Packaging is everything that wraps, protects, and presents your product for sale or shipping — boxes, jars, labels, tissue, mailers, ribbon. It is a category of inventory in its own right because, unlike cleaning supplies, packaging often does become part of what the customer receives and is a direct cost of each unit sold.
Sellers routinely underprice because they forget packaging. A $4 candle in a $1.20 vessel with a $0.40 label and a $0.90 box has nearly $2.50 of packaging before the wax is even counted. Tracking packaging as inventory and folding it into your product cost is how that spend shows up in your COGS and your pricing instead of quietly eating your margin.
Because packaging is consumed as you fulfill orders, tracking its quantity also doubles as a reorder signal — running out of mailers can stop shipping just as surely as running out of product.
Related terms
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)
The total cost of materials, labor, and overhead directly tied to producing the goods you sell. Tracked automatically through purchases, recipes, and production runs.
Pricing Tier
A named pricing configuration (like retail, wholesale, or market) that applies a markup or adjustment formula to calculate prices. Useful for selling at different price points.
MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Operations)
Supplies that support your production process but don't become part of the finished product. Examples: cleaning supplies, equipment lubricant, disposable gloves, packaging tape.
Finished Goods
Products you have manufactured or assembled from raw ingredients and components. These are the completed items ready for sale to customers.