“We wanted the box to be our best salesperson,” said Aisha, Head of Brand at MiraGlow, a mid-market beauty brand expanding across Southeast Asia. Shelf space was crowded, launches were frequent, and packaging had to carry more of the storytelling. So they turned to custom display boxes—not just to look good, but to work hard.
The team partnered with packola to rethink how their retail and DTC packaging could connect at first glance. The brief sounded straightforward—consistent color, quick turnarounds, and a compelling unboxing—but the reality involved balancing print technologies, finishes, and the messy truth of seasonal SKUs.
What followed was a pragmatic journey: carefully chosen substrates, test runs in real stores, and a production plan shaped by Asia’s humidity and tight launch calendars. This is the case we’d share with any brand manager who’s tired of boxes being just boxes.
Company Overview and History
MiraGlow started in Jakarta in 2017 and spread through pharmacy chains and boutique cosmetics shops from Manila to Kuala Lumpur. Their product portfolio spans serums, sheet masks, and seasonal gift sets, with 12–18 SKUs in rotation at any time. At retail, they leaned into structured Box formats because shelf presence mattered and store lighting varied wildly.
Early packaging focused on cost control and speed. That worked until growth demanded consistent brand cues across retail, pop-up events, and e-commerce. For hero SKUs, the team explored custom logo boxes to tighten brand recognition and tackle counterfeits through clear, tactile identifiers.
As the brand matured, the ask expanded: packaging that looks cohesive on a crowded shelf, maintains color control under mixed lighting, and transitions smoothly into DTC shipments without feeling generic.
Previous Challenges
The reality check came during a spring launch. Shelf sets looked uneven; greens skewed toward blue under LED strips in some stores, while warmer halogens pushed tones off-brand elsewhere. Color variance was small to the eye but noticeable enough to break brand consistency—ΔE targets drifted beyond 3 in hotspots, and proofs didn’t match on press for several SKUs.
Operationally, changeover time sat around 18–22 minutes per SKU, which strained tight timelines. Scrap hovered in the 6–8% range for complex finishes, mainly due to registration mismatches on Spot UV and occasional cracking near the crease. The ask was simple: hold brand color, keep finishes reliable, and ship fast—without turning the budget upside down.
Solution Design and Configuration
We built a two-lane approach. For short-run, seasonal, and promotional sets, Digital Printing took the lead for agility and variable data. For steadier hero SKUs, Offset Printing provided predictable ink laydown and better economies at volume. Substrate choices flexed between Folding Carton (for structured displays) and CCNB when weight and budget needed tighter control.
The display spec introduced a simple question in the kickoff: “what are custom display boxes?” In practice, they’re retail-first structures designed to present product upright, communicate fast, and survive handling. We added Foil Stamping for the logo, Spot UV on key claims, and a Soft-Touch Coating for unboxing. For gift sets, custom gift boxes with lids handled seasonality and reusability without feeling off-brand.
Based on insights from packola designers across multiple projects, we tuned finishing stacks to avoid micro-cracking—die lines moved by 0.5–1 mm, and crease pressure was reduced on high-foil areas. Water-based Ink carried everyday work, while UV-LED Ink came in where instant curing helped with tight schedules and humidity. It wasn’t perfect, but it was practical.
Pilot Production and Validation
The team ran a pilot across five SKUs: two hero serums, a mask multipack, and two seasonal items. We calibrated to ISO 12647 and used a G7 methodology to keep near-neutral consistency across Digital and Offset platforms. Target ΔE sat under 2–3 on logo panels; outliers were isolated on deeper greens and addressed through a revised profile and ink density tweaks.
In-store tests took place in Manila and Jakarta under mixed lighting with real shelf fixtures. We monitored handling wear—carton edges, lid fit, and scuffing on Soft-Touch—and tracked OEE trends during a three-week validation. Asia’s humidity made itself known during monsoon weeks; stock storage moved to climate-controlled zones, and adhesive selection was switched to a formulation better suited for high moisture.
Quantitative Results and Metrics
Color consistency tightened: most logo panels landed within ΔE 2–3, with deep greens staying within 3–4 in a handful of cases. Changeover time shifted from 18–22 minutes down to roughly 12–14 minutes for the Digital lane, largely due to faster plate-free starts and simpler job recipes. Scrap on embellished cartons moved from 6–8% to around 3–4% once die lines and crease pressures were adjusted.
Throughput came in at 11–12k cartons per day on peak weeks versus a prior 9–10k. OEE tracked in the 78–82% band, up from 65–72% on similar SKUs. Cost-per-pack settled around 5–8% under the earlier baseline for hero SKUs, while seasonal sets stayed flat to slightly down depending on finish density. The payback period for the reconfiguration sat near 10–12 months. CO₂/pack estimates came in 6–9% under the prior spec due to tighter make-ready and fewer remakes.
It wasn’t a straight line. A small batch of Soft-Touch cartons picked up scuffs during bulk shipping; we tweaked carton-to-carton spacing and shipping liners and saw the issue taper in the next cycle.
Lessons Learned
The turning point came when we stopped treating display packaging like a poster and started designing it like a sales associate—short message hierarchy, clear focal points, and finishes only where they earn attention. For on-demand kits and influencer drops, variable data in Digital Printing allowed QR codes that linked to launch pages; in some regions, the QR led to a packola discount code for first-time DTC buyers. It felt native to the brand story rather than tacked on.
A trade-off worth noting: UV-LED Ink speed helped under tight timelines, but some pigments needed profile refinement to hold those deeper greens. And when gift sets moved to sturdier formats, we split outputs—retail displays stayed on Folding Carton, DTC went to packola boxes with reinforced inserts. That separation kept handling issues in check without bloating inventory.
If you’re weighing display packaging in Asia’s climate, keep storage and adhesives in the brief, not the footnotes. Start with a pilot tier, commit to ΔE targets that matter to your brand, and build finishes into your structural plan—not as a last-minute flourish. When boxes sell the story, they earn their keep. And yes, we’d make the same call with packola again.
