The brand and the problem
A growing US candle label was shipping glass jars in a single-wall mailer. Rough last-mile handling meant a steady trickle of cracked lids and broken jars—each one a refund, a bad review, and a replaced order. They did not want to jump to a 1,000-unit rigid setup; they wanted a fix at a small run size.
What was breaking
| Failure mode | Cause |
|---|---|
| Lid crack | Jar shifted, lid took point load |
| Broken jar | Single-wall wall crushed on drop |
| Label scuff | Jar slid against box wall |
The fix: double-wall mailer + insert
We moved them to a double-wall E-flute kraft mailer with a die-cut insert that cradles the jar and locks the lid away from the wall. The insert is a single mono-material fiber piece, so the whole mailer stays recyclable. Because we finish in-house (an ISO 9001-certified Guangzhou workshop), they tested the structure at MOQ 100 with a free dieline and blank sample before print.
Results
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Breakage claims | ~6% of orders | <0.5% |
| Refund cost / mo | High | Negligible |
| Unboxing feel | Basic | Premium, on-brand |
Takeaway
Breakage is a structure problem before it is a materials problem. If you ship fragile goods, start from our candle packaging options or a kraft mailer, and read the packaging FAQ on inserts and dielines. (For material-safety questions like PFAS, see our PFAS guide.)