Getting Started Guide: How to Order Your First Run of Custom Packaging
Whether you’re a direct to consumer (DTC) brand, direct to retail brand or both, the packaging choices you make have a big impact. Your packaging can actually increase the perceived value of your product. Most importantly, your packaging can help you build trusting relationships with your customers.
If you’ve never developed and manufactured custom packaging for your product, the process can be confusing and even overwhelming.
But don’t worry. We’ve put this guide together to make sure you’re prepared for every step of the process. We also asked the Alice Mushrooms team for their first timer advice for other CPG startups.
What do you wish you knew before you started your custom packaging journey?
That your packaging team are your allies! If you have problems, they will help you solve them. Our product will require cool shipping in the summer and it caused me endless nights of restless sleep thinking about how to cool-ship a beautiful DTC box. When I looped GIVR into this process, their master engineering minds came up with a truly elegant solution. TLDR: You aren't on your own!!! Ask for help when you need it and there's no problem you can't solve. -Charlotte Cruz, Co-Founder & CMO of Alice Mushrooms
First Things First: Understanding Your Distribution
The two most common channels of distribution for CPG brands are direct to consumer and direct to retail. If your product is shipping via a currier like UPS or Fedex, your packaging’s structural design will have a different set of challenges than products that ship on pallets to retailers. Before you begin the structural design process for your boxes, you’ll need to know how they will getting to your customers.
Retail packaging, for example, doesn’t slide around in the back of truck or take rides on conveyer belts and possibly catapults. Instead, it gets tidily secured with its friends on a pallet. However, many retailers have specific outer dimension and case count requirements that are essential to comply with. You’ll need to provide your packaging developer with this information before they can start designing.
With direct to consumer shipping, you have a lot more freedom to conceptualize the size, case counts, and shape of your packaging. Savvy brands will also consider the requirements of different shipping tiers and, of course, the catapults.
So, before you begin engaging companies to produce your custom packaging, make sure you understand the requirements and obstacles for your distribution channel.
What advice do you have for other CPG startups developing their first run of custom packaging?
Get ready!!! And start thinking about the process earlier than you think you need to. Think about what you want to prioritize with your box and why — is it functionality, design, size? And think about your presentation. Pro-tip: The less colors you use, the less expensive your packaging will be. And think about a type of and size of package that will protect your product and work with its temperature requirements (if any). And know you are in good hands with GIVR! They'll walk you through the whole process. -Charlotte Cruz
Spend Time Getting Your Structure Just Right
Developing your box structure can be the longest part of process if your product a little high maintenance (i.e. glass, cold chain, heavy, or fragile), you may need multiple iterations and prototypes. Make sure you also incorporate extra time for drop and ship testing.
In most cases, you’ll want to start working with your packaging vendor to develop your structure as soon as possible. Here’s what they’ll need to get started on prototyping your structure:
Samples of your physical product
Information about your distribution channel(s)
A production timeline
Projected volumes
A thorough design planning meeting
NOTE: Your team can begin conceptualizing your graphic art designs at this stage or even before, but you’ll need to submit final approval of your structure to receive dieline templates to mount your artwork on to. Make sure you consider which print version fits your budget and intended impact as your develop your art.
Choose The Best Print Method For Your Brand
What was the most difficult part of the process for your team?
Color matching! We have our brand colors locked in CMYK format, but that doesn't always translate to printing, especially printing on boxes. Our design team and the GIVR team worked together to make an amazing solution on a tight timeline, which was creating a sample box that had multiple sections — each with a different variation of the color we were looking for. This helped us color match and pick our final box color quickly and easily! -Charlotte Cruz
Once your structure is finalized, you can get a better idea of what the cost of your packaging will be. The blank size (the amount of cardboard used to make your box) is one driving factor of cost. How your packaging is printed also has a big impact. The good news is, you have options.
Flexographic print is the most common printing method for corrugated packaging and, at scale, it’s the most economical. Digital printing is much more dynamic, has lower startup costs, and no MOQ (minimum order quantity) restrictions. Offset print has a higher print quality than both flexo and digital print, but has more rules about what substrates are compatible.
Start Collecting Quotes
Once you have a dieline, a shipping location, and a projected volume, your can begin quoting out the job! If you’re on the fence about which print version is best, you can have your structure quoted with different print options to compare costs.
The biggest driving factor of cost is volume. If you’re planning to order less than 1,000 boxes the price per box will be much higher than if you order 10,000. There is no established formula for where the price breaks are since liner board and shipping are variable costs. In most cases, the best price by volume will level off at a full truck load of boxes.
The best method is to request quotes for the smallest volume of boxes you need and the largest volume you can accept. Ask for the price breaks at the tiers between those numbers.
Submit Your Art & Place Your Order!
Once you have reviewed your quotes and made the necessary costing decisions, it’s time to place your first order! Before the lead-time can begin, you’ll need to submit your final art proofs. These proofs should be rendered in line with the print option you’ve selected and follow the art guidelines from your vendor. You can have a look at Givr’s art guidelines here for reference.
Lead times vary for different packaging vendors, so you’ll want to discuss the lead time expectation with your vendor before you order. You can learn more about our lead-times here.
Here’s where things get a lot easier for your team. The first step of new order is getting your art proofs prepressed. For this step, our prepress experts will review your proofs and sometimes make slight formatting changes to make sure your artwork can rendered on a print plate or be compatible with digital printing presses.
When this step is is complete, you’ll need to approval the final prepressed proof digitally via email. Some print options have more approval steps for the first run like ink drawdown approval or Epson proof approval.
Once all the approvals are completed, your boxes go the presses. When they’re ready to ship, you’ll need to connect your packaging vendor with your co-man or 3PL for a smooth delivery.
You can avoid unnecessary delays by making a plan with your 3PL or co-man ahead of time.
If you’re looking for a packaging partner, our team is here to help. With Givr, you’re guaranteed expert and personal service. We can help you go from idea stage to delivery. Reach out to our team to get started.
