3 Extras You Need to Throw in Your Ecommerce Boxes

People love free things. It’s a universal truth. Cheap food tastes better. Cheap games are more fun to play. Why? Because they didn’t cost a thing. You didn’t have to go out of your way to pay someone for a product, you just got it . . . for free. For nothing. Nothing to you.

When it comes to running your ecommerce company, you should make this one of your top priorities. Yes, it’ll cost you a little bit of extra time and packaging supplies to add things to your product boxes. But yes, it’ll also pay dividends down the road.

No matter if it’s cheap for you to throw in or saves your customer money, you have to be throwing extras in your boxes. It makes your customer feel special to receive something more than they bargained for. They feel like there is a lot of value in that box, more than they expected. They feel like you cared about them, and so they’ll want to show you in the future that they care about your company (by paying you more money). If utilizing your extent of packaging supplies to ramp up your box’s presentation, both inside and out, is too much for you, that says a lot about your business.

Here are a few essential ideas when it comes to ecommerce box extras to include in your product boxes.

Coupons.

Look, we know your customers will be saving a little extra on their next purchase. But you’re still selling products. They’ll be hooked and want to spend even more as they buy more and more of your stuff. Figure out a way to give them coupons during the holidays. During all of their purchases. During abandoned cart transactions. Just make this the number one thing you throw in their product box.

Hand-written letters.

They don’t have to be long and flourishing. They don’t have to be on super expensive material. They don’t even have to go in every single product you mail off. But if you do this for your new customers, they’ll remember it. They’ll remember that you wanted to do a little extra legwork to make them feel like a valued customer. And they’ll tell their friends about you. They’ll buy more things down the road. This small gesture will keep your business on the uprise.

Merch.

It doesn’t have to be hats or clothes, but writing utensils with your company name on them is still a freebie that your customers will be into. Stickers are something they can slap on their laptops, which is free advertising for your company. Even something like a mug with your company name on it during every holiday season to show your appreciation for them is a neat idea.

Did You Know Cardboard Could be Used as Art?

The other day I was at a festival downtown perusing the many different tents that had set up shop for the day. I had biscuits with mushroom gravy for the first time in my life (didn’t even know it existed before then, really). I visited an old garage that had been turned into rustic, artsy coffee shop.

It seemed like the place to find interesting and unique things like those I saw early in the day, so I explored some more and came across probably the coolest art I had seen in awhile.

It was cardboard art.

The artist seemed to have taken old cardboard boxes of various sizes and painted cartoonish art reminiscent of street graffiti on them. The style was very Invader Zim-esque, with a boxy style to the lines (this was probably intentional). Another unique feature of the art was the use of many “layers” to create a 3D effect. The main focus always protruded from the background layer.

I was almost tempted to buy a piece because of how unique it was. Everything was cleanly and professionally done. There were smaller pieces that could be hung in an apartment or larger pieces for basements and party rooms.

Perhaps the thing that interested me most, though, was how familiar the medium was. Packaging supplies like cardboard boxes boxes are everywhere in our daily lives, yet they seem to be something we overlook. They’re almost entirely made for function with no other use, yet the repurposing of them as art was just brilliant.

Maybe that was the message, though. We pass by so many things in our daily lives and don’t stop to register what it is we use all the time. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are most brilliant. Pens, pencils, and markers, for instance, are essential to our lives, yet if we had no access to them but needed to write something down on paper, what would we use to write with instead?

There are many other packaging supplies we could think of that could be repurposed (even if it’s not art). Rubber bands are useful for hundreds of at-home needs. Bubble wrap is almost more of an entertainment than item for packaging and support. Packing tape is remembered more for its distinct sound when being unraveled than its actual use.

What other everyday items can you think of that elude your notice but are essential to productivity?

Efficiency Through Better Packaging

How you package your products impacts your business bottom line. Truth be told, sometimes consumers show reluctance in buying an item they are interested in just because its outer package isn't attractive enough. And what about the products that arrive by mail? The same truth holds good there. Better package leads to higher satisfaction with the product and higher chance that people will make purchase from that business again. Additionally, what business doesn't want to cut cost, increase profit and reduce labor cost all at once?

1. Going Green

How to achieve that efficiency with packaging, you may ask. After all, it is the last task in a product manufacturing process, and what is inside matters more, right? Wrong! A good packaging adds value to the product you are selling. Good packaging may come in many shapes and forms, the most popular being green packaging. No more PVC films, corrugated materials and broken glasses. Today's technology has led to the use of new Polyolefin materials that are flexible and inexpensive at the same time. Besides, they can be cut, dyed, printed and designed in various ways. Best of all though, they are environment friendly. So, new environment enthusiasts in the packaging field can take a note of this.

2. Thinking Way Ahead

One of the most common mistakes in a failing business is to procrastinate packaging decisions. It is always better for the company revenue if this decision is made as early as possible along with other important tasks. Why? Because delaying this decision means more expensive and clunky designs, waste of time and money. In essence, packaging should always be a topic to discuss in every business meeting held - be it in the start or somewhere in between. So, where to begin? Make an itemized list of your design requirements. Consider the size of the product, cost of packaging, space constraints, labeling and everything else related to this process.

3. Maintaining Packaging Machinery

This tip cannot be emphasized enough. Just like a car needs regular tune-ups, packaging machinery needs regular upgrades and maintenance in order to achieve required efficiency. So, do not hesitate in any way to make that call for a serious upgrade. Most of all, do not delay to maintain them as needed. With packaging machinery running smoothly, you will see reduced overhead cost, expenses close to or less than your budget and overall improvement in production.

4. Reducing Labels

Now that you have looked at a few tips to create efficiency in packaging products, it is time to focus on labels. Stick-on labels, printed labels and design labels can cost a lot if you are ordering from outside. So, why not use the default one that comes with shipping? This move can not only reduce unnecessary cost but prevent redundancy. Also, printing labels directly on the packaging supplies can cut an extra step out of the packaging process.

5. Gathering Information

If you are not keeping track of price for every material involved in packaging, such as cardstocks, labels, tape and polyolefin, you are doing no favor to your revenue growth. Because these prices can fluctuate almost every month, make sure that materials are affordable, and you have back up suppliers handy. Another way to cut cost is to buy in bulk whenever possible and beat the inflation.

Designing Packages for Smaller Brands

Finding the right packaging supplies for your product really all boils down to marketing. Everything from the design of the package to logo design and even the color should really act as one big call to action that will entice consumers into picking your product over the competition.

This is why it is very important to invest in a packaging design that makes your product stand out in a unique way, and help grow the brand which will, in turn, lead to the product being more marketable and profitable. Here are a few tips for developing the right packaging concept to propel any product upward in the market.

The first thing to keep in mind is the package's function and form. Fundamentally, the function of a package is to keep the contents inside safe while the form should be something that roughly approximates the size of the product only a bit bigger. However, wrapping the product in a plain box with some bubble wrap inside will do nothing to help the marketability or increase the chances of a customer purchasing it. The package needs to provide customers with the product information while also looking like an attractive option. In other words, the packaging needs to be as minimalist as possible while still looking stylish and unique.

This leads to the next tip which is to be creative. There are all sorts of ways to market a product that are both unique and attractive. The last thing that any company owner wants is for their product to be perceived as cheap, tacky, or inferior just because the packaging was poorly designed. This is why it is important to invest in the design process and not necessarily just take the most economical choice.

While it is good to be creative, this can sometimes lead to some problems and leads to the next tip which is to stay as concise as possible. Consumers are bombarded with all sorts of marketing campaigns on a regular basis, and if something is ambiguous in terms of what the product or company is, then there is a good chance that they will pass it by. There is precious little time for a product to grab a customer's eye, and if they can't tell what they're looking at, then chances are they will simply pass it by.

The next tip has to do with where the product is being sold. Brick and mortar companies have a distinct advantage where the senses of touch and smell are concerned. Consumers simply cannot engage those sense when shopping online and as such the marketing scheme and packaging supplies used will have to take that into account. Of course, how the packaging and marketing would need to be modified between brick and mortar and an online environment will depend greatly on what the product is.

Above all else, the best way to come up with the right packaging design to boost brand name and growth will probably require some outside help. It can be enticing, especially for a smaller company with limited resources, to try to handle all the marketing in-house to keep costs low. On the other hand, risk tends to equal reward and shelling out the extra money for an advertising agency now can mean reaping big rewards in the future.

Packaging Supplies Play a Role in What Customers Buy

Packaging supplies for products consumers are to buy dates back to 1035 when a Persian traveler going to Cairo reported seeing fruits, vegetables, foods, and other goods wrapped in colorful papers to sell to consumers. Since then, packaging has undergone many different evolutions and today it’s an industry that helps dictate what products customers will purchase in an ever-evolving sea of products. Today, the packaging is cited as one of the essential things to look at when selling an item.

The difference is made in first impressions where the customer has their eye drawn to that product over the others just like it surrounding it on a shelf in increasingly larger and more crowded stores. There are a lot of visual elements packaging supplies will add to a product, and they will play a role in the customer noticing that product and choosing it over another. A few of the most ingenious campaigns ever run are those are discussed below:

1. Antismoke Campaign: a company once ran an anti-smoke campaign by warning customers what their product could do to them. They packaged their cigarettes in a casket-like packaging instead of the traditional square point. You may end up here earlier when using this product. Point made!

2. Anti-Theft Lunchbox: This lunchbox had a zipper that leeched green dyes onto the packaging and food to make your lunch look moldy. Never have a coworker willing to eat your lunch again!

3. Wanted Snacks: Used “food villains” to depict the snack trying to be sold to tell you “You know you want them, so buy them!” to the consumer!

4. Dino-Gum: The teeth of the dinosaur are pieces of gum, and he looks like he is missing teeth every time you take a piece of gum out! Extract his teeth while chewing the gum!

5. Babee’s Honey: A jar of honey with stripes designed to look like the bumble bee the product came from! Adorable!

6. NYC Spaghetti: The spaghetti came out of the box in layers to look like a NYC skyscraper. Never struggle to get just the right amount of pasta out of the box ic you don’t need it all at once again! Such a cute idea! This sold very fast.

7. I’m Not a Battery: Salt and pepper shakers for the table that were designed to look like batteries. “Recharge the taste of your meal” literally!

8. AMPRO Bottle: Bottles of wine designed with a glass built into the wine bottle. Drink your wine anywhere, and don’t even worry about needing a glass. Talk about “ultimate convenience” taken literally.

9. Norsk OI: Showed the beer cans depicted as little gnomes put into a “barn” carrier instead of a traditionally-shaped box. Brilliant idea and is sold brilliantly as well!

The point is that you can sell any product of well with the right packaging. Sometimes that means taking the packing game literally and shaping the product to look like what it is or coming up with a great marketing plan it can help sell the product that you are trying to get consumers to buy. That will not change in the future. So, be ingenious, come up with a design, and watch it sell away! Make your product the most attractive. Make it should “THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD BUY ME!”