Packaging for Custom Promotional Gifts: From Backing Cards to Export Cartons

We make custom metal promotional gifts: lapel pins, badges, challenge coins, medals, keychains and bottle openers, plus small pieces such as fridge magnets, bookmarks, coasters and luggage tags. We have been at it since 2010. The packaging for all of these lines, from a single backing card to a full export carton, is on this page.
Packaging is not the step before shipping. It decides what a buyer sees when the box opens. Either a pile of loose parts in bags, or a finished product that goes straight onto a shelf. Same goods, different packaging, different business.
We quote three levels: bulk (poly bag and export carton), retail-ready (backing card, header card, velvet pouch, coin capsule, gift box) and presentation (gift box with a cut insert and ribbon). Which level you need depends on where the goods end up: a retail shelf, an awards stage, or a warehouse waiting to be sorted.

See Packaging Formats

1. Packaging at a Glance

Buyers usually confirm these six points before discussing formats, because they decide whether the goods arrive in time and whether they clear the door.

Item	Value
Minimum order	100 pcs per design
Sampling	7 to 10 days
Mass production	15 to 18 days
Export markets	50+ countries
Pre-shipment confirmation	Photos or video on request
Shipping form	Bulk packing and retail-ready packing leave the same line

2. Packaging Formats: From Poly Bag to Gift Box

Nine formats cover everything from bulk shipping to presentation delivery. The difference is not price. It is who will look at the goods, and what the journey will do to them. Answer those two questions and the format selects itself.

Formats-Overview — Packaging formats for custom promotional gifts: OPP bag, backing card, velvet pouch, acrylic capsule, blister and gift box

Table 1. Packaging formats

Format	Products it suits	Main protection	Level
Individual poly bag	All lines, bulk	Dust, part-on-part abrasion	Bulk
Bubble bag	Medals, hinged and multi-layer structures	Impact, structural stress	Bulk
Export carton	All lines	Crushing, stacking	Bulk
Backing card, with clear bag and optional printed insert	Pins, badges, fridge magnets, bookmarks	Display plus fixing the fitting	Retail-ready
Peggable header card with euro hole	Pins, keychains, fridge magnets, luggage tags	Rack display, handling in store	Retail-ready
Blister, clear shell on a printed card	Bottle openers, shaped pieces, hardware	Dust, tamper resistance, rack hanging	Retail-ready
Velvet pouch	Coins, pins, small pieces	Surface scuffing	Retail-ready and presentation
Acrylic capsule	Challenge coins, commemorative pieces	Fingerprints, knocks, stackable display	Retail-ready and presentation
Gift box, four structures	Medal sets, multi-piece sets	Compression, movement inside the box	Presentation

Read the table from the inside out. The first three rows are the protection layer for bulk orders. The middle three are the display layer for retail. The last three are the delivery layer. Nine formats, three levels. That is where the Title figure comes from.Why nine and not ten: a clear bag with a printed insert is one half of the same retail unit as a backing card, which is how we quote it, so the two are counted together in row four. The four gift box structures are expanded below.

Table 1b. The four gift box structures

Structure	Construction	Used for
Lid-and-base box	Separate lid and base, two-piece rigid	Single large medal, commemorative plate, heavy pieces
Flip-top box, magnetic option	Hinged lid, magnetic closure available	Pin sets, single coins, jewellery. The lid takes a foil or screen printed logo.
Set box	Multi-piece with a cut insert, for example a games pin set	Multi-pin sets, event commemorative sets
Floating box	Clear window with two stretched films holding the piece	Higher value single pieces that have to be seen without opening

Lid-and-Base-Box
Flip-top-Box
Set-Box
Floating-Box

A note from comparing the four in production: the structure is not chosen by price. It is chosen by whether the moment of opening needs weight, and by whether the piece can move inside. A floating box costs the most, but what it solves is being visible without unpacking. A lid-and-base box is the most stable, but what it solves is compression. Neither substitutes for the other.

3. Backing Cards: Where the Pin Meets the Shelf

A backing card is the only format where the product and the packaging are seen at the same time. The buyer looks at the card first, not the product. So the card is not a consumable. It carries brand information and the barcode position.

Size follows the product. Cards are sized to the product’s bounding rectangle, with enough margin for the hang hole, branding and barcode. Irregular shapes are measured the same way to keep the layout balanced.
Hang holes and printed faces. Hole position depends on how the card will hang and must avoid contact with plated or raised areas. The front usually carries the brand and product name, while the back holds product details and the barcode.
Assembly. Pins are secured through the card with the appropriate clutch, and the hole size must match the fitting. Magnetic products need a die-cut window or locating point to prevent movement and surface scratching during transit.

4. Pouches, Capsules and Gift Boxes

Presentation packaging answers a different question: how much weight does the handover carry. Police and association buyers, museum gift buyers and awards organisers almost never accept a bubble bag, not because of cost but because the occasion does not allow it.One product category, three delivery standards. Take challenge coins. The orders we actually receive split three ways.

Police, military and association orders go into an acrylic capsule or a velvet box. The coin is given, collected and kept on a desk. The box is part of the keepsake.
Museum and gift retail orders go onto a backing card with an OPP bag, or into a gift box. The card carries the interpretive text and the box carries the price point.
Bulk orders go into bubble bags. The goods still have to be sorted and re-packed at the destination warehouse, so any presentation packaging at this stage is pure cost.

Format	Material	Typical use	Protection focus	Relative cost
Velvet pouch	Velvet or flocked cloth	Coins, pins, small pieces	Surface scuffing	Low
Acrylic capsule	Acrylic	Challenge coins, commemorative pieces	Fingerprints, knocks, stackable display	Medium
Gift box with insert	Velvet or paper box plus EVA insert	Medal sets, multi-piece sets	Compression, movement inside the box, foil logo on the lid	High
Printed color box	Printed folding carton	Keychains, multi-piece sets	Light compression	Medium to low

Band	Sizes
Small	5 by 7, 7 by 9, 8 by 10, 9 by 12
Medium	10 by 15, 12 by 15, 13 by 18
Large	10 by 20, 15 by 20, 17 by 23
Extra large	20 by 30, 30 by 40

Anything outside these twelve is made to order. That matters more than it sounds. If one of the twelve fits, there is no new size to set up, so both lead time and cost stay down. If none fits, the pouch is cut to the bounding size of the product.

Group	Colors
Dark	black, royal blue, dark green, brown, purple
Red family	bright red, wine red, rose red, pink
Neutral	white, grey

What we see in the order book, not a rule: police and association orders lean to black and royal blue. Events and ceremonies lean to bright red and wine red. Museum and gift retail lean to dark green, grey and white. School and children’s programmes lean to pink and rose red.

Item	Value	What it decides
Outer size	52 by 58 by 24 mm	How much space the box takes, and how many fit in a carton
Inner size	49 by 49 mm	Whether the product goes in at all
Unit weight	about 29 g	Carton gross weight and freight

A box has two sets of dimensions, and buyers usually read the wrong one. Take our stock velvet box as the example.

5. Matching a Format to Each Product Line

One buyer often orders three or four categories at once, and each category still needs its own format. Mixed packing lets different shapes knock against each other, and it makes a per-piece format such as a backing card impossible to standardise. The table below is our standard pairing by product line, with the reason behind each one.

Product line	Typical buyer and occasion	Bulk	Retail-ready	Gift or delivery	Why
Lapel pins	Associations, schools, corporate events	Poly bag	Backing card or header card	Velvet pouch, small gift box	Thin piece, and the pin point pierces a light bag. The card solves display and fixing at once.
Badges	Police, security, uniform programmes	Poly bag	Backing card or header card	Velvet pouch	Same logic as pins, but often issued in sets, so bag by design
Challenge coins	Police, military, commemorative events	Poly bag	Acrylic capsule	Velvet box	3 to 5 mm thick with real weight, so knocks show most clearly
Medals	Event organisers, awards ceremonies	Bubble bag, and hinged or rotating structures must be packed individually	Not applicable	Gift box with ribbon	Ribbon and hanger are the first things to crush, and multi-layer structures fail under side load
Keychains	Attractions, retail, promotions	Poly bag	Display card or header card	Printed color box	Bulky with hardware, so a bag keeps the cost down, but retail needs a peg
Bottle openers	Bars, catering, promotions	Poly bag	Not applicable	Printed color box	The load face must not take pressure, so a box beats stacking
Small pieces (fridge magnets, bookmarks, coasters, luggage tags)	Museum gift retail, attractions, retail	Poly bag, or card plus OPP	Backing card	Gift box	A 0.5 mm piece needs a stiff backing to stay flat. A luggage tag has to clear its strap and hole.

6. Packaging FAQ

What is the minimum order for custom packaging?

No. Pins, badges, fridge magnets, bookmarks, coasters and luggage tags all go on cards, because any thin piece needs a stiff plane to stand up on a shelf. What changes is the window and the hole position. A luggage tag has to clear its strap, a bookmark takes a single hole at the top, and a coaster is large enough that the card is sized on the bounding rectangle with a wider margin.

Yes. Backing cards, header cards, velvet pouches, acrylic capsules and gift boxes are all available. Tell us where the goods finally land, whether that is a shelf, an e-commerce warehouse, an awards stage or a customer warehouse. Without that answer the proposal will be wrong.

Police and association orders take an acrylic capsule or a velvet box. Museum and gift retail takes a card with an OPP bag, or a gift box. Bulk orders take bubble bags. We have run all three. The delivery occasion decides.

Yes. The standard ribbon is polyester, 30 inch by 2.5 cm, and the pin-on ribbon is 38 by 42 mm. For boxed sets the gift box needs a cut insert and the ribbon is coiled separately, so it does not take a crease.

Yes, but the inner packing has to be separate. Carded pieces, capsule pieces and thin pieces will knock against each other. The freight saved by mixing is not enough to cover the rework.

Not for standard formats. Mass production stays at 15 to 18 days. Custom box structures, spot color printing and new cutting dies need extra time, and we flag that separately in the quote.

We can reserve the zone. You supply the number range and the barcode specification, and we keep a white area clear during printing. Printing it for you requires you to confirm the barcode file format.

Unit bag per piece. Anything going to display gets a velvet pouch or a velvet tray as a separator. Thin pieces get a stiff card backing. Hinged structures are bubble-bagged individually without exception. Those four are rules, not options.

Yes. Send the design and we build to it. If you only have a direction, our design team can work up a card and box proposal and return a first draft within 24 hours.

The 60 by 5 mm box, directly. We also hold a 65 by 9.2 mm size for coins 65 mm across and 9.2 mm thick. Coin boxes are sized on diameter and thickness together, so there is no sampling round needed to find out.

Twelve standard sizes from 5 by 7 cm up to 30 by 40 cm, and eleven stock colors: black, white, grey, bright red, pink, rose red, wine red, purple, royal blue, dark green and brown. Anything outside the twelve sizes is made to order. Where a stock size fits, lead time and cost are both better.

Take our stock velvet box: 52 by 58 by 24 mm outside, 49 by 49 mm inside, about 29 g. The inner size is the one that decides whether the product fits. A 58 mm outer dimension does not take a 58 mm coin, because 1 to 2 mm of clearance is needed. Tell us the diameter and thickness of the piece and the box is worked back from that. There is no need to calculate it from the outside.

Photograph or film it and send it to us within 24 hours. We assess the same day whether it is a packaging design issue or a transit issue, and come back with a remake or a replacement plan. If the fault is ours, the remake is free. If it is the carrier, we help you file the claim.

7. Start Your Order

Five details let us quote the packaging correctly the first time, without a round of questions.

Product category and quantity (pins, badges, challenge coins, medals, keychains, bottle openers, small pieces)
Where the goods finally land (retail shelf, e-commerce warehouse, awards ceremony, customer warehouse)
Whether retail-ready packaging is needed (backing card, header card, velvet pouch, capsule, gift box)
Any existing barcode or label requirement (number range, size, application method)
Destination country, which sets the carton mark, pallet and moisture protection