“We weren’t just chasing a prettier box; we needed packaging to reflect who we are,” says Maya, Head of Brand at Aurelia Jewels. “We sell stories as much as we sell rings.”
Her team operates across five regional hubs and ships to 40+ countries. When they switched to a new packaging partner—packola—the brief was straightforward but ambitious: seasonal lines with rich textures, reliable color across small and mid-size runs, and the flexibility to trial limited editions without committing to long inventories.
Here’s where it gets interesting: while marketing pushed for bolder finishes, operations insisted on predictable lead times. The turning point came when the team decided to pilot digitally printed runs for spring collections using packola boxes, layered with foil accents and a soft-touch feel—on a timeline that didn’t stretch beyond a normal launch cycle.
Company Overview and History
Aurelia Jewels started as a boutique studio in Lisbon and grew into a global D2C brand with about 120 SKUs rotating through quarterly capsules. Their packaging had evolved from generic kraft mailers to a coordinated set of keepsake boxes. For the spring line, the team committed to custom printed jewelry boxes with defined colorways to match precious metal finishes—rose gold, palladium, and platinum—while keeping the brand’s understated aesthetic intact.
“We learned long ago that the box is part of the purchase ritual,” Maya notes. “When customers gift a pair of earrings, they’re gifting the experience too.” Early iterations relied on Offset Printing for high volumes, but short runs for seasonal drops put pressure on inventory and storage. That’s when the brand began testing Digital Printing for mid-size batches (1,500–8,000 units), giving them room to adapt artwork, change foils, and play with structural details without locking up cash.
From a brand lens, consistency mattered more than any single embellishment. The team set guardrails for typography, line weights, and a signature blush tone. If the color drifted by more than ΔE 2–3, it was flagged, even for inserts. Operations added a lightweight inner tray to protect stones, and marketing pushed for a moment of reveal—subtle embossing on the inner lid that customers could feel as they opened the box.
Quality and Compliance Requirements
Jewelry sits at the junction of beauty and retail, so packaging touches both worlds. Aurelia’s team required FSC-certified Paperboard and controlled color per G7 targets; they also checked finishes for abrasion since soft-touch coatings can scuff during regional distribution. For gift sets, the brand introduced custom jewelry gift boxes with a magnetic closure, which meant testing adhesives for bond strength and running drop tests for e-commerce shipments.
Regulatory demands were less intense than food, but the team still documented materials and migration notes for peace of mind—especially for skin-contact inserts. They standardized quality checks at three points: preflight artwork validation, on-press color checkpoints, and post-press inspection for foil registration. FPY% stabilized in the 92–95% range on seasonal batches, with waste trending lower by roughly 15–20% compared to early prototypes. Not flawless, but under control.
Technology Selection Rationale
“We debated Offset versus Digital,” says Luis, Operations Manager. “Offset still makes sense for two flagship lines with steady demand. But for quarterly capsules and regional exclusives, Digital Printing gave us breathing room.” The team chose UV-LED Ink on coated Paperboard, balancing color depth with press uptime. Foil Stamping and Embossing were added in post-press, and Spot UV highlighted fine line art without overpowering the base tone.
The marketing team ran a clever experiment: a two-week micro-campaign offering a packola discount code tied specifically to one box design. Conversions weren’t explosive, but they were steady—the uplift sat in the 6–9% range for the SKUs in test markets, and more importantly, the team gathered clean data about which finishes customers noticed versus those they simply appreciated.
Let me back up for a moment. In the kickoff workshop, the CFO asked a blunt question: what are custom printed boxes going to do for retention? The answer wasn’t a single metric. Instead, the team mapped four signals—repeat gift purchases, social mentions of the unboxing, NPS comments about packaging, and exchanges processed without damage—to paint a fuller picture of value.
From a brand manager’s seat, the decision wasn’t purely technical. Digital supported Short-Run and Seasonal launches, while keeping artwork flexible for collaborations. We accepted that not every embellishment would translate perfectly at small volumes; the trade-off was agility and the ability to learn fast without tying up capital in surplus inventory.
Issue Resolution and Fine-Tuning
Not everything clicked on day one. Early tests showed slight foil overrun on one emboss plate when humidity rose above press room targets. The team responded by tightening environmental conditions, adjusting dwell time, and resetting die tolerances. Color checks found a blush tone sliding toward warm under certain light; on-press corrections pulled it back within ΔE 2–2.5, which passed both brand and QC thresholds.
Soft-touch coating looked beautiful but proved tricky for abrasions. Packaging engineers tweaked lamination specs and switched to a more abrasion-resistant topcoat for outer surfaces, keeping soft-touch on inner lids where scuff risk was lower. It’s a small shift, but it saved headaches in transit and preserved the tactile reveal that made the box feel special.
Business Impact
Fast forward six months. Seasonal changeovers dropped by roughly 20–25% in time thanks to streamlined prepress and faster approvals; reprint cycles for small corrections narrowed from weeks to days. Waste rates in pilot runs declined into the 5–7% range, buoyed by better setup recipes and more consistent post-press handling. Payback for the new approach landed in the 9–12 month bracket—sensible for a brand with frequent capsules and regional exclusives.
Consumer signals were quieter but telling. Unboxing mentions ticked up in social posts, and gift sets saw fewer exchange-related damages after switching to reinforced trays. “Our packaging now mirrors our brand voice,” Maya reflects. “Not loud, not flashy—just thoughtful.” From a market standpoint, Aurelia didn’t chase perfection; they prioritized predictability, agility, and the tactile cues that make jewelry feel worthy of the moment.
As we wrapped the interview, one note stood out: based on insights from packola projects across multiple brands, the teams that blend technical discipline with brand restraint tend to sustain results. Aurelia plans to expand its seasonal palette next year, with Digital Printing for limited drops and Offset for steady models, keeping a simple benchmark—color that holds, finishes that feel authentic, and packaging that tells their story without shouting.
