Custom Cardboard Shelf Bins

Sizing Cardboard Shelf Bins to Your Racking

Measure the depth of your shelves and the clear height between them. Bins should be a little shorter than the shelf depth so they do not overhang the edge, and low enough that they can be pulled forward without catching the shelf above. Then decide how many bins you want across each shelf and divide the usable width by that number.

Choosing a few standard widths, such as narrow, medium and wide, while keeping the same depth and height, lets you mix bin sizes on a shelf and still have a neat, even front edge. That makes a pick face easy to read and keeps labels in a straight line.

Common shelf depths are around 300, 400 and 600 mm. Send us the measurements and the number of bins per shelf and we will suggest a set of sizes that fill the space efficiently.

Allow for how heavy a full bin will be. A wide, deep bin full of metal fittings can be too heavy to pull forward safely from a high shelf, so put the heaviest bins low and keep high shelves for lighter lines. The measuring guide for custom packaging explains how to take internal and external sizes.

Board Grades and Printing

Single-wall corrugated board suits light stock such as cosmetics, stationery and packaged electronics. Double-wall board handles heavier parts, such as fixings, fittings and metal components, and bins that are pulled in and out many times a day.

Printing is optional but useful. A printed coloured front lip makes zones easy to see: blue for one product group, green for another. A printed label panel gives staff a neat area for the SKU, description and barcode. Brands that use bins in a retail stock room or a visible back-of-house area sometimes print their logo on the sides.

White board looks cleaner in customer-facing areas, while brown kraft is the economical choice for warehouses.

Setting Up a Better Pick Face

Place fast-moving products in bins at waist and chest height, where pickers can reach without bending or stretching. Use larger bins for high-volume lines so they need refilling less often, and smaller bins for slow movers. Group related products together so a typical order can be picked from one aisle.

Label every bin with a location code as well as the product. If stock moves, the code tells staff where to look, and it makes stock counts quicker. A printed label panel with space for a barcode sticker means bins can be scanned as part of a stock system.

Look again at the layout every few months. Sales patterns shift, and a bin that was a fast mover at launch may now belong on a top shelf, freeing prime space for whatever is selling now. Because cardboard bins are cheap, swapping sizes as the business changes is painless. Small electrical lines in printed charger boxes are typical of the stock that fills the mid-height bins.

Beyond the Warehouse

Shelf bins are equally useful in workshops, garages, school resource rooms, libraries, hospital stores and retail stock rooms. Small online sellers working from a spare room or a unit often find a wall of labelled bins the single best change they can make to packing speed.

Retailers sometimes use printed bins on the shop floor for loose items like socks, small accessories or sweets, where an open-front bin invites customers to browse and pick.

Craft and hobby shops use them in the same way for beads, threads and small kits, where a neat run of labelled bins makes a crowded range easy to browse.

Teachers and nursery staff like them for resources too, as children can see what is in each bin and put things back where they belong. Shops selling loose accessories often pair the bins with printed phone case boxes hung on the same wall.

Ordering Shelf Bins

Send us your shelf measurements, the bin sizes and quantities, board grade and any print. We email a custom quote within one working day, from £0.25 per bin depending on size, board and print. A free proof shows the bin dieline and any printed lip or label panel.

Bins are made in 4 to 7 working days after approval and delivered flat, free and tracked to the UK mainland in 2 to 3 working days. If anything arrives misprinted or damaged, report it within 10 days for a reprint or refund. Prices for plain and printed bins follow the same pricing rules as our boxes.