The packaging market is a market upon which many other markets depend. That is to say that without packaging, many products that we use everyday would never make it into stores. But for this same reason, it can often go overlooked. Packaging is often not considered for its own market value, and it can be all too easy to overlook its importance in our own business endeavours. In this post, we will put the packaging market under the microscope and examine why it is so important for your business and what state it is currently in.
The State of the Market
The packaging market is currently growing and is expected to continue doing so in the coming months and years. This is true both for in-store packaging and packaging for delivery and it is also true across industries. Luxury packaging is also seeing a surge.
Packaging is crucial for business as we will see in this post. But keep in mind that plastics are increasingly falling out of vogue. Consider the type of packaging and how it is likely to perform in the coming years.
Find more statistics at Statista
Packaging for Stores
In stores, packaging takes on a different role. Here, getting the packaging just right is crucial in order to satisfy the requirements of the store and in order to ensure it stands out on the shelf.
Choosing the main colours for your packaging is one of the most important decisions you will have to make right away. Chances are that the colours you choose will reflect the item you have inside, so if you're selling a sleek black phone, then you may want to make the packaging black as well. On the other hand, if you are going to use an image of the item itself on the front of the packaging (more likely if the packaging is completely closed with no transparencies), then you will want to ensure that the 'base colour' for the packaging is complementary and that the item looks good against that background. Alternatively you may want to use a photo to form the background, but should choose this photo based largely on the colour.
Colour will also impact on your packaging in a number of other ways too. For instance, using a high contrast colour or a bright colour will make your item stand out more among the other items on display. Likewise your choice of colour may be create some particular associations: green packaging for instance may communicate that your product is eco friendly, while black can suggest that it's corporate and business-oriented.
Why Packaging is Crucial for Delivery
Branding
Your packaging is a perfect opportunity to promote your branding and is essentially a large canvas for your images. What makes this even more effective is the fact that most people will be happy excited when they receive parcels - meaning that you can encourage your customers to start associating those emotions with your business.
A fantastic example of this is the packaging Amazon uses. Amazon has long used a very distinctive type of package that also has a prominent logo on it, and this has been effective enough that many of us now get a feeling of excitement just from seeing an Amazon package even when it's not for us. And just to prove that this association wasn't a happy accident, notice that Amazon's logo even looks a little like a smile. It's so genius that people almost become addicted to shopping online.
Labelling
While it is important to ensure that your packaging is secure enough to protect your items and stop them from being damaged in transit, perhaps the most important aspect of your packaging is the packaging labels – as without these your item would never reach its destination no matter how well packaged it was.
Good packaging labels are necessary in order for the destination address to be visible and in order for the delivery company to know where to take it. It is important then for your packaging labels to first and foremost be legible so that they can be read, but also to be highly adhesive to ensure that they won't come off during transit. Good packaging labels also have other advantages. The main kind used will be the large white stickers that you can print onto, and this has a variety of benefits on top of just being legible.
For instance, the ability to rapidly print them off and stick them on will mean that you can quickly attach labels to lots of different packages and this way you will be able to prep your packages over a shorter duration of time. This is very useful if you are sending large quantities of parcels or envelopes as the time saved will add up and mean that you have more time to create more high quality output.
Most packages will also need more than one packaging label. The main one that most people will think of is of course the label that will go on the front of the package and this will be the one that you use in order to note the correct address etc. However, at the same time you will also likely want to use them in order to put a 'return to sender' address on the back so that undelivered parcels can be returned to you thereby saving you money and supplies. This way if something does not get to its intended recipient then you can simply resend the item – no need to apologise to customers or clients and no need to pay to purchase the items once again. This will also be far better for your reputation as you are able to quickly send customers their items after they have failed to arrive. Packaging labels then have many important uses and you should ensure that you take time to pick out labels that will stand out and be easily legible, as well as sticking to the parcels and envelopes they are intended for and being easy to add in large quantities.
Extras
Getting a parcel makes anyone excited and taking advantage of this is a great way to improve the popularity of your business. If you want to make your recipients happier still though, then look for ways that you can exceed expectations and make them feel obligated to your business in exchange for your kindness. For instance you could opt to include a small free gift in your packaging, or even just a card to say thank you. Any gesture of good will will help to give your customers that feeling of satisfaction and make them feel like they made the right decision in shopping with you. And of course there are other promotional opportunities here too - including a money-off voucher for their next purchase for instance will benefit your business on countless levels.
Protection
Also, crucial of course is that the packaging is able to protect the goods inside. To this end, many companies will use corrugated cardboard and other designs that are capable of absorbing impact. Bubble wrap and other elements can also be used. That said, it’s still important to avoid wasting materials and to ensure that customers can easily get into their parcels when they arrive.
Consider that for an ecommerce business or any other company that delivers, the packaging and the delivery are the USP. This is that brand’s main opportunity to make itself known and to demonstrate its worth – so it’s important to get it right.
And with ecommerce growing exponentially year on year, it’s no surprise that packaging is also in high demand.
