Subscription box orders from 100 units or more are accepted by most packaging suppliers with wholesale pricing kicking in with volumes above that point and providing substantial per unit savings for each subscription box production run.
A plain old brown box delivers a product, a beautifully designed subscription box delivers an experience which customers will then take a picture and talk about for days. The right box packaging for your subscription boxes reels in one-time buyers and keeps them as subscription customers until you’re outcompeted with a better unboxing experience.
Get a free quote today and get the first order delivered with a free 3D design mock-up of your order. One-click subscription packaging that keeps your customers is the beginning of premium subscription packaging.
The subscription box market was valued at $32.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to hit more than $105 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 14%. Subscription boxes offer a reliable stream of recurring revenue, allow customers to get in touch with the brand every month and attract organic social media content as the customer posts photos and videos of their monthly box. In fact, companies who invest in a premium box packaging system, have resulted in a 40% greater retention rate of subscribers than those who mail in a plain, unbranded mailer.
The materials that the box is made out of affect how amazing it will look to the subscriber when it reaches their doorstep. The best materials for a custom subscription boxes are rigid board, corrugated cardboard, kraft paper and folding carton, as each supports a unique quality of durability, printability and unboxing. Rigid board gives the premium feel and weight which luxury subscription brands need to impress upon customers in order to justify higher prices. During long distance transportation corrugated stock is not crushed but it can be printed with full colour creating a strong brand identity on arrival.
Throughout the entire unboxing experience, the Box’s shape will create a sense of anticipation as the lid is lifted, the first glimpse of what’s inside and its presentation to the subscriber. Magnetic closure, tuck-end, mailer, telescope and flip-lid packaging are among the different designs in effect for subscription box packaging, each offering a unique customer experience. Magnetic closure boxes provide a satisfying click which lets the subscriber know that the device is of high quality, even before he or she looks at the product inside. Mailer boxes come open flat with a curated layout that looks great in social media sharing moments.
When the excitement wears down, subscribers cancel and packaging is directly involved in maintaining the excitement each month. Spot UV coating, soft touch lamination, embossing, foil stamping and luxuriously finished boxes are all options for luxury subscription boxes that can’t be matched with a competitor shipping boxes in plain boxes. According to a Dotcom Distribution study in 2023, 61% of consumers indicated that premium packaging was an incentive that made them more excited about receiving a purchase, while 40% posted photos of their unique packaging on their social media resulting in free brand exposure with every purchase.
The excitement that a box creates when it reaches the home of the kids is what determines their success or failure. Subscription boxes for kids must be printed brightly and vividly in colour, have rounded corners to avoid sharp edges and be robust enough to withstand the enthusiastic fingers of little children opening them. They come in monthly packaging designs based on themes, which keeps kids looking forward to the next month after month, encouraging them to continue their subscription with their parents. Activity kits, educational toys, book and STEM subscription brands all have found them useful in keeping kids excited about their monthly deliveries.
Women in all beauty, wellness, fashion and lifestyle categories have a higher bar for packing their products than nearly all other subscription audiences. Subscription boxes for women, delicate color palettes, high-quality paper surfaces and careful product inside design are essential to ensure that each item has been creatively arranged and feels like it was done with care. Beauty companies that include tissue wrap, ribbon pulls and customized inserts in their subscription boxes see their unboxing videos on Instagram and TikTok shoot up by as much as 300% when shipped into boxes in contrast to those with corrugated mailers that have no other presentation inside.
Men are drawn to clean and bold packaging, which conveys quality but doesn’t get in the way of the design. Subscription boxes for men have the best results when they’re made with a structured corrugated design, matte or kraft paper finishes and minimal but perfect brand messaging that conveys confidence and premium positioning. Packaging quality is integral to perceived value for brands that target male subscribers with the same product being rated by significantly more than half as many subscribers when delivered in plain mailers.
No subscriber is served a different kind of treatment if it is a generic packing. Personalized subscription packages feature a box name, personalized messages, personalized product suggestions based on customer preferences and monthly themes that give a personal touch to every package making it feel custom made instead of mass-produced. Subscription brands that integrate elements of personalized packaging score 25 to 35% higher than their non-personalized counterparts, establishing the fact that it plays a critical role in the referral behavior and long-term retention on which subscription brands thrive and survive at scale.
Each door to door box received represents a brand impression that goes far beyond the products contained within it. Custom printed subscription boxes carry UV printing, offset printing and digital technology ensures brand colours, logo location, taglines and seasonal artwork are printed in perfect colour matches with thousands of boxes being produced at a time. Brands with unique and consistent subscription packaging are experiencing a 30 to 40% increase in mention rate on social media due to their subscribers sharing their monthly deliveries organically which generate user to user content ads.
Subscription business models thrive on volume, and packaging cost management can make or break a subscription brand. After a certain number of units (usually 25 to 40) is reached, the pricing for subscription packaging boxes wholesale decreases substantially, offering 25 to 40% price reductions on a per-box basis. The wholesale also guarantees that the material specs, print colour accuracy and finish quality will be identical on all monthly orders, removing the batch-to-batch variation that suppliers often introduce in the visual identity of a subscription brand when switching between small orders.
Got a question? Take a look at our FAQs about the custom packaging process.
Subscription box orders from 100 units or more are accepted by most packaging suppliers with wholesale pricing kicking in with volumes above that point and providing substantial per unit savings for each subscription box production run.
Yes, foam inserts, die-cut cardboard trays, tissue paper, ribbon pulls and customized cards are all very suitable items for subscription boxes and can help to deliver the high-end unboxing that helps to keep customers coming in monthly.
The typical custom subscription boxes order takes 10 to 14 business days to be completed after artwork approval and can be rushed for new product launches or seasonal subscription campaigns.
Yes, most packaging suppliers will allow monthly changes to the artwork on the same box configuration allowing the brand to update the artwork each season without having to reprint their dieline for the structure or paying for any extra engineering charges.
Yes, FSC certified kraft paper, recycled corrugated board and biodegradable coatings all provide the structure and print quality that a subscription box requires while maintaining the brand's sustainability standards.
Brands in beauty, food, lifestyle and kids all rely on our subscription boxes to bring them brand moments that keep consumers subscribed and create organic social media buzz every month. Here are a few of their thoughts.