64% of consumers rate customer experience over price when making purchasing decisions. As an online business, your customer experience includes the packaging of items shipped.
Your packaging options allow you to create brand awareness and create a relationship with your customers. How can you take advantage of these customer experience opportunities though?
This requires knowing how to package your materials and what to include. There are 10 tips you can use to make your packaging stand out and create customer loyalty.
10 Packaging Option Tips
The packaging isn’t just about shipping safely. It’s another marketing opportunity to keep customers coming back.
You can keep your business in your customer’s minds with branded packaging. Good packaging increases customer loyalty by 40%. With the right packaging, you can create a pleasurable unboxing experience.
1. Use the Best eCommerce Packaging Materials
The packaging experience starts with the right packaging materials. You need the right size of boxes or mailers and filler material that protects items while reducing clutter. View more about picking the right packaging for your industry.
You also need to make sure you have the right items to secure the packaging. This means using packing tape to secure boxes or padded mailers to protect items. This creates a professional look to the shipping while protecting the items.
2. Think Outside the Box
You can also increase the unboxing experience by getting creative with your packaging. This goes back to picking the right size packaging for your options.
Consider different sizes for boxes. A different dimension box could better protect items while helping your shipment stand out. Also, consider options other than boxes for unusually sized or smaller items.
3. Use New Boxes or Mailers
Don’t re-use boxes and mailers to ship items to customers. New packaging looks better than used when it gets to the customer. This helps avoid multiple labels as well which cuts down on clutter.
New packaging gives a good impression to customers and makes them feel important to you. Plus, new packaging better protects your shipped items. You don’t have to worry about pre-existing dents or tears in the boxes and mailers.
4. Consider Branded Packaging
You always want to keep your brand in mind when dealing with customers. One way to keep your brand in their mind is to use packaging with branding colors and logos.
Branded packaging can cost more than the go-to brown box or yellow envelope. This option enhances brand awareness though. This also looks nicer than regular packaging options.
5. Wrap Individual Items
As an online business, it’s important to make sure your products are delivered to customers looking their best. One way to do this is to wrap individual items within the packaging.
This gives an extra level of protection, especially to fragile items. This also adds an extra level of excitement to the unboxing experience. Plus, you can add branding to the wrapping for another brand awareness opportunity.
6. Include Packaging Inserts
Once a customer purchases from you, you want to encourage them to purchase again. You can do this with packaging inserts that highlight the benefits of the purchased product or similar items.
These inserts can include any branded printed material.
- Catalogs
- Business cards
- Catalogs
- Special offer flyers
Make sure your branding is on all printed materials shipped with purchases. Also, make sure you include customized inserts that relate to their current purchase.
7. Include a Personalized Note
You can make a customer feel valued with a customized or personal note thanking them for their purchase. A handwritten note may not prove feasible, but you can still add a card to show you appreciate them.
Make sure you add a personal touch to thank you card templates. Include their name and personally sign the notes. You can also use a handwriting style font to make the cards feel more personal.
8. Include a Free Sample
Free samples make customers feel valued. This also provides an opportunity to showcase other products. You can even have sample sizes produced for these shipments.
Choose items that relate to the current purchase. This shows you understand their needs and have other items that can fit those needs. You can even offer a coupon to purchase the sampled item if they like it.
9. Create Branded Stickers
If you don’t want, or can’t purchase branded packaging materials, you can have branded stickers printed to add to the outside packaging. You can also use these stickers to hold wrapping material in place.
Branded stickers also act as another fun promotional item. You can add them as fun gifts with the shipment. This provides another opportunity to increase the unboxing experience and create customer loyalty.
10. Use Packing Slips Wisely
Using packing slips wisely means including packing slips with every shipment. This increases your brand trust by allowing customers to check that they received all the items they purchased.
Using these slips wisely also means placing them strategically. You don’t want packing slips on top of the purchases, but you want them easy to find.
Also, add your branding to the packing slips for another brand awareness opportunity. You might consider showing any savings on these slips. You can even add current offers to these slips.
The Packaging Experience as Customer Experience
96% of Americans have purchased items online at some point. Online shopping cuts out some of the customer experience opportunities, such as proving a company’s friendly atmosphere.
This means online businesses need to find other ways to provide that customer experience people are looking for. As you can see, this doesn’t end with the purchase. With the right branding and a dedication to customer appreciation, your packaging can help increase good customer experiences.
Take Your Shipments to the Next Level
If you understand the importance of packaging options towards customer experience, you can ensure that customers want to come back to you for future purchases. This means ensuring that you have the right materials and the right systems in place to take your shipments to the next level.
Do you need help with printed materials for your product shipping? Discover all the paperwork you need as an online business on the rest of our site.
