What Is Blister Packaging? A Practical Custom Packaging Guide

What is blister packaging? I got asked that exact question on a factory floor in Shenzhen while standing next to three completely different products: a blister pack of batteries, a tiny cosmetic kit, and a tray of medical accessories. Same line. Same afternoon. Different products. That’s the part most people miss when they ask what is blister packaging. It isn’t one narrow thing. It’s a packaging format that shows up anywhere a brand needs product visibility, tamper evidence, and a decent shelf footprint without paying for a complex folding carton or a rigid box structure. In factories around Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Suzhou, I’ve seen it used for everything from $1.99 screwdriver sets to $24.00 skincare kits.

I remember looking at that line and thinking, “Well, that answers one question and creates six more.” That’s packaging for you. It looks simple until you have to spec it, price it, or convince someone in procurement that 2 mm matters. In my experience, what is blister packaging becomes a lot easier to understand once you stop picturing a textbook diagram and start looking at real retail packaging. It’s a formed plastic cavity, usually sealed to a backing card, paperboard, or foil. Simple? Yes. Boring? Not even close. Done well, it protects the product, helps package branding, and keeps shrinkage down. Done badly, it cracks, pops open, or costs more than the product inside. I’ve seen all three, usually right before a buyer gets cranky and asks why the “cheap little pack” suddenly turned into a $0.42 unit cost at 5,000 pieces.

What Is Blister Packaging? The Definition, Uses, and Why It’s Everywhere

So, what is blister packaging in plain English? It’s a pre-formed plastic cavity that holds a product and gets sealed to a backing material. That backing can be a printed paperboard card, a foil lidding layer, or another film depending on the product and the shelf-life requirement. The cavity is the “blister.” The flat base is the “backing.” Together, they create a package that can be hung, stacked, displayed, and opened with varying levels of effort, which retailers either love or curse depending on how easily it peels. A typical face-seal format might use a 0.35 mm PET blister and a 350gsm C1S artboard, which is enough structure for a pharmacy shelf in Chicago or a hardware peg in Manchester.

On one plant visit in Dongguan, I watched one production room handle small hardware screws, another line loading lip gloss kits, and a third packing over-the-counter medical items. That’s what is blister packaging in real life: a versatile format used across pharmaceuticals, batteries, toys, electronics, beauty products, and small tools. If the product is small, needs visibility, or has to survive a rough ride through retail distribution, blister packaging often enters the conversation fast. In Europe, I’ve seen it specified for blister cards sold in Germany and the Netherlands; in the U.S., it is common in pharmacy chains where the pack must survive 500 miles of distribution and a few impatient hands in the aisle.

Here’s the part that clears up a lot of confusion. People often lump blister packs, clamshells, and trapped blisters together like they’re interchangeable. They’re not.

• Face-seal blister: the product sits in a formed cavity, and the blister is sealed directly to a printed card. This is the classic retail version you see hanging on peg hooks in stores from Dallas to Düsseldorf.
• Trapped blister: the blister is sandwiched between a front and back card or board layer. Cleaner-looking, often better for premium presentation, and often paired with 350gsm to 400gsm board stock.
• Clamshell: usually two plastic halves joined by a hinge or sealed around the edges. More plastic, often more expensive, and frequently more annoying to open than a bank vault.

What is blister packaging doing for brands? Three things, usually. First, it lets shoppers see the product before they buy. Second, it gives them tamper evidence. Third, it creates a compact retail packaging format that fits shelf or peg display with minimal wasted space. For a brand selling batteries at $3.99 or a beauty item at $12.00, that matters. A lot. A good blister card can also reduce transit damage: one electronics importer I spoke with in Rotterdam saw damaged returns fall from 3.8% to 2.1% after switching from loose cartons to carded blisters.

“We switched from a loose carton to a face-seal blister and cut shelf returns by about 18% in one quarter,” one buyer told me after we reworked their package branding. “Nobody expected the packaging to matter that much.”

Honestly, I think what is blister packaging gets underrated because it looks basic. Yet good packaging design is often about eliminating friction. If your customer can see the product, trust the seal, and understand the use case in two seconds, you’ve already won more than half the battle. In a store where shoppers spend roughly 6 to 8 seconds per decision on a peg wall, that kind of clarity matters more than most people admit.

For brands building out custom printed boxes, blister packaging is not always the answer. For small-format product packaging, though, it’s one of the most efficient ways to combine protection, display, and tamper resistance without going overboard on structure. I’ve also seen it work beautifully for branded packaging programs where the card art does most of the selling while the blister keeps the product locked in place. A typical run in Guangzhou might use offset-printed card stock with matte lamination and spot UV, then pair it with a clear PET cavity formed to within ±0.5 mm of the product profile.

If you’re comparing options, I’d also take a look at Custom Packaging Products to see how blister packs fit alongside cartons, inserts, and other formats. Sometimes the right answer is blister. Sometimes it isn’t. Packaging is rude like that. It doesn’t care what your Pinterest board says. It only cares whether the product fits, the seal holds, and the unit economics work at 5,000 pieces or 50,000 pieces.

How Does Blister Packaging Work From Product to Shelf?

What is blister packaging mechanically? A product goes into a formed cavity, then that cavity gets sealed to a backing layer using heat, pressure, adhesive, or a combination depending on the substrate. That’s the short version. The longer version includes tool design, film selection, line setup, and enough quality checks to make sure the seal doesn’t fail the first time someone drops the carton off a conveyor belt in a warehouse in Ohio or a fulfillment center in Shenzhen.

The process usually starts with the cavity. That cavity is made from a plastic sheet formed into a product-specific shape. Thermoforming is the most common method. A sheet of PVC, PET, or RPET gets heated, then vacuum-formed or pressure-formed over a mold. A common retail spec is 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm PET, with a mold designed for a 12 to 15 second cycle on a mid-speed line. Cold forming is different. It uses aluminum-based structures without heat, which gives better barrier performance but usually costs more and has less clarity. In plain terms: thermoformed blisters are common for retail display; cold-formed blisters are more common for pharma and moisture-sensitive products sold in markets like Switzerland, Japan, and the Gulf region.

Thermoforming versus cold forming

Thermoforming is usually cheaper upfront and faster for high-volume retail packaging. You’ll see it on cosmetics, toys, electronics, and hardware. It gives you clear product visibility, which is the whole point when a shopper is standing three feet from the shelf and making a decision in six seconds. A standard PET thermoform for a 3-inch accessory can often be produced in batches of 10,000 units with a lead time of about 12 to 15 business days from proof approval, assuming the tooling is already approved.

Cold forming, on the other hand, is the better choice when barrier performance matters more than crystal-clear visibility. I’ve seen buyers choose it for tablets and sensitive medical items because it blocks light and moisture better. The tradeoff? It’s bulkier, less transparent, and usually more expensive per unit. There’s no free lunch in packaging. Shocking, I know. If you’re packaging a moisture-sensitive blister card for distribution through Southeast Asia, the extra barrier can be worth a 10% to 20% bump in cost because the product risk is higher than the packaging risk.

Sealing and tamper evidence

Once the product is in the cavity, the backing gets sealed on. Heat sealing is common with carded blister packaging. Adhesive bonding shows up in specific applications where heat could damage the product or finish. The seal creates tamper evidence because if someone opens the pack, they usually leave visible damage on the card, film, or edge. That’s one reason what is blister packaging comes up so often in pharmaceuticals and other regulated categories. A pharmacy pack in the U.K. or U.S. may use a seal area of 3 mm to 5 mm per edge, which helps the pack pass basic peel and lift tests.

Retailers like tamper evidence. So do logistics teams. And, frankly, so do brands tired of customer complaints about missing parts. A sealed blister makes pilferage harder and gives buyers a visual cue that the product hasn’t been fiddled with in transit. In a trial run I reviewed for a consumer goods brand in Austin, resealed returns dropped from 41 units per 1,000 to 16 units per 1,000 after the team moved from an open tray to a carded blister format.

Here’s a simple workflow I’ve used with suppliers in Guangdong and with domestic converters:

1. Measure the product and define the retail display goal.
2. Choose the blister style and backing material.
3. Create the cavity design and artwork.
4. Build a prototype and check fit.
5. Run seal testing and drop testing.
6. Approve the pre-production sample.
7. Start mass production and QC inspection.

That sounds neat on paper. In real life, step 4 and step 5 are where people discover their product is 2 mm taller than the CAD file or the seal area is too narrow for the factory’s machine settings. I once watched a buyer insist their package was “basically ready,” then lose a full week because the hanging hole interfered with the warning text. Two millimeters. That’s all it took. In one case in Suzhou, a 1.8 mm shift in cavity position forced a revised die line and pushed the launch back from Monday to the following Thursday.

For standards, I lean on real testing protocols, not gut feelings. If the package will ship through e-commerce or retail channels, look at ISTA transport testing guidance and, for material sourcing concerns, EPA resources on plastics and waste reduction: ISTA and EPA. If a supplier gets cagey about test results, that’s not a great sign. Ask for peel values, drop-test outcomes, and if the product is medical or child-safety related, request the exact protocol used, not just “passed” on a WhatsApp message.

Key Factors That Affect Blister Packaging Performance and Cost

What is blister packaging worth if it doesn’t match the product? Not much. Performance and cost are tied together, and the details matter more than most buyers expect. A packaging engineer can make a blister that looks perfect in a mockup and still fails in production because the material selection, cavity depth, or seal area was off by a fraction. That’s the sort of detail that turns a $0.14 pack into a $0.31 pack. Fast. On a 20,000-unit order, that difference is $3,400, and procurement notices that math immediately.

The biggest material choices are usually PVC, PET, RPET, PVC-free alternatives, paperboard, and foil. PVC is common because it forms well and is cost-effective. PET offers better clarity and is often preferred for retail presentation. RPET helps with recycled content claims, though not every supply chain can support it consistently. PVC-free materials can help with environmental positioning, but I always tell buyers to test seal performance first because “eco-friendly” is not a synonym for “problem-free.” In practical terms, 0.3 mm PET can be a strong default for consumer goods, while 0.45 mm PET may be better for heavier items with sharper corners.

For the backing, paperboard is common for branded packaging because it gives you print space, barcode placement, legal copy, and shelf appeal. Foil lidding shows up more in pharma and moisture-sensitive uses. If you want a premium retail packaging look, a 350gsm C1S artboard with spot UV or matte lamination can carry a lot of the visual load while keeping the blister itself clean and functional. In print houses in Shanghai and Qingdao, I’ve seen that board spec paired with soy-based inks and a matte varnish to hold color without adding too much glare under store lights.

What drives the price

When buyers ask what is blister packaging going to cost, I usually answer with, “Depends how picky you are.” Not because I’m being difficult. Because packaging economics are a stack of little decisions. Here’s a realistic comparison of what changes the final unit price.

Factor	Lower-cost option	Higher-cost option	Typical impact
Material	PVC or stock PET	RPET, PVC-free, foil	Higher raw material cost and stricter forming control
Tooling	Stock cavity or simple mold	Custom cavity with tight tolerances	Setup fee can range from $150 to $1,200 depending on complexity
Print	1-color card or no print	Full-color card, special coatings, foil stamping	Can add $0.03 to $0.18 per unit
Sealing method	Standard heat seal	Adhesive bond, specialty lidding, child-resistant structure	Can add equipment time and slower throughput
Quantity	2,000 to 5,000 units	25,000+ units	Unit cost usually drops as volume rises

For a basic retail run, I’ve seen face-seal blister packaging land around $0.18 to $0.42 per unit at 5,000 pieces, depending on cavity size, printing, and whether tooling is new. A simple stock-tool setup can be much cheaper. A fully custom mold with printed board and tighter tolerances can climb quickly. If a supplier gives you one flat price without asking about dimensions, sealing area, or shipping method, they’re either guessing or planning to surprise you later. Neither option is fun. In one quote from a converter in Shenzhen, the initial offer was $0.15 per unit for 5,000 pieces, but once the team added child-resistant features and a matte-laminated card, the final number moved to $0.29.

Another thing buyers overlook is the product itself. A lightweight cosmetic sponge is easy. A heavy power accessory with sharp edges is not. Fragile items need more cavity support. Moisture-sensitive items may need foil or a stronger barrier. Child-resistant or senior-friendly designs can add compliance complexity. This is where what is blister packaging becomes less of a definition question and more of a packaging design decision. A 150-gram accessory and a 20-gram battery blister may look similar from the aisle, but they ask for very different seal strengths and material gauges.

Sustainability also changes the math. RPET, FSC-certified paperboard, and recyclable designs can support stronger environmental claims, but only if the package structure and local recycling stream make sense. If the pack is technically recyclable but impossible to process in your market, the claim gets flimsy. FSC info is available through FSC, and that’s worth checking if your branded packaging strategy includes certified paperboard. A UK buyer I worked with asked for FSC board, 30% post-consumer content, and water-based varnish; the unit cost rose by $0.04, but the retailer accepted the line extension without a packaging waiver.

One more thing from the factory floor: ask for forming specs. Not just “PET blister.” Ask for thickness, clarity, forming temperature range, seal temp, and tolerance. I had one supplier quote a beautiful-looking pack at $0.16/unit, then quietly reveal the material gauge was too thin for the product weight. Cute, but useless. A proper spec sheet should include the gauge, the forming depth, the seal window, and the acceptable variance, usually within ±0.2 mm to ±0.5 mm depending on the cavity.

Step-by-Step: How to Design and Order Blister Packaging

If you’re still asking what is blister packaging from an ordering standpoint, here’s the short answer: it’s a product-fit problem wrapped in a branding problem. You need dimensions, retail goals, and a material strategy before you talk to suppliers. Otherwise you’ll get quote chaos. And nobody wants quote chaos. A supplier in Jiangsu can quote you one thing, a converter in Texas another, and if your spec is fuzzy, both quotes will be wrong for different reasons.

Start with the product and the channel

Measure the product in three dimensions: length, width, and height. Then add the extra bits—hooks, tabs, sharp edges, closures, and anything that sticks out. A package that works for shelf display might fail on peg hooks. A pack meant for e-commerce could need more crush resistance than one sold in a local retail aisle. Channel matters. A lot. A pack moving through a California fulfillment center may need more drop resistance than the same item sold in a counter display in Singapore.

I always ask buyers three questions before we even discuss tooling: Is this for retail packaging, direct shipping, or both? Does it need tamper evidence? And what matters more: visibility, barrier, or cost? Those answers usually decide whether the best solution is a face-seal blister, trapped blister, or clamshell. If the product is a $9.99 cosmetic kit, the answer is often different than it would be for a $49.00 medical device accessory.

Build the artwork around the structure

Your artwork should not fight the packaging. I’ve seen beautiful package branding ruined because the barcode sat under the cavity edge or the warning text got buried near the seal zone. That’s rookie stuff, but it happens all the time. Keep clear zones for seal areas, hanging holes, product windows, batch codes, and regulatory copy. If you’re using custom printed boxes elsewhere in your line, the same rule applies: structure first, art second. In a typical blister card layout, I reserve at least 6 mm around the sealing perimeter and 4 mm around the hang hole for safe copy placement.

Think about legibility at retail distance. A shopper usually stands 2 to 4 feet away. Your product name, price callout, and benefit statement need to read in that space. If your branding requires a microscope, the package is doing too much. A 14-point headline on a 350gsm C1S artboard card can read well at that range; a 7-point legal note probably won’t.

Prototype, test, then approve

Here’s the part people rush, then regret. Always prototype. Always test fit. If the item is delicate, run drop tests. If the seal matters, run seal peel tests. If humidity is part of the shipping route, check deformation after environmental exposure. I’ve had a blister that looked perfect on the bench but lifted at the edges after 48 hours in a humid warehouse in Miami. That was an expensive lesson for the client, and a very annoying week for everyone involved.

Useful testing standards depend on product category, but the baseline should include:

• Fit test for product stability inside the cavity
• Seal integrity test for heat-seal or adhesive performance
• Drop test for shipping durability
• Humidity check if the product or paperboard is moisture-sensitive
• Label and barcode review for retail compliance

One buyer I worked with skipped the mockup stage because their internal team “knew the size.” They didn’t know the product had a slightly tapered shoulder that caused the blister to float on one side. The result was a 9,000-unit delay and a very awkward phone call. Testing is cheaper than redoing a run. That isn’t a theory. It’s a bill. In that case, the rework cost was roughly $1,260 in tooling edits and another $840 in expedited freight to recover the schedule.

For sourcing, I usually recommend getting at least three quotes, but only after you’ve standardized the request. Same product dimensions. Same cavity style. Same board spec. Same print finishes. Otherwise you’re comparing apples, oranges, and one mysterious grapefruit.

At a minimum, send suppliers:

1. Final product measurements with photos
2. Target quantity and annual forecast
3. Preferred material and board style
4. Artwork files or a draft layout
5. Required certifications or compliance notes
6. Distribution channel details

If you want to keep your branded packaging budget under control, ask whether stock tooling can work before moving to custom tooling. Stock molds can save hundreds of dollars in setup. Custom molds are worth it when the fit matters or when the shape becomes part of the brand identity. I’ve seen both win. I’ve also seen both fail when somebody chose based on vibes. Vibes are not a spec sheet. A stock cavity in a supplier’s catalog can often shave one to two weeks off the schedule compared with brand-new tooling.

Common Mistakes People Make With Blister Packaging

What is blister packaging supposed to solve? Protection, visibility, tamper evidence, and efficient retail display. The common mistakes happen when people chase one of those and ignore the others. That’s how you end up with a pretty package that performs like wet cardboard. In my notebook, the same four errors show up in factories from Shenzhen to Chicago, usually with the same expensive consequences.

The first mistake is cavity sizing. Too tight, and the product is hard to insert or remove. Too loose, and it rattles around like a penny in a dryer. I’ve seen both. The best fit usually allows a small amount of retention without stressing fragile parts or scuffing the finish. There’s a sweet spot, and no, it doesn’t magically appear because the CAD file looks nice. A difference of 1 mm can be enough to create stress marks on clear plastic components or cause a part to fall out during transit.

The second mistake is material choice. A glossy PET blister looks great until it cracks in cold storage or warps during sealing because the process window wasn’t respected. A cheap board can buckle under humidity. If the pack will travel through hot warehouses or coastal shipping lanes, material performance matters more than whatever the sales rep said over tea. In a run through Guangzhou, a board with low wet strength failed after 72 hours at 85% relative humidity, while a slightly more expensive coated board held shape cleanly.

The third mistake is assuming seal strength will sort itself out. It won’t. If the seal zone is too narrow, contaminated with dust, or running at the wrong temperature, the blister can lift during shipping. I once saw a production run where the seal looked perfect until we pulled samples after a few hours. Half the edge opened because the line speed was too fast for the substrate. That was an expensive afternoon. The line was set at 22 packs per minute, but the board and seal film needed 16 to 18 to maintain proper adhesion.

The fourth mistake is ignoring retail details. Hanging holes, barcode placement, warning copy, pricing zones, and legal text all need space. If the package is going into chain retail, this stuff is not optional. It’s the difference between a clean planogram and a buyer sending you a polite but brutal email. A pharmacy buyer in Toronto once rejected 6,000 units because the Drug Facts panel was 5 mm too close to the cavity edge.

The fifth mistake is forgetting the fill method. Manual insertion may work for 500 units. At 20,000 units, labor becomes a beast. If the product requires nested placement, inserts, or multi-part assemblies, ask early about labor time. What looks like a packaging cost issue may actually be a labor cost issue. Same total pain. Different line item. A hand-fill line in a mid-sized plant can add 8 to 12 seconds per unit, which becomes a real cost over a 15,000-unit order.

When people ask what is blister packaging and whether it’s “simple,” I say yes and no. The format is simple. The execution is not. That’s why experienced suppliers spend so much time on fit, seal, and line testing. They’ve all seen the same avoidable mistakes, usually several times a month.

Expert Tips for Better Results, Lower Waste, and Smarter Buying

If you want better results from what is blister packaging, start by treating the supplier like a technical partner, not just a quote machine. The best runs I’ve seen came from buyers who shared clear requirements and asked smart questions. The worst ones came from “just make it work” emails. Those are the packaging equivalent of asking a mechanic to “fix the noise.” Helpful? Not especially. A supplier in Dongguan can usually solve problems faster when they get a product sample, a dieline, and a target price in the first email.

My first tip: ask for sample cavities and forming specs before you approve anything. A good supplier should be able to show you the blister wall thickness, seal area, and material gauge. If they won’t share that, I’d be cautious. I’ve negotiated with converters who tried to hide gauge reductions to shave cost by $0.01 or $0.02 a unit. That sounds tiny until you’re buying 80,000 units. Then it’s real money. On 80,000 pieces, $0.02 is $1,600, which buys a lot of rework or freight.

Second tip: standardize cavity sizes wherever you can. If your product family includes three SKUs with similar dimensions, you may be able to share tooling or keep the same card format. That saves money and shortens lead time. It also makes procurement less annoying, which is a benefit nobody puts on the spreadsheet but absolutely should. A shared card format can cut artwork revision time from 5 days to 2 if the only change is the SKU copy block.

Third tip: compare quotes on the same basis. Ask every supplier to quote the same material, thickness, print method, tooling, and quantity. If one quote includes custom tooling and another does not, the numbers are useless. I’ve watched buyers choose the “cheapest” quote and then discover they were missing inserts, finishing, or even the seal station setup fee. Not a bargain. Just incomplete math. For a run of 10,000 pieces, a missing setup fee can change the total by $300 to $800 very quickly.

Fourth tip: test like the product is going to be mistreated, because it probably will. Seal peel testing, drop testing, and humidity checks tell you more than a polished render ever will. For transportation stress guidance, ISTA has practical standards and test methods that can save you from embarrassing breakage later. Here’s the link again because it’s genuinely useful: ISTA packaging tests. If your products ship through e-commerce in bulk cartons, ask for at least one drop sequence from 30 inches and one edge compression check.

Fifth tip: use stock tooling when the product is close enough to an existing cavity. This is one of the best ways to save on setup cost without sacrificing fit. Custom tooling makes sense when the item is unique, fragile, or part of a strong package branding strategy. But if you can use stock tooling and still get a snug fit, I’d take the savings and move on. Some stock molds can reduce the tooling lead time to 3 to 5 business days instead of 2 to 3 weeks.

Here’s a quick buying checklist I give clients before they send the RFQ:

• Product dimensions with photos from multiple angles
• Target use case: retail packaging, medical, e-commerce, or promotional
• Desired look: clear, premium, eco-forward, or budget-focused
• Quantity per order and expected repeat volume
• Material preference: PVC, PET, RPET, or PVC-free
• Backing preference: paperboard, foil, or plastic film
• Compliance needs and test requirements

Honestly, I think the smartest buyers treat packaging design like a negotiation, not a decoration exercise. You’re balancing cost, performance, shelf appeal, and operations. If one side wins too hard, the package usually loses somewhere else. A buyer in Melbourne once pushed for the lowest-cost card, then spent more on damaged-return handling than they saved on the board price.

What Is Blister Packaging? Your Next Steps Before You Order

By now, what is blister packaging should be a lot clearer. It’s a formed cavity plus a backing, built to display and protect a product while keeping the pack compact, tamper-evident, and retail-ready. The exact structure depends on your product, channel, budget, and brand goals. No one-size-fits-all answer. Packaging never works that politely. A blister for a $4.99 battery card in Atlanta will not be the same as a pharmacy blister for a moisture-sensitive product in Frankfurt.

If you’re preparing to order, start with the basics: measure the product, gather photos, define your retail requirements, and decide how much protection you actually need. If the item is small and visible on the shelf, blister packaging may be a strong fit. If the product is large, fragile, or premium in a way that demands full enclosure, another format may make more sense. For a simple consumer item, a well-spec’d blister can often reduce packaging material by 15% to 25% compared with a small folding carton plus insert.

Before you send anything to a supplier, I’d collect these items:

1. Exact product dimensions and weight
2. Desired order quantity
3. Artwork or draft branding files
4. Retail display requirements, including hang holes
5. Protection needs: moisture, tamper evidence, child resistance, or crush resistance
6. Target budget per unit and setup budget

Then ask for a quote, a structural sample, and a seal test. If the supplier can’t support all three, keep looking. You’re not just buying plastic and board. You’re buying a repeatable process. That’s the difference between Packaging That Sells and packaging that becomes a headache. A straightforward custom run from proof approval to first shipment typically takes 12 to 15 business days if the tooling is already in place; brand-new tooling can push that to 3 to 4 weeks.

If you want to compare related formats while you review custom printed boxes and other retail packaging options, browse Custom Packaging Products. And if your paperboard includes certified stock, check the standards at FSC so your claims are solid. That matters whether you’re sourcing in London, Los Angeles, or Longkou.

So, what is blister packaging? It’s a practical format with real strengths: visibility, tamper evidence, and efficient display. It’s also a format that punishes sloppy specs, lazy testing, and vague buying. If you handle the details properly, what is blister packaging becomes one of the smartest tools in product packaging and branded packaging strategy. If you don’t, it becomes a fast way to turn a $0.15 pack into a headache worth ten times that in rework and lost time.