Case study: a mug seller packs printed mugs with honeycomb sheets
Our own product page would point this seller to a roll. It says that above about 50 fragile orders a month, a roll costs less per wrap than sheets, and this seller ships 120. I still think sheets are the right choice for them, for now. Here is why, with the maths, and the point at which I would change my mind.
This is a worked example. The business is illustrative, put together from situations small sellers commonly face. The product details and the maths are real.
Who is the seller, and what is going wrong?
Think of a one-person printed mug business in Bengaluru. It prints name mugs, couple mugs and office gifts. The mugs are the standard 11 oz kind, roughly 9.5 cm tall and 8 cm across. The seller sells on marketplaces, and the courier picks up from home every afternoon.
The whole business runs from one room of a rented flat. The printer and the heat press take the table. Blank mugs sit in their cartons under the bed. There is no table edge free for a roll, and no wall to fix a rod to.
It ships about 120 orders a month.
Assume one order in four is a pair, so that is about 150 mugs.
Today each mug goes into its white printed-mug box, and the box goes into a plastic courier bag. It is quick and it is cheap. Some mugs still arrive with a broken handle, and every one of those turns into a return or a refund on the marketplace.
A mug is not a steel filter-coffee tumbler. Drop a tumbler and it dents. Drop a mug and the handle comes off.
Why sheets, and what else could they use?
The real problem is the courier bag. A thin mug box inside a soft plastic bag has nothing to absorb a knock. India Post's Parcel Packaging Standards say it plainly: fragile items that need a reasonable level of protection should be placed inside corrugated boxes. So the first change is a small carton. The second change is a wrap that cushions the mug inside it.
I know a carton costs more than a courier bag. I would still not ship a mug any other way.
For the wrap, I would choose our honeycomb paper sheets, 390 x 500 mm, in the pack of 50. Here is how they compare with the other options for this one room. We sell everything in this table except plastic bubble wrap, so we have no reason to tilt it.
| Option | Good for this seller | Problem for this seller |
|---|---|---|
| Honeycomb sheets, 390 x 500 mm | Flat packs fit in a drawer, no measuring, no tearing, no tape on the wrap | Cost more per wrap than a roll |
| Honeycomb roll, 100 m | Lower cost per wrap, about 200 wraps per roll | Needs a table edge or a rod, and this room has neither |
| Plastic bubble wrap roll | Cushions mugs well | Bulky (it is mostly air) and needs tape and scissors on every mug |
| Kraft paper bubble sheets, 300 x 400 mm | Also flat and pre-cut | A flat sheet does not stretch around a handle as well as honeycomb |
| Honeycomb padded mailer | Paper and quick | A mug needs a carton, not an envelope |
So the trade is simple. This seller pays a little more per wrap to keep the room usable and the packing quick.
I think that is a fair trade at 150 mugs.
It stops being fair at some point, and I come to that below.
How should one mug be packed?
Our sheets are 390 x 500 mm, and that size happens to suit a standard mug well. Here is the working.
The mug is about 25 cm around the body. With the handle sticking out, the paper travels about 32 cm per turn. The sheet is 50 cm long, so it goes round about one and a half times. The sheet is 39 cm wide and the mug is 9.5 cm tall, so about 15 cm is left at each end to fold over the rim and under the base.
- Crumple one sheet of plain void fill paper (we sell 380 x 250 mm sheets) and push it inside the mug. A filled mug resists a knock better than a hollow one.
- Twist a small strip of the same paper and thread it through the handle loop. The handle is where mugs break.
- Lay a honeycomb sheet flat and pull it gently, so the cells open.
- Lay the mug on its side at the short end of the sheet and roll it along the 50 cm length.
- Fold the extra width over the rim and under the base, and press. The cells hold the wrap, so no tape is needed.
- Put the wrapped mug into its printed box.
- Put the box into a small corrugated carton with crumpled paper underneath, on all sides and on top.
- Close and shake. If you hear the box slide, add paper. Then seal and label.
For a pair, wrap each mug in its own sheet.
Never let two mugs touch.
If your print scuffs easily, put a sheet of tissue on the mug before the honeycomb sheet. Rubbing in transit can mark a soft print.
How many packs a month, and when to reorder?
One sheet per mug. The rest is counting.
| Per month | |
|---|---|
| Orders | 120 |
| Mugs (one order in four is a pair) | about 150 |
| Honeycomb sheets (1 per mug) | about 150 |
| Packs of 50 used | 3 |
| Packs to keep as a reserve | 1 |
| First order | 4 packs of 50 |
| Reorder | 3 packs, when you open the reserve pack |
| Void fill sheets inside mugs | about 150, plus what fills the cartons |
We dispatch in 1 to 2 working days, and the reserve pack covers you while the next order travels to Bengaluru.
We sell a pack of 20 for exactly this reason. Start with it if you have never used the paper. Pack ten mugs, drop each sealed carton from waist height onto a hard floor, and open them. If the handles survive, move to the 50 pack, which costs less per sheet.
We built the free honeycomb paper calculator for rolls, but it works for sheets too. Enter 62 cm as the paper per order (50 cm per sheet, 1.25 mugs per order) and 120 orders. It will show about 74 m a month. Every 50 cm of that is one sheet.
When should this seller move to a roll?
When one of these becomes true, I would switch to the 100 m honeycomb roll:
- The business moves to a room with a free table edge, or a wall for a rod.
- Orders pass about 200 a month, so the extra cost of sheets adds up to real money.
- The product range grows beyond mugs, and one sheet stops fitting everything.
I would rather you do the sum yourself on the listings than take my word for it. Divide the price of a pack of 50 by 50. Divide the price of the 100 m roll by 200. That gap, times your mugs a month, is what the drawer is costing you. We sell both, so either answer is fine with us, and we will not push you towards the bigger order. The full comparison is in which honeycomb paper size to buy.
What should the seller watch?
- Weight disputes. A carton is bigger than a courier bag, so the volumetric weight goes up. Measure the packed carton once, and declare those dimensions on the marketplace. Pick the smallest carton that still leaves room for paper on every side.
- Damp. Bengaluru is humid in the monsoon. Keep the packs in a closed drawer or a cupboard, not on the floor next to the blank mug cartons.
- Proof. Keep a list of every damaged-on-arrival complaint, with the order number, for 60 days before the change and 60 days after. Marketplace return reasons are good enough for this. The list tells you if the new setup works.
- Heavy items. A thick stoneware mug or a mug and plate set is heavier than a printed 11 oz mug. Test it separately. Honeycomb paper is made for light and medium fragile items.
What would it take in your business?
- [ ] Write down what is stopping you from using a roll (space, a helper, product sizes).
- [ ] Wrap your product once in a sheet and check that it covers the top and base.
- [ ] Count items per order, not just orders.
- [ ] Move fragile items out of courier bags and into cartons.
- [ ] Drop-test ten cartons before you buy in bulk.
- [ ] Compare cost per sheet with cost per 50 cm of roll every few months.
If your mugs keep breaking at the handle, send us a photo of the mug and its box through our contact page, and we will suggest the wrap and carton we would try.
If you have the space and ship round glass jars instead, the candle studio case study shows the roll version of this setup.
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