From ten box sizes to four: how to simplify your packaging assortment
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
Eight to twelve box sizes in the warehouse is more common than not. Here's how to reduce that to four sizes that will lower your purchasing, storage, and packing costs.
Count how many different box sizes you have in your warehouse or storage closet. Most small webshops have eight to twelve, and for half of those, there's only one bundle of fifteen left. They were once ordered for a specific product, that product is no longer in stock, and the boxes are still there. Meanwhile, every time you pack, you hesitate about which size to pick.
Maintaining fewer sizes is one of the few improvements that simultaneously makes your purchasing, storage, and packing time cheaper. Below is how to go from a grown assortment to a small, consciously chosen set — and where to be careful not to cut too much.
What a long list of box sizes costs you
The costs are in three places, and none of them are on your invoice.
Cost per item. Eleven sizes means eleven small orders. With packaging material, the profit is in bundles: a recycled letterbox box A6 (180 x 115 x 28 mm) in a bundle of 100 pieces costs €17.95, or just under €0.18 per box. Dividing those same hundred pieces across five sizes won't give you that advantage.
Space. Each size requires its own stack or shelf, even if there are only twenty left. Four stacks of 200 take up less space than ten stacks of 80.
Decision time and errors. With an assortment of four sizes, no one has to think. With eleven sizes, one person picks the tight box and another the spacious one, and you see your shipping costs per order diverge without knowing why.
Start with your orders, not your boxes
The temptation is to look at your current stack and cut down. It's better to do it the other way around: take the last fifty shipped orders and note what was in each order. Not the box you used, but the contents.
Then measure the external dimensions of your ten best-selling products: length, width, and height in millimeters, and the weight. For stackable products, also calculate the height of two or three items stacked. You will then have a list of actual volumes instead of a feeling.
What you almost always see: a handful of combinations covers the vast majority of your orders, and the rest is a long tail of one-off compositions. You don't need to keep a separate box size for that tail — you solve it with void fill or a larger size.
A basic assortment of four sizes
For a webshop with small to medium-sized items, the structure below works well in practice. The sizes are an example; the principle is that each step roughly doubles the volume, so you don't have two overlapping sizes.
For steps 1 and 2, note the height of 28 mm: these boxes are designed to remain flat. The exact maximum height and dimensions for a letterbox package vary per carrier — check the terms and conditions of the carrier you work with before ordering a hundred pieces.
You fill the gaps, not with an extra size
The moment when most assortments expand again: an order arrives that just doesn't fit in size 2 and rolls around loosely in size 3. The solution for this is void fill material, not a fifth box size. A roll of bubble wrap 500 mm wide and 500 meters long costs €12.95 and fills the space you would otherwise close with an extra size for a fraction of a cent per package.
A second option for irregular, non-fragile items: a bubble envelope 22 x 17 cm for €0.90 or the larger variant 33 x 23 cm for €0.80. Envelopes adapt to their contents; two sizes of these often replace three box sizes.
Standardize your tape and seal too
The same goes for what's around it. One tape width saves hassle with dispensers and misplaced rolls. For a small shop, a set of 6 rolls of tape 48 x 66 mm for €21.00 is sufficient; if you handle more volume, the box of 36 rolls for €108.00 is cheaper per roll. One tape dispenser with 2 rolls for €9.95 on the packing table keeps it to one action.
If you want to visibly show that a package has remained closed, you do this with one type of seal across all sizes — for example, VOID security seals, 60 pieces for €9.95.
When you *do* keep an extra size
Four sizes is a guideline, not a law. There are three situations where an extra box pays for itself:
A product that you sell a lot of structurally and that fits exactly into one size. This saves on void fill and volume.
Heavy items. Weight requires a sturdier box, not just a different size. Keep these separate and do not mix them with your standard line.
Furthermore: phase out rather than throw away. Put the sizes that are being discontinued in a separate place, use them until the stack is gone, and don't reorder them. Within a few months, your stock will naturally be reduced to what you actually use.
A quick checklist
Measure your ten best-selling products, including when stacked.
Choose four sizes where each step has approximately double the volume.
Solve intermediate sizes with void fill or envelopes.
Maintain one tape width and one seal type.
Order in bundles once a size is established; that's where the price difference lies.
Evaluate after three months: which size haven't you touched?
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