lithographic printing, and it is also the main industrial printing technology, widely used for printing various packaging boxes, leaflets, and catalogs. When the printing plate is inked, only the image part has ink, and then the inked image is transferred to the rubber, and the graphics and text on the printing plate are transferred to the substrate with the help of the rubber.
- screen printing
The advantage of screen printing is that the ink can be added to various materials, such as printing, textiles, glass, ceramics, environmental protection, and metals.
In printing pictures or text in the packaging box, when customizing the packaging box, you can choose a suitable method according to the advantages of different printing methods and the packaging needs for printing.
How to choose types of custom boxes?
Packaging boxes are generally divided into express transportation packaging, product outer packaging, and product inner packaging. When customizing the packaging box, we should consider all aspects.
- Shipping box(Regular Slotted Carton)
The most common shipping packaging on the market is a corrugated box. The advantages of corrugated boxes are many, such as lightweight, good load-bearing capacity, and low cost, which are suitable for almost all products.
- Mailer box (Product outer packaging)
Product outer packaging is the most important in packaging design. It can ensure the safety of products during transportation and storage, and also attract the attention of potential customers, and convey brand information. Materials for product packaging are grayboard pasting boxes, cardboard boxes, kraft paper boxes, etc. When customizing the product box, you also need to consider whether the product needs to be lined.
- Product box (Product inner packaging)
When choosing the inner packaging material, we need to consider the characteristics of the product and choose the appropriate material. There are many types of product inner packaging. For example, in the cosmetics industry, lotions and creams are usually packaged in glass bottles, plastic bottles, etc.; food is usually packaged in kraft paper bags, plastic bags, etc.; and tea is usually packaged in plastic bags and aluminum film bags.
How can you benefit from custom boxes?
- Small MOQ – meet the needs of small batches of products
If you’re a start-up, you need to pack light. Your best choice is to start with small batches to test market acceptance. We support ordering small orders so that you can start the market quickly without taking up too much money.
- Low Cost
If the goods are damaged in transit, it affects both the user experience and the brand image. The custom box could protect your product. You can also purchase custom paper to provide extra cushioning while giving customers the first impression of safety and care.
- Show personalized brand image
During the transportation, we found that most of the products were transported in ordinary kraft paper corrugated cardboard boxes, which made all the products identical and did not publicize the brand. Through customized packaging, you can use logos, designs, slogans, etc. to show your brand to customers.
- Provide excellent user experience
Careful packaging is a way to convey the company’s philosophy to customers, and customers like this “unpacking experience”. Custom boxes can ensure product safety because the size is appropriate to avoid damage caused by product rollover. If customers have a good experience with the product, they are willing to share the wonderful unpacking moment with friends, social media followers, and fans, your enterprise will benefit more.
