Packaging Audit Case Study
A growing direct-to-consumer brand shipping about 11,000 boxes a month asked us a fair question:
Should they buy an $8,000 case sealer and keep using plain RSC shipping boxes, or switch to auto-bottom boxes that pop open by hand and skip the machine altogether?
We built them a spreadsheet and ran it.
At the auto-bottom premium they had been quoted elsewhere — about $0.20 a box over an RSC — the sealer wins by roughly $20,000 a year. For autobottom to win at that volume, the premium has to be under about 4 to 8 cents a box. Below roughly 5,000 boxes a month, the answer flips and auto-bottom usually wins. We told them to buy the machine. Yes, we sell boxes. The point of a packaging audit is to find the right answer, not the answer that ships the most cardboard.
See for yourself.
Should YOU buy a case sealer and keep using regular RSC boxes, or switch to glued auto-bottom boxes that pop open by hand and skip the machine? This tool compares the cost of closing the BOTTOM of the box three ways, using your volume, your labor rate, your quotes, and your machine price.
