“We wanted to cut packaging emissions by about a third without dulling the unboxing charm,” says Maria Chen, VP of Operations at Auric Lane, a North American DTC jewelry brand. “The first question my team typed into the browser was, ‘where to get custom boxes made’—because the right partner mattered as much as the right material.”
Early research led the team to pilot runs with packola. They sifted through packola reviews, ordered sample mailers, and put them through rough handling tests at their Toronto fulfillment hub. The goal was simple: find a solution that aligned with FSC sourcing, water-based inks, and practical economics for short-run, seasonal SKUs.
“We didn’t want a boutique look that only worked at trade-show scale,” Chen adds. “We ship 20–30k orders in a typical month, and spikes can hit 50k during peak gifting. Any new box had to survive that reality.”
Company Overview and History
Auric Lane started in 2016 with a single adjustable ring and a simple brand promise: precious-metal quality, everyday wearability. What began as weekend drops grew into a multi-SKU catalog—rings, necklaces, and stackable sets—sold primarily online across North America. Their packaging mix reflected that growth: an outer mailer, a small rigid insert, and a soft pouch for delicate surfaces. By 2023, the company knew it needed a tighter, lower-carbon system that still felt like a gift.
The team experimented with a new presentation: compact mailers with an engineered insert, plus branded jewelry presentation for high-value items. For special launches, they trialed custom ring boxes with logo—but only where it made sense from both a carbon and cost perspective. The unboxing had to be cohesive, not excessive.
“We were drowning in SKU-level packaging tweaks,” says Chen. “One vendor for rigid boxes, another for mailers, and a third for labels. After comparing options, we ran pilots with packola boxes using digital printing and water-based ink on FSC-certified corrugated. It allowed us to test without committing to volumes we didn’t need.”
Sustainability and Compliance Pressures
The brief from the board was clear: reduce CO₂ per pack by 25–35% while maintaining brand presence and protecting fragile SKUs. The sustainability team added its own must-haves—FSC chain-of-custody, SGP-aligned processes, and a path to G7-calibrated color control. “Compliance is a floor, not a ceiling,” Chen notes. “But we also had to be honest about trade-offs; for example, bright hues on unbleached Kraft can shift by ΔE 2–3 without a white underprint.”
Here’s where it gets interesting. A white ink underlayer would have perked up color on Kraft, but it complicates recycling in some municipal streams and adds ink load. The team chose a design refresh instead: bolder linework, tighter color palette, and a soft matte varnish to protect abrasion. For the shipper, they moved to E-flute corrugated with right-sized structures—especially for custom design mailer boxes—to cut dimensional weight by roughly 8–12% for small jewelry orders.
When asked how they navigated vendors, Chen laughs: “We literally searched ‘where to get custom boxes made’ and built a scorecard—material options, ΔE tolerances, MOQ flexibility for short-run and seasonal drops, and ink system disclosures. The pilots with packola used water-based or soy-based ink on Kraft and CCNB topsheets, depending on design. Color stayed within ΔE 2–3 on most lots, and first pass yield settled near 94–96% after the second month.”
Quantitative Results and Metrics
Six months post-rollout, the numbers told a steady story. CO₂ per pack dropped by an estimated 28–32% (scope 3 packaging only), driven by a switch from C-flute to lighter E-flute, right-sizing, and consolidated kitting. Packaging mass decreased by 12–15% on core SKUs, and waste at the pack line went from roughly 9–11% to 4–6% as dielines stabilized. Returns tied to shipping damage dipped by 10–14%, attributed to the new insert geometry and tighter fit.
On the printing side, moving key SKUs to digital printing with water-based ink simplified short-run and seasonal workflows. Setup time per SKU dropped from roughly 45–60 minutes (plate-based) to 25–35 minutes, while color drift stayed mostly within ΔE ≤ 2.5 for brand-critical elements. “We did see higher ink cost per unit on some designs,” Chen admits. “But the lower obsolescence on seasonal packaging—down by 30–40% compared to last year—made the math work.”
There were limits. Saturated reds on Kraft still read muted without a white underprint, and for prestige sets the team kept a small run of two-piece presentation units. For broader mailers, the team leaned on packola’s modular dielines to tune fit across multiple jewelry sizes. In the holiday window, they brought back a limited run of custom design mailer boxes with specialty varnish. The everyday line stayed simple—inkjet-driven branding on right-sized corrugated—because it delivered the best balance of cost, CO₂, and shelf-life in the warehouse.
