ection class=”section section–cream”>
Home › Blog › How Many Custom Rigid Boxes Should You Order?
Ordering
How Many Custom Rigid Boxes Should You Order?
Ordering custom rigid boxes for the first time, most brands either overbuy on a design they’ll refine or underbuy and miss the price break — and both cost money. Because rigid boxes carry tooling and setup costs, the per-unit price drops sharply with volume, so order size is an economic decision as much as a usage one.
Here’s how to size an order once you separate your program into its real use cases.
Launch: order to a real tier, not the minimum
For a product launch, the setup and tooling costs dominate at low volume — the per-box price at 100 can be several times the price at 1,000. If your design is final, ordering to a real tier slashes per-unit cost. If it might change, run a small sample or proof batch first, then scale.
Retail rollout: base it on sell-through
For retail, estimate weekly units, order 8–12 weeks of stock, and set a reorder trigger at about 3 weeks of cover. We keep your dieline and artwork on file, so reorders match exactly and move fast — no re-tooling.
Subscription: order a full cycle plus growth
For a subscription box, order a full cycle of your subscriber count plus expected growth, not month to month, to lock the volume price and avoid a stockout mid-cycle. Factor churn and new sign-ups into the number.
| Program | Starting quantity | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Launch (design final) | Order to a real tier (often 1k+) | Tooling/setup dominates at low volume |
| Retail | 8–12 weeks of sell-through | Reorder at ~3 weeks cover |
| Subscription | A full cycle + growth | Locks price, avoids stockout |
Quantity is the biggest lever on per-box cost: once your design and dieline are set, ordering up one tier usually pays for itself.
Tell us your product and volume and we’ll show you where the price tiers fall — with a free mockup, within one business day.
More posts