“We needed to triple capacity without eroding our margins,” the COO at Lift&Move told me on a rainy Tuesday. “And we wanted our boxes to say more about who we are.” Based on insights from **ecoenclose**’s work with D2C brands, that combination—volume plus voice—is where printed corrugated either shines or stumbles.
Lift&Move sells moving kits across the US and ships to select EU markets. For years they used plain kraft cartons with a small one-color logo. It was functional, sure, but silent. Their team had a simple, ambitious brief: make the packaging speak, help answer buyers’ everyday questions on-pack, and avoid adding complexity that the plant couldn’t support.
Here’s where it gets interesting: they weren’t just chasing aesthetics. D2C shoppers keep asking “where do you get moving boxes” in search bars. Lift&Move wanted the box itself to be part of that answer—clear branding, smart QR links, and a calmer returns process.
Company Overview and History
Lift&Move started in 2014 as a lean, e-commerce-first moving supplies company. Think curated kits, right-sized contents, and fast shipping. Their volume sits around 120–160k corrugated boxes per month, with bursts during college move-in and holiday relocations. The packaging had remained utilitarian: brown kraft, single pass, minimal graphics. Online, though, the brand lived through content—product pages full of moving boxes images, how-to guides, and unboxing clips.
The tension was obvious: the digital brand felt premium, while the physical box felt anonymous. That mismatch showed up in customer feedback. People loved the kits, but asked where they came from, or whether the company was just drop-shipping wholesale stock. Internally, the team wanted printing that kept their recycled look yet delivered brand clarity from warehouse to doorstep.
Let me back up for a moment. The market kept nudging Lift&Move to wholesale, with buyers even asking “does walmart sell moving boxes in store” before landing on their site. The leadership wanted to reaffirm D2C as the core—distinct packaging, useful messaging, and smarter supply planning.
Quality and Consistency Issues
On press, the plant battled a few thorny details. Waste hovered around 7–10% on their busiest SKUs, driven by ink holdout variations on recycled corrugated and occasional registration drift. On brand colors, the team measured ΔE in the 3.0–3.5 range across lots—acceptable for some basics, but too wide for a cleaner, brighter mark. Changeovers ate 40–55 minutes when moving between box sizes and ink stations, sapping throughput during seasonal peaks.
The marketing team had its own headache. Customers asked practical questions—”where do you get moving boxes”—and often bounced to big-box sites. The brand needed packaging that answered on the spot: QR links to size guides, clear return instructions, and lender-friendly graphics for college programs. A more vibrant, consistent print program had to pull its weight beyond the shelf and into the browser.
Solution Design and Configuration
We mapped the production around Flexographic Printing for corrugated board and Digital Printing for smaller accessory runs. Primary cartons used Water-based Ink on FSC-certified Kraft Paper liners, set up as a two-color system: a flood tint plus one spot brand color, with simple line art. G7 calibration brought tonal control; ISO 12647 targets guided setup runs. We added a durable, low-gloss Varnishing pass to protect graphics without killing the kraft aesthetic.
For smaller SKUs and branded inserts, the plant used Inkjet Printing on paperboard and labelstock—short-run, variable data friendly. QR codes followed ISO/IEC 18004 (QR) and linked to a mobile guide, an FAQ that openly addresses “does walmart sell moving boxes in store” while steering to D2C benefits like guaranteed kit matching and doorstep delivery.
Accessory kits shipped in ecoenclose mailers—paper-based pouches with simple black artwork—so a limited ecoenclose coupon was printed as a QR inside the main box flap. Not a hard sell, just a nudge for repeat orders. Structurally, die-cut handles stayed, but we tightened tolerances on crease lines to reduce corner crush. The goal was practical print that looks intentional, travels well, and feels like Lift&Move even when stacked five-high in a hallway.
Commissioning and Testing
Pilot production ran two weeks. A few surprises. Recycled kraft absorbed differently on humid days, so Water-based Ink pH control became non-negotiable; operators maintained 8.5–9.0 pH and kept viscosity within a tight window. We swapped one anilox from 360 to 300 lpi for the flood tint, which improved laydown uniformity. Registration checks and a simple SPC chart on press helped keep drift in check, especially on the larger 3-piece kits.
On color, ΔE dropped into the 1.8–2.4 band after the second calibration loop. FPY% moved from the low 80s to about 90–92% during the pilot, and coating chatter disappeared after a minor nip roll adjustment. Not every tweak stuck—one varnish tried looked too slick for kraft—but the final stack was honest: muted, legible, resilient.
Quantitative Results and Metrics
Fast forward six months. Waste landed around 20–25% lower than the old baseline, which translated to steadier unit economics in peak weeks. Throughput improved by roughly 12–18% on the mid-size lines thanks to quicker changeovers; those shifts trimmed 10–15 minutes per swap. Color accuracy stayed consistently in the ΔE ≤2.5 zone for brand elements. FPY% held above 90% on the top three SKUs.
On the sustainability side, kWh/pack dipped by around 6–9% with the new ink and dryer settings, and we saw a modest CO₂/pack reduction of 8–12% tied to better right-sizing and fewer reprints. The QR content—answering things like “where do you get moving boxes”—posted a 9–14% higher click-through than their old on-box URLs. Payback sat in the 9–12 month range, which matched the team’s cautious forecast.
Here’s the personal takeaway: the boxes don’t shout. They don’t need to. They carry the brand calmly, help customers make decisions, and travel well in a rough-and-tumble category. And yes, the final graphics nod to the D2C story that drew Lift&Move to this path in the first place—a path shaped by lessons many teams have shared with **ecoenclose**.
