Importance of Product Packaging for Your Businesses

If your business still views packaging as simply a vessel to protect your products, you’re missing out on an opportunity to advertise your brand and attract new customers! Product packaging can communicate your company’s values and brand identity to customers, influencing the consumer experience. Your products will stand out on the shelf or provide customers with an engaging, branded unboxing experience.

Below, we’ll discuss how a packaging strategy is important for businesses, including the benefits of a strong packaging design, why a package’s functionality matters and extra considerations for e-commerce packaging. 

Why Branding Matters for Product Packaging Design

 In a sea of competitors, you want your products to stand out. Packaging design should be a fundamental part of your marketing strategy. Consider how your packaging design reflects your brand. Having a solid brand can build customer loyalty by helping consumers recognize your company’s products immediately. Packaging can also be an opportunity for your company to communicate with customers through personalized notes or unique, eye-catching designs.

Your packaging design should reflect your company’s identity. Consider your business’s mission, vision and values, and conduct market research to determine the best color schemes and designs for your products. Is your company’s brand modern and dynamic or more traditional? Clear, impactful branding that represents your company influences the customers’ shopping experience and sways their behavior. For example, you can use color to impact mood, reflect your brand and influence customer behavior.

The following colors evoke different messages:

• Red: Excitement, energy, passion and power
• Orange: Success, confidence, sociability and happiness
• Yellow: Creativity, warmth, energy and complexity
• Green: Calmness, naturalness, freshness and optimism
• Blue: Peace, sincerity, loyalty and competence
• Purple: Luxury, mystery, imagination and spirituality
• White: Innocence, peacefulness, cleanliness and honesty
• Black: Sophistication, boldness, security and power
• Brown: Reliability, ruggedness, trustworthiness and simplicity

Branded packaging also adds to the customer experience, impacting an individual’s first interactions with your product — and potentially their first impression of your company. Let customers engage with your product through a unique unwrapping or unboxing experience. Your consumers may be more likely to share their experience with your product’s packaging on social media through unboxing videos or aesthetic photographs.

Functionality of the Packaging 

Above all, packaging should be functional, properly protecting products during shipping, on the shelf and potentially in someone’s home. For example, a consumer may not immediately use a food product they purchased. Therefore, food packaging must protect the product during transportation to and from the store and on the shelf at home after purchase.

Working with a packaging professional can help you develop functional, custom packaging solutions that protect your products and preserve the customer experience. For example, a professional can help you stay compliant with industry regulations, especially for companies that regularly handle sensitive items.

The following are functional product packaging examples for different industries:

• Financial, gaming and gambling: Companies that regularly handle bulk amounts of coins like banks and casinos require secure, tamper-evident cash deposit and coin bags. These bags should also feature a space to record information, including the date, contents, packer, department and total value, plus who the money is to and from.
• Law enforcement: The law enforcement industry relies on tamper-proof evidence bags to safeguard sensitive items. Evidence bags prevent mishandling and contamination of evidence during transportation for testing or storage. They should also contain a space to write vital information, including the contents, date, officer, case number, suspect and victim.
• Health care: Hospitals and pharmacies require packaging to store patient valuables and transport medications. Bags for patient valuables should have an adhesive closure to keep particularly valuable items like watches and jewelry safe, while pharmacy bags ensure medications reach patients without tampering. 

Top Considerations for E-Commerce Packaging 

Companies that primarily sell products online don’t have to stand out among many items on a shelf to attract customers. However, e-commerce packaging should still reflect your brand identity while appropriately protecting products during shipping and storage. E-commerce goods are handled many times before they reach the consumer, so creating durable packaging solutions is crucial.

Keeping items safe during transit will improve the customer experience and increase trust in your brand by preventing disappointment from a damaged product. It will also decrease costs for your company, as customers will be less likely to return products.

Below are other top considerations for e-commerce packaging:

• Reduce packaging size: Customers may be more likely to buy products with lower shipping costs. Your e-commerce packaging design should minimize a package’s dimensional (dim) weight, which is the space a package takes up in relation to its weight. Efficient packaging should fit the product while still protecting it. If the packaging is too big for a product, you’ll have to fill the space with other materials, increasing shipping costs and decreasing the number of items you can ship at once.
• Decrease waste: Streamlining your packaging design will also improve the customer experience by decreasing waste. Inefficient designs require more materials, complicating the customer’s experience with unboxing a product. Reducing waste and using recyclable materials for your packaging will also communicate a company value of eco-friendliness to customers — something many people value.
• Make your packaging attractive: E-commerce packaging should be both durable and attractive, providing a branded experience for your customers. Consumers anticipate the arrival of your product on their doorstep, so make its packaging stand out with a box representing your brand identity. Many consumers also post unboxing videos on social media, sharing their interactions with product packaging. When people post their positive experiences unboxing a product they ordered online, they’re providing free digital advertising for your brand. Ensure no items are damaged from shipping to create a successful unboxing experience.
• Facilitate returns: Regardless of how strong your product packaging is, customers may still want to return products — even if they are in perfect condition. Customers don’t have the same ability to try out or see your e-commerce products as they do in stores. Therefore, help retain customer loyalty by offering an easy return process. Consider using a box with a pull tab and adhesive strip or providing an extra poly mailer bag to facilitate returns. 

Get a Quote for Custom Printed Logo Bags 

Designing attractive, durable packaging that features your logo in a prominent place is crucial for increasing brand recognition and customer loyalty. For decades, Connover Packaging has provided custom tamper-evident and tamper-proof bags, retail bags, poly mailers and other custom packaging solutions. Our team will manage your custom printed logo bag order every step of the way — from graphic design to the end of the manufacturing process. Contact us today to request a quote or free sample!