01Primary, secondary and tertiary packaging
The three terms come from logistics and regulation; the EU’s 1994 packaging directive defined them. In Directive 94/62/EC, primary (sales) packaging was a sales unit to the consumer at the point of purchase; secondary (grouped) packaging grouped a number of sales units, sold as a group or used to restock shelves; tertiary (transport) packaging made handling and transport of those units easier and prevented damage. Road, rail, ship and air containers were not transport packaging under that definition. Its replacement, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40, generally applies from August 12, 2026 and keeps the same three levels as sales, grouped and transport packaging.
| Layer | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Holds and sells the product | Bottle, jar, stand-up pouch, folding carton, rigid box, poly bag |
| Secondary | Groups units, sells or restocks them | Multipack, shelf-ready case, PDQ display, inner carton |
| Tertiary | Moves units in bulk without damage | Corrugated shipping cartons, master cartons, pallets, stretch wrap |
For a direct-to-consumer brand the layers blur: a mailer box is both the brand moment and the shipping box.
02Types of boxes
| Box | Made from | Ships | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corrugated box (RSC) | Fluted corrugated board | Flat | Shipping cartons, master cartons, heavy or fragile goods |
| Mailer box | Die-cut corrugated board | Flat | Ecommerce orders, subscription boxes, PR kits |
| Folding carton | Paperboard (one solid sheet, no flutes) | Flat | Retail boxes for cosmetics, supplements, food, small goods |
| Rigid box | Thick greyboard wrapped in paper | Assembled (unless collapsible) | Jewelry, gifts, high-ticket items |
| Paper tube | Spiral or convolute wound paperboard | Assembled | Candles, tea, apparel, posters |
Within each type there are styles: tuck ends, auto lock bottoms and gable tops for cartons, roll-end tuck fronts for mailers, lid and base or magnetic book styles for rigid boxes. The glossary’s box styles entry names them.
03How to choose
- Shipping straight to a customer’s door: a corrugated mailer or a shipper around the retail box. Folding cartons and rigid boxes usually travel inside a corrugated shipper.
- Sitting on a retail shelf: a folding carton or a pouch, in a shelf-ready case or display for the store.
- A gift or high-ticket item the customer keeps: a rigid box, inside a corrugated shipper.
- Freight is a large part of your cost: anything that ships flat (cartons, mailers, collapsible rigid boxes) before anything that ships assembled.
Get the material right too: the liners on brown corrugated are kraftliner or recycled testliner, and our kraft paper entry explains the difference. When the structure is settled, our list of packaging manufacturers shows printers and box factories from The Vault, the factory database in Product Sourcing Secrets, which has their contacts.