To keep or get rid of the custom cardboard box a product is shipped in is a common dilemma for many customers, but a similar issue for customers is whether a box should be made to look nice enough to keep and display or should be designed to be disposed of.

This is a surprisingly important decision, as customers often find considerable added value in the box itself, either for storage, collection or resale value, and how much effort you put into its design, presentation and quality of materials will determine how customers will use it.

It is, in essence, a form of customer conditioning; how you design the box will both literally and figuratively shape its usage, and there are positives and negatives to keeping or getting rid of a box.

To understand why, we will explore why people want to keep boxes and some tips for guiding consumers to recycle them instead.

Why Do Customers Keep The Cardboard Box?

Cardboard is designed to be recycled and made from recyclable materials, which is partly out of moral and legal responsibilities to minimise intentional waste, but also because it highlights that the role of a box is primarily to transport goods throughout the supply chain to the final consumer.

However, whilst millions of boxes are disposed of in exactly this way every day, sometimes they want to keep the box as well. After all, as so many people end up saying, it is a nice box.

Here are three of the main reasons why customers keep the box.

The Box Is Part Of The Product Offering

Sometimes the box is a fundamental part of the product, either by providing protection, organisation, storage for small parts that could easily be lost, or a combination of all three.

A box set, for example, typically consists of a number of products in a box or slipcase which keeps them together, which has been a standard way of releasing physical media such as DVDs for at least 25 years, potentially longer.

An even bigger example of this is the board game, which often comprises a cardboard box which stores and organises cardboard components such as cards, playing pieces and the board itself all in one place to ensure important but tiny parts are not easily lost.

In this case, keeping the box is not negotiable, and most modern board games are manufactured with hard-wearing boxes with glossy coatings that not only look worthwhile on a shelf but also resist water.

The Box Is Repurposed

A big, sturdy box has a lot of scope to be repurposed and reused for storage, saving money and energy compared to buying boxes.

As there are inevitably boxes lying around, particularly in the age of e-commerce, usually more than an average household can recycle every two weeks, some of these boxes are best served being used for other purposes.

Shoeboxes are often used for storage, and especially large boxes such as those for appliances are often used for storage and packing, particularly in the absence of other furniture or when preparing to move.  

Display And Collection Purposes

The concept of the big box release somewhat dovetails with the box being part of the overall value offering of a product, but in recent years it has made a comeback with people keen to use boxes as a type of display.

Whilst initially a necessity given the multiple disks, manuals, maps and “feelies” included with computer games in the 1980s and 1990s, changes in storage media and reallocated budgets led to smaller boxes distributed to fewer retailers.

However, the popularity of the format, and the scope it enables for both storytelling and tiered pricing of the same product, has revived the collector’s box, as well as expanding the concept into other media.

Rather than nicely designed boxes customers were likely to want to keep, the point of modern collector’s boxes is specifically to be kept as a display piece.

Ironically, given the debates and consultations regarding the future existence of physical media, the collector’s edition boxes might at some point be the last vestigial trace of the existence of physical media in the computer game world.

How Do You Design Cardboard Boxes For Recycling?

If you want to design cardboard boxes to be recycled, the aim is to design them to have enough aesthetic appeal for a customer to want them, whilst making it clear through the materials you use that they are made to be destroyed.

Utilitarian designs, matte finishes, minimising the use of colour ink and relying on more standard designs and sizes all help to encourage the recycling of boxes rather than the absent-minded disposal of them.