Custom Mug Shipping Boxes
Custom mug shipping boxes from 100 — corrugated mailers with a fitted insert that suspends the mug away from every wall and locks the handle, so an 11 oz or 15 oz ceramic mug survives a parcel network without loose fill. Printed, sized to your mug, single or in pairs.
Ceramic in a parcel network
- Board
- E or B flute corrugated mailer; white or kraft
- Insert
- Die-cut corrugated suspension insert with handle cavity
- Sizes
- 11 oz, 15 oz, travel and latte mugs; one or two mugs
Get a price for Mug Shipping 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.
Where mugs break
- The handle — it sticks out and takes the first impact at a corner.
- The rim — it chips when the mug slides and hits a wall.
- The base — a crack from a drop onto a hard floor, flat.
- Against another mug — in a two-pack with no divider.
The suspension insert
A die-cut corrugated insert holds the mug by its body, with a cavity for the handle so it cannot rotate, and a gap of about an inch between the mug and every wall. A drop is then absorbed by the corners of the box and the flex of the insert. It is quicker to pack than wrapping and filling, and it makes the unboxing tidy.
Send us the mug. An 11 oz mug varies between factories by enough to matter.
Sizes and packs
| 11 oz | The standard; about 3.75 in tall and 3.25 in across |
|---|---|
| 15 oz | Taller and wider; same insert design, larger box |
| Travel and latte mugs | Cavity drawn to the profile; lids packed separately |
| Two-mug pack | Divider between the mugs, handles opposite |
One box, or a retail box inside a shipper
A printed mailer with a built-in insert ships alone and looks good when opened. A mug in a retail gift box needs a second, outer shipping box, because a retail carton is not made for a parcel network. Our shipping boxes for parcel delivery cover the outers for that route.
Testing before a launch
Pack a few mugs and drop the boxes from waist height on each face, edge and corner onto a hard floor. If they survive, the pack is right. Marketplaces and large retailers may require a formal test standard for ship-in-own-container packs; that testing is arranged by the seller with a lab, and we supply the samples.
Mug Shipping 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
- Board
- E or B flute corrugated mailer; white or kraft
- Insert
- Die-cut corrugated suspension insert with handle cavity
- Sizes
- 11 oz, 15 oz, travel and latte mugs; one or two mugs
- Outside and inside, full color or 1–2 colors
- Closure
- Tuck-front mailer with dust flaps; tear strip option
- Delivery
- Flat; inserts flat, fold in at packing
- Minimum
- 100 boxes
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 mug shipping 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 grayer 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: mug shipping 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 Mug Shipping 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 mug shipping 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.
How do I ship a mug without it breaking?
In a box with a suspension insert that holds the mug away from every wall and locks the handle.
Do I need bubble wrap?
Not with a fitted insert. The insert does the job and packs faster.
What size box for an 11 oz mug?
About 5 × 5 × 5 in with the insert, depending on the mug. We draw it from your mug.
Can one box hold two mugs?
Yes, with a divider between them and the handles facing opposite ways.
Will a 15 oz mug fit the same box?
Usually not. It needs its own size, with the same insert design.
Can the box be printed inside?
Yes, the inside lid is a good place for a thank-you message.
Can I ship a retail mug box as it is?
A retail carton is not built for parcels. Put it in an outer shipping box.
How do I test the pack?
Drop filled boxes from waist height on each face, edge and corner. Formal tests are arranged with a lab.
Do you make boxes for travel mugs?
Yes, with a cavity drawn to the profile and space for the lid.
Are the boxes recyclable?
The box and insert are all corrugated, so they go in the same recycling stream.
What is the minimum order for mug boxes?
100 boxes per mug size; single and two-mug packs are quoted separately.
What sets the lead time for mug shipping boxes?
The insert is sampled with your mug and drop-tested before the run. We give a date with the quote.
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