By industry
Packaging for what you actually sell
- 121 industry guides
- Free design
- Proof before press
Industries
Eleven
Each with the format we would order first.
Minimum
From 100 boxes
Small enough to test before you commit.
Design
Free, every order
Artwork and a digital proof, included.
Find your world
Eleven industries we know well
Each page covers the sizes, finishes and quantities that industry tends to order, and the mistake it tends to make on a first run.
Cosmetics & Beauty
In beauty, people judge the box long before they try what's inside it.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
Food & Bakery
Food packaging has to look good enough to eat and tough enough to handle grease, cold and a bumpy delivery.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
Coffee & Beverage
Coffee and drink brands win on how they look on a shelf and how giftable they feel.
We’d start with kraft boxes
See the packaging →
Supplements & Wellness
A supplement box has to look trustworthy, fit all the required copy, and still not feel like a hospital.
We’d start with rigid boxes
See the packaging →
Apparel & Accessories
Opening an apparel order is a moment people share online, and a plain poly bag doesn't earn that post.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
Subscription Boxes
Subscription brands ship every single month, so the packaging has to stay consistent and easy on the budget.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
CBD & Cannabis
CBD packaging has to carry a lot of required copy and still look like something a person wants to buy, and the rules change by state.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
Candles & Home
Candles are heavy, breakable and usually bought as gifts, which is a hard combination for a box.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
Soap & Bath
Soap and bath products need packaging that handles oils and moisture without going soft or blotchy.
We’d start with mailer boxes
See the packaging →
Jewelry & Watches
The box is part of the product with jewelry. A thin one undoes the price you just charged.
We’d start with rigid boxes
See the packaging →
Electronics & Tech
Tech buyers judge unboxing hard, and the product inside is fragile and expensive to replace.
We’d start with rigid boxes
See the packaging →
The short version
What we would order, and why
This is our opinion, not a rule. Tell us what you ship and roughly how many go out a month, and we will say so if a cheaper format does the same job.
| If you sell | We would start with | Because | From, at volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmetics & Beauty | Mailer Boxes | You get premium touches like soft touch coating, foil and embossing, at quantities a growing brand can actually order. | $1.20 a box |
| Food & Bakery | Mailer Boxes | We use food safe materials and finishes, with kraft and full color options that make your product look homemade or high end, whichever you're going for. | $1.20 a box |
| Coffee & Beverage | Kraft Boxes | Rich, punchy printing on kraft or coated board that makes a bag or bottle feel like a present. | 90 cents a box |
| Supplements & Wellness | Rigid Boxes | Clean cartons with room for your ingredients and claims, finished so they look premium instead of clinical. | $3.50 a box |
| Apparel & Accessories | Mailer Boxes | Branded mailers and rigid boxes that turn a first order into something customers actually want to show off. | $1.20 a box |
| Subscription Boxes | Mailer Boxes | Reorderable mailer runs with pricing that still works when you're shipping the same box over and over. | $1.20 a box |
| CBD & Cannabis | Mailer Boxes | Cartons with room for your compliance panel, batch codes and QR codes, printed so the brand still comes first. We'll lay it out with you. | $1.20 a box |
| Candles & Home | Mailer Boxes | Rigid boxes and snug inserts that survive the courier, finished so the box works as gift wrap on its own. | $1.20 a box |
| Soap & Bath | Mailer Boxes | Coated and kraft stocks that hold up around oils, in small formats like pillow boxes and window cartons that suit a bar or a bath bomb. | $1.20 a box |
| Jewelry & Watches | Rigid Boxes | Rigid boxes with foam or fabric inserts that hold a piece properly, at quantities an independent maker can actually order. | $3.50 a box |
| Electronics & Tech | Rigid Boxes | Rigid and sleeve formats with cut to fit inserts, so the product sits still in transit and looks deliberate when it's opened. | $3.50 a box |
Your industry not on the list?
These eleven are the ones we get asked for most, not the only ones we print for. A box does not know what is inside it, so if you sell pet treats, hardware, stationery or anything else that needs a printed box, the formats and the prices are the same. Send us what you make and we will tell you which format we would use.
Straight answers
Questions about industry packaging
What changes between one industry and the next, and what does not.
Does my industry actually change the box, or is it marketing?
It changes real things. Food needs grease resistant coatings and food safe inks. Soap and bath products fight oils and moisture, so a coated stock outlasts an uncoated one. Candles are heavy and breakable, so the insert matters more than the print. CBD needs room on the panel for copy the law requires. The format may be the same, the spec is not.
My industry is not listed. Can you still help?
Almost certainly. A box does not know what is inside it. The eleven listed are the ones we are asked for most, not the only ones we print for. Pet treats, hardware, stationery, coffee gear, all the same formats and the same prices.
Which industry gets the most out of a rigid box?
Jewelry, then premium beauty and tech. In all three the box is genuinely part of the product and gets kept, so the cost per unit stops being the right measure. On a $15 product a rigid box is usually money that would have done more work as a better insert.
We ship a subscription box every month. What should we order?
A printed mailer, in one size, in the biggest run your cash flow allows. Consistency is worth more than variety here, and the unit price on a repeat mailer at 1,000 is a very different business from the same box at 100. Keep the sleeve or a sticker as the thing that changes seasonally.
Do you do compliance panels and barcodes?
Yes. Supplement facts, ingredient lists, batch codes, QR codes, warning copy and barcodes all get laid out as part of the free design work. Send us the copy you are legally required to carry and we will make it fit without it swamping the brand.
Can you match packaging we already have?
Usually. Send us the box you are using now, or a photo with a ruler in it, and we will match the size. If you have the original dieline, even better. Matching a colour is closer to a good approximation than a copy, so tell us if a specific Pantone matters.
We sell in stores and online. Do we need two different boxes?
Usually one printed box and one plain one. A folding carton that works on a shelf travels fine inside a stock shipper, and a printed mailer that looks right on a doorstep looks lost on a shelf. Two custom runs is the expensive way to solve that, and it is rarely the right call on a first order.
Is food safe packaging priced differently?
The inks and coatings cost a little more and it is a small part of the total. What actually moves the price is the barrier you need: grease resistance for anything oily, a moisture barrier for anything going near a fridge. Tell us what touches the board and what temperature it lives at, because condensation changes the answer more than the recipe does.
What do beauty brands usually order first?
A folding carton for the unit, a printed mailer for the shipper, and an insert wherever there is glass. Rigid tends to come later, with a gift set or a launch. The common first order mistake is buying rigid because it photographs well, then finding the freight on a small run of assembled boxes costs more than the boxes did.
Do you handle regulated categories?
We lay the copy out, we do not write it or approve it. Supplement facts, CBD panels, warnings and country of origin all get set properly as part of the free design work, at a size that stays legible. Whether the wording itself is compliant is your call or your lawyer’s, and we would rather draw that line plainly than let it blur.
Tell us what you sell.
Rather just email? hello@boxcrisp.com