Packaging is expensive?
by Art4EntrepreneursBuilding this one step at a time. Literally.
Have product. Check. Build website. Check.
But I can't just send the product in an envelope. The goal is make this a treasured, luxury gift item, so it needs to be presented as such.
Searching for 'custom boxes' turned up super expensive options. So I started on AliExpress, and eventually Alibaba, and found a few options that were much cheaper, if adapted.
I learned a lot in this phase:
- packaging can be a big additional cost if aiming for luxury
- Alibaba is great, but communication can be slow/tricky due to the time difference and translation
- Alibaba can be super cheap, but there is cost in the time spent with the above, plus shipping/customs, and needing a large order
I ended up purchasing a sample box from 2 producers on Alibaba, and 1 producer in the UK (where I'm based).
Communication with the UK producer was super quick and easy, but it's much more expensive. Like 10x / unit, and the timeline was similar to the producers in China.
