You’ve created a brand, developed your first products, planned your online store and are ready to launch your website and start selling. There’s just one small detail left: deciding the right size of cardboard boxes to ship your products to their new owners’ homes. Sounds simple, right? After all, all you need to do is find a package whose measurements take into account the size of your products.
It turns out that a lot of people don’t know some details regarding this subject or else: they neglect this planning and end up wasting money on wrong packaging. Thinking of helping those who are in this stage of business, we have prepared this little guide that can be useful when choosing the right boxes to make your brand take off.
Canada Cardboard Boxes: How to Measure Them
Let’s start with the basics, which is to understand how to measure the dimensions of a box. Basically, the measurements of the boxes are length, width and depth. Note the top opening of the box to measure the following dimensions;
Length: The longest side when looking at the top of the box.
Width: The shortest side when looking at the top of the box.
Depth (Height): The side perpendicular to the length and width.
In the case of a tall or upturned box, the depth will be the greatest dimension, while the length and width will be the smallest.
On this topic, there’s a thing that a lot of people don’t know or don’t pay attention to: the industry standard for box dimensions is based on internal measurements, not external ones. This is because the external measurement would not take into account the thickness of the cardboard, which could lead to errors when fitting your products. Because of this, most manufacturers are very specific about the size of the inner and outer dimensions, and with good reason. After all, no one wants their products to be damaged because of incorrect measurements.
How to Choose Your Boxes?
Now that we’ve explained a little about how to measure boxes, let’s move on to tips for choosing the best packaging for your products. For starters: what product are you going to ship and what size is it? Measure the dimensions of the finished package in this order: length, width and height. Is it a standard size and shape or is it a special item that may not fit in a standard box? Can you flip your item to fit in a smaller box?
Follow this rule of thumb: look for a box that is big enough to fit your product – and maybe fill in gaps – but not much bigger. If you buy a very large box, you end up paying more for packaging materials and shipping. In addition, your operation becomes less ecological – and people tend not to like receiving products in packages that are much larger than the product.
If you’re going to ship products like books or clothes, there’s not much need to fill the voids in the package with paper or bubble wrap. But if your products are breakable or delicate, take that into account – in addition to the box itself, you will need kraft paper or plastic – if possible, prefer paper.
Will You Ship More Than One Product at a Time?
Online stores usually sell multiple products, so the chance for your customers to buy more than just a single item is there, right? Shipping orders can feel like building a 3D puzzle. Get creative when trying to fit multiple items into a box, rotating and nesting them in various ways to find the best arrangement.
Let’s use an example to illustrate the tips. Let’s say you’ve founded a brand that sells bar cosmetics like soap, shampoo, and conditioner. And that the first item launched was a shampoo. So, at this first moment, people should buy one or at most two items at a time, right? So, at that first moment, you can invest in smaller boxes, big enough to fit two packages – that way, you save both on your box order and on shipping expenses.
After a few months, you also launch the bar conditioner and two soap options, totaling four products in your portfolio. From now on it may be more common for people to buy more than two products at once, right? From that moment on, you must then place an order for boxes with a greater variety of sizes.
Always pay attention to customer buying behaviors over time. Do people often buy certain items together? Do you offer incentives or discounts for customers to purchase a specific amount of products? Use this information to predict which box size will be most popular.
Cardboard Boxes in Canada
Finally, we reinforce the advice we always give here: have a close relationship with your box supplier. That way, if you have questions or are feeling unsure about which box sizes to choose, he can guide you and help you in this task. If you are a business in Canada, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.
