Attention to packaging can elevate ecommerce sales

A lot of ecommerce site owners believe the products they are selling are the most crucial aspect of their business. It may be part of the reason they don’t give much thought to the packaging design. But is it really the truth? Is that what customers think?

A recent report by Dotcom Distribution reveals that 60% of the respondents said they shared the image of product on their social networks when they thought its appearance was nice. Do you realize what that means?

It means that the majority of ecommerce shoppers might help you get new leads for the same or similar products—provided they liked the way your product looks. This fondness can be a massive boost to sales and profits. Your customers can be transformed into brand ambassadors on social media.

Dotcom’s 2015 eCommerce Packaging Study, Unwrapping the Customer Experience, focuses largely on delivery-packaging strategies of ecommerce sites. It highlights the importance of product packaging in this new age of ecommerce. How your products come across to customers is a major factor in whether they’ll spread the word about your company or not. And packaging is largely associated with brand perception.

Package design for ecommerce holds as much importance as the product itself because improper packaging can damage brand value. Here’s an example: Suppose your customer purchased something from an ecommerce store, but before it reached the customer, the box was torn or inadvertently opened due to improper packaging. Think about how that disappointment would diminish your brand’s value with the customer.

Without making alterations to your product, you can design the package for durability, safe transport, cost savings and attractiveness. Research and find the proper packaging solutions for your product and the channel’s supply chain by considering the type of box, number of plies or size of flutes, conditioning and compression strength required.

Packaging that’s “like”-able and “share”-able

Brands that can involve product packaging in a trendy way are more likely to flourish in this new age of ecommerce.

Ever since internet stores emerged, about one-third of consumers have opined that they have discovered new brands by seeing other shoppers flaunting their cool shopping bags or branded boxes. This makes it evident that, while an ecommerce merchant might spend a bit of its financial budget on marketing, nothing validates the popularity of a brand more than the organic discovery of a shopper.

There’s even a sustainability factor in this because as many as 84% of consumers are more likely to reuse branded bags.

About 74% of younger consumers—from 18 to 25 years old—will share a recent purchase on social media if the product packaging is unique and engaging to let their social media friends know how they feel about it. It’s one of the reasons “unboxing” videos are so popular on YouTube and pictures of specially-designed and -packaged products permeate on Facebook or Instagram.

Packaging, therefore, is a vital online marketing tool.

For brands, there isn’t a better compliment then customers liking the product and sharing the word about it everywhere. It definitely enhances the brand value and helps your business get an edge over other competitors.

The importance of product packaging in this new age of ecommerce cannot be minimized. The internet has become a catalog of thousands of brands. In this new age of ecommerce, it is of utmost importance for products to go that extra mile to achieve customer satisfaction. And that, folks, can only be achieved with exceptional packaging!

Shalu Jain is a senior marketing executive at DCGPAC, India’s largest online packaging material store offering more than 2,000 different categories of packaging solutions. She is known for her industry knowledge and experience in overcoming complex challenges with innovative solutions.

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Looking for inspiration for your next packaging design project? Visit MinnPack 2016 (Sept 21-22; Minneapolis) for the latest in packaging materials, equipment, automation and more.