Choosing packaging materials is about far more than simply getting your products from A to B intact. You will be considering your budgets, shipping arrangements, and environmental impact. Alongside these practical considerations, you need to consider the impact on your customers. The packaging your products arrive in can help support, or damage, your customers’ opinion of you, encourage loyalty and also advertise your brand to other potential customers, as they see your parcels in transit.
In this blog, we’ll look into the main points to consider when choosing packaging materials for your online store and the different options available.
Choose Packaging Customers Will Like
Research shows that e-commerce customers want their packaging to be simple and clean, to protect the product, have consistent branding and be environmentally friendly. Would you be happy to drive around to your customer’s house and deliver that parcel in person?
People hate hard plastic packaging or anything that needs a tool to open it. For environmental reasons, consumers are very anti-plastic and pro-sustainability. Can you choose packaging products that they will like? Amazon uses what it calls “Certified Frustration Free Packaging” and says its goal is to “invent sustainable packaging that delights customers, eliminates waste, and ensures products arrive intact and undamaged.”
Choose Size Appropriate Packaging
Boxes, bags or other packaging should be a good fit, and just enough to protect the product. No one enjoys carrying home an unnecessarily enormous package from the collection point. Whilst you might wrap your child’s birthday present in a comically large box to disguise it, that is not a great idea when posting goods out to a customer. You will also find that overly large packaging results in higher courier costs, and a higher carbon footprint to deliver the items.
Make Sure Your Packaging Protects
We have all experienced the feeling of receiving a battered parcel. Even if the goods inside are intact, it does not paint a good picture of the supplier. Make sure your package not only looks good but really is well protected in case it is thrown around in transit, gets wet or squashed. This will help keep your customers coming back, as well as getting this particular delivery there in one piece. From hardback envelopes, to padded bags, cardboard tubes, bubble wrap and reinforced boxes – the perfect option for your product is out there.
Consider the Cost
We have to mention it. We all know that customers spend extra if shipping is free. Some will not shop with you at all if you charge for shipping, so packaging costs need to be built in to pricing early on. How much can you afford? What is the best possible option within that budget? Can you save money if you order in bulk? Do you have appropriate dry and safe storage space for that?
Choose Re-usable Packaging
Can your customer keep the product they brought from you in the box, tube or envelope it came in? Or peel off the label and use it again? Could the customer remove and reuse the bubble wrap their item comes in, whether to post an item of their own or just as a stress reliever? Any re-use options make the packaging better for the planet and more attractive to the customer. Think of the many uses the blue IKEA bags end up fulfilling!
Take Advantage of the Unboxing Opportunity
Opening your package can be exciting for your customer and is an important touch-point in your relationship with them. Read our blog on Unboxing to find out more about this phenomenon.
Keep it simple but don’t forget to use the chance to remind your customer who they bought from. We can help by supplying branded boxes, mailing bags or envelopes, as well as bespoke despatch paperwork, where you might want to include a personalised offer to further delight your customer.
Using a consistent type of packaging can help as well. Take the Blue Tiffany Box as an example or Selfridges yellow carrier bags.
Choose Eco Friendly Packaging
Customers are increasingly environmentally aware, particularly when it comes to plastic packaging. It can be hard to judge how eco-friendly a packaging item really is. To help you out, we score all our packaging products out of 5, depending on whether they are recycled, recyclable, reusable, biodegradable and/or made out of sustainable materials. Our cardboard all comes from FSC or PEFC approved sustainable sources. Our mailing bags are made from recycled materials. Choosing the right size and weight of packaging will also help reduce the carbon emissions involved in its delivery.
So, it is not quite as simple as just finding a cardboard box. Selecting the perfect packaging for your e-commerce products can not only make sure they arrive in one piece, but also ensure the customer is happy and likely to buy from you again. Have a look at our packaging pages to see all the options we have available.
Do get in touch if you’d like us to help you choose yours.