Advantages and Disadvantages of Cardboard Tubes in Retail Packaging

For brand owners and retailers, standing out in the competitive retail market is always a challenge. To make an impact, brands go above and beyond by offering high-quality products, exceptional customer service, and captivating retail packaging.

Packaging plays a crucial role in today’s consumer market, with a plethora of formats and materials to choose from, such as glass bottles, PET jars, plastic containers, folding cartons, rigid gift boxes, and paper tubes. Each packaging solution has its own advantages and disadvantages, making it tough for brand owners to make a decision.

As a manufacturer and supplier of paper tube packaging, we aim to provide an unbiased overview of the pros and cons of packaging tubes. This will enable brand owners like you to have a clear understanding of this packaging option and determine if cardboard tube packaging is suitable for your product lines.

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Bath Bomb Paper Tube Packaging

More and more companies and retailers are striving to eliminate plastics and explore alternatives for their product packaging. Paper tubes, like other types of cardboard packaging, are made from eco-friendly, plastic-free, and biodegradable materials.

As awareness about plastic pollution and environmental protection grows worldwide, consumers are increasingly adopting green lifestyles, including making sustainable choices in their purchasing behaviors. By using recyclable and sustainable product packaging, businesses can gain a competitive edge over competitors who may not prioritize eco-friendly packaging. Additionally, every sale made with such packaging helps to reduce carbon footprint, demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, and build a positive green image in the minds of customers.

As stated previously, paper tubes are composed of paper and cardboard, making them inherently safe, natural, and non-toxic. This characteristic is particularly crucial when packaging items such as food products (e.g., protein powder, dietary supplements), beverages (e.g., coffee, tea bags or loose leaf tea), cosmetics, beauty and personal care items (e.g., lip balm, lotion, solid perfume). With cardboard tubes, there’s no need to worry about plastics or metals corroding and potentially contaminating the contents of the package.

Scented Candle Paper Tube Boxes

Furthermore, due to the spiral winding of multiple layers of cardboard, tubes exhibit exceptional sturdiness, durability, and resistance to physical breakage. This makes them highly reliable during store handling and transportation. The customized thick cardboard walls of the tubes provide premium protection and cushioning for fragile and brittle products, such as glass Boston round bottles (used for CBD oil packaging), cosmetics cream jars, glass candle vessels, delicate hair straighteners and curlers, as well as wine and liquor bottles.

In comparison to wood, glass, and metal, paper is relatively lightweight. As a result, many brands are opting for cardboard powder shaker tubes as an alternative to glass shaker jars for packaging spices and seasonings due to their lightweight nature. Additionally, the slim and compact cylindrical shape of tubes allows for efficient space usage, making them ideal for packaging prints, posters, diplomas, certificates, drawings, reed diffuser sticks, cylindrical serum jars, essential oil bottles, and other cylindrical-shaped products. The tube packaging is a perfect fit for these items, resulting in significant savings in store storage space and shipping costs.

When it comes to raw material costs, paper is likely the most cost-effective option compared to glass, metal, wood, or PET. Depending on packaging requirements, there are options such as post-consumer waste (PCW) paper or virgin paper stock, providing budget flexibility.

 

In addition, cardboard cylinders have an advantage over other cardboard packaging options like rigid boxes in terms of labor work. Rigid boxes typically involve more labor-intensive processes, which can increase manufacturing costs. While folding cartons may be slightly cheaper than tube packaging in terms of raw material and labor costs, they may not be as durable and sturdy, limiting their suitability for certain product packaging applications.

Branding is undoubtedly the key to success in today’s fiercely competitive marketplace. Through various visual elements such as logos, slogans, and icons, you establish your brand’s identity. Equally important in this process is product packaging with captivating graphic designs, as it serves as the first impression your brand makes on customers and the public.

 

In this aspect, paper tubes offer remarkable flexibility as they can be customized in terms of dimensions, styles, value-added finishes, and have relatively low order minimums for custom artwork printing. This means that cardboard tubes can be easily tailored to your specifications and aligned with your visual systems, creating branded and consistent packaging that enhances your marketing efforts and establishes brand recognition.

CBD Oil Cardboard Tube Packaging

After reviewing the advantages mentioned above, you may be inclined towards choosing cardboard tubes. However, there is one issue that may dampen your interest in paper cylinder boxes: the shipping costs. Due to the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, shipping costs have soared in the past year, reaching astronomical rates as one of our customers has pointed out.

 

In fact, for many projects, especially those involving large-sized tubes, shipping costs can exceed the cost of the tubes themselves. Unlike folding cartons, paper tubes cannot be flattened for shipping, resulting in significantly higher shipping expenses for most brands.

 

As the world grapples with the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, many brands are facing limited packaging budgets. The exorbitant shipping costs can easily derail projects and blow budgets out of proportion.

 

Therefore, it’s crucial to carefully consider the estimated shipping costs before proceeding. If your products are small in size and cater to a niche market, the impact may not be as severe.

In contrast to plastic, PET, or glass packaging options, cardboard canisters lack weatherproofing. This makes the tubes susceptible to damage or denting in extreme wet conditions. While we can add additional lining to the interior of the tubes to enhance moisture resistance, they are not waterproof. Therefore, paperboard tubes may not be suitable for directly packaging items that are specifically designed for liquids.

Custom Paper Tubes
CBD Oil Paper Tube Box

The minimum order requirement, typically set at 1,000 pieces or more, can pose challenges for start-ups. In order to initiate a custom project, a minimum order quantity of 1,000 pieces is usually imposed. This quantity may be too high for new brands with limited budgets. You may wonder why the order minimum is set at such a high level. This is because there are minimum charges associated with various production stages, such as labor work, printing costs, and transportation. These costs may remain consistent whether the order is for 200 or 1,000 pieces, resulting in significantly higher unit costs for smaller quantities, which may not be feasible for some brands.

Conclusion

The above presents the advantages and disadvantages of paper tubes. It’s important to consider both the positive and negative aspects before choosing cardboard tubes for retail packaging.

Our factory is a leading manufacturer and supplier of custom paper tube packaging in China. We specialize in creating tailored paper tube projects for various retail packaging needs.

Whether you require cardboard canisters for primary packaging, such as for lip balm, deodorants, tea bags, vaping cartridges, or consumer electronics, or for secondary packaging, such as for CBD tincture bottles, cosmetics containers, wine and spirits bottles, or olive oil bottles, we have suitable and practical packaging solutions for you.

For more examples of our work and case studies, please visit our homepage or solution page. You can also contact us at [email protected], and we will respond to you as soon as possible.

Candle Cardboard Tube Packaging

What Makes Cardboard Tube Packaging So Popular?

Paper tubes are a cost-effective and lightweight alternative for packaging that is environmentally friendly and provides strong protection for goods.

The surge in the paper and paperboard packaging industry is due to the continuous increase in online shopping, which is facilitated by speedy delivery, flexible return policies, and complimentary shipping.

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