A Quick Start Guide to Custom Boxes

The world of e-commerce is expanding by the minute and more and more people are making online shopping part of their regular routines. With all this new data, businesses of all sizes are learning that packaging matters to key audiences. Beautiful boxes with logos or colorfully designed deliveries are no longer a nice surprise for most consumers, they’re an expectation. That’s where the importance of creating beautifully customized packaging comes in. 

Before you jump into creating your customized packaging concepts and design your own box, you may have some basic questions. Here at BoxGenie we can help you get a clearer understanding about different types of boxes and their benefits, various materials and printing options, and some things to keep in mind when using online design tools for box customization, like the one we have on BoxGenie. 

Where to start

Many of us have a better understanding of concepts once we jump in and start seeing the visuals. If this sounds like you, our 3D design tool will show you in real-time what your new branded boxes might look like. 

Following the simple prompts and selecting patterns or colors to start can help you see the possibilities and explore options while learning about box types or materials along the way. 

You can begin with a pre-set pattern or color combination that best fits your vision for your custom branded box. As you explore designs, materials and box styles to find the right fit for your products, you’ll see updates in real time in the preview panel—as well as per unit price estimates based on your selections.

If you already know what type of box you need, begin with selecting a box and you can customize your design as you go. Right from our website, you’ll be able to choose the type of box you need and follow along to customize your design. It makes it easy to build your custom packaging in a few easy steps. (And if it’s not quite as simple as it seems, our customer support pros are standing by and ready to help you whenever you might need it!)

Already have your design ready to go? 

For our design-savvy crowd that already knows exactly what they want, just use the Design a Custom Box button in the main navigation at BoxGenie and select the type of box you’d like and head to the specific page for that custom box where you can select how many boxes you want to buy, how many sides you want printed, material type, and the hit the Design Online button. Then just download a dieline or upload your completed design it into our design tool to see how it’ll look and make any adjustments. 

Types of boxes

When it comes to box types and styles, there may be more options than you had imagined. At BoxGenie, we stick to the basics and keep the box styles simple to fit your and your customers’ biggest expectations and requirements. You can choose between these four overall types based on the type of products you’re working with, then select sizing and customizations from there. 

The quality of each of these box types has been tested and proven by our teams in our facility for decades, and we’re proud to show you exactly what we’re capable of printing and shipping straight to you. 

Here’s our basic pitch for each type and what you should expect based on your needs. 

Mailer Box 

Send your customers the total package with a smart and sturdy mailer box that shows off your brand’s style. Works great in the mail as e-commerce packaging or subscription box as well as gift boxes or on the shelves for retail. 

Mailers are increasingly popular among small businesses and really stand out based on the design decisions you make. When you choose Magic White as the material, the HD Print quality is precise enough to look like a photo, which is perfect for high-end branding like fashion or luxury goods. If you stick with Kraft for your material, that’s a natural brown matte that works well with dark colors and gives your box a more rustic vibe. You can read more about materials and printing options below. 

Shipping Box

Say goodbye to the standard notion of a plain and bulky box. This durable yet delightful twist on the classic shipper will help you wow your customers with the colors and details that make your business stand out. 

One Piece Folder Box

These sleek and easy-to-assemble boxes are the best for quick and easy fulfillment of small orders or shipping flat items like books or artwork. Like the name implies, it’s all printed on one solid piece of material ready to be folded and shaped in a snap. 

Triangle Document Mailer

This smart take on the old-fashioned tubes lets you send your papers, blueprints or artwork out with the style and structure they deserve. We love this as a reliable alternative to packing tubes.  Heavy-duty structure also provides greater stability and protection, and unlike a tube it will never roll away. 

Box materials 

All of our materials are made from corrugated cardboard. This means it’s the typical type of cardboard you see for most sturdy boxes. Overall, it’s composed of three different layers of paper-based material, with the outer layers as a smooth surface and the center layer between is a curved and wavy pattern that holds it all together. BoxGenie does everything in-house, including manufacturing these materials. 

Kraft

This natural brown corrugated cardboard is what most of us think of first when we imagine a box. This material provides an eco-conscious feel that holds dark colors well and provides a simple and modest aesthetic for any package. 

Essential White

Our essential white material is a cost-effective classic for custom branded box creation. This standard white board with a low shine offers a dependable canvas for showcasing any colors, logos, text or design elements.

Magic White with HDPrint

For a box that’s clearly built to impress, select Magic White for your material and let our HD printers do the rest. This premium board feels smooth to the touch, looks lusciously glossy and provides photo-quality prints you never thought possible on cardboard. 

One- or two-sided printing

As the barrier to entry lowers for starting a new e-commerce business and finding new customers online, the stakes for making an impression through branding increase. It’s now critical for small businesses to make their mark, and packaging goes a long way in making a lasting brand impression.

All our printing options are four-color and easy to customize. Two-sided printing means your custom boxes look great from every angle, inside and out. You can also keep things simple with one-sided printing and leave one side blank. 

If you have your own design files ready to print, just open the design tools to download a die line template matched to box type and size and upload to begin. BoxGenie will review our order, reach out with any questions, and quickly get your boxes printed.

And you can always use our online design tools to choose patterns, colors and fonts that work for your brand. 

Please note that your choice of material greatly impacts your color vibrancy and printing precision. For darker colors and simple logos over a natural brown, choose Kraft. To get a full spectrum of colors that pop, choose Essential White. For photo-quality images and the most premium look and feel, Magic White material gives you the HDPrint quality you need. 

Printing in high definition (HD Printing)

This type of digital printing has really brought the world of customized boxes up a few levels. Never before has there been a faster and more cost effective way to get high-definition designs on your packaging. Please note that in order to get the highest definition for your customized packaging, you need to select Magic White for your material and our HD printers will do the rest. 

• Picture perfect: Take your packaging graphics to the next level with tiny targeted ink dots designed for crisp imagery and text
• Fast and precise colors: It takes just a single pass of the printer to bring any color  combinations, gradients or hues to life with no swapping print plates to slow it all down
• Luxe feel with a glossy finish: Our Magic White premium board feels smooth to the touch and provides the perfect canvas for your photo-quality graphics

Box measurements and quantities

When you’re selecting your box size, keep in mind that the dimensions represent interior measurements. The industry standard measurements you see when ordering or customizing boxes are almost always for the inside. It will be displayed as L x W x D. Be sure to round up to the nearest tenth of an inch.

Our minimum order requirements are for 100 units. If you’re curious about why we won’t do smaller orders, here’s a quick explanation. We’ve been in this business for a long time (nearly five decades, in fact). During that time and handling countless orders we’ve learned a lot about what it takes to optimize our operations to make the best use of our time and resources. We’ve also figured out the best tricks for saving our customers money on every order. One of these tricks is finding that perfect number that can keep prices down for you and production optimized for our team. 

We offer up a first-time buyer coupon code that, in most cases, will make the price on your order of 100 boxes on BoxGenie lower than what you would pay when ordering a smaller amount on other sites. We do this because we are confident that you will love your boxes and want to keep ordering from BoxGenie forever!

Best practices and help

Here are a few tips from our design and product teams on designing your box:

• Always convert to CMYK before uploading files as this allows tighter control over your colors and images.
• All text should be at least 8-point in size and use bold colors made up of no more than one or two inks (C, M, Y or K).
• Include at least a 0.25-inch bleed when graphics extend past die-line.
• Lines in a solid or dark color should be no thinner than 1 point.
• Download our templates if you prefer to create your own box design from scratch. 

At BoxGenie, our website makes it easy for you to get started with our catalogue of pre-designed layouts, get inspired by our curated library of design patterns or upload your own designs for a fully customized brand look and feel.

Best of all, any of these box options or styles are available for short runs with as few as 100 units that can be shipped to you in 10 business days or less. We also offer bulk orders and discounts. 

We’re here to help you discover the power of putting beautifully branded packaging into your customers’ hands! Reach out to us at any time for more information or start designing your custom box now.