Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

The $1.20 Carton Trick

10 Oct 2025

Watch on YouTube

A short YouTube piece where Lara Guevara recounts an anecdote: right-sizing cartons (reducing an extra 3 cm) saved a brand $1.20 per unit by lowering volumetric weight and thus shipping costs. She recommends auditing carton-to-product ratios, working with vendors to specify correct carton sizes, and notes secondary benefits: lower warehouse space use and environmental friendliness.

Questions this video answers

$1.20 per unit.

An extra 3 cm in carton size.

Would you believe me if I told you one small packaging tweak saved the brand $1.20 per unit? One of our clients was about to launch and their cartons were oversized. They look nice, but when we checked Freight, those extra 3cm meant higher volumetric weight. That tiny detail? Thousands of dollars in wasted shipping cost. So here's the trick. Always check the ratio of product size to carton size. Work with your vendor to to right size cartons. They use whatever is available, and sometimes it's not the right size for your product. And in bonus, it's eco friendly and makes warehouse storage cheaper too. If you want to cut costs without touching your products, start with the packaging. Audit your cartons today, and sometimes the easiest savings are hiding in plain sight.