“We had to get through peak moving season without adding floorspace,” said Anil Rao, COO at UrbanShift Asia. “We sell curated moving kits online across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Demand spikes by 40–60% around school terms and year‑end moves. We couldn’t afford misprints, popped tape, or messy changeovers.”
That’s when the team called papermart. The brief was straightforward on paper: keep color consistent on all branded materials, pick the right corrugated grades, and find tape that holds in humid conditions—while preserving unit economics.
Here’s where it gets interesting: the solution wasn’t a single product. It was a set of choices across substrate, print method, and line practice—plus some candid conversations about trade‑offs.
Company Overview and History
UrbanShift Asia launched in 2019 with a simple idea: moving should be a kit, not a hunt. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur with kitting hubs in Johor Bahru and Batam, they ship bundles to apartments and offices across the region. Typical monthly volume sits in the 25–40k kit range, with peak months flirting with 60k. Their operations look more like an e‑commerce fulfillment center than a traditional removals company.
The brand identity leans on a bold orange—easy to spot in a crowded lobby or loading dock. Getting that orange right across corrugated boxes, labels, and printed tape mattered for recognition. The team evaluated suppliers for best value moving boxes, but saw that the color conversation often got sidelined. "Our orange needs to be the same on tape, labels, and the box print—no excuses," Anil said.
From a production standpoint, the line uses standard RSC corrugated (32 ECT for general kits, 44 ECT for heavy-duty), on‑demand Digital labels for SKUs and apartment numbers, and branded tape for quick identification in mixed freight. Seasonal bundles and limited promos meant short runs and frequent changeovers.
Quality and Consistency Issues
Before the project, the team was wrestling with three recurring headaches. First, tape pop‑opens: acrylic adhesives that worked fine in air‑con failed after hours in 80% RH. Second, box crush variability: some 32 ECT lots performed more like 29–31 ECT under stack pressure. Third, color drift: the signature orange printed by different vendors wandered with ΔE swings in the 4–6 range. The net result was a reject rate hovering between 7–9% and a re‑tap rate making some shifts rework‑heavy.
“Our CS tickets even referenced YouTube hacks on how to get free boxes for moving,” said Mira, Head of CX. “That’s great for content marketing, but if a paid kit arrives with tape lifting or mismatched branding, customers question the kit’s value.” One courier partner reported 3–5% of parcels needing re‑taping on inbound.
There was a budget ceiling too. UrbanShift wanted to avoid moving everything to 44 ECT (shipping weight and cost add up fast) and still keep a premium look. They needed a lane where 32 ECT worked reliably for the bulk of orders, with a clear playbook for heavy SKUs.
Solution Design and Configuration
The turning point came when we aligned print processes to their job types. We specified Digital Printing (CMYK inkjet with water‑based ink) for variable data labels and short seasonal runs—ideal for same‑day artwork changes. For branded tape, we selected Flexographic Printing with water‑based ink on BOPP, matched to the brand’s “papermart orange” reference and held ΔE within 2–3 against target. Corrugated graphics stayed simple—single‑color marks to avoid registration drift on high‑volume RSC boxes.
On substrates, we kept 32 ECT for standard kits and reserved 44 ECT for heavy‑duty SKUs. Tape selection was a mini R&D sprint: hot‑melt vs acrylic, BOPP thicknesses, core sizes, and unwind specs. After humidity chamber tests, the team locked a hot‑melt adhesive grade that earned the internal nickname “the best packing tape for moving boxes” because it held under 70–85% RH and didn’t shred during fast application.
To de‑risk the switch, UrbanShift trialed a bundled buy with test lots, partially offset by papermart coupons they had from a prior sourcing event. That shaved 8–12% off the initial evaluation batch and let the ops team stress‑test without triggering budget alarms. We also added a simple spec sheet for operators: tape dwell time, rub‑downs per seam, and label placement zones to avoid flap crush.
Pilot Production and Validation
The pilot ran ten days at the Johor Bahru line. Three kit SKUs, two corrugated grades, and two tape formulas faced the same regimen: RH at 70–85%, stack tests four‑high for 48 hours, and random transit via the least forgiving courier lane. Pass rates for seal integrity landed at 98–99%, up from the low 90s. Color checks on incoming tape held ΔE ≤ 3, which eliminated the obvious panel‑to‑panel orange drift customers noticed in photos.
“Changeovers got less chaotic,” Aini, the line lead, told us. “We cut roll swaps and width changes, and the new label presets mean fewer test pulls.” On the clock, changeovers now take 12–15 minutes less per shift. That margin let the team cope with last‑hour spikes without overtime. There was a trade‑off though: heavier 44 ECT kits met the spec but nudged shipping costs, so the SKU matrix was updated to limit 44 ECT to truly heavy bundles.
Quantitative Results and Metrics
Fast forward six months, and the line tells a steadier story. FPY moved from about 86% to 94%. Throughput rose from roughly 190 to 225 kits/hour on standard shifts. Waste on corrugated dropped into the 4–5% band, down from 8–10%. Energy per pack trends 5–8% lower due to fewer reruns and test pulls. CS tickets about re‑taping fell by 60–70%, and the color complaints virtually disappeared once ΔE stayed tight around target. Payback on the packaging changes landed inside a 6–8 month window.
Based on insights from papermart projects with other e‑commerce brands, UrbanShift also kept its content play alive. Their guide on “how to get free boxes for moving” now sits alongside a clear comparison of kit options—so budget movers know when to reuse, and when the best value moving boxes beat scavenging. That transparency actually increased trust, which mirrors what we’ve seen elsewhere in Asia.
Is it perfect? No. Monsoon weeks still test the lanes, and the ops team watches adhesive performance like hawks. But the combination of Digital labels, flexo‑printed tape, and a disciplined substrate choice gave UrbanShift room to grow without new floorspace. For us, the lesson sticks: pick the right technology for the run length, write specs operators can love, and keep color honest. That’s the practical path we’ll keep recommending at papermart.
