Packaging & kitting
Packaging, kitting and assembly
Custom boxes, retail packaging and displays, then the hand assembly that fills them. Designed, sourced and built here.
Minimus Fulfillment designs and sources secondary packaging — custom shipper boxes, retail cartons, displays, specialty and presentation boxes, and inserts — and then assembles product into it. Kits can be pre-built and stocked as a single SKU or assembled at the moment an order is picked, depending on which is cheaper for your program.
Packaging we design and source
Packaging is where fulfillment cost, damage rate and brand experience all meet. An oversized carton raises dimensional shipping weight on every order you will ever ship. An undersized one raises your damage rate. A beautiful one that takes ninety seconds to assemble raises your pick-and-pack cost forever. We work all three of those against each other rather than just quoting a box.
- Custom shipper boxes sized to your product and to carrier dimensional pricing, printed inside or out
- Retail and shelf-ready cartons, including folding cartons and retail multipacks
- Displays — counter units, floor displays and PDQ trays, built to a retailer’s planogram
- Specialty and presentation boxes — rigid boxes, magnetic closures, foam and pulp inserts, unusual shapes and the sort of packaging that is the reason someone photographs an unboxing
- Inserts and printed matter — cards, booklets, sample carriers, tissue and void fill
- Mailers and protective packaging for the products that do not need a box
- Stocking and drawdown — we hold your materials and tell you when to reorder
- Cost modeling — what a packaging change does to your landed cost per order, before you commit to a print run
This is secondary packaging: what your product ships and merchandises in. Primary packaging — filling liquids, powders and particulates into their own containers — is a different business, and our sister company Minimus Products does that work in its own facility.
Two ways to build a kit
| Pre-assembled | Assembled at pick | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Kits are built in a batch ahead of time and stocked as one SKU | Components are pulled and combined when the order is picked |
| Best when | The kit is fixed, volume is predictable, and speed at order time matters | Contents vary, components are shared across kits, or volume is uncertain |
| Trade-off | Cheaper per order, but components are committed and harder to reallocate | More flexible, slightly higher per-order handling |
| Typical use | Subscription boxes, retail multipacks, launch kits | Build-your-own bundles, variable gift-with-purchase, sampling |
Subscription box programs
A monthly box is a manufacturing run followed by a shipping event, and the hard parts are timing and exceptions: components arriving from six suppliers on different weeks, the skip-month and swap requests, the address changes that land the day before the ship window, and inserts that have to match the theme.
- Component receiving and staging against a build schedule
- Batch pack-out to a defined ship window
- Insert, card and personalization handling
- Skip, swap and address-change handling through your subscription platform
- Leftover component reconciliation after the run
Launch, PR and influencer kits
This is work we are unusually well set up for, and it is where a mid-sized operator beats a large network outright. A seeding drop is low volume, high visibility, time-sensitive and often individually personalized — exactly the profile an automated fulfillment center is bad at.
We have run launches for some of the largest and most followed celebrities in the world. That work is under non-disclosure so we do not publish names, but it is the reason we are comfortable when a drop has a fixed date, a press list and no margin for a box arriving wrong.
- Hand assembly to a photograph or a spec
- Individual personalization: names, handwritten notes, custom inserts
- Recipient lists that arrive as a spreadsheet the night before
- Same-afternoon shipments when someone needs product for an appearance or a shoot
- Coordination with a launch date rather than a standard ship window
The occasional strange idea
One example of where this leads: The Talking Shipper©, a shipping box we developed that speaks to the customer who opens it. It came from asking what an unboxing could be if the box itself were part of the brand. It is not right for every product, and we are not going to sell it to you — but it is a fair illustration of the kind of thing we will try.
Two videos, if you are curious
Common questions
Can you design and source custom packaging for my brand?
Yes. Custom shipper boxes, retail and folding cartons, displays, rigid and specialty presentation boxes, inserts, mailers and void fill. We will also model what a packaging change does to your per-order cost before you commit to a print run.
Will packaging changes affect my shipping cost?
Almost always, and usually more than brands expect. Carriers price on dimensional weight, so carton size drives cost on every order for as long as you use it. Right-sizing packaging is one of the few changes that reduces cost permanently.
Do you do subscription box fulfillment?
Yes. We handle component receiving, batch pack-outs to a ship window, inserts and personalization, and skip, swap and address-change handling through your subscription platform.
Can you assemble kits by hand?
Yes, and it is work we actively want. Hand assembly — launch kits, PR boxes, displays built to a photograph — is where a mid-sized operator has a real advantage over a highly automated network.
Can you personalize individual boxes?
Yes. Named cards, handwritten notes, recipient-specific inserts and one-off variations are routine for seeding and VIP programs.
Do you build retail displays?
Yes. Counter units, floor displays and PDQ trays, assembled to a retailer’s specification and shipped as part of a compliant retail order.
Do you fill bottles, jars or pouches?
Not here — that is primary packaging, and it is a separate business with separate requirements. Our sister company Minimus Products handles contract filling of liquids, powders and particulates in its own facility. If your project needs both, the two companies coordinate.
How far in advance do you need components?
For a scheduled pack-out we ask that all components land at least two weeks before the build window, so a late or short supplier delivery can be caught while there is still time to react.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Have a box or a kit that seems complicated?
Describe it — or send a photo of what it is supposed to look like. Complicated packaging and assembly is the part of this business we enjoy.