Creative packaging design for your online brand
Create an unboxing experience for your customers with these creative packaging design techniques
What can creative packaging design do for your business?
Creating a positive experience for your customer is the bottom line for running a business. Much like the packaging a product on the shelf will attract the eye of a passer-by, an attractive and creative design to your parcels can create an experience for customers when their package comes in the post. Integrating design with packaging is especially important in today’s viral marketing landscape, where unboxing videos from popular influencers can drive sales in a way that traditional campaigns can still struggle with.
Just look at some of todays top fashion retailers like Shein, Boohoo or ASOS. Any of their customers can likely instantly picture what a parcel from those brands looks like when it arrives at your door. It evokes an emotional response, which over time builds brand recognition to keep your customers coming back for more.
While an operation like ASOS is hard to envision, there are plenty of smaller ways you can achieve the same effect for your customers cheaply and reliably. In this guide we will take you through a few different methods for bringing some fun into your packaging and make use of clever graphic design practices to bring that bespoke design edge to your parcels.
Stickers and labels
One of the most cost-effective solutions for adding some flare to your parcel, custom stickers and labels can be produced in large quantities on a budget and will add an instant splash of branding to your parcel. We’ve made the Evri label that is required for sending a parcel as non-invasive as possible, so you’re free to decorate your box to your hearts content. Some things to consider when choosing the content for your stickers and labels:
Use your company logo
Reinforce branding with your eye-catching and memorable logo, tastefully placed in such a way that it is impossible to miss.
Get some colour on there
This is going to be the most immediate and effective way to trigger that excited response to seeing the parcel.
Write a message
Even a simple “thank you” for purchasing the product, or a little bit about your company and what your customers are contributing to is a fun way of building a persona to relate with before they’ve even opened the package.
Stay on-brand
If you’re company is classy or sophisticated, then minimalism might be your way of adding that delicate touch. If you’re company is eccentric or artistic then go nuts! You will know what is best for your brand, so trust yourself.
Consider sustainability
Just as it’s important to us as businesses, sustainability is now more important to customers than ever. So, not going over the top as to appear wasteful or negligent about the materials that you are using will reflect on your attitude towards the environment.
Custom packaging tape
Moving slightly further up the price ladder, let’s take a look at custom packaging tape. An excellent way of replacing a necessary component of a parcel with one that you can customise to meet your branding goals. While tougher to include more detailed messages, it is absolutely ideal for getting your logo seen, and building an ethos for your product with your company colour scheme and patterns.
With the industry-wide push for sustainable packaging, it is easy to find cheap eco-friendly packaging tape with custom designs. This will further reinforce your commitment to sustainability, whilst giving your parcels a creative edge. Our guide on how to wrap a parcel can show you the most efficient way to tape up your package.
Using custom tape in conjunction with stickers or labels can create the perfect look for your parcel, provided you balance the use of colour, logos, designs and messaging as to not feel like overkill. Sometimes less is more; all you’re looking to do is create a memorable experience for your customer that they can positively link to ordering your products. You’re not trying to blind them with advertising and marketing, just relate to your customer-base!
Stencils
A more manual solution to custom parcels designs, but by far one of the cheapest and most environmentally friendly if done right . Just a handful of personalised stencils with your desired message or simplified logo and you’re ready to start customising your packaging. These are incredibly versatile in their style, detail, size, and can give your parcels a very personal and hand-made quality. They’re also reusable, so all you need is one per design and you’re set almost indefinitely. We advise the use of water-based eco-friendly paints when marking your parcel with the stencil to keep on top of your carbon footprint.
The typically more time-consuming nature of painting a stencil design onto all of your parcels does limit its scalability when shipping in high volumes . Thankfully the premium feel of the hand-made touch that it brings, lends itself well to new establishing brands and products, or big-ticket items.
Use sustainable packaging
Back to basics but using sustainable packaging like reused boxes or bio-degradable materials when wrapping up your items to begin with can set you apart from other businesses who are using generic factory fresh boxes.
The Net Zero mission is in full swing, and customers are looking for more ways to cut down on their carbon emissions. Making a declaration with your packaging that you are committed to exploring sustainable solutions to your business model is a win for everyone involved, and it will resonate.
Check out our line of sustainable packaging products to cut down on plastic use in your business.
Interior leaflets
As we touched upon at the start of the guide, unboxing culture is growing with no signs of slowing down. Customers are invested in the process of getting to their product just as they are interested in the product itself. This presents a golden opportunity to curate a leaflet to place atop the contents of your parcel and the padding, so that when the box is opened, customers are immediately greeted with something to enhance their unboxing experience.
While all the previous tips are about branding and creating a parcel that catch the eye, this is where you can make a connect to your customers on a deeper level. On a leaflet you can include information about your company and your mission statement, offers to entice customers to check out more of your products, newsletter content to build a community for your business. A leaflet in the parcel is your opportunity to talk to your customers, and if you’ve successfully designed engaging and exciting packaging, then you’ve got a better chance that they’ll listen.
Still getting started?
We’ve got all of the resources you need to start sending your wonderful products to customers across the country and beyond. Our frequent sender hub breaks down prices, services, integrations and guides so you’ll never be in doubt when you’re sending with Evri. Boost your business today by becoming an Evri customer.