About Custom Carton Builds & Inserts for Warehouses

How to handle custom carton builds and inserts when packing eCommerce orders at your warehouse.

IN THIS TOPIC

• Terminology 
• About Custom Cartons
• About Custom Carton Inserts
• Using Custom Carton Builds & Inserts

Terminology

Custom Carton: Any custom shipping box. This can range from a small parcel to heavy duty boxes.

Corrugate: The ridged or folded cardboard that shipping boxes are made of.

Pricing Lever: A fee type combined with a price. It denotes the type of work (e.g. building a custom carton) and a price for how much a single unit of that work costs.

About Custom Cartons

A custom carton is any specialized carton, corrugate or mailer an item needs to ship in. While "Standard" shipping cartons typically look like this: 

Custom cartons may look something like this (or be even more complex):

The difference comes down to how much effort is put into building the carton for shipping. When a carton build requires more work than the four standard walls, it falls into “custom” territory. 

About Custom Carton Inserts

Custom inserts can range from adding tissue paper to adding specific items, like a sheet of stickers or a customized note. Different pricing levers may apply, depending on what is requested.

Custom inserts can be categorized in these ways:

• An insert that can be added to a carton before a customer order comes in.
• An insert that can be added as a SKU, and that is picked as part of order fulfillment (like a stocking stuffer)
• An insert that is a temporary addition to inventory as a promotional item for a set period of time, or until the added inventory runs out. 

Using Custom Carton Builds & Inserts

Before order shipments are ready for processing, the shipper should have all carton components set up in the system and available at your warehouse. You should also have a reservation-specific policy on how to handle custom cartons and inserts from Flexe.

Here are some examples of how to handle custom carton builds/inserts--however processes may vary: 

Pre-built custom cartons/inserts 

1. A new SKU is created by the shipper for a pre-built carton with inserts.
2. The warehouse builds these custom cartons with inserts, and stores them separately.
3. An order comes in for an item that needs to be shipped in one of these pre-built cartons.
4. The warehouse picks the pre-built custom carton along with the order.  

Building custom cartons/inserts after an order is placed

1. An order comes in for an item that needs to be shipped in a custom carton build. 
2. The warehouse picks all SKUs for the order.
3. The warehouse then builds any custom cartons or inserts needed for the order, according to the shipper's specifications (this is when you'd need to refer to reservation-specific guidance provided by Flexe). 
4. The warehouse packs the items in the order into the custom carton prior to shipping. 

Note: If you need more information about what's required for your reservation, reach out to your Flexe Logistics Analyst, or contact [e-mail].