A drastic growth in the eCommerce business means customers are comfortable having things delivered to their doorstep. From keeping eco-friendly packaging to reducing wastage, customer's higher expectations about packaging solutions are pushing businesses to rethink their packaging strategies.
While providing customer satisfaction, businesses must also ensure their goals, like keeping packaging costs low without compromising quality and customer experience, are consistently achieved.
Packaging is the first touch point to taking your product into your customer's hands. Needless to say, packaging has the power to impress or disappoint customers. Among the many ways to win your customers with good packaging, there are some to avoid that can cause customers to move away from your brand.
Not Using Your Company Branding
Your product packaging is more than your company's introduction. It's your strategic differentiation for strengthening your positioning and competitive advantage. Therefore, if your product packaging doesn't have your logo or branded elements, you miss the chance to reinforce your connection with the customer.
According to a recent survey, 52% of consumers changed product brands due to packaging design. A key trick is to maintain consistency in branding from your website or brochures to your packaging. A well-planned branding strategy on your packaging can provide a high brand recall value to your business. Poly mailers are a good branding packaging option if you're into eCommerce or shipping goods related to textiles, publishing, and more. Look for suppliers providing wholesale packaging materials with branding.
Adding Excess Weight
If you pack your product with too much weight, you risk the added costs of shipping and turn it into an unpleasant experience for your customers. Usually, businesses focus on being bigger to pass the aesthetically pleasing check. But with the added materials and stuffed extras, you lose on both—satisfying the customer and putting a dent in your costs.
You can tackle this by knowing the precise requirements like dimensions of the product, weight bearing packaging needed or any empty space that needs filling up. Consider packing peanuts to fill the void in your packaging. They're lightweight, readily available and inexpensive. If you have sensitive electronics or fragile items, packing peanuts is a great choice for packaging.
Neglecting The Quality Of Packaging
Businesses are always looking to cut costs, and shipping is one of the larger components of business costs. Wholesale packaging supplies can effectively reduce the overall cost burden. But with lower-quality materials, you can't go too far in saving costs and keeping the customer happy. Cheap and lower-quality packaging may not survive the transit and add additional costs in re-shipping.
Switch to better packaging with higher-quality industrial packaging supplies that are reliable and don't just make your deliveries safe but also help maintain a high brand image. Consider the flip side: unique, good-quality packaging makes users talk about the positive experience on social media, helping you promote your brand.
Difficult Or Inconvenient Opening /Closing Mechanisms
You must have seen those popular product unboxing videos. Indeed, the videos are about popular products, but you can’t miss the high-quality packaging that makes the videos so much more interesting.
Packaging must serve two main purposes: keeping the product safe and making it convenient to unbox. An ideal package should not take more than a paper cutter to reach the actual product.
Multi-layered and complex packages may ruin your customers' thrill of getting their hands on a long-awaited product. When planning the packaging, consider your customers' unboxing experience, too.
Not Leveraging Eco-friendly Packaging
eCommerce customers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact and are willing to take steps towards it. eCommerce can take a big step towards solving the climate change problem by switching to eco-friendly packaging materials from bulk packaging suppliers.
Here's an incentive to plan to introduce eco-friendly packaging for your products. Nearly 50% of US consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging!
If you find your customers dropping, the reason might be that sustainable packaging is not being offered. eCommerce can contribute significantly to the climate change mission by adopting eco-friendly packaging. Depending on which country you serve, try to understand your customers' preferences for using recyclable or compostable packaging and adapt accordingly.
Incorrect Size Packaging
We've all seen large boxes shipped when ordering smaller items like batteries. Your reasons may be valid, like reducing the risk of damage or breakage or simplifying the packing process.
But for a customer, this may be an inconvenience. Incorrect packaging can negatively impact a customer's perception of your brand. Using up too much space also increases inefficiencies in storage and inventory management.
Aim to stock packaging boxes of sizes that will match your products and provide a safe and secure environment for transit. The correct box sizes will help reduce your shipping costs, too.
Too Much Sticky Tape
Packages with too much sticky tape are tough to cut through and add to the customer's frustration. Trust the best-quality tape to seal the packaging boxes and easily cut through when unboxing.
Final word
Taking the customer's satisfaction into consideration can help you plan better when packaging products. From incorrect sizes to complex packaging, mistakes take a toll on your brand image. By focusing on creative and strategic packaging designs, you can turn the physical first touch point with the customer into an advantageous situation for your business.