“We had six months and no slack,” our operations lead told me in the first kickoff. “If the packaging doesn’t reflect our brand, we’ll feel it in customer reviews.” Partnering with ecoenclose gave us a path that felt both pragmatic and ambitious—earth-friendly substrates, a realistic press plan, and room to test.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Our moving-supplies business wasn’t new, but our e-commerce volume was surging and our brand needed to show up better in every unboxing. We asked ecoenclose to help us build a timeline we could actually live with. I’ll admit, we pushed them hard on speed and on brand color fidelity.
Fast forward six months, we shipped with new flexographic corrugated boxes, a refined digital pilot, and a more honest view of what it takes to hold ΔE steady across runs. The story isn’t perfect, but it’s real—and it’s ours with ecoenclose.
Company Overview and History
We’re a North American moving-supplies brand headquartered in Colorado, serving both retail and B2B. If you’ve searched for moving supplies locally, you’ve likely seen us in queries for “moving boxes denver.” For years, we relied on generic corrugated boxes and stickers for branding. As orders moved online, our packaging felt anonymous. We needed structure, consistent color, and a sustainability story that wasn’t a lecture. That’s where ecoenclose entered the conversation, not just as a vendor but as a thought partner on substrate and print choices.
Our portfolio spans classic cardboard SKUs and a growing line of reusable offerings—think “rental plastic moving boxes” programs for short-term relocations. I care about message continuity: the box, the tape, the insert all say the same thing about us. Historically, we treated packaging as a line item. Today, it’s a brand touchpoint. As ecoenclose designers have observed across multiple projects, the switch from “just ship it” to “this is the brand” changes how teams plan, how they measure, and even how they brief creative.
Project Planning and Kickoff
Day 1–30: discovery and specs. We audited our fleet of SKUs and right-sized three top sellers from 32 ECT to 44 ECT where needed, keeping overall weight sensible. Substrate: Corrugated Board with recycled content. PrintTech: Flexographic Printing for production, Digital Printing for pilots and personalization. InkSystem: Water-based Ink for main runs. We built the dielines, standardized panel zones, and locked a two-color roofline graphic on the main panels. The team selected ecoenclose boxes for the initial pilot to match board quality and ensure FSC chain of custody. Baseline waste hovered around 12–14%, and First Pass Yield sat roughly at 82–85%.
Day 31–90: piloting brand moments. We ran short Digital Printing trials to test variable interior elements—a welcome note, a minimal QR linked to moving tips, and a small sustainability panel. The inside flaps carried a limited “ecoenclose free shipping” message for campaign periods (only on the SKUs that qualified). Our content team also leaned into actual search behavior; we printed a tiny inside-lid tip addressing “where to get cardboard boxes for moving” with a link to a locator page. Finishes remained practical—Die-Cutting for clean tears and a light Varnishing for rub resistance, avoiding Spot UV to keep the footprint aligned with our sustainability goals.
Day 91–180: ramp-up and validation. We moved flexo runs to three-week cycles and locked G7 calibration on our primary brand color. ΔE stayed within 2–3 on production lots when operators followed the ink maintenance plan. Changeovers now average 25–30 minutes (previously 40–50) after standardizing plates and anilox selections. FPY reached around 90–92% on stable lots. We also tracked CO₂/pack; between box right-sizing and water-based systems, we saw moves from ~280g to ~240–250g per shipment in typical configurations. Payback Period calculations pointed to an 18–24 month window, acceptable given the volume growth and brand impact.
Lessons Learned
Let me back up for a moment. The ink plan looked simple on paper, but keeping color consistent across recycled Corrugated Board took discipline. Water-based Ink behaved differently in late winter versus spring; humidity mattered more than we expected. We tested Soy-based Ink for one SKU and noticed a slight shift in gloss and rub, which meant revisiting the spec for that box. Flexo beat Digital on unit economics at volume, but Digital saved our timeline when a seasonal pattern updated the week before ship. On the marketing front, including the tiny message tied to “where to get cardboard boxes for moving” felt like a small gesture, yet our help-center saw fewer basic queries and higher QR engagement.
Our biggest takeaway as a brand team: respect the press room, and build routines the operators own. Weekly color reviews, a clear ΔE target band, and a shared lens on Waste Rate—moving from roughly 12–14% to about 8–9% on our core SKUs—came from joint work, not a memo. Another honest note: we tightened some ambitions once we saw what corrugated really wants. Fewer colors, smarter panels, more consistent ink laydown. The journey made us a better brand. And yes, we’re staying with ecoenclose. When we roll our next seasonal line, that partnership is on the timeline from day one—ecoenclose at the brief, ecoenclose at the press check, ecoenclose at the unboxing.
