Honey is heavy, glass is brittle, and courier networks are rough on parcels — sortation chutes, conveyor drops, and stacked vans routinely subject boxes to shocks equivalent to a fall of 60–120cm onto a hard floor. Choosing the right cushioning is one of the highest-leverage decisions a small honey brand makes before it ever takes an order: get it wrong and refunds, reshipping and one-star reviews eat the margin on every batch.
Many couriers' liability terms exclude "inherent product fragility" — meaning a poorly cushioned glass jar breakage may not be reimbursed at all, making prevention far cheaper than any claim.
Pack a shipping box of honey jars with different cushioning, set a drop height representative of a courier network, and run a drop test to see how many jars survive the trip.
Breakage risk combines impact energy (drop height, damped by cushioning) with jar-to-jar contact risk, which rises with jar count unless dividers physically separate every cell.
Choose jars per box and a cushioning material, set the drop height, then run the drop test. Watch the box fall and jars turn red where they crack, with a live cost estimate per box.
Parcel sortation centres routinely generate shocks equivalent to a 60–120cm drop onto concrete — cushioning choice matters more than box strength for glass jars.