Not every box needs to be square, and the right custom cardboard box manufacturing company will work with you to ensure that your product is securely and safely packaged to minimise costs and maximise revenue.

Whilst there are several standard box designs as defined by FEFCO, and many standard sizes as determined by common paper formats and shipping considerations, there is considerable scope for a business to adopt a non-standard box format when it is the most prudent use of resources.

Whether that applies to you depends significantly on your product, your logistics fulfilment strategy, your storage capabilities and to what extent your delivery and retail partners can handle unusually shaped boxes.

To understand when you should use non-standard boxes, it is important to know why the standard exists in the first place, when non-standard shapes are the norm, and how extreme and unusually shaped your packaging can get before it becomes prohibitively complex.

Why Do We Use Square Cardboard Boxes In Logistics?

A combination of simplicity, stackability and maximum capacity makes the square, rectangle or other quadrilateral the optimal cross-section for cardboard boxes.

Shipped Flat, Sold Cheaply

The biggest reason why square cardboard boxes are the norm is that the vast majority of cardboard boxes are shipped flat, especially when businesses buy them in the bulk quantities they typically require for modern pick and pack logistics fulfilment.

Businesses buy boxes and follow the printed instructions to easily fold and slot them in place, creating an optimal shipping or product package ready for the products themselves, invoices, marketing material, cushioning and anything else needed for shipping.

Being sold flat means they are far cheaper to make as there is no assembly stage and cheaper to ship as they can be shipped in bulk whilst requiring far less space.

Maximum Capacity

Whilst there is value in a large box for the purposes of marketing and sales, and you do need to leave some space unused for the purposes of cushioning and impact protection, any unused space is an additional cost that can accumulate against your profit margin.

This is why spherical, dodecahedral, triangular or complex polygonal shapes are far rarer in logistics, and are almost always used precisely because they stand out in the marketplace.

A square or rectangular cross section allows you to fit the most into each shipping package, saving you money long-term on SKU production.  

Easily Stackable

Modern containerised logistics rely on the use of shipping containers and pallets, which maximise the use of available space. Much like how any space in a box is wasted, any unused space in a container is money left on the table.

The problem with unusual box shapes is that they have far lower compressive strengths and typically are unsuited to stacking.

Are Square Cardboard Boxes Always The Standard?

Not at all; posters, mats and anything that is large but can be rolled up will typically be shipped in a tube rather than a box. Similarly, certain types of produce such as milk or juice are shipped in aseptic packaging, which often uses tetrahedron cross sections rather than a typical cuboid.

The Logic Of The Majority

Ultimately, the logic of the majority will create an optimal solution; posters and maps cannot be shipped in boxes without folding them and potentially compromising their quality, so long tubes are used instead.

Similarly, certain types of manufacturing processes require the use of nonstandard shapes, whilst other products still will be roughly box-shaped but feature a wider base or cutaways to prominently display a specific product.

Added Value Designs

Similarly, some non-standard box designs may not necessarily appear to be the optimal solution to a particular storage problem but may have additional features that add value to a consumer.

A good example of this is the “oyster pail” takeaway boxes most commonly associated with Chinese food; whilst many people treat it as a bucket or box, the oyster pail is designed to be folded out to form a large, versatile plate.

What Are The Complications Of Non-Standard Boxes?

Much of the logistics system is built around the standardised products noted above, which means that using non-standard cardboard box shapes is going to ultimately provide additional complications throughout your supply chain.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Increased costs to use non-standard cutting and scoring equipment

• Greater complexities in creating stock keeping units

• Additional charges from delivery companies due to non-standard shapes and bigger-sized SKU boxes

• Risks of damage during shipping due to reduced protections

• Lack of versatility as you can only use your nonstandard boxes for the products they were designed for