Valley Box has put together a guide of 8 awesome shipping crate ideas for your product's wooden containers — all of which are available from the comfort of your desk chair. Not only are these ideas suitable for sensitive instruments & electronics, but also heavy industrial equipment.
Here are 8 Awesome Ideas for Your Product’s Shipping Crate:
1. Make it Reusable
Reusable crates save you money! Sure, purchasing high quality reusable crates may cost more upfront, but opting for a low quality item will inevitably cost you more in the long-term. It’s the same with anything that can be recycled—it will always save you more money down the line.
Ideally, the manufacturer can reuse their own shipping crate and spend less time and money shopping for replacement crates.
Another idea is to encourage the end-user to continue to use the shipping crates for other purposes.
Download PDF: Reusable crating
2. Add a Little Bling
Take ordinary shipping crates and customize the hardware to your hearts content, providing ease, accessibility & mobility!
The addition of hardware to your wooden container can create a truly impressive reusable or ergonomic solution for your product's needs. Valley Box can source a wide variety of special hardware.
Add cool components such as; ramps, hinges, viewing ports, and rolling pedestals.
Download PDF: Architecture of a Box
3. Strive for Production Value
If your products are larger dimensionally or have varying assembly times consider treating the shipping crate as part of the product rather than an afterthought.
If your product is moved, handled, or staged during production, it may be cost-effective to incorporate the wooden container into your process as a function of material handling.
Read: 5 Ways Material Handling Equipment Improve Assembly Lines
4. Make it Interactive
It doesn’t have to be high-tech! People love wooden containers that actually do something, and when they do the wooden container becomes part of the experience of using the product. Think indicators, inserts and removable pieces, and QR codes.
Read: How To Identify and Prevent Shipping Damage
5. Let Your True Colors Shine
Dazzling colors will certainly help your shipping crates stand out. A painted crate can be easily identified when amongst a crowd of other products (especially those of your competitor).
Paint adds ultra violet protection to any wood box which, if you haven't heard, blocking damaging UV light increases a surface's lifespan... significantly!
Match the color to your branding efforts or create something with multiple colors or stencils.
Read: Stop paying to replace custom wood crates, increase their life instead!
6. Add Some Texture
You can add texture designs with recessed routed-out lettering, carpet, linex, paints, and steel. These solutions are often utilized as low-cost solutions to surface abrasions. By applying at the contact points of saddles, blocking, and bracing, delicate finishes and materials are protected.
Read: Crate Manufacturers Cheat Sheet
7. Make it see-through
This may not work with all products, but when it does, it works like a charm. Observation ports or holes in your shipping crates can allow an end-user to verify contents without having to take apart the wooden container.
Download: Case Study about Observation Ports
8. Add a Logo
Valley Box can make custom stencils of your logo for shipping crates they can be fabricated for long-term use or one-time use and can be made to accommodate multiple colors. Locate your shipping crate in a sea of crates with ease at your next event.
Read: 5 Things You Should Be Adding To Custom Shipping Crates
At Valley Box, we understand how important packaging handling can be.
That’s why we have dozens of solutions to help improve packaging handling capabilities, from heavy-duty designs and custom corrugated boxes to cushioning, inserts, and more.
Contact a Valley Box representative today to find out how we can help improve your packaging handling capabilities and protect your bottom line!
