Custom boxes with logo for a small business: what your first 100 actually cost

Custom boxes with logo printing start at about $2.87 a box for 100 medium mailers with your logo in one colour, and drop to about $1.82 each at 250. Full colour on the same box is about $3.50 at 100 and $2.21 at 250. Those are the numbers our estimator gives today, and the rest of this post is how to get from there to a box you're happy to pay for.

We wrote this for the person running a small shop out of a spare room or a shared unit, selling on Shopify, Etsy, or at markets, who has been shipping in plain brown boxes and wants the thing that turns up on a doorstep to look like theirs. If that's you, you're the customer we set this company up for.

What custom boxes with logo printing cost at 100, 250 and 500

Every price below is per box, for a medium size (roughly 6 to 10 inches on the longest side), printed on the outside, no laminate. Your exact box will land a little on either side, because it's cut to your measurements.

Two things jump out of that table, and they're the two decisions that matter most.

The first is quantity. Going from 100 to 250 cuts the unit price by more than a third on every row, because the cost of setting up the press gets spread over more boxes. Going from 500 to 1,000 barely moves it: a one-colour mailer goes from $1.28 to $1.15. Past about 500, you're paying for board and ink, and those don't get cheaper because you bought more of them.

The second is the box itself. A kraft box with a one-colour logo is less than half the price of a full-colour mailer at 100. For a lot of small brands, that's the better box, not just the cheaper one.

The box we'd pick for a first order

If you ship something that fits in your hand, like candles, skincare, jewellery, socks or prints, we'd start with a mailer box in white board with your logo in one colour on the lid. It has a hinged lid that tucks in; it survives USPS and UPS on its own without an outer carton, and one colour on white looks deliberate rather than cheap.

If your brand already leans natural or handmade, go kraft instead and print the logo in black or a dark ink. Brown board with a crisp black mark is the look plenty of brands pay extra to imitate, and it's one of the lower cost printed boxes we make.

If the product is heavy, bulky, or goes out with a packing slip and void fill, a shipping box with a one-colour logo on two sides does the job for about $1.24 at 250. Nobody unboxes a shipping carton slowly, so don't pay for full colour on one.

Save gift boxes and rigid boxes for when the box is part of what the customer is paying for: a gift set, a subscription's first box, a $90 candle. They cost two to three times as much, and on a $20 product that money comes straight out of your margin.

What's worth paying for, and what isn't

This is where most first orders go wrong. Not on the box, on the extras.

Worth it:

• Printing inside the lid. A one-line message or a pattern inside a mailer is the moment people film. It adds roughly 18% to a full colour mailer, about $2.61 a box at 250 against $2.21. If your customers post unboxings, that's a cheap bit of marketing.
• 250 instead of 100, if you can store them. A flat mailer is about an eighth of an inch thick, so 250 is a stack you can slide under a shelf, and you save around a dollar a box.
• A sample first. Our free sample pack is real printed board and finishes, flat in an envelope. You cover the postage. Seeing your colour on real board before you order 250 is worth far more than the stamp.

Usually not worth it on a first run:

• Soft touch laminate. It feels lovely, and it scuffs in transit. It takes a full colour mailer from $2.21 to about $2.70 at 250, and on a box that travels through a sorting centre, some of that money arrives already marked.
• Foil on a box that ships bare. Foil is about 35% on top. On a gift box handed over the counter, go for it. On a mailer thrown into a USPS bag, save it for your second order, once you know which box is actually selling.
• Every face printed. Buyers see the lid, and maybe one side on the porch. Full colour on all six faces of a shipping carton is money nobody looks at.

What you need to send us

Less than most people think. A logo file, ideally a vector (AI, EPS, SVG, or a PDF exported from one), your product's measurements, and the quantity you're thinking of. If all you have is a PNG, send that. Design work is free here, so we'll redraw a clean version or set up the layout on the dieline for you, and you approve a proof before anything is printed.

Want to see it before you ask? The 3D box designer lets you drop your logo on a mailer, turn it around, and add it to your cart with the dimensions attached. Your file stays in your browser unless you choose to save the design to your account.

Free design help and what it covers

Not sure where the logo should go, what colour to print it, or which box suits your product? Ask us. We'll suggest a layout and a box, and it costs nothing. Design work here is free, including on reorders, because we make our money on the boxes, not on design hours.

Here's what that covers:

1. A layout suggestion. Where the logo sits on the lid, how big, and whether a second mark on the side is worth it.
2. Colour advice. One colour or full colour, and how your brand colour will print on white or kraft board.
3. Print-ready artwork. A designer puts your logo on the correct dieline for your exact size, so nothing gets cut off at a fold.
4. A proof before anything is printed. You mark it up, we change it, and nothing goes to press until you say yes.

Most people get a price and a free mockup back the same working day. The one thing that isn't included is building a brand new logo from nothing. That's a different job, and we'll tell you so up front rather than quietly add it to the bill.

How long it takes

Once you approve the proof, printing takes 3 to 5 days on press. Shipping to you is on top, usually a few days to anywhere in the lower 48. The time that actually varies is the proof: a clear logo file and final measurements can mean a proof the same week. A logo still being redesigned is the most common reason a first order slips by a month.

Plan for it. If you want boxes for the holidays, order in October, not the week before Black Friday, when every small brand in the country is trying to do the same thing.

Three small print points worth knowing now

Runs come in about 10% over or under. Order 250 and you might get 240 or 265. That's normal on any custom print run, and it's why you shouldn't order the exact number you need for one launch.

Screen colour isn't print colour. The blue on your phone is made of light. The blue on a box is ink on board, and kraft board warms every colour up. If your brand colour matters, give us a Pantone number (opens in a new tab) or ask for it on the sample. Our guide to CMYK vs Pantone explains when a matched ink is worth paying for.

Shipping cost depends on the box, not just the weight. Carriers bill on size as well as weight (opens in a new tab), so a box half an inch too big can cost you a pound on every parcel. Our post on dimensional weight runs the numbers on real box sizes.

Ordering wholesale later

Once a box is proven, reordering is where the price really settles. At 1,000, a one-colour mailer is about $1.15, and your artwork and dieline are already on file, so a reorder is a quantity and a delivery address. Our wholesale custom boxes guide shows exactly where bulk pricing stops paying off. Our trade price list shows every quantity step so you can see where the discount stops, and it does stop. We'd rather tell you that than talk you into 2,500 boxes you'll still be storing next summer.

If you're still weighing a mailer against a plain carton, read mailer box vs shipping box before you decide. And if this is your first order of anything printed, the first packaging order mistakes list will save you at least one of them.

Key takeaways

• A medium mailer with a one colour logo is about $2.87 each at 100 and $1.82 at 250.
• Full colour on the same box is about $3.50 at 100 and $2.21 at 250.
• Going from 100 to 250 cuts the unit price by more than a third.
• A kraft box with a one colour logo is less than half the price of a full colour mailer at 100.
• Design help is free, including on reorders.

Common questions