How to create memorable unboxing experiences for your ecommerce products
BACKIf there’s one thing that online shopping has over going into a store is the anticipation and sweet suspense before your package reaches your doorstep. It creates a closely similar feeling to waiting for a present.
So, after all that waiting and excitement, you wouldn’t want to be disappointed when the item shows off. The mediocre wrapping paper alone might make you feel that the gift you’ve received wasn’t sent with genuine feeling.
A similar situation plays out if your online customers get the product they ordered. If your packaging is nothing to write home about, your brand will lose significant ground to the competition.
Therefore, you need to ensure that you provide your paying customers with a memorable unboxing experience.
Read on to find out just how you can make your brand stick out and remain in your client’s memory when they get that package.
What are the benefits of providing a special eCommerce product packaging?
As online shopping has become an essential part of life, so has the unboxing experience. In fact, if you search through eCommerce product reviews, unboxing videos are some of the most popular in that genre.
This experience is so ingrained in the online shopping process that several brands attribute their success more to the effective product packaging and less to the actual product.
After all, 1 in 5 customers watches an unboxing video. Additionally, just about 2 in every 3 customers watched the video because they were researching the product in question.
When you master the art of providing special packaging for eCommerce, your brand will reap several benefits.
Speaking of, here are the advantages of effective product packaging.
1. It makes a great first impression
Like we said earlier, tracking an item in delivery is akin to waiting on a present. You’re tense with excitement, waiting to see what you have in the box.
As an online brand, you want to make sure that you take advantage of this feeling in your customers. If your packaging meets or even surpasses expectations, you can create an excellent first impression.
When customers go into a store at the mall, they can look at and touch the products. Sometimes, they can get a live demonstration of how it works. In other words, if they leave with the item, they’re definitely impressed by it.
On the other hand, your online store has little to offer a prospective customer regarding this experience.
The only way you can stand out is by making a remarkable first impression right out the gate.
Ecommerce product packaging is where your customers come into actual physical contact with your brand. Therefore, you need to ensure that you ignite excitement in your customers when they receive that item they ordered.
2. Builds customer loyalty
Now that you’ve left a good impression on your customers, they’re more likely to go back to your store should they need anything else in that niche.
Effective product packaging shows the customer that you care about their experience with your brand. And because of this, they won’t resort to a brand that falls short of the experience they get from you.
With the intense competition that comes with running an online store, you need to get as many repeat customers as possible.
And creating a memorable unboxing experience is a unique way of doing this.
3. An opportunity to tell your brand story
Let’s stay with the competition train of thought for a bit here. Regardless of the niche you’re trying to take over, you’ll always have other brands offering similar or the same products as you. This makes it very hard for you to stand out.
You could try to undercut them, but you’ll be leaving money on the table. And even then, you won’t guarantee success.
The unboxing experience is a unique opportunity to do something different from your competitors that will bear fruit.
Because they’re already excited about the item coming in, you can use this chance to tell them your brand story. Use creativity within the package design to put this story across.
Your audience will relate to this story and make them loyal to your brand. Furthermore, they’ll become brand advocates by talking about your store to others who can relate to the story.
4. It’s an effective marketing strategy
When you invest in creating effective product packaging, your brand will ring out because several people in your target market talk about their unboxing experiences.
This catches other people’s attention, increasing their interest in what you have to offer.
Furthermore, if your product piques an online influencer’s interest, you’ll get free marketing.
This is especially so on visual content platforms like YouTube. Several content creators have millions of subscribers who tune in to watch their unboxing videos.
If your product has excellent packaging, you’ll get an influx of customers who’ll follow the influencer’s recommendation to get your product.
5. Increases your products’ value
Sometimes the excitement that surrounds the whole unboxing down to having premium product packaging. There’s that reverence that customers give to a package that has that uniquely elegant and luxurious air about it.
Even if your product is identical to what your competitors offer in their stores, you can charge more for yours. This is because the packaging makes it seem more valuable.
Therefore, it’s worth investing in unique product packaging to make your items more appealing and valuable.
How can you create enjoyable unboxing experiences for your customers?
Now that you’re up to speed with the benefits of creating effective product packaging and impressive unboxing experiences, you need to put this knowledge to use.
But how do you ensure that your clients love what they find at their doorsteps?
Here’s how:
1. Make use of branded packaging
When a customer receives their package and settles down to open it, make sure they know who it’s from. And the only way you can do this is by branding your boxes and any other wrapping you put the item.
Of course, plain boxes and wrapping paper are cheaper. But are you willing to risk losing a customer forever because you want to save a few bucks?
Investing in branded packaging pays off even more because customers will go through that impressive experience we’ve been harping on about.
Furthermore, try to ensure that your branding is consistent across all items that you ship. In other words, the color scheme and logo should match wherever possible.
This allows your customers to easily distinguish your products from the rest.
2. Use unique packages
While branding your boxes makes more effective product packaging, you can always take this a notch higher to reel in your customers. After all, your competitors are more than likely doing the same thing.
However, you can ring out true from all that noise by making your packages even more unique. Use distinctive materials or packaging style to wow your customers with something that they don’t see often.
Instead of using plain boxes with your brand stamped on them, you can use stylized cut-out cardboard boxes to fit your brand aesthetic.
Some brands opt for the quirky route, using materials closely linked to the niche they’re in. Let’s say your brand sells homemade honey. Instead of placing the jars in a brown cardboard box, you could instead make small, lightweight wooden crates with a honeycomb structure.
This is something your customer won’t have seen before, and it’ll endear your brand to them.
Furthermore, using environmentally friendly packaging material will also earn you points with your current and prospective customers.
3. Give gifts or free samples to customers
The majority of this unboxing thing boils down to one point - your customer getting their money’s worth. That’s why you have all these creative packages and whatnot.
However, one thing that both surprises the customer and adds value to your product is including a free gift in the package.
Your customer is already excited that the item they paid for is coming soon. When they rip off the wrapping to get inside, they’ll be surprised to find that you added a free sample of something else you offer in your shop.
If they don’t already love your brand, they do now.
And in today’s society, they’ll likely get onto social media to tell their followers about your brand and its excellent delivery. This advocacy will send more potential customers to your online store, increasing your business.
4. Add a personal touch
People deal with several brands in different areas of their life to the extent where they’ve become used to being viewed as just another customer. Even in the physical shopping scene, big stores don’t offer that familiarity you get from the corner store where the owner knows your name.
You can always try to replicate this personal relationship with your customer by styling their packaging just for them.
For instance, you can add a handwritten note to thank them for choosing your brand. By doing so, you build a close connection between you and the customer, compelling them to use your brand whenever they need something in that niche.
Depending on the item in question, you can also add the client’s name on the product itself, fostering a closer relationship with them.
Say you’re selling scented candles, why not name each scent after the particular customer that ordered it? When they find this out at the unboxing stage, they’ll love it and share it with the friends, family and followers.
This increases your brand awareness, resulting in more customers flooding your online store just to get candles named after them.
5. Branded inserts and essential paperwork
Don’t forget to add some paperwork to your packaging. Your customer would love to know more about the product and how it got there.
So, not only do you have to add manuals, but you can also add some literature that the customers will find interesting. For example, you can include brochures about related products that are in the works.
Another idea is to add a pamphlet detailing your brand story. It doesn’t even have to encompass the entire brand. It could just be about that particular product in the packaging.
Some brands add physical coupons that the customer can use online or at promotional stands in the real world.
You can also use this as a marketing tool. Add banners of stickers to the package. Customers can stick this on their laptops, cars and anywhere else they feel like. All this puts your brand in front of more eyeballs.
Summing up
As we’ve seen, the unboxing experience is as vital to your online brand’s success as your marketing strategy. Just delivering a product to someone who ordered it can turn into a brand advocacy event.
In other words, you’re not only securing that particular customer’s business. You’re also creating an opportunity for that customer to speak about your brand to other people. If they record that unboxing video and post it on social media, it can go viral and create a sharp upturn in your business sales and subsequent growth.
In the article, we’ve stated other equally essential benefits and the various routes you can take to achieve them by creating special ecommerce product packaging.