Custom packaging is a key way for small businesses to stand out in the highly saturated ecommerce market. To foster a memorable buying experience and help build brand loyalty, we recommend using branded or unique shipping materials.
In this article we’ll look at nine creative packaging ideas for small business, exploring how you can customize your unboxing experience from the inside out. Each idea will also include average costs, helpful examples, and resources to help you get started.
External Packaging Customization Ideas
For ecommerce businesses, think of your packaging like it’s your storefront. Similar to a stunning window display, a well-designed shipping box will leave a positive first impression on your customers and tell them how they should perceive your brand.
Here’s a rundown of the best exterior packaging customizations you can make, with options for any budget:
1. Fully Customized Packaging
Price: $5–$40 per custom box (depending on size and extent of customization)
Fully custom packages are boxes, mailers, or other types of shipping containers designed to represent your brand through custom features on the inside, outside, or both. This goes beyond just a logo added to the exterior—it includes branding and custom designs printed throughout the box design. Fully customized packaging designs create a more immersive experience for customers and help increase the memorability of your brand image.
Fully customized packaging is typically your most expensive custom packaging option, but it will create the biggest impact. It’s most often used for higher-end goods or subscription services.
Check out these successful examples of creative, fully custom packaging:
FabFitFun—a high-end beauty and lifestyle subscription box company—produces a new seasonal box every quarter (the spring edition is shown above). It invests heavily in packaging materials to maximize brand impact and customer retention with a memorable experience. (Source: Housewives of Frederick County) 
Nordstrom’s defunct personalized clothing service, Trunk Club, delivered style boxes for customers to try on curated, high-end apparel in their homes. The packaging featured realistic designs resembling its namesake and evoked classic luggage that gave rise to the modern luxury handbag industry—boosting perceived value and brand impact. (Source: Shopify) 
BarkBox, a pet product subscription service, uses various whimsical themes for its custom packaging design. This box features pirate-themed imagery, including a treasure chest shipping box and tissue paper printed with gold doubloons on an antique-style map. (Source: My Subscription Addiction) 
From bright colors to the inside inscription that reads “Doing good meets cool homeowners,” handmade goods store Sage + Clare’s containers reflect its fun, bohemian offerings.
FabFitFun—a high-end beauty and lifestyle subscription box company—produces a new seasonal box every quarter (the spring edition is shown above). It invests heavily in packaging materials to maximize brand impact and customer retention with a memorable experience. (Source: Housewives of Frederick County)
Nordstrom’s defunct personalized clothing service, Trunk Club, delivered style boxes for customers to try on curated, high-end apparel in their homes. The packaging featured realistic designs resembling its namesake and evoked classic luggage that gave rise to the modern luxury handbag industry—boosting perceived value and brand impact. (Source: Shopify)
BarkBox, a pet product subscription service, uses various whimsical themes for its custom packaging design. This box features pirate-themed imagery, including a treasure chest shipping box and tissue paper printed with gold doubloons on an antique-style map. (Source: My Subscription Addiction)
From bright colors to the inside inscription that reads “Doing good meets cool homeowners,” handmade goods store Sage + Clare’s containers reflect its fun, bohemian offerings.
2. Printed Stock Packaging
Price: $1.25–$20 per piece (depending on size and extent of customization)
Printed stock boxes are another one of the top small business packaging ideas that features a custom touch without investing in entirely custom containers. These boxes take a stock box (or other shipping container) and add your logo to the outside. This type of customization is a great way to drive brand awareness and increase recognition without adding much expense.
While you can print logos onto your packages yourself, this is a very time-consuming process and requires investment in special printers and supplies. Instead, we recommend working with a shipping supplier that offers customizations. Most major shipping supply companies, like ULINE and The Packaging Company, offer customization options at very affordable rates. Simply fill out the design page, create the boxes you want, and order.
For inspiration, reference these creative examples of printed stock boxes:
Bruin Pumps uses bold lettering and highly visible placement to keep its brand in focus on each order’s outer packaging. (Source: Instabox) 
Clothing brand Malimo (now called Yahmo) uses simple printing to create edgy and recognizable packaging. Rather than featuring the business’ name front and center, this creative box invites intrigue with a compelling slogan and sleek logo. (Source: Shift4Shop) 
Tangled Wigs creates visual interest on its printed stock packaging by adding attractive debossed texture behind its logo. (Source: Foldabox USA) 
Going Green uses brightly colored text printed on a white box to reinforce its branding. (Source: BoxPrinting) 
The Dollar Shave Club adds its logo, a set of crossed razors, and its brand name to the outside of its monthly subscription boxes. (Source: Inc. Magazine)
3. Logo Stickers
Price: 6 cents–$7 per sticker (depending on size and extent of customization)
Logo stickers can be used on the exterior of your shipping materials to easily and affordably add a touch of customization. Exterior logo stickers also allow you to easily add branding to any type of shipping container—making them perfect for businesses that use a variety of box sizes or multiple sources for their shipping supplies.
Adding branded stickers is the most cost-effective exterior branding option, and, once your stickers and boxes are on hand, assembly can quickly be performed in-house. Some of the best places to get custom stickers include:
Here are some examples of effective packaging logo stickers:
Providers like VistaPrint carry a variety of sizes and shapes for custom stickers that work best for your stock packaging. This cafe uses its logo and design across three different types of stickers, creating an elegant appearance at minimal added cost. (Source: VistaPrint) 
Simple, custom stickers can be paired with crisp wrapping paper to create low-cost, polished packaging that’s perfect for gifting. (Source: Vistaprint) 
Custom stickers can be ordered in eye-catching colors and unique fonts to convey your brand. This company uses custom stickers in lieu of packing tape to seal stock boxes. (Source: MOO) 
Ocracoke Soap Co. adds a fun custom sticker to its packaging to elevate a simple box to a custom-branded package. (Source: Sticker Mule)
4. Custom Adhesive
Price: $5–$20 per roll (depending on the extent of customization, material type, size, and bulk discount)
Another cost-effective packaging idea for small businesses is adding custom adhesive to the exterior of your package. This design element is unique and will make your shipping container more memorable. Plus, assembly can be done in-house and the tape serves both design and utility purposes.
Some great resources for custom shipping tape include:
Take a look at the examples below for inspiration:
Molly & Co., a custom dog accessories brand, printed extra wide shipping tape with its branding to add to the outside of its shipping containers. (Source: UPrinting) 
Strings & Things created a fun packaging tape that includes their logo and a colorful design. (Source: VistaPrint) 
The Traveling Goat created a custom packaging tape that comes in hand to both seal their orders and reinforce their brand image. (Source: VistaPrint)
Internal Packaging Customization Ideas
Another way that small businesses can customize their packaging is by adding personalized touches to the inside of their packages. This can include using custom stickers or tags, branded void fill like tissue paper, unique boxes for your products themselves, or custom box designs. Done right, internal box customizations are another opportunity to make your unboxing experience special, increase brand recognition, and elevate your offerings.
Here are some creative ways you can fill your packages and add a custom feature to your brand experience:
5. Cards or Thank-you Notes
Price: 5 cents–$1 per card (depending on customizations and stationary quality)
Adding a handwritten or pre-printed thank you note is an easy and cost-effective way to add a personal touch to your small business packaging. Cards and notes offer another way for customers to engage with your business and help people remember your brand the next time they’re shopping. They also give ecommerce orders a personal element that helps enforce an emotional connection.
At the clothing boutique I managed, I would add handwritten thank you notes for any purchase over $200. My customers loved to receive these notes, and they helped the store earn repeat clients as well as shares on social media. Plus, they were easy to make—we would keep blank stationery on hand and fill them out anytime we received large orders or purchases from loyal customers.
The best places to find custom stationery and pre-printed notes include Etsy, ideal for smaller orders or more artisanal options, and VistaPrint, which we recommend for bulk orders.
Check out these creative examples of businesses that have added notes and cards to their packaging:
Offering a coupon code on a custom-printed insert fosters loyalty and encourages repeat purchases. (Source: Etsy) 
Package inserts are a great place to tell your customers more about their purchase. Important details like directions for use, care information, or ingredient lists can be included on a branded note. (Source: Etsy) 
Encourage customers to follow your brand and share their experience on social media by featuring a reminder of the social channels that your business uses. (Source: Pinterest) 
To encourage repeat visits and nurture customer loyalty, consider adding a coupon for shoppers’ next visits. (Source: Zazzle)
To encourage repeat visits and nurture customer loyalty, consider adding a coupon for shoppers’ next visits. (Source: Zazzle)
6. Logo Tags or Stickers
Price: 10 cents–$2 per piece (depending on material and size)
Adding a custom logo tag or sticker to your orders is a great way to convey your brand without breaking the bank on your small business packaging ideas.
Typically, custom tags are attached to clothing and small items like inexpensive jewelry, whereas custom stickers are placed on the outside of generic product packaging. VistaPrint and Sticker Mule are great sources for printing custom logo tags and stickers.
Here are a few examples of logo tags and stickers in action:
Clothing boutiques often use custom tags on their products secured with bulb pins. This technique can also be used by online resellers to attach their own brand to brand-name merchandise and encourage repeat customers. (Source: Vistaprint) 
You can affix a custom tag to the outside of a boxed product with ribbon or twine for an artisanal look. (Source: Avery) 
Place custom stickers on stock bags or boxes to create affordable, branded product packaging. (Source: Pinterest) 
Warrior Creek adds a custom-branded sticker to the outside of its bags of beans so that every time their customers go to brew a cup of joe, they remember where they got it from. (Source: Sticker Mule)
Warrior Creek adds a custom-branded sticker to the outside of its bags of beans so that every time their customers go to brew a cup of joe, they remember where they got it from. (Source: Sticker Mule)
7. Tissue Paper & Inner Packaging
Price: 2 cents–$4 per order (depending on material and size)
Another way to elevate your product packaging and add a personalized touch is to wrap the products within your packages. This shows customers that you took care with their order and that their goods are important and valuable. This level of detail helps your brand stand out and creates an additional opportunity to incorporate branding with customized materials.
Consider wrapping merchandise like clothing in tissue paper, glass goods in well-protected boxes, and jewelry in small, cushioned containers. Some goods will need extra protection, and others just look better when wrapped.
Here are a few strong examples of interior packaging that create a luxurious experience and reinforce branding:
Neatly wrapped tissue paper secured with a sticker creates a special unboxing experience reminiscent of unwrapping a gift. Using custom-printed materials encourages an emotional connection with your brand. (Source: Tower Press) 
Choosing colorful tissue paper that aligns with your brand’s aesthetic is an effective alternative to ordering custom-printed materials. (Source: Etsy) 
Inner packaging for fragile goods can be both functional and attractive. This seller uses stock boxes with a cut-out window that displays the branded product inside and a custom sticker to seal the box. (Source: Grandstand) 
While most other types of product packaging are immediately discarded, jewelry boxes are often held onto by consumers (especially gift recipients). A custom sticker can make a stock jewelry box look elegant and serve as a reminder of your brand. (Source: Etsy) 
Pandasew Jewelry keeps its jewelry safe and adds a nice branded touch with its custom jewelry boxes and bags. (Source: Etsy)
Pandasew Jewelry keeps its jewelry safe and adds a nice branded touch with its custom jewelry boxes and bags. (Source: Etsy)
8. Custom Box Designs
Price: $2.50–$15 per box (depending on materials, bulk discount, and extent of customization)
Another packaging idea for small businesses is to customize your internal box design to fit your specific products. This will not only ensure your products avoid damage, but also show customers that you handle your goods with care. Custom box designs are also memorable and you can add interior logos and designs to reinforce your brand image.
There are two routes you can take to customize your boxes’ internal packaging. You can either purchase inserts that go inside stock boxes where you can nestle your goods or you can buy single-piece boxes with attached internal designs.
We recommend Flush Packaging for great custom box design services and even pre-made options.
Take a look at the examples below for examples of custom box designs:
To keep its candles safe and create an aesthetically pleasing unboxing experience, Great Northern Candles and Soaps used a custom box design with interior branding. (Source: Flush Packaging) 
Truff ensures against a spicy disaster with its custom, cushioned shipping containers. (Source: Truff) 
Sawtru creates a custom, luxury box that nestles its perfume bottles perfectly, preventing breakage and creating an unforgettable unboxing. (Source: Bostani)
9. Small Gifts or Samples
Price : $1–$50 per gift (Depending on what you decide to offer. Gift value typically correlates with order value)
Nothing makes a bigger impact than free stuff. Including a product sample or small trinket as a gift to your customers can increase overall satisfaction—and it creates a great opportunity to drive further branding throughout your packages.
Product samples give shoppers the chance to explore your offerings, encourage retention, boost brand recognition, and can increase basket sizes (and even impulse spending) if you offer a gift at a certain spend threshold. Simple gifts (like decals, koozies, or keychains) can be customized to display your logo, turning customers into brand ambassadors everywhere they go. Plus, bonuses like these promote a sense of good value and invite a brand connection.
Check out these examples of custom gifts and product samples in ecommerce packages:
In addition to a handwritten thank-you note, Grilla Grills includes a branded koozie and decal in each order. (Source: Shopify) 
This skincare brand sends three free samples of popular products out with every order. (Source: Twitter)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Click through the questions below to get answers to some of your most frequently asked questions about custom packaging ideas for small business.
To make your packaging stand out, you should add branding to the inside and outside of your boxes or mailers, include notes, gifts, or coupons, and consider wrapping your products or securing them with custom box designs.
Custom packaging is more expensive than stock packaging, but small touches like stickers, custom adhesive, or a printed logo only add a few cents to each of your orders and will create a more lasting impression on your customers.
Bottom Line
Creative packaging boosts brand recognition, creates positive customer experiences, increases personalization, and helps you stand out from the sea of ecommerce businesses. While custom packaging ideas for small business may be more expensive than your standard shipping materials, the benefits it offers will pay for itself. Thanks to the wide array of custom boxes and packaging materials available, you can give your orders a branded experience from the inside out—no matter your budget.
