Shipping goods directly to a customer has become a crucial aspect of just about every business that sells physical goods. And with so much invested in building an effective, lean supply chain, many companies want to know whether custom shipping boxes are worth the added expense.
Learn all about custom shipping box designs, how they work and their benefits to decide whether the investment is worth the cost.
What are Custom Shipping Boxes?
Just a few years ago, seeing a package on your front porch was thrilling. Today, it’s commonplace. But custom packing boxes can help make your brand stand out and provide that jolt of excitement for your customers because they’ll know exactly what they’ve received.
The majority of customers (63%) forget what they order until it shows up on their doorstep. And 56% of customers can’t remember what they ordered until they open the package.
Custom boxes brand your packages and provide the exact dimensions, shape and internal cushioning to protect your goods in transit and showcase your product to your customer so you can stand out in a heavily saturated market.
While an exterior logo is certainly important for branding the package and creating memorable experiences for customers, so is the messaging and unboxing process.
Shipping boxes with a custom logo will immediately indicate what’s inside, which can encourage customers to get the box from their porches and preserve its contents in the case of perishable items.
When considering custom boxes, you should also review these factors.
- Size
- Shape
- Branding printed directly on box
- Cushioning/product protection
- Shipping cost
- Materials the box is made from (i.e., eco-friendly)
- Customer unboxing experience
- Ease of ordering and reordering
7 Ways Custom Shipping Boxes Can Add Value to Your Business
While custom shipping materials add cost to your business, they provide benefits that offset those costs. Here’s a look at what custom shippers can expect when customizing the shipping box experience.
Creating Brand Awareness
Once a customer has placed an order with you, there are few opportunities to continue building brand awareness outside of the packaging and follow-up emails. With clear branding, customers won’t forget what they ordered or who they ordered it from when it arrives on their porch.
Your target market will start to associate your company with a specific aesthetic even before they use your product. The packaging offers an opportunity to share key details with the customer, such as a mission statement or brand promise. With these small additions, you can make it evident how to reach out if something isn’t quite right about the product or if they have questions.
Building brand recognition can also aid other marketing tactics. When a customer sees an ad for your company or a box with your logo on a neighbor’s porch, they’ll recall their experience with your brand, which can increase the likelihood of repurchases.
In today’s market, 81% of customers want to form a relationship with a brand. But to do so, they’ll need to know and recognize that brand, which is where custom packaging comes in. And loyal customers are worth every penny put toward custom packaging because loyal customers spend an average of 33% more per order.
Making a Lasting First Impression
Front porches flooded with packages make it more challenging to stand out and make a high-quality first impression. But that certainly doesn’t mean it is impossible.
Custom boxes allow you to share important little details with your customers or wow them with facts, such as the sustainability of your packaging or that your products and their boxes are made in the U.S.
The first impression might be all you get, so you want to make it memorable and worthwhile.
Custom Box Sizes
Many companies are seeking cheap shipping options to manage costs. An important factor in shipping rates is the box size. Having shipping boxes that are right-sized for your products reduces empty space, which lowers expenses and better protects your products.
While many standard shipping box sizes are available for bulk purchasing, custom box sizes will help you manage expenses while protecting your products. You provide your product dimensions and characteristics to custom box companies, and they’ll design shipping materials specifically for those products.
Flexible Design
During campaigns or product launches, you can customize your shipping experience with various designs and messages. While you’ll need to calculate volumes carefully to avoid overordering and having to use the boxes past the campaign timeline, these custom messages can be effective at marketing products and services to your existing customer base.
Plus, you can select specific package types to meet the needs of each product. For example, some products might be safe to ship using a bubble mailer, while others need the added protection that a shipping box provides.
You can print custom boxes based on the season, such as holidays, to help make the season special for your customers. Or you can let customers select the occasion they are purchasing a gift for, such as a birthday, to allow your team to customize the gift experience with a special birthday box.
These little details can help give you a competitive edge over others in your industry to further solidify your brand as the brand of choice.
Increased Sales
Custom packaging can boost your company’s sales in a variety of ways.
- People are naturally attracted to visually appealing things, making reorders more probable.
- Friends and neighbors will see the branded package on the front porch, providing an advertising opportunity for your company.
- Products shipped in the right box are less likely to get damaged in the supply chain, which means a better overall experience for customers.
- The unboxing process will be memorable, giving you an edge over your customers.
- Customers will experience greater brand awareness for the product, especially if they purchased it from a third-party retailer.
Sustainable Packaging
Although e-commerce has provided many outstanding benefits for consumers, the industry can harm the environment. Cardboard boxes are biodegradable. But as the boxes break down, they produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas. You want to ensure that your customers recycle the boxes to reduce the chances of this.
Using boxes and mailers made from 100% recycled materials can make the shipping industry more eco-friendly. Plus, the ink you use to print your custom boxes can be more eco-friendly, such as water-based or algae ink. These options will reduce the environmental impact your company has on the environment, which will further position your brand as the best one in your industry.
Buy at Scale
Purchasing custom boxes at scale can help reduce the total cost of your shipping materials. Additionally, you’ll have a more consistent supply of boxes when working with a reliable custom shipping box supplier.
The higher volumes you print your boxes in, the more cost-saving per box that you’ll experience. You’ll just need to consider cash flow carefully to ensure you can cover the upfront cost of a volume box order.
Stand Out with Custom Packaging
Shipping companies can stand out with custom packaging materials and protect their products effectively with the right cushioning. You’ll create lasting impressions with your customers and likely boost your sales thanks to better brand recognition and the customer experience. While custom boxes may cost more than standard ones, you’ll see the cost savings back in cheaper shipping rates and increased sales.
FAQ
When used correctly, custom boxes can be well worth the expense because they reduce waste, lower shipping expenses and make better first impressions with your customers.
Corrugated cardboard is the best material for shipping boxes. These sturdier options protect fragile items and are widely available, making them competitively priced.
Buying custom shipping boxes will likely cost you less when reviewing total shipping expenses because they’ll reduce shipping costs, especially for light products that travel short distances.
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