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Having It Your Way with Custom Packaging Fulfillment
by Staci Americas on May 3, 2022 10:00:00 AM
Your eCommerce customers may not have the intended experience without a custom packaging fulfillment solution. To drive repeat business in online retail, it helps to have a bit of a “wow factor” during the customer unboxing experience. To ensure a maximum wow factor, all elements of the buying experience must be executed well and on time: online ordering, warehouse fulfillment, delivery, and unboxing.
But custom packaging is often overlooked as a driver of customer delight and loyalty. A study by a packaging company found that Premium Shoppers are 15 percent more likely to make a repeat purchase because of custom packaging.
To this end, ensure you give equal consideration to your product packaging. Though the packaging is one of the easiest areas to overlook, it plays a crucial role in the eCommerce customer experience.
Custom Packaging Fulfillment Options
Let’s examine what we mean by custom packaging. Some of the many options for custom packaging include:
- Colored/branded dunnage (air pillows, tissue paper, etc.)
- Inserts (thank you notes, personalized packing slips, marketing materials, product samples, discount offers)
- Custom logo stamps, stickers, or tape
- Uniquely shaped or multi-depth cartons
- Boxes/bags with logo or custom messaging printed inside
- Molded plastic inserts to hold bottles or fragile items
These and other custom packaging strategies can contribute to the “wow factor” you’re aiming for.
Is Custom Packaging Fulfillment Worth the Extra Cost?
Though implementing some of these custom packaging solutions will increase overall fulfillment costs per order, the benefits will easily outweigh those costs. If you’re trying to justify a slight increase in fulfillment spend for custom packaging, consider these advantages:
- Competitiveness. Many online sellers feel that their job ends when the parcel hits the customer’s front porch, so they choose to save a few cents per order with generic packaging. But if your product itself is not differentiated, what’s to stop the customer from buying elsewhere next time? Use custom packaging to create a connection with your brand that competitors can’t match.
- Market position. Do you want your product viewed as generic or premium? High-end goods feel less impressive without quality packaging. Rather than treating packaging as an afterthought, consider it an extension of the product. 51% of respondents to the eCommerce packaging study cited earlier said that customized packaging made them feel the product inside was more valuable.
- Consistency. Do you ship from multiple warehouses? Custom packaging fulfillment – with a clear SOP across facilities – ensures a consistent customer experience, no matter which warehouse ships your product.
- Brand exposure. Some shoppers enjoy unpacking products on social media. These unboxing videos amount to free marketing for your brand, and attractive custom packaging increases your brand’s likelihood of being shared online.
- Dimensional control. Though custom packaging fulfillment may slightly increase your fulfillment costs, strict management of packaging design can allow you to minimize the dimensions of parcels. Minimizing dimensional weight costs may help you offset what you spent on packaging.
- Extra protection. Broken or defective goods can significantly harm your brand. Custom-designing your packaging allows you to incorporate extra protection for fragile items to avoid leaks and breakage.
These benefits make it easy to see why the slightly higher cost of custom packaging is worth it, especially for premium goods.
An Example of Custom Packaging Fulfillment at Work
As an example of what a real-world custom packaging fulfillment solution might look like, Staci Americas has implemented a unique solution for one of our clients in the nutritional health sector.
Packaging for this client includes a branded box with a tissue paper foldover inside, imprinted with a logo. While this may seem simple enough, this client is highly invested in providing that wow factor for its customers. To achieve this goal, our warehouse associates handwrite a personal thank you note, including the customer’s name, on the inside flap of each box. Of course, our associates must take care to make the writing legible and attractive. Our client has put handwritten notes in each box since the early days of its business, and we were happy to help the company find a way to keep doing so even as order volumes grow to tens of thousands per month.
Whether you need a simple box with a logo or something more involved, Staci Americas Fulfillment and our packaging partners can help you turn fulfillment packaging into a competitive advantage. Please reach out to us to see how we can help.
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