E-commerce packaging is, at face esteem, the craft/vessel your product/item comes in when customers order from your e-commerce business store. This incorporates transportation and shipping materials as well as product packaging. The motivation behind e-commerce packaging is to protect and safeguard the product during transit, while additionally addressing your brand. For all-around and well-designed e-commerce packaging, you should go beyond essentially satisfying the purpose and reason.
Well-designed and planned e-commerce packaging is significant because of several factors. To start with, the shipping materials protect and shield the product from merchant to customer. Since customers aren’t visiting a physical storefront and carrying their purchased items home themselves, additional consideration and care should be taken in delivering the product to its destination. Second, e-commerce packaging is your opportunity to exhibit your brand’s character and personality and give your customers that unique personal touch without face-to-face interaction.
Significance of Product Packaging in E-commerce Business
Your product must not be messed with and tampered with when it reaches the customer’s doorstep. Indeed! Altered and tampered products are the biggest disappointment and frustration for anybody as they carry with them much hard work. A customer who receives a modified product doesn’t just feel disappointed with the organization and feels vulnerable as he needs to go through the entire return interaction process, which takes up a great deal of significant investment. Along these lines, your packaging game must generally be on point.
E-commerce, as of now, makes up practically 8.7% of all retail purchases worldwide. This figure is assessed to be twofold by the end of 2022. With the increasing demand for products and the innovation of the same, it is imperative that merchants have an enduring effect on the minds of their customers. This is where packaging becomes possibly the most crucial factor. We should start understanding the significance of packaging for any e-commerce business. It is no longer a matter of just wrapping up a product and having it delivered to the buyer. It plays a far more crucial role.
Brand Reputation
With packaging playing a critical part in the e-commerce business, you can involve it as a tool to enhance and upgrade the customer experience dramatically. As per a survey, 58% of shoppers have conceded that packaging damage would stop them from purchasing a product again from a similar seller. You need to see it from the purchaser’s point of view, and this is what the idea should be when packing a specific product.
An unfortunate user experience can lead the customer to surrender the brand or negatively think about it. It is expected to be appropriately packaged, assuming the user is ordering the product from very far. On the off chance that the packaging dazzles the customer, it can prompt them to be advocates for your brand image.
Packaging Influences and Impacts on Perception
A report titled Distribution Packaging Report (DPR) states that 50% of shoppers say the utilization of branded or gift-like packaging options for online orders makes them bound to recommend the product to friends. It is compulsory that your packaging be first-class to form a long-lasting first impression with the customer. If your product packaging meets the eye and stays with the purchaser, it can attract the eye of numerous others also. This can give the customer give you an edge over your E-commerce market rivals. Moreove,r a well packed product enhances the value of the product that is purchased.
When a product is ordered online there is a wait time till it finally reaches the customer. There is a building curiosity and expectation set by the customer. The package that arrives is the first view thatthe customer has. It starts right from the moment the package is handed that you start building your impression. A well packed product can go a long way in building the right impression about the product and the brand as a whole.
Safety of the Product
No one loves a frail packaging that can’t bear the contact and friction of the road or the turbulence of the air. The product packaging plays a significant part in the product’s safety whenever it is dispatched from the warehouse until it arrives at the customer’s doorstep. India, a tropical country, doesn’t have uniform conditions throughout the delivery process. Any product that is dispatched will be exposed to a variety of weather conditions ranging from torrid heat to drenching humidity or the frigid cold.
Your product packaging should be sturdy to such an extent that it can bear and tolerate slight to moderate wear and tear without affecting the product. Consequently, if your primary or auxiliary packaging isn’t satisfactory, it can prompt package tampering and, worse, product damage, which this way will influence customer experience and ultimately will prompt a decrease in sales. At times it may also result in returns or demands for replacement. This would ultimately lead to a loss of profit as you end up sending two pieces of the same product for the price of one.
Publicity via Customer
There is a high likelihood that on the off chance that you are as yet utilizing brown cardboard boxes to send your products, then your customers will cease sharing your products via social media sites. The report by Dotcom additionally figured out that 39% of the respondents had shared an image or a video of newly purchased products, most commonly utilizing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. For those involved in social media, presentation matters and a bland brown box will not make the right impact.
Accordingly, for those investing in luxury and extravagant items, a smooth and excellent packaging draws them in and causes them to feel unique. Along these lines, you gain exposure via word of mouth and social media sites like those referenced above. Thus the way you package the products in e-commerce also works as an effective branding strategy as well.
Considerations Before Packaging your Product for E-commerce
Type of product
The sort of product decides the packaging procedure that should be adopted. Likewise, unique necessities if any should be identified and characterized while packing.
Worth of shipment
If the shipment is of high value, then an additional layer of protection and security should be done for the product to guarantee complete safety during transit.
Weight
The weight of the package should be kept under control and should be checked prior to packing as the product’s weight will characterize the sort of packaging material required to sustain it.
Size and Shape
The product’s length, height, and breadth ought to be estimated appropriately before packaging. This will decide the size of the packaging materials including the void fillers.
Also Read: 10 Tips for Avoiding Packaging Mistakes and Wrong Packaging
Advantages of Extraordinary E-commerce Packaging Ideas
E-commerce packaging stretches out far beyond safeguarding your product as it travels to your customers’ doorstep. The online shopping experience has diminished the quantity of touchpoints brands have with consumers. Accordingly, product packaging assumes an outsized role in advertising and marketing endeavours.
Packaging your product to establish a long-lasting impression with purchasers is a significant and invaluable way to build brand loyalty and dedication. Making an essential and memorable unboxing experience presents an easy opportunity to separate your brand image from rivals. By winding in high-end touches, specially crafted packaging, or surprise add-ons you can add that surprise factor to delight your customers.
Cost of E-commerce Packaging
Discussing price, you likewise need to consider the expense proportion between your product and its packaging. Adhere to a small percentage for your packaging materials, around 1-3% of your item cost. You don’t need your e-commerce packaging to meet or even come near to the expense of your product. On the off chance that it does, say goodbye to any benefits you would’ve made.
Purchasing in bulk is the simplest method to keep packaging costs low. You might have to downplay customization if you’re selling small units initially; however, that doesn’t mean you need to eliminate it. Branded stickers can do similarly for your brand as unique custom printed packaging. DCGpac offers bulk packaging materials including customized packages with your specific brand logo and design. Ordering in bulk will definitely help you cater to your customers without a hitch while keeping expenses down.
E-commerce Business Packaging Tips
E-commerce sales give practically limitless choices for making essential and memorable packaging experiences. The sky’s the limit, from beautiful boutique packaging options to personalized packing insert cards.
Brand Unexpected Packaging Elements with an Innovative Touch
Think outside the box. Packaging tape, shredded filler, tissue paper, and additional inserts can all be generally tailor-made to accommodate your brand. If your spending plan doesn’t consider branding all of your e-commerce packagings, figure out which elements offer the most value for your money and alter them in unique, inventive ways. This can be pretty straightforward as choosing tape or different materials that match your brand colours; uniquely custom-printed things can be alluring too.
DCGpac offers an array of products that can be custom printed to match with your brand design and messaging. All you need is to send in an image of the design you want printed on the packaging and then place your order. When it comes to bulk orders, whether customized or not you are sure to make savings.
Utilize Innovative, Feasible and Sustainable Packaging
Sustainability sells. Consider making eco-friendly e-commerce packaging. Whether you decide to utilize 100% recycled bioplastics or cardboard for your poly mailer, emphasize how your packaging goes light on the world. You can go a step further by buying paper packing materials implanted and infused with wildflower seeds to contribute significantly more green to the planet. Like that, you and your customers cooperate to help the climate and environment. DCGpac is known for using recyclable paper and biodegradable materials that ensures there is minimal impact to the environment.
For specific high-end products, creating packaging that is excessively beautiful to throw is a simple success. Product packaging with a second life as a decorative stockpiling container broadens your advertising and promoting reach a long way past the existence of the product it initially held. Beautiful glass or ceramic vessels for candles track down a second life as storage containers or even smaller planters. Exceptionally -printed fabric bags two fold as jewellery holders, makeup bags, etc.
Associate With Consumers for Product Reviews and Audits
Online product reviews are the backbone of e-commerce retailers. Potential customers routinely depend on these as a trusted data source while pursuing purchasing decisions. Consider utilizing a sticker or insert to ask for a favourable and unfavourable review on the platform your prospective customers frequent. Make it simple by posting the website URL alongside the ask or, even better, utilizing a custom QR code.
Use Additional Custom Inserts To Add Worth
When the shopper is opening your box, they’re an enthralled audience. Grasp their attention longer by including coupons, stickers, or an enlightening leaflet depicting your product’s extraordinary value proposition. Customized packing inserts are generally inexpensive to deliver and, when utilized innovatively, can punch far over their weight. Handwritten notes are particularly compelling, especially among independent small businesses that need to make enduring connections with their customers.
E-commerce packaging ideas are possibly the best avenues brands have for building reliability and loyalty with online consumers. By strategically packaging products in manners that entice the target audience, brands create a new, vital touch-point that they can use to increase consumer commitment and engagement and the probability of rehashing future sales. Considering the rise in E-commerce platforms and the feasibility it offers to shoppers, competition is rife. As a business, you need to ensure that you are doing much more than what your competitors are doing to make sure you do not lose out on your customers. Packaging your products right plays an important role to give shape to your image to a customer base that is spread across the country. Hence when you choose your packaging material make sure that you are doing right by your customers and your unique brand.
