Custom Product Boxes & Product Packaging
Every product needs a box eventually, and most brands come to us at the point where the stock cartons they started with have stopped working. Wrong size, wrong strength, or simply too generic to sit next to competitors on a shelf. We produce a lot of product packaging at ZEE Packaging and the conversation usually starts with what the current box is getting wrong.
Start With The Product, Not The Box
A product box should be designed backwards from what goes inside it.
- Filled weight, since that drives board grade more than dimensions do
- How it travels, retail shelf, courier network or pallet
- Whether anything ships alongside it, cables, manuals, accessories
- Where the buyer first sees it, online or in a physical aisle
- Any regulatory copy that has to appear on the panel
- Send us the actual product where you can, photographs rarely settle it
Most product packaging that fails was specified from dimensions alone with no thought to weight.
Three Things Worth Getting Right
If budget is limited, these matter most.
- Fit, because movement inside causes almost all transit damage
- Board grade matched to weight rather than to footprint
- Interior print, which costs little and gets photographed constantly
- Colour consistency across a range so the family reads together
- A clear front panel hierarchy rather than crowded copy
- Right sizing, which saves on both material and freight
- Tuck end carton the everyday retail product box
- Auto lock bottom heavier products, faster to assemble
- Corrugated mailer ecommerce product packaging
- Rigid lid and base premium and gift tier
- Sleeve over a tray presentation at a lower cost
- Window carton where seeing the product drives the sale
Sizes We Print Regular
Every product box is built to your item, though these run often:
- 3" x 3" x 4" for a jar, candle or small bottle
- 6" x 4" x 2" for a compact retail item
- 8" x 6" x 3" for a mid size product
- 10" x 8" x 4" for an ecommerce mailer
- 12" x 9" x 3" for apparel or flat goods
- 14" x 10" x 6" for a bulk or multi item format
Board And Print
- SBS C1S for vivid colour reproduction
- Kraft board where a natural position suits the brand
- Corrugated E flute for mailers, B flute for heavier loads
- Rigid greyboard 36pt or 48pt with a litho printed wrap
- 18pt to 24pt on folding cartons, matched to filled weight
- Matte, gloss, soft touch or aqueous coating as required
Our prepress team check every file against the dieline so nothing gets trimmed at the edge.
Kinder Material Choices
- Recycled board across most grades we run
- FSC certified stock, certificate available on request
- Soy based ink through the whole run
- Aqueous coating rather than plastic lamination
- Paperboard or moulded pulp inserts instead of foam
- Right sized product packaging so you ship less air
How An Order Runs With Us
- 100 unit minimum, so you can test before committing to volume
- Free 3D mockup and flat proof before anything prints
- Free dieline drawn by our own designer
- We hold your dieline so reorders skip setup entirely
- Urgent turnaround at 5 to 8 business days
- Free shipping worldwide with nothing hidden
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a custom size worth the tooling?
Usually yes. The freight saving from a right sized carton often covers the tooling within the first order, and damage rates drop too.
How do you decide board grade?
From the filled weight and the transit route. Footprint alone tells us very little about what the base seam has to carry.
What is the price of a product box?
Rough estimate is $0.18 to $0.60 per unit for a folding carton, $0.80 to $2.00 for a corrugated mailer and $2.40 to $6.00 for rigid at moderate quantity. Size and finishing move it. Shipping is included in our price. This is estimate only, so ask our team for a exact quote.
Can you match colour across a range?
We can, and we proof the family together rather than one at a time. Any shift shows immediately on a shelf.
Should we print the inside?
For anything sold online, yes. It costs a fraction of the outer print and appears in every unboxing photo.
Do you keep artwork for reorders?
We hold both the dieline and the approved artwork, so a repeat run goes straight into production.
Can one carton cover several products?
Sometimes, with an insert to take up the difference. It reduces your stock complexity considerably.
