Despite the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, research shows that people form a first impression within 7 seconds. This means that, unfortunately, books are OFTEN judged by their covers (along with all other items that come in wrapping or packages). If you’re running a business, being mindful of how your products are shipped can make a big difference in customer satisfaction. The packaging you choose for your products can have the ability to surprise your consumers – it’s up to you to make sure it’s a good surprise that ends up on their doorstep.
What Is Branded Packaging?
When we think of packaging, square brown boxes come to mind. That’s because it’s what we often see after ordering online. Anytime you click “purchase now”, you expect to see a brown cardboard box at your door within the next 3-5 business days. But packaging doesn’t HAVE to be boring, brown, cardboard, or even square for that matter!
Branded packaging is an alternative to standard packaging. It’s most beneficial for e-commerce businesses whose first point of contact with a customer is when the product arrives at their house. Branded packaging can be customized with specific dimensions, materials, colors, labels, and more! There are rigid boxes for a more luxurious feel, lightweight paperboard boxes, and foil-sealed bags, to name a few. The exterior of your boxing can be colorful, representative of your brand, and feature your logo and taglines. The world is your oyster when it comes to customizing your branded packaging, and Flocksy is here to help bring your vision to life with our unlimited graphic design services.
Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash
3 Reasons Why Branded Packaging Matters
Custom shipping boxes are crucial to businesses looking to make an impact on consumers, grow their brand awareness and increase customer loyalty. Receiving a package in the mail that isn’t the typical brown, drab cardboard box is sure to wow your customers and could even impress the neighbors! Branded packaging can be an overlooked aspect of shipping and e-commerce, but we have 3 reasons why custom packing boxes are important for your business and brand.
Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash
Custom Shipping Boxes Make Lasting Impressions
Using custom shipping boxes can help your company make a great first impression. With the popularity of online shopping, customers might miss out on your branding or company values when adding items to their e-cart. Placing your branding, taglines, logo, and even mission statements on your packaging means your customers get to know you better and form a connection with your brand. That physical representation of your company can build brand loyalty and help consumers understand what your company stands for. Well-informed customers are happy customers who are more likely to rate your products higher and are more likely to make repeat purchases.
Photo by The Retro Store on Unsplash
Another important reason to use branding on your shipping boxes is that your customer is not the only person who will see your packaging. As your product makes its way to your consumer, it will pass through the hands of shipping plant workers and delivery people. While in transit, there are opportunities to generate leads among the workers passing your product along, especially if you’ve included your social media username or logo on the packaging. Using bold designs and bright colors also means that even your customer’s neighbors might see your company’s boxes — increasing curiosity and leading to even more visitors to your social media accounts or website.
Not only can you design the exterior of your packaging, but you can also add customized images and lettering to the inside. Personalized messages and imaging means you can “greet” your customers when they open their packages. Small, personal touches like customized images, bold colors, and interesting packaging designs can encourage customers, mail carriers, delivery workers, or neighbors to check out your shop! Exciting, unique boxes are an excellent part of a comprehensive marketing campaign to help you stand out.
Custom Packaging Is Environmentally Friendly
Custom shipping boxes benefit your business and the environment in many ways! For example, you enhance the unboxing experience for your customers by creating an eye-catching package, but a well-designed box is also more likely to be re-used and less likely to end up in the trash. Secondly, labeling your eco-friendly packaging as “recyclable” promotes your commitment to the environment as a company while helping consumers recognize that they can recycle the boxes after opening them.
Photo by BATCH by Wisconsin Hemp Scientific on Unsplash
Creating custom boxes also means you’ll be able to specify the dimensions. Having the right-sized custom boxes means you also reduce packaging waste. Specifying the exact dimensions you need means you’re not receiving a “one size fits all” box that is often too big. Since your box is perfectly sized and doesn’t have any extra material, it requires less material to manufacture it (also requiring less material to fill any voids inside.)
If you opt for a box with a little more space, void-fill materials such as tissue paper, airbags, or bubble wrap can be made from environmentally friendly materials and customized with your logo, branding, and more!
Custom Shipping Boxes Make Great Content
Did you know that over 90,000 people type “unboxing” into the search bar on YouTube every month? An unboxing video is exactly what it sounds like — a video of someone opening a box and showing off what’s inside. People across apps like Instagram, Tik Tok, Youtube, and more post unboxing videos! Everyone from influencers and bloggers to celebrities and CEOs love to offer fans insight into what they’re buying and from where. The hashtag “unboxing” itself has thousands of videos alone on Instagram.
Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash
That being said — anyone looking to create an unboxing video is not only looking for exciting products to reveal but also exciting boxes to open! Colorful, graphically designed boxes look better on camera, and your custom shipping boxes are more likely to be #unboxed than a company using plain brown packaging.
A single influencer could share your packaging and product with hundreds or even thousands of followers — effectively showing off your business for free to a brand new audience filled with potential new customers. Ensuring your boxes are creatively designed and prominently feature your logo and social media usernames will help turn those views into more visits to your profile and site. To encourage the “unboxing” of your products, you could ask customers to take a picture of their box when it arrives and post it under a certain hashtag or create giveaways and promo codes for when users post an unboxing video of your products! Social media is becoming a huge opportunity for new brands and businesses to garner attention and generate leads, and well-designed, exciting packaging can help turn your boxes into content.
Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash
Flocksy’s Graphic Designers Can Create Eye-Catching Packaging For Your Company
Need help designing creative but professional-looking packaging? Look no further than Flocksy! Our graphic designers can create beautiful designs that fit perfectly into your custom boxes and packages. It can be difficult to figure out the exact specifications needed to ensure your logo and branding are front and center and not cut off or blurry. That’s where our designers come in. They have years of experience designing custom shipping boxes and can help you decide on materials, styles, and more.
It’s easy to set up a profile on Flocksy — with several affordable plans, you’re sure to find the one that’s right for you and your business. Once you’ve chosen your plan, you simply start a new project and choose the subcategory “boxes” under graphic design, and voila! — you’ll have influencers unboxing your packages in no time! Want to see more of our work? Check out our portfolio here or contact us to learn what Flocksy can do for you!