How to Get Packaging for a New Product: Step-by-Step Guide

Product packaging is the final step before launching your new cannabis SKU into the market. Your product’s packaging must be strong enough to protect the product, eye-catching and informative for your customers, and compliant with all of the applicable laws and regulations. 

You also need to ensure that your chosen packaging supplier can deliver packaging at the scale and frequency you need, without interruptions.

After pouring months of research and development efforts into creating a strain, pre-roll, or extract your customers will love, it’s essential to pay the same level of attention to detail to the design, compliance, and logistics of your product packaging. 

The right packaging partner will ensure that your product packaging stands out on the shelf, conforms to the relevant regulations, and delivers a top-notch customer experience.

Step 1: Choose a Packaging Type

The most suitable type of packaging for your product will depend on its size, weight, fragility, and whether it’s a liquid or a solid. 

Packaging types are grouped into primary packaging, secondary packaging, and tertiary packaging. The packaging solutions your product requires will depend on the nature of the product and the number of units you typically sell to dispensaries.

Primary Packaging

Primary packaging refers to the packaging that comes into direct contact with the product. Go tried and true with packaging types for cannabis SKUs:

• Flower packaging: standard glass jars, vacuum-sealed jars, and tamper-evident glass jars
  • Concentrate packaging: standard glass jars, vacuum-seal jars, and violet glass jars
• Pre-roll packaging and vape cartridge packaging: screw-top tubes, pop-top tubes, and slider boxes

Primary packaging for adult-use products like cannabis needs to protect the contents from light, moisture, and oxygen while complying with state-specific cannabis packaging regulations. 

These typically include mandatory features like child resistance, tamper-evident closures, and opaqueness. A specialty cannabis packaging supplier with intimate knowledge of the cannabis landscape by state will be able to advise you on the most appropriate solution given your product and your state’s cannabis packaging laws.

💡Pro Tip: Additional features like vacuum-seal closures aren’t required by law but represent an excellent option for high-end brands that want to extend the shelf life of their premium flowers and concentrates. 

While vacuum-sealed jars come at a higher price point, the customer’s ability to keep their premium products vacuum-sealed and conserve the flavor profile longer than a standard jar increases their perception of value and the retail price they would be willing to pay for your product.

Secondary Packaging

Secondary packaging goes outside the primary packaging layer. Standard secondary packaging for cannabis products includes the following kinds of cannabis boxes:

• Standard boxes
• Child-resistant boxes
• Display boxes

Secondary packaging for cannabis products doesn’t need to be child-resistant or tamper-evident if the primary packaging is. However, color and branding restrictions may apply (see “packaging design” below for more on this).

Tertiary Packaging

Tertiary packaging represents the outermost layer of packaging. Shippers that group multiple secondary packages together for distribution are an example of tertiary packaging.

For cannabis brands, don’t underestimate the value of custom tertiary packaging. It helps your retail partners easily identify your products in storage and helps ensure you are always stocked on the shelf. 

Generic tertiary boxes can cause a headache for retailers and cause them to take the path of least resistance to simply find a compatible SKU to stock on the shelf to keep them full for customers.

Considerations When Choosing Packaging Materials

You will often have a choice of packaging materials for any given product. For example, cannabis flowers can be sold in jars or mylar bags. Concentrates can be sold in plastic or glass.

Mylars represent great options because their shipping costs are typically very friendly due to their smaller and more flexible form factor. They also offer a lot of printing options that can really amp the brand up. 

Cannabis brands should think about their packaging along similar lines to food packaging—you need functional packaging that is strong and won’t contaminate your product, as it’s intended for consumption. Glass interiors provide an inert option for consumables. If you go with plastic, look for an option that is free from known toxins like BPA.

Step 2: Decide on Unit Sizes

Unit size is the next consideration before ordering packaging for your product. Brands routinely offer their products in two or more sizes to appeal to different price points and consumption patterns. Jars for flower—for example—come in ⅛ oz, ¼ oz, ½ oz, and 1 oz options. 

It’s important to keep the needs of retailers in mind when deciding on the size of your packaging. 

Space-efficient packaging allows retailers to fit more products on their shelves, so ensure your product’s packaging is only as large as needed.

Step 3: Packaging Design

Once you’ve chosen a packaging type and one or more unit sizes, it’s time to create your packaging design. This may involve designing custom stickers to apply to ready-made generic product packaging supplies or designing custom product packaging in novel shapes or custom boxes for retail display. 

It’s possible to design packaging yourself using a template-based tool like Canva. However, serious brands need to engage professional design services and work with a specialized packaging printing company for a high-quality result that matches the fire product inside the package.

Take the following areas into account during the packaging design process:

Brand Logo

All of your packaging should clearly display your brand’s logo. This logo must be designed in accordance with your state’s cannabis packaging and labeling requirements. That is, unless you operate in a state where you cannot explicitly brand your product.

For example, The state of Maine prohibits the depiction of a human, animal, or fruit on the packaging or label of a cannabis product. However, geometric figures and depictions of a cannabis leaf are allowed. 

The cannabis brand SeaWeed was fined $10,000 for using a mermaid (which is half human, half animal) on its logo.

Copy and Visuals

Product packaging and labels need to fulfill informational requirements as well as capture customers’ attention and motivate them to buy. Consumable products like food, beverages, and cannabis typically have one primary display panel (primary label) and an information panel (secondary label) that provide the following information:

Primary Display Panel

• Brand name and logo
• Generic description of the product
• Net weight (situated in the bottom 30% of the label) in both metric and U.S. Customary System units
• Supplement and nutrition facts
• Ingredient list and food allergen labeling
• Applicable warnings (check your state’s requirements), disposal instruction symbols, and manufacturing standards symbols
• “Cannabis infused” statement on edible products infused with cannabinoids

Information Panel

• Supplement and nutrition facts, if they don’t fit on the primary display panel
• Ingredient list and food allergen labeling, if it doesn’t fit on the primary display panel 
• Strain, amount, and lot or batch number
• Manufacturer information, including your company name and contact details

Anywhere on the Product Packaging

• Dates, including the date of manufacture and the “expiration” or “best before” date

Compliance

The words, imagery, and colors used on your packaging must comply with all applicable regulations. This includes but is not limited to (depending on your state):

• The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA)
• The Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA)
• The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act)
• The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA)
• State-specific packaging and labeling laws applicable to your product type

Packaging for cannabis products, for example, typically needs to be:

• Child-resistant
• Tamper-evident
• Resealable
• Opaque

The imagery and words used cannot typically resemble anything that might appeal to children. Some states additionally require that packaging for cannabis products avoids the use of “neon” colors or color in general. 

Working with a cannabis packaging supplier that is familiar with all of the relevant regulations is the most efficient way to ensure compliance.

Print Embellishments

Print embellishments elevate your product packaging design and make your product stand out in a sea of sameness, especially if you’re limited in terms of the colors, images, and words you can use. 

Raised lettering and foil details, for example, provide an effective way to catch shoppers’ attention if you’re limited to black and white.

It’s essential to align the content and finish of your packaging with your brand identity and values. This applies equally to your choice of embellishments. 

Custom packaging with premium print embellishments like gloss, silver foil, gold foil, and holo treatment communicates luxury, product quality, expertise, and attention to detail. 

Step 4: Create a Request for Quotation (RFQ) Document

All of your packaging design specifications must be included in a detailed request for quotation (RFQ) document, AKA specification sheet. You will send this document to packaging supply companies when requesting quotes and ordering packaging samples.

Your RFQ should contain:

• Your packaging design and specifications
• Your desired order quantity
• Your timeline
• The pricing information and cost breakdown you require (cost of materials, labor, administrative fees, shipping, etc.)
• Quote submission instructions
• Your contact details

Be completely sure of your product and packaging specifications before sending them to companies to avoid delays. It’s also essential to make sure you provide all of the necessary information (rather than presuming you will “work it out” later) as a lack of clarity could result in quality, logistical, and timeline problems or significant changes to the quoted price.

Step 5: Research Packaging Companies

Now it’s time to research potential packaging companies. 

Create as exhaustive a list of suppliers as you can. Have an idea of what you are looking for and understand the tradeoffs that might happen depending on your choice.

For example, going domestic is almost sure to mean higher cost per goods but it also should increase your speed to market and allow you to nimbly execute limited drops and promotions. They are also much more likely to act as a strategic partner. Better yet, if they have deep cannabis knowledge, they will be able to help you navigate the state regulatory landscape if you aren’t confident.

Going overseas to China means lower costs but also longer lead times and better advance planning. You will sacrifice agility. You will likely carry a lot more packaging inventory as well to ensure you can move product. Orders from overseas will likely not accommodate too many last minute changes as they have very long queues.

If you work with only one packaging vendor, make sure they are diversified to guarantee consistent supply year-round and avoid delays around macroeconomic events like Chinese New Year. 

If working directly with factories, diversify your list to ensure that your production timelines won’t be blown out by potential supply chain disruptions like local celebrations, lockdowns, political unrest, or natural disasters.

It is highly recommended that you do not go to the factory directly for packaging. You may think you are going to get the best price, but your volumes are likely not the volumes factories deal with from very large MSOs or packaging vendors who have long-established relationships. 

💡Pro tip: Be careful to list only manufacturers and not trading companies. Trading companies do not manufacture anything and are not experts in manufacturing processes. Working through a trading company introduces an unnecessary middleman—raising your packaging costs and eating further into your profit margin.

Step 6: Contact Your Shortlist of Packaging Supply Companies

Create a shortlist of five packaging vendors based on your initial research. After establishing a proposed packaging budget in-house, send your RFQ to each vendor and analyze their responses:

• Did the vendor respond promptly?
• Did they provide all of the information you requested?
• Do they have a good level of English proficiency?
• Were they polite and helpful?
• Do they have any relevant certifications?
• Do they have independent online reviews?
• Is their quote for packaging costs within your target price range?
• Do they have scorecards for their performance? Think average lead times, on-time delivery rate, etc.
• Are they willing to provide references of those they have worked with in your space?

Timely and clear communication is an often bemoaned weakness of the packaging vendor experience. 

Packaging vendors who communicate well will save you time, money, and headaches compared to vendors who are nonresponsive or prone to misunderstandings.

Step 7: Place and Receive a Sample Order

Place a sample order of packaging from the vendors that performed well in Step 6. You will want to begin with a smaller quantity for your first order to see and feel the quality, assess the timeliness of delivery, gauge customer response, and get approval from your company’s COO before ordering in bulk.

The cost per unit will be higher with smaller packaging orders. However, it’s better to spend more making sure the packaging is perfect (and converts well) at the beginning than it is to order thousands of units economically, only to discover that the quality or impact isn’t what you’d hoped.

Step 8: Negotiate Price

Once you’re happy with the quality, timeliness, and customer impact of your packaging, negotiate with your top suppliers on the price. You want the most cost-effective price possible without sacrificing quality or burning capital unnecessarily on huge minimum order quantities (MOQs) that are out of step with your batch sizes, average monthly sales, and the frequency of regulatory change.

The ideal packaging vendor will begin by supplying your company with on-demand, domestic packaging to protect your cash flow and help you launch your product(s) in days or weeks rather than months. 

You will then ideally move on to diversified offshore production for lower costs of goods sold (COGS) and larger profit margins once your operations have stabilized and your volumes have scaled.

Step 9: Work out the Logistics

Perfecting the logistics is essential for a successful long-term relationship with your packaging vendor. 

Work out key details regarding points of contact, lead times, quality control processes, shipping schedules, and warehousing to incorporate your packaging vendor into your company’s supply chain and prevent bottlenecks from the outset. 

The steps in your packaging supply chain will depend on whether your packaging comes ready to use or if you purchase bulk containers and custom labels separately and apply the labels yourself. It’s often worth experimenting with both approaches before scaling to ensure that you aren’t trying to lower your vendor costs only to spend more on in-house labor to apply the labels.

Please note: Custom-printed boxes will need to be ordered as such from the outset (rather than purchasing generic boxes and applying labels after the fact).

Step 10: Continue to Review and Refine

Your initial sample order followed by careful logistical planning should set you up for a positive relationship with your packaging vendor. However, it’s essential to continue to control the quality, timeliness, and effectiveness of your packaging and make adjustments as you go. 

Changes to packaging and labeling regulations, customer preferences, brand direction, and product offerings will require timely pivots in your packaging strategy and designs. The right packaging vendor will not only be sensitive and responsive to these changes but will become a proactive partner in foreseeing future needs and move in lockstep with your design team.

Set Yourself Up for Packaging Success

Obtaining packaging for your product is an exciting “final” step before distribution and retail sales. However, the process must be undertaken with realistic lead times and a strategic approach to ensure you choose a packaging vendor who will enhance your success rather than becoming a drain on your company’s resources.

The right packaging vendor—and we’d like to think we are one of those—will not only meet your logistical needs dependably but will go the extra mile to offer advice on compliance and design considerations. 

Choose your packaging provider carefully for a long-term relationship that maximizes your revenue.