Custom Boxes Now

Custom Boxes Now: corrugated shipping boxes built to order

Custom Boxes Now is a brand packaging company that designs and manufactures corrugated boxes and custom product packaging. According to its own presentation, it has been in this activity for more than 60 years. The company states that design, prepress, printing and manufacturing are handled entirely in-house at its own facility, and it explicitly positions itself as neither a broker nor a reseller.

The core of the offer is a configurator that lets a customer define a box from four decisions: style, inside dimensions, quantity with strength and color, and printing. The result is a made-to-measure carton rather than a standard size, which the company links to less void space in the package.

Box styles available in the configurator

The catalogue of formats covers both standard shipping cartons and more specialised designs:

• Regular Slotted Container (RSC): the standard shipping box, with flaps that fold down and meet in the middle; it must be sealed with tape or glue.
• Full Overlap Container (FOL): top and bottom flaps overlap, which the company presents as offering more strength for heavy objects and greater rigidity to minimise flex.
• One Panel Folder (OPF): often used as a book mailer and suited to relatively flat objects; it requires tape to seal.
• C-Series: a self-locking box type that requires tooling (a cutting die), usually costing between $600 and $1000 depending on size; the company says it already holds tooling for some sizes.
• Tray and Cover: ships flat, with flaps that must be stapled or glued for assembly.
• Corrugated Pad: used for extra padding, to separate layers during shipping or as an insert.
• Half Slotted Container (HSC): a standard shipping box with no flaps on top; the bottom flaps must be sealed with tape or glue.

The site also lists custom mailer boxes, coloured mailer boxes, custom product boxes, subscription boxes and custom long or large corrugated boxes among its formats.

Dimensions, strength and materials

Inside dimensions are entered in inches, with fractions down to sixteenths, for length, width and depth. Strength is offered in three levels: Standard, Strong and Extra Strong (Double Wall). The base material choice is Kraft (brown) or white, and the range extends to custom Kraft boxes, white shipping boxes and black shipping boxes.

Printing options include flexographic, lithographic and direct printing, as well as two-colour printing and full colour or flood print. Standard options shown in the tool include handling and warning markings such as Fragile, Handle With Care, Made in USA, Open Other End, Open This End, Reusable Carton, Ship To, This Side Up, and arrow or cup symbols, with a choice of two-panel or four-panel placement, one to three colours and small, medium or large image size.

Ordering, lead times and pricing signals

The ordering flow runs through the online tool and ends in a quote: the customer saves the configuration and the company responds. For low-volume orders under 10 units, the site asks the customer to make contact so a box expert can provide pricing. Oversized requests that cannot be calculated online are also saved and passed to a representative for a freight shipping quote.

The site illustrates the process with a worked example: an RSC box of 10 x 10 x 10 inches, quantity 100, standard strength, Kraft colour and no printing, with a rotary die and storage cost of $1,020 and a price per box of $6.27. These figures appear as a sample configuration and are not a general price list.

On timing, the company claims a lead time of seven days or less, compared with three to four weeks for competitors as presented in its own comparison, and states an on-time percentage above 99%. It also offers a free structural sample.

Recycled content and recyclability

The company states that all its cardboard shipping boxes are made from recycled materials. White boxes are described as containing 30-70% post-consumer waste and Kraft boxes 60-95%, and all boxes are presented as 100% recyclable.

Customer feedback and published rating

The site displays a rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on 182 reviews. It also reproduces testimonials from business customers, including a client who ships very large items and reports savings from using exact-size boxes with less void space, and others who highlight turnaround times, communication and service. These are individual accounts published by the company, not an independent assessment.

Editorial content and examples

Beyond manufacturing, the site maintains a blog with articles on subjects such as the difference between primary and secondary packaging, whether customers care about custom packaging, and a packaging checklist for reducing shipping damage in corrugated boxes. It also publishes a gallery of box examples and customer success stories intended as inspiration for new projects.