Berlin Packaging FAQ: What You Need to Know Before Your First Order

I've been handling packaging orders for CPG brands for about seven years now. I've personally made (and documented) a dozen significant mistakes, totaling roughly $4,200 in wasted budget and a lot of stress. Now I maintain our team's pre-order checklist to prevent others from repeating my errors.

Here are the questions I wish I'd asked—and the answers I learned the hard way.

1. Is the quoted price the final price, or are there hidden fees?

This is the big one. I've learned to ask "what's NOT included" before I even ask "what's the price." The vendor who lists all fees upfront—even if the total looks higher—usually costs less in the end.

With packaging, watch out for:

• Setup/Plate Fees: For custom printing, especially offset. Setup fees in commercial printing can be $15-50 per color. Some suppliers bake it in, others add it on. (Reference: Industry standard printing setup fee structures, 2025).
• Proofing Costs: Digital proofs are often free, but physical "hard proofs" or "press proofs" can cost $50-150 each.
• Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs): Not exactly a fee, but a cost driver. The per-unit price might be great, but if the MOQ is 10,000 and you only need 2,000, your total cost is still locked in.

My mistake? I once approved a "great" unit price for a run of jars, only to get an invoice with a $275 plate fee I hadn't budgeted for. That order's "savings" vanished instantly.

2. How accurate are the color samples or digital mockups?

This is where I got burned early on. A screen color is never the same as a printed color. I submitted artwork based on a vibrant digital mockup. The result came back muted and dull. 5,000 labels, $1,100, straight to the trash.

The lesson: Always get a physical color drawdown or production sample on the actual material. Industry standard color tolerance for brand-critical colors is Delta E < 2. Delta E of 2-4 is noticeable to trained observers; above 4 is visible to most people. (Reference: Pantone Color Matching System guidelines).

Also, specify the color system. "Use Pantone 286 C" is precise. Saying "navy blue" leaves way too much room for interpretation.

3. What's the real timeline from approval to delivery?

Vendors quote "production time." You need to know total lead time. This includes:

• Proof approval cycle (1-3 days, depending on your team's speed)
• Production (the quoted time)
• Shipping & freight transit (often the wild card)

I once had a "10 business day" production timeline turn into a 22-calendar-day delivery because I didn't account for cross-country freight time and a weekend. We had to air-freight half the order. That error cost $890 in expedited shipping plus a major client-side headache.

Ask: "Is this timeline from order placement, or from final art approval? Does it include shipping to our dock?"

4. What happens if there's a mistake in the print or manufacturing?

This depends entirely on where the mistake originated, and you need to know the policy before you order. The industry standard is:

• Supplier Error: They reprint/replace at their cost.
• Customer Error (you approved a proof with the mistake): You pay for the correction. This is the most common and painful scenario.

We didn't have a formal proof-approval process. It cost us when an intern approved a proof with a tiny typo. By the time we saw the finished boxes, it was too late. The wrong [INFO] on [QUANTITY] items = $450 wasted + embarrassment. The third time a proofing issue happened, I finally created a mandatory two-person sign-off checklist.

Your best defense: A meticulous proofing process. Check every character, every color callout, every barcode.

5. Can I order a small sample run first?

Almost always, yes, and you absolutely should. Don't skip the sample because you're in a rush or think "it's basically the same as last time." It might not be.

A production sample (not a sales sample) lets you check:

• Real-world color and print quality
• Material thickness and feel
• Closure/functionality (does the pump work? does the cap fit?)
• Label adhesion

Sample costs vary. Sometimes it's free, sometimes it's a few hundred dollars. Consider it cheap insurance. I skipped it once on a "simple" bottle reorder. The new batch had a slightly different neck finish that our filling equipment hated. Production delay, missed deadlines—a $3,200 "savings" on the unit price wasn't worth it.

6. What about sustainability certifications or material specs?

If this matters to your brand (and it does to more and more consumers), you need to ask for documentation, not just take a sales rep's word for it. Terms like "recyclable," "post-consumer recycled (PCR) content," or "compostable" have specific definitions.

Ask: "Can you provide a certificate of analysis or a spec sheet showing the PCR percentage?" or "What certification (e.g., FSC, BPI) does this material have?"

I learned this after marketing proudly launched a "recyclable" tube, only to find out from a sharp-eyed customer that our specific combination of plastic and metal wasn't accepted by our region's recycling facilities. Credibility damage, lesson learned: get the paperwork first.

7. What's the one question most people don't ask but should?

"What's your capacity and backup plan if something goes wrong on your end?"

We were 100% reliant on a single supplier for a key component. Their machine went down for a week. Our production line stopped. We had no alternate source lined up because we'd never asked about their contingency planning.

Now I ask: "If there's an equipment failure or a raw material delay, what's your mitigation strategy? Do you have secondary manufacturing partners?" You're not just buying a product; you're buying into a supply chain. Understanding its resilience is part of your due diligence.

Even after choosing a new, well-vetted vendor, I kept second-guessing. What if their quality wasn't as consistent as the samples? I didn't relax until the third consecutive order arrived perfect. That's when I knew we'd built a real partnership, not just found a vendor.