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A package type defines the physical packaging that goods are packed into: a box, an envelope, a carton, a pallet or a container. Each one records its measurements, its empty weight and what it can carry, so the same packaging is described once and referenced wherever it is used. The packaging you need depends heavily on the nature of your business. A store sending single items to consumers may only ever need two or three sizes of box and a padded envelope. A wholesaler selling by the case needs the cartons those cases come in, and the pallets they are stacked on. A business doing both needs each, because an order for one unit and an order for two hundred do not leave the warehouse the same way. To manage packaging, navigate to Settings → Package types, under the Shipping & delivery group. The Package types list, showing each type's dimensions and volume Each row shows the Name, Kind, Dimensions and Volume, and the default carries a Default badge.

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How to Add a Package Type

Click Add package type. The Add package type panel
  • Name - What your team calls it, such as Small mailer or Euro pallet.
  • Kind - What sort of packaging it is. See the table below.
  • Length, Width, Height and Unit - The outside measurements of the packaging itself.
  • Empty weight and Unit - Weight of the packaging itself, added to whatever it holds.
  • Max weight - What it can carry.
  • Default box - Marks this as the store’s default packaging. One default at a time.
Click Create.

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Package Kinds

Carton is the only kind a product points at directly. The rest are records of packaging you hold, named so your team can refer to the same thing by the same name.

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Cartons

Cartons behave differently from other packaging types and are worth understanding separately. Every other kind describes the packaging a shipment travels in. A carton describes the case that holds multiple units of a single product, so it attaches to the product rather than to anything you send. That might be the case the product arrived in from your supplier, or it might be packaging you make up yourself when picking a bulk order. Either way, what makes it a carton is that it holds a known quantity of one product, which is what lets Spree work out the weight and volume of a bulk order from the number of units on it.

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Where the figures live

A carton is described in three places, and all three are needed before bulk orders behave properly. The split exists because the same case can hold very different products. The box is shared; what goes in it, what it weighs full and how many fit on a pallet are not.
Filling in one product section without the other leaves the figures incomplete. If Purchase unit is carton, Units per carton must be a positive value before the product can be saved.
The Packing section lets you select package types whose kind is Carton. The B2B ordering section sets the purchase unit and, for carton purchases, the units per carton. Until you have defined at least one carton type, the Packing section on every product is greyed out, with a prompt to come back here and add one.

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How many you need

One carton type per distinct case size, not one per product. A case of 24 lipsticks and a case of 12 hair dryers are different sizes, so they are two carton types, each pointed at by however many products share it. Suppliers tend to standardise, so most stores need far fewer carton types than they have products.
Cartons are one part of selling wholesale, alongside minimum order quantities and order multiples. See Sell to Businesses for how they fit together.
Empty weight is the packaging on its own, before anything goes in it. It is worth entering, because what a packed case weighs is the goods plus the box, and leaving it out understates the total by the weight of the packaging.

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Setting the Default

+Only one package type can be the default for a given marketplace or seller at a time. Turning it on for one takes it off any other default in that same scope. A marketplace default and a seller default can coexist, and the seller default takes precedence for that seller. Make it the packaging you use most, since it is what stands in when nothing more specific applies.

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How to Edit a Package Type

Open the row menu and choose Edit. Editing a carton corrects every product packed into it at once, so fixing a measurement in one place fixes it everywhere that carton is used.

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How to Delete a Package Type

Open the row menu and choose Delete.
Check which products use a carton before removing it. An in-use carton cannot be deleted until its product references are removed.

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Further Reading