Be it a luxury rigid box or corrugated cardboard, prototyping is a crucial part of finding the right packaging for your product’s success in retail or eCommerce. Even if you’ve finalised your product’s packaging design, there’s always room for improvement that can be realised only when you see the final product. Therefore getting sample boxes to give you the chance for any final amends before your launch mass production as there’s nothing worse than ending up with a mass of defective boxes.

With a prototype, you can test the fit, dimensions, artwork, etc. of your custom boxes early on. So, you get a good idea of changes that need to be made to accommodate your products comfortably.

There are a bunch of tried and tested steps that go into testing a sample box for a successful and lasting product experience. Let’s explore some of the key reasons to ask for a sample box before you launch into production. 

Types of Sample Boxes

Before we move on to discuss the various roles of sample boxes it’s best to get familiar with their various types. Sample boxes can be categorized into three distinct categories Conventional, Custom, and Standard White, each with its distinct features and functions. Here’s a brief introduction to each.  

Conventional: Conventional sample boxes are those samples that your manufacturer had made for a previous client from the same industry. These help you lay foundations for your designs strategy as per your industry. 

Standard White: As the name suggests, these samples are plain white and do not have any prints. These are used to check the material and structural quality of a packaging and are easiest to manufacture. 

Custom: Custom sample boxes are created as per unique design and choices regarding materials and printing such as eco-friendly cosmetic packaging or luxury rigid boxes. These can be of two varieties, 3-D digital models and production-grade samples. 

Now that we know about our packaging types, it’s time to move on to their key uses and advantages.

Tactical Advantages of Sample Boxes

Finding the Right Fit

There’s nothing worse than ending up with boxes that don’t even fit your product. If your luxury rigid boxes end up with a loose fit, your product will wobble inside and is prone to damage. Similarly, a tighter fit would leave no room for void filling and your product can be easily damaged on impact. Both of the conditions leave you with losses via product damage and can also affect your brand image for customers who receive damaged goods.

Problems regarding fitting especially arise with uniquely shaped products. The easiest solution to this problem is sending some of your product samples to the manufacturer along with the measurement of the desired dimensions of your luxury rigid boxes or corrugation packaging.

However, you can never be 100% sure of the exact fit without getting a sample box for yourself. It’s best to ask for an unprinted sample and examine every inch of its structural design for a perfect fit, be it a folding paper box, rigid boxes, or corrugation carton box. 

Verifying the Print

Your next step towards testing your box is to verify its print. Remember artworks are made in RGB colour in the designing phase, wherein print they need to be converted into CMYK colour format accordingly. Therefore, it can be that the artwork you chose for your eco-friendly cosmetic packaging may not turn out the same in print due to errors in converting the file. All this is part of what we call verification of the print.

To check the print you can either create a digital sample if you have access to the technology or go traditional and order a production-grade sample for a closer look. Be sure to spot any errors regarding the colour variation, typography, design, etc., and adapt your eco-friendly cosmetic packaging accordingly.

Gathering Pre-Launch Response

Another key aspect of getting sample boxes that you can distribute them among a set of focus group and gather their response to you new corrugated cardboard boxes. Regardless of how meticulously you work, there are some faults in a custom box that only a customer’s eye can spot.

These responses will act as insights regarding the artwork, design, shape, and materials of the box that can help you further develop your custom box. Above all, the best corrugation packaging is what your customers find to be the best. Sampling in this sense is ideal for the research and development of

All in all, sample boxes are crucial for the research and development of your final packaging design. It offers you the opportunity to rethink your design strategy, lessen your losses due to errors, and helps you gather insights for impactful custom boxes. However, finding the right manufacturing partner is another important aspect of the story. With over 20+ years of experience in industry-specific and custom solutions, we curate innovative and application-based solutions for all domains. With a niche in sustainable and recyclable solutions such as kraft paper boxes and corrugation packaging, we are leading the manufacturing industry towards a sustainable world.

From a sustainable rigid box, corrugation cardboard box to kraft pouches, we have the expertise to curate all your custom packaging in eco-friendly materials. Let’s connect to create samples for the packaging you desire.