How Should a Startup Design Product Packaging?

[0:00] everybody Welcome to Startup Chuck today

[0:02] we are finally going to talk about

[0:05] packaging so you might be thinking I've

[0:08] got a product now I need to think about

[0:10] how the customer is going to get it well

[0:13] there is a lot to think about and some

[0:16] of the things that you might not

[0:18] otherwise think about would be first off

[0:22] is your product going to get shipped

[0:23] straight to the customer or are they

[0:25] going to want to see it on a shelf so if

[0:28] they're going to see it on a shelf you

[0:30] might want to have a nice design for a

[0:32] package like this this is on a hanger

[0:34] package it's the little hanger hole

[0:36] right here and if that's all you need

[0:40] great right you can just get this

[0:43] designed um you can go to a company like

[0:47] Fiverr I've showed you guys that all

[0:49] before Fiverr is you know a place where

[0:52] you can go and you can just search

[0:54] packaging design and people will Design

[0:56] packaging for you for Fairly

[0:58] inexpensive I had this one here done for

[1:01] $125 it wasn't through Fiverr but very

[1:04] similar

[1:05] service

[1:06] and uh with that in mind then you can

[1:10] get really nice Graphic Packaging but

[1:11] let's go a step even simpler than that

[1:14] if you don't need to

[1:16] have a customer facing package at a

[1:19] store you can do things like just put it

[1:22] in a poly mailer like this they got a

[1:25] little peel section to seal it they're

[1:28] very inexpensive and then you drop it in

[1:32] and ship it to your customer if it's

[1:33] something very small um and not fragile

[1:37] let's say you've

[1:38] got something that's pretty large like a

[1:40] machine you might need to put that on a

[1:42] pallet or on a pallet with a box or

[1:44] crate over the top and uh ship it to

[1:47] them like that it really depends on your

[1:50] product there's a ton of different

[1:52] products everybody's product is going to

[1:53] be different so take inspiration from

[1:55] the ones you see out there in the market

[1:57] I'm just going to go over a bunch of

[1:59] different types of packaging for

[2:00] physical products I can think of that

[2:02] aren't necessarily food so this is for

[2:04] example would be an opaque poly mailer

[2:08] and they're really inexpensive you might

[2:10] need opaqueness to protect the product

[2:12] inside or if it's sensitive in nature um

[2:16] this is a clear poly mailer it's great

[2:19] for doing things just like packaging

[2:20] your individual product this is uh ski

[2:22] straps right here and there's two of

[2:25] them and it's labeled with our Barcode

[2:28] one thing you're going to have to think

[2:29] about is are you selling these in a

[2:32] store where they need barcodes so on

[2:34] Amazon for example you can actually use

[2:36] Amazon generated barcodes and save

[2:38] yourself the time and money uh but if

[2:42] you plan on having it in a store they're

[2:44] going to probably want a real bar code

[2:46] on it how do you make sure that the

[2:48] barcode you put on there doesn't already

[2:50] exist so one thing that you would have

[2:52] to do is use a service like gs1 this is

[2:56] gs1.org and they basically are a barcode

[3:00] provider and for

[3:03] $250 annually you get 10 barcodes you

[3:07] can do 30 bucks and just get

[3:09] one depends on how many products you

[3:11] think you might end up having and then

[3:14] you pay that annually to get a prefix

[3:17] that is your product and then uh that'll

[3:21] get you a whole bunch of barcodes

[3:23] underneath your your prefix and so you

[3:26] can do 10 you can keep adding more and

[3:29] the nice thing is though when somebody

[3:31] scans that barcode it's only your

[3:33] product and uh you do not have to worry

[3:36] about other people necessarily using the

[3:39] same one they they could try but you can

[3:41] prove that that barcode is yours and

[3:45] so um so that's

[3:47] barcodes other packaging uh bubble

[3:50] mailers so this is you know bubble

[3:53] mailers basically bubble wrap in a

[3:56] mailer they're great for if you have

[3:58] something that might get damaged damaged

[4:00] if it's fragile a lot of times the you

[4:02] know depending on your product you might

[4:04] find that

[4:05] just USPS mailing envelopes or flat rate

[4:09] boxes are great um designing your

[4:12] product to make sure that they if

[4:14] they're kind of heavy if they fit

[4:17] standardized flat rate boxes then you

[4:19] don't even almost have to pay for

[4:20] packaging you can just

[4:22] use the USPS flat rate boxes and that

[4:27] might be your best shipping rate as well

[4:30] so um if we're going to get into

[4:33] shipping rates another thing to think

[4:35] about is dimensional shipping so you may

[4:40] not think it but every single product

[4:43] has a weight and it has a volume and

[4:46] sometimes if the product weighs very

[4:49] little but takes up a huge amount of

[4:51] space they'll actually charge you a

[4:56] theoretical uh weight for your product

[4:59] so for example here's this calculator on

[5:01] shipping easy.com where depending on if

[5:05] you have FedEx or USPS you can enter in

[5:07] 12 by 12 x 12 in and you can see that a

[5:12] box that weighs 11b and a box that is 1

[5:15] cubic foot would be equivalent in price

[5:20] but let's say your product only weighs

[5:24] 10 lb and you're shipping it in a 12 x

[5:26] 12 x 12 box they're going to still

[5:28] charge you for 11 lb and so it's

[5:32] important to maximize your product

[5:36] Dimensions uh if in terms of packaging

[5:40] so don't have extra padding if you don't

[5:41] need it because you're going to get

[5:42] charged for that extra volume I know

[5:45] that when I had redesigned the box for

[5:48] my uh bik rack main post the the hitch

[5:53] post when I shortened it by 2 in it

[5:56] ended up saving me a bunch of money uh

[5:58] because it was was just that much

[6:00] shorter and it was no longer a extra

[6:03] long item so you get charged if it's

[6:05] above a certain length too depending on

[6:07] the carrier

[6:09] so again think about

[6:13] maximizing uh how much volume uh that

[6:17] you have in terms of your product

[6:19] because again if you have a

[6:21] 24 uh let's take my my my skiak you know

[6:25] it's it's 20 by 20 by uh

[6:30] 12 and so it could be 29

[6:33] pounds uh I could put a whole bunch more

[6:37] inside my box and up to 29 pounds and

[6:40] still pay the shame pay the same

[6:43] shipping price as I pay right now so

[6:45] that's something to consider as well if

[6:48] you have a product that has a bunch of

[6:50] accept accessories that might ship

[6:52] separately it might make sense to put

[6:53] them in the same box if you're going to

[6:55] end up paying for that much volume

[6:58] anyways see here so box

[7:03] types so this is uh let's see here axes

[7:08] Corrugated Container they have a great

[7:10] little graphic on box types so five

[7:14] panel fold overlap slotted full

[7:18] telescoping like you can go through and

[7:19] look and understand all of them but

[7:21] basically uh they are showing

[7:24] you different types so that way you can

[7:27] specify chose your package

[7:30] designer what you want to have the type

[7:33] of box that you're looking for because

[7:35] you're going to give them the

[7:36] dimensions and then uh the graphic

[7:39] designer will have the graphics and then

[7:41] you will end up with a drawing similar

[7:43] to this and so this is the Box drawing

[7:48] the red lines are shown where they cut

[7:50] the blue lines are where they fold you

[7:53] can see here there's measurement info

[7:55] order numbers where it's manufactured

[7:58] the barcode

[8:00] and then uh manufacturer location what

[8:05] model is it how many they're in there

[8:07] what its gross weight and its net weight

[8:10] is and the nice thing about this is that

[8:16] it allows you basically then especially

[8:20] this gross weight and net weight they

[8:21] can figure out how many they can fit on

[8:24] a pallet based on the weight and the

[8:27] sizing and also then how many will fit

[8:30] in a container based on the height of

[8:31] the container and so you might find

[8:35] that based on the pallets you have and

[8:38] the container size you have they could

[8:41] fit 200 more units per pallet if you

[8:44] shave off half an inch so that's another

[8:48] thing to think about is how on a pallet

[8:50] these are going to fit assuming you're

[8:52] doing higher volume

[8:54] things and uh I like doing everything in

[8:58] metric um that's a lot easier if you're

[9:00] trying to have this stuff manufactured

[9:02] in Canada or anywhere else in Europe

[9:04] anywhere basically outside the United

[9:06] States and so it's nice to just start in

[9:09] metric and then um if anyone in the US

[9:12] needs to convert it they can all of

[9:15] honestly all of them just kind of take

[9:16] the cad file anyways and it pulls the

[9:18] dimensions off they're more for

[9:21] reference so that's uh you might also

[9:24] want to send

[9:26] them um your barcode files in the Raw

[9:30] format because they might want to have

[9:32] it uh higher resolution version than

[9:35] what is in your PDF and

[9:38] then uh your

[9:40] information also is helpful separately

[9:43] than in the Box uh if they want that a

[9:46] lot of times they won't necessarily if

[9:49] you're just doing a simple box they may

[9:50] not

[9:52] need um you to supply graphic

[9:55] information if you don't want to have

[9:56] graphics on

[9:57] there and and then let's see what

[10:01] else paperboard so one thing you can

[10:04] look at is all of the different

[10:06] cardboard versus

[10:08] paperboard uh I'm not going to get into

[10:11] all of that now if if you're really

[10:13] starting to get into packaging um you

[10:15] can go to a packaging Expo that they

[10:18] have every single year in it's either

[10:21] every year or every other year in Las

[10:22] Vegas pack Expo and that is all

[10:26] packaging they've got food packaging

[10:29] they've got all sorts of packaging and

[10:33] so if you especially if you want to get

[10:34] into food packaging you can go there and

[10:37] easily find 25 suppliers that'll package

[10:41] the exact form of food that you have

[10:44] been trying to package which is really

[10:46] good as opposed to trying to search the

[10:48] internet which is really

[10:50] hard so let's see here what else uh stor

[10:53] shelf vers direct to Consumer so if

[10:56] you're doing store shelf one thing to

[10:57] think about are you doing case packs are

[11:00] you fitting multiple of these items in a

[11:02] case and then they open the case and

[11:04] then it's ready to display are you doing

[11:06] hangers like I had said for this product

[11:09] right here are you doing an end display

[11:11] where they want to have all of these in

[11:14] nice little things that are in a

[11:15] freestanding cardboard

[11:18] box uh that's another option right

[11:22] there

[11:26] um desicant so that's another thing I

[11:29] didn't talk about what are the storage

[11:32] requirements for your product does it

[11:33] rust easy do you need to have it covered

[11:37] in wax paper and oiled do you need to

[11:40] have a desate in there to keep things

[11:43] dry from rusting or from

[11:46] oxidizing there's a whole bunch of

[11:48] different options there do you need

[11:50] to protect it from Light I think I had

[11:53] mentioned earlier so that's basically it

[11:58] you you can talk to a packaging expert

[12:00] if you want as well every single City uh

[12:03] of any decent size has both box

[12:08] manufacturers and packaging

[12:11] experts there are a lot more than you

[12:14] would think and it's great because they

[12:16] have these big CNC Gantry plotting

[12:19] machines that will cut out cardboard for

[12:21] you and they will then mock up your

[12:25] product

[12:26] design and then you can take that put

[12:29] your project product in it and then see

[12:31] how it works and I highly suggest

[12:34] prototyping your packaging ahead of time

[12:37] if you have a Cricut Cutter uh and you

[12:39] want to try and design your own

[12:41] packaging you can do that you can also

[12:44] take just cardboard or paperboard or

[12:47] whatever you want it to in any form or

[12:49] even paper and just start folding and

[12:52] cutting it into the shapes until you

[12:54] find out the shape of the packaging that

[12:57] you need and then go to a packaging

[12:59] person and say take this and refine it

[13:01] and turn it into basically this you know

[13:06] final design and then they can quickly

[13:08] prototype that and then you can try and

[13:11] fold it all up you might find that it's

[13:13] a pain to fold something six different

[13:15] ways versus just shoving it in an

[13:18] envelope that's another thing to think

[13:20] about is the amount of time you're going

[13:21] to

[13:22] spend assembling the packaging if you

[13:26] had to fold pizza boxes all day it it

[13:28] would get fairly

[13:31] repetitive another thing for packaging

[13:33] would be can you receive it in a flat

[13:36] form uh you don't want to have packaging

[13:39] that doesn't store well for example if

[13:43] you remember those really big popcorn

[13:45] tins that are cylinders or about yay

[13:48] tall huge those don't stack other than

[13:52] on top of each other and so you have to

[13:55] imagine even if you had just 12 of those

[13:57] it's a huge amount of space for

[13:59] something that it does not store well

[14:03] and versus if you had one that was

[14:05] flared and they all stacked inside each

[14:07] other or cardboard which you could fold

[14:09] flat and then you just put a plastic bag

[14:12] inside of that with popcorn there's a

[14:14] you know a bunch of things like that

[14:15] think of storage space for your

[14:17] packaging is also a big deal and then

[14:20] Eco requirements is another one do they

[14:23] want bleach free cardboard do they want

[14:26] to have a paper pulp in

[14:29] internals I I didn't even get

[14:31] into all of the different possibilities

[14:34] for foam wrap and expanding foam things

[14:40] to hold things in place shipping tubes

[14:43] is another one I didn't get into stretch

[14:45] wrap if you just look at packaging this

[14:47] is on McMaster Car there is so many

[14:50] things that you can go down a rabbit

[14:53] hole and uh see whether or not they're

[14:55] good for your product but

[15:00] um oh I didn't even get into packaging

[15:02] tape and and consumables so um here's a

[15:06] good

[15:07] example if I were to show you this

[15:11] rolling

[15:12] pen right

[15:14] here and the box that I want to put it

[15:17] in you have a couple options with this

[15:18] box you can either do open-ended which

[15:21] is what this is or you could do a a long

[15:26] flap double flap or maybe it meets in

[15:29] the middle and so you have to think

[15:31] about

[15:32] okay what's important here if I have

[15:35] extra flaps then maybe that'll be

[15:38] stronger in terms of how thick the

[15:39] cardboard is and thickness is something

[15:42] you should think about for protecting

[15:43] your product or can I put foam around

[15:47] the item protect it that way and then if

[15:50] by using just end flaps I use a lot less

[15:53] tape and tape could be expensive

[15:54] depending on the tape you use and how

[15:56] much you use of it so you can decide

[15:59] okay which one is easier plus you know

[16:02] is it easier to load something on the

[16:05] end with all the foam that might be on

[16:08] it or is it easier to just plop it in

[16:10] right from the top again your

[16:12] prototyping should help you figure out

[16:15] these answers and then that way you

[16:17] don't have to end up with bad packaging

[16:20] that you wish was different always

[16:22] prototype of packaging and then what I

[16:26] like to do is also ship it out

[16:29] get your prototype put it in there um

[16:31] you could go to a ship testing place

[16:33] where they actually have machines that

[16:36] have big platforms and they shake up and

[16:38] down inside to side and they represent

[16:42] how it might end up inside a truck for

[16:44] example and so they'll shap Shake Rattle

[16:48] and Roll test it for X number of hours

[16:50] and then you get the product back and

[16:51] you see how destroyed it is on the

[16:53] inside did it turn out okay or did it

[16:56] completely you know Fall Apart

[16:59] uh what else there is an easy way to do

[17:02] that yourself which is just ship it to

[17:05] yourself a bunch of times ship it you

[17:09] know across the country to a friend and

[17:11] then have them ship it back to you

[17:13] shipping things twice is a really good

[17:16] test of how good the packaging is I have

[17:19] shipped thing I have packaging um on

[17:21] previous products where it shipped great

[17:24] one time but if you ever tried to ship

[17:26] it back to me this was for the M rollers

[17:29] it was not going to happen it you'd have

[17:33] to tape the box completely up with duct

[17:35] tape basically to make that thing

[17:36] survive on the trip home and it was

[17:38] because the cardboard just got so

[17:40] damaged and that was something I learned

[17:42] about cardboard from overseas it is

[17:47] really moist over there and then when it

[17:48] comes out to the states depending on

[17:50] where you live it dries out and becomes

[17:52] really fragile and so it ends up

[17:55] cracking and is less um forgiving

[17:59] basically of impact than it was uh when

[18:03] it was fresh so you have to consider

[18:06] that as well where's your packages being

[18:10] manufactured and then uh if you do ship

[18:13] it away and back and you see it's

[18:16] damaged like the corners get damaged you

[18:18] can do things like add corner

[18:20] protectors or you might find it needs an

[18:23] outer box to protect it so my ski rack

[18:27] which actually this is sponsored I'm

[18:29] kind of late at the end here but this

[18:31] episode is sponsored by Chuck bucket and

[18:36] the Chuck bucket which is by Chuck rack

[18:39] it's a ski rack and uh it's pretty easy

[18:42] to use great for the season right now

[18:44] for winter we also have a bike rack

[18:47] which is

[18:48] awesome but in terms of shipping this

[18:51] product so when we ship this bucket

[18:54] where is

[18:55] it I guess we'll just say this bucket

[18:58] right

[18:59] here when we ship this bucket it is in a

[19:04] box that has uh nice label on it

[19:08] graphics and that box is what we want to

[19:10] have the

[19:12] endpoint Distributors have to put on

[19:14] their shelf so that it looks good and

[19:17] the customers then want to buy it and so

[19:19] in order to keep that box looking good

[19:22] we actually have another secondary box

[19:25] and corner protectors and those little

[19:28] plastic corner protectors are actually

[19:31] what keep the inside box nice and crisp

[19:34] especially the corners so they don't get

[19:35] damaged they're just hard little pieces

[19:38] of plastic and they go and they sit in

[19:40] the corners of the box and that way when

[19:43] FedEx or UPS or whoever drops the Box on

[19:45] the ground on a corner it doesn't bent

[19:48] the package and it be still sellable

[19:51] when it gets to the final distributor

[19:53] and it's not too much extra cardboard

[19:55] it's easy to recycle it's unbleached not

[19:58] really much Inc on it so overall it's uh

[20:02] been a pretty good success in ensuring

[20:05] that not only does the product make it

[20:06] to our customers excellent but if they

[20:09] do have a problem and they want to ship

[20:10] it back it will survive the trip back

[20:13] because there's that double layer there

[20:17] so that's about all I've got for

[20:20] packaging if you like what you've heard

[20:24] please like And

[20:26] subscribe and I will talk to you guys

[20:28] another time about another topic thanks