Custom Counter Display Boxes
The area beside a till is the most contested space in retail. A counter display does not win it by being attractive — it wins by taking up less room than the sales it generates justify, and by not needing anyone to think about it once it is there.
- Build
- Corrugated counter display unit, locking base, printed back wall
- Board
- B or E flute; corners kept intact under load
- Features
- Dividers, false floors, front lips, pre-fitted inserts
Get a price for Counter Display Boxes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Footprint is the specification that matters
Measure the base area, not the height. A shopkeeper is deciding whether to give up a rectangle of counter, and a unit 50 mm narrower than a competitor's will be placed when the other one is not.
Height is nearly free by comparison. Going up rather than out lets you hold the same stock in a smaller footprint, and a taller unit is more visible from across a shop.
Under 200 mm square is where counter units stop being a negotiation and start being an easy yes.
It must set up in one go, by someone who is busy
If the unit needs a person to concentrate, it will be assembled wrong or not at all. That is not a criticism of shop staff; it is a design constraint.
- No tape, no tools, no instructions longer than a sentence.
- A locking base that squares up in one movement and stays square when loaded.
- A back wall that holds itself up rather than relying on the stock inside it.
- Any insert or divider pre-fitted, or the shop will leave it in the box.
The half-empty problem
A display that only looks right when it is full looks abandoned by its second day, which is exactly when it most needs to keep selling.
| Printed back wall | The unit still reads as intentional once the front row has gone |
|---|---|
| Dividers | Hold remaining stock upright rather than letting it slump |
| False floor | Raises the last units to the height the first ones sat at |
| Front lip | Stops stock sliding forward and off the counter |
Windows take strength out
Every cut-away panel that improves visibility removes structure from a box that is holding stock in the air. The failure is a unit bowing outward under load and dropping product on the counter.
Keep the corners intact wherever possible — the corners carry the load, and a display with open corners is relying on the board face alone. The board grade reasoning is set out across our retail display range.
Shipping it full, or shipping it flat
A pre-filled counter unit inside a plain outer arrives ready to place and is the easiest thing a shop ever receives. It also means you pack it, and the outer has to protect a loaded display through a courier network.
Flat-shipped units are cheaper to send and put the assembly work on the shop. For a small independent, pre-filled almost always sells better; for a chain with a stockroom, flat is usually preferred.
Counter Display Boxes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Build
- Corrugated counter display unit, locking base, printed back wall
- Board
- B or E flute; corners kept intact under load
- Features
- Dividers, false floors, front lips, pre-fitted inserts
- Supply
- Flat-shipped for shop assembly, or pre-filled inside a plain outer
- Flexo, litho-laminated or digital; inside and back wall printable
- Minimum
- 100 units
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to four colors straight onto the liner; litho-lamination where the box needs full color or a photograph.
- Color
- Flat colors on kraft. Full color needs a white top liner or a laminated sheet, because brown shifts every color warm.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1.5 mm. The flute compresses, so corrugated runs wider than folding board.
- Tooling
- No die on a regular slotted box, which is cut on a slotter. Die-cut mailers and trays need one, made once and kept.
- Food contact
- Food-grade liners and a vented build where the box carries hot food.
- Sustainability
- High recycled content through liners and flute as standard, and the box recycles whole if it is sealed with paper tape.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build counter display boxes on
Corrugated is a fluted sheet glued between two liners, and the flute decides nearly everything: how it prints, how it dents, how high it stacks. These are the grades we run.
E flute
About 1.5 mm. Prints well and folds crisply; dents under a stack. Retail boxes, mailers and light shippers.
1.5 mm, single wallB flute
About 3 mm. The working default for parcels — takes print reasonably and stacks reasonably. Most shipping boxes are B.
3 mm, single wallC flute
About 4 mm. More cushioning than B, slightly less stacking strength per weight. Common on grocery and produce cases.
4 mm, single wallBC double wall
B and C glued together, about 7 mm. Heavy or fragile goods, pallet stacking, anything over roughly 15 kg.
7 mm, double wallKraft liner
Brown, strong, absorbent. One or two flat colors flexo print well on it; photographs drink into the brown and go muddy.
Outer and inner linerWhite top liner
A bleached outer liner for full-color print on corrugated. Costs more and marks more easily than kraft.
Outer liner onlyRecycled-content corrugated
High post-consumer fiber through liners and flute. The default for shippers; a slightly greyer brown and no loss of strength at grade.
All flutesCoated and water-resistant
A coating or a wax-free barrier liner for damp stores and cold chains. Check the recycling stream before printing a claim on it.
B and C fluteNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Corrugated takes fewer finishes than folding board, and the ones it takes it takes well.
Flexo on kraft
One or two flat colors straight onto brown. Cheap, fast, honest.
Litho-lamination
An offset sheet glued to the flute: full color and photographs on a shipper.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance with no film, so the box still recycles whole.
White top print
Full color flexo on a bleached liner; brighter, and it marks more easily.
Inside print
A second pass on the inner liner — the panel a customer sees first.
Printed tape seal
The brand applied at the last moment, on paper tape that recycles with the box.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing a corrugated box against the carrier, not the catalog: counter display boxes
Corrugated is cut to your internal size, so the box goes round the product rather than the product going into a stock size. That is where the money is: a box 20 mm smaller each way is often a whole postage band cheaper.
- Internal dimensions
- Length, width and depth of the space you need. Board thickness is added outside that, and the flute is thicker than people expect.
- Clearance and void fill
- 5–10 mm a side for a rigid product. Size it properly and you need no void fill at all, which is cheaper and better received.
- Stacking
- Tell us how high the boxes stack on a pallet or a shelf. Edge crush grade is specified from that, not guessed.
- Weight
- The contents weight sets the flute and the liner grade. Over about 15 kg we move to double wall.
- Score allowance
- Corrugated needs more room at the folds than boxboard. The dieline accounts for it; a box drawn from flat dimensions comes out tight.
- Cutting tolerance
- Plus or minus 1.5 mm on corrugated, wider than folding board because the flute compresses.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Counter Display Boxes in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about counter display boxes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What is the minimum order?
100 units, flat-packed or pre-filled.
How big is too big for a counter?
Anything much over 200 mm square becomes a negotiation. Go up rather than out.
Should I ship them pre-filled?
For independents, usually yes. For chains with stockrooms, flat is often preferred.
My unit bows when loaded — what changed?
Check the cut-outs. Every window removes structure, and open corners are the most common cause.
Do I need a printed back wall?
It keeps the unit looking deliberate once the front stock has sold. It costs one print pass.
Will a locking base hold up under load?
Yes, and it matters more here than on any shipped box, because the unit sits loaded for weeks.
How big is too big for a counter?
Anything much over 200 mm square becomes a negotiation. Go up rather than out — height costs far less shelf goodwill than footprint.
Should I ship them pre-filled?
For independents, usually yes — it removes all the work. For chains with stockrooms, flat is often preferred.
My unit bows when loaded — what changed?
Check the cut-outs. Every window removes structure, and open corners are the most common cause.
Do I need a printed back wall?
It is what keeps the unit looking deliberate once the front stock has sold. It costs one print pass.
Same range
