Packaging does three different jobs and they conflict: protecting the product in transit, presenting it at the point of sale, and costing as little as possible. Specifying only the third is how the first fails.
What to specify
- The transit test, not the material. « Survives a one-metre drop on each face and a stacking load of X » is enforceable; « strong carton » is not.
- Carton dimensions against the pallet. A box that wastes four centimetres per layer wastes freight on every shipment, forever.
- Labelling, including what the destination market requires. Missing labels are a common reason for goods to sit at a port.
- What happens to the packaging afterwards. European regulation on packaging waste increasingly makes this your problem, not the buyer's.
Where the money actually is
Not in the price of the carton. It is in how many units fit in a container, and in how many arrive saleable. A packaging change that adds a small amount per unit and removes a damage rate of a few percent pays for itself immediately — and nobody ever measures it, because damaged goods are recorded as a quality problem rather than a packaging one.