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You may be wondering, “What’s there to think about packaging?”.
When it comes to deliveries for your business, the answer is, a lot – especially for the future.
It’s not merely enough to package your products and parcels the way you used to. Everything (literally, almost everything) is interconnected and more and more features can be used for more than one purpose – or at least redone to be better. Not taking this into consideration means that you’re not making the most of your opportunities when packaging for your deliveries.
Here are a handful of practices that you can start taking into consideration when packaging practices:
#1 Personalization and Customization
#2 Easy and Convenient Returns
#3 Sustainable Packaging
#1 Personalization and Customization
Personalization and Customization’ is a trending thing when it comes to marketing, but what does it mean?
Well, it’s likely you’ve already heard, seen or been in contact with some form of personalized material.
Say for example, you’re scrolling Instagram and you come across an ad. It’s likely that the ad itself was targeted at you, and specifically personalized to accommodate what marketers think would appeal to you based on your online search and click activity.
For sure, it’s not just Instagram. You can see personalized ads all over social media platforms.
Also, the newsletters that get sent to your email with your name? Yup, that’s one form of personalization too – and there’s a lot more.
Product wise, you can find various products and services that can be personalized to your liking.
Don’t like the sport shoe on display in the store? Make your own. Want to gift a mug or a shirt but getting one that you can find in a store isn’t special enough? Design it to make it uniquely yours.
This begs the question – Why is there so much personalization and customization going on?
Simple: we like to own what we own. Being able to personalize – or have something personalized for us – means that we’re delivered something that caters to us; our needs, desires, personality and character.
That is how you create uniqueness and differentiation for your business and your brand.
This shift from generic to personalized marketing is predicted to also have an impact on packaging for businesses.
As deliveries become more common and more e-commerce businesses and services pop-up, businesses will need to come up with new ways to create better impressions with their customers. Brands and businesses that can create their own personalized and unique packages will be those who can stand out and differentiate themselves.
Done right, personalized packaging will give you the opportunity to market your brand as their purchases are being delivered to them.
Think of designing and creating attractive, appealing packaging as a potential marketing tool for your business.
How?
When people receive attractively designed stuff, what’s the first thing that they feel?
Excitement and pleasure. They’re happy with their purchase. Now, they want to share their happiness and they post it on social media.
Wouldn’t that be a great way for you to generate user-generated content from your customers?
Give your customers a reason to be excited and pleased. Give them a reason to take a picture or a video of your packaging and share it on their social media platforms.
You won’t necessarily have to create an individual, personalized package just for one customer – although that is in itself something to consider – but rather, come up with a distinct packaging design for your own brand.
There are countless ways you can create your own special and unique packaging. You can:
- Design your own flyers or parcels – services such as O2O and Packlane offer business the ability to design and create their own packaging.
- Print out and include personalized coupons based on your users purchases – personalized coupons are great for giving your customers a reason to come back and buy from you again.
- Customize your air waybills – sometimes, even something as small as designing your own air waybills can make a difference.
There’s a lot more ways for you to turn your packaging into something more than just eventual waste paper and plastic. You just need to find what works for you.
#2 Easy and Convenient Returns
As a customer, there’s nothing more frustrating than finally getting the parcel you’ve been waiting for, only to realize that the product isn’t what you wanted it to be.
Why? Because it means one thing: “I’m going to have to return this. Now, wait.. How am I going to return this?”
We all know how that feels.
The disappointment when it doesn’t fit right, or not being satisfied with how the product is.
Getting a product that you’ll need to return or exchange is frustrating because, firstly, you don’t get to use what you bought but also, you then have to find a way to return or exchange the item.
What’s going to make this worse, is if the return process isn’t convenient.
Imagine dealing with a disappointing purchase, and then having to go through the hassle of returning the product. Some customers even chose to keep purchases that they don’t like just because the return process is troublesome .
If this process isn’t as easy as one-two-three, I’m unlikely to have a favourable view of the purchase. Yes, I sound fickle, but it’s safer to assume that your customers think that way too – or at least something like that (maybe not everyone is as fickle as me…).
This is why it’s absolutely essential that businesses find or begin to create systems that enable easy returns, such as:
- Seek partnerships with companies that complement your return needs.
- Prepare pre-printed return labels that your customer can immediately use if they need to make a return. Rather than having to go through the hassle of printing out their air waybills and manually packaging their orders, they can just attach the labels you’ve already provided.
- At the very least, have a returns policy prepared for your parcels that enable you to process and receive your returns easily.
One service that does this very well is Zalora.
When parcels from Zalora arrive, customers already have their pre-printed return air waybills in their package. If they need to make an exchange or return, all they need to do is to send in a submission on the mobile app or desktop website and paste the air waybill on their repackaged parcel. From there, they can then decide how they want to return the item.
As of writing, Zalora offers customers the ability to conveniently drop off their parcels at participating outlets. They’re also recently developed a Grab Delivery option where users can order a Grab Delivery service to collect the parcel from them rather than having to do the drop-off on their own.
The only problem with the Zalora model is that it’s hard for the everyday ecommerce business to replicate. Ecommerce businesses can, however, optimize for that kind of returns policy by looking for delivery services that allow for easy returns.
#3 Sustainable Packaging
Sustainability is another one of those words that seems to keep reverberating within and amongst industries – and for good reason.
Businesses and customers (‘people’ in general) are becoming more and more aware and sensitive about the impact of their actions on the climate and the environment.
They know that what they do, buy and everything in between has an impact on the state of the world – and they want to do something about it. Again, it’s good to assume that your customers have the same thinking.
Give your customers a way to do something about it when they purchase from you.
You get bonus points for doing your part in ensuring that your parcels are packaged and delivered in an environmentally friendly way. What does that entail?
For one, reduce the amount of materials when packaging your items. Of course, make sure it’s well secured and safe for shipping, and wrapped as neatly as possible but try to avoid access packaging and don’t overdo this process.
The more the customer has to go through in order to open their parcel, the more it shows how much waste you’re generating in your shipping.
Here is a quick guide for you in the ‘how-to’ do sustainable shipping.
Now comes the part where I’ll need to convince you to give this ‘sustainable shipping’ practice a try. So, why should you practice sustainable shipping?
For one, by reducing the amount of material usage, you’re killing two birds with one stone: (1) you’re saving costs on packaging material (2) the parcel will probably look neater and easier for your customer to unwrap.
Furthermore, brands that are seen to be doing their part in participating in environmentally friendly practices are more favourable amongst consumers – especially those conscious about the environment.
If you’re looking to take it another step further, consider investing in biodegradable packaging materials.
“You really want me to invest in something that’s going to cost me more?”
It’s true that obtaining such materials more costly than the standard packaging materials, but this is where you can also stand to gain.
In a research done by McKinsey & Company, over 70% of people are willing to pay up to 5% more just to go green with their packaging.
When presented with the opportunity to choose between costs and environmental impact, people are more likely, now more than ever, to choose the latter because they understand the cost of waste materials to the environment.
Make the most of this by doing your part in creating a commerce environment that supports sustainable shipping practices, whilst giving your customers the peace of mind that they’re supporting a business that is friendly to the environment.
Follow these tips when you package your parcels, and you're sure to impress your customers.
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