Mailer boxes are the most reordered item in ecommerce packaging, which makes them the item where buying properly at volume pays back fastest. Two things decide whether a wholesale order is a good one: the size you commit to, and the lane you ship it on. Everything else is detail.
Commit to the right size before you commit to the volume
Ordering 100 of a size you are unsure about is a cheap experiment. Ordering a year of them is not. Before a large run, check three things: that the interior fits your largest current product with the void fill you actually use, that the outside dimensions do not push you into a higher billable weight under your carrier's dimensional weight divisor, and that the depth accommodates any product you plan to add. Board thickness adds to the outside, so a change of flute changes the parcel size without changing the interior. Corrugated mailer dimensions covers the inside versus outside maths.
Lanes, and what they are for
| Lane | How it moves | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Rush | Expedited production plus air freight, premium of about 7 to 25% depending on the job | You have run out, or a campaign date is fixed and close |
| Standard | Air freight | Normal replenishment on a known size |
| Cost saver | Sea freight | Planned bulk restock where the date is comfortable |
Turnaround is stated per product, and the floor is from about 7 business days plus 2 to 5 days for delivery. Specialty imported items can run up to about 12 weeks. The practical wholesale habit is simple: reorder on Cost saver before you need it, and keep Rush for the month it goes wrong. If it has already gone wrong, see rush mailer boxes.
What changes the per unit price at volume
- Quantity. Setup and press time spread over more boxes, which is the main reason wholesale pricing exists.
- Flute and board grade. Heavier board costs more per box and more to freight.
- Print coverage. One colour outside, or one flood colour inside, costs less than a full wrap of artwork on both faces.
- Size. Fewer boxes per sheet means more board per unit, so an inch matters.
- Number of SKUs. The 100 box minimum applies per size and artwork, so five variants is five runs, not one.
Minimums, tooling and proofs
The minimum order is 100 boxes per size and artwork. Pricing starts from about $0.48 per unit at bulk volumes and the exact figure is confirmed in writing against your size, board, colours and quantity. The die, the printing plates, design support, US shipping and a digital proof before anything prints are included in the order, so a first run does not carry a separate tooling invoice and a reorder of the same artwork does not repeat that work. There is no sample kit to buy: if you want to see and handle the box before a large run, raise it in the quote conversation. Production runs at two plants, West Chicago in the United States and Guangzhou in China.
Send your size, artwork and your annual or monthly volume to the quote form and ask for pricing at more than one quantity so you can see where the curve flattens. For the wider mailer range, see custom mailer boxes.
