E-commerce and the online shopping sector have made many strides and are arguably some of the most profitable in the business world today. With COVID-19 encouraging more customers to shop online, there’s an increasing need for businesses to make a first impression on customers they will likely never meet.
Advertising is one of the most important aspects of the whole customer experience for the e-commerce business. However, custom boxes may be one highly underrated part of the customer experience. The big question is: do custom boxes impact customer decision-making? And how does it help reel in customers and keep them loyal? Let’s find out in this article, starting with what custom boxes are!
What Are Custom Boxes?
Custom boxes are customized packaging specifically designed to fit your company and the products your company makes and ships. They are typically made to fit the product perfectly while aiming to protect it better than any generic or standard packaging.
More often than not, producers require these custom boxes to pass through a series of engineering, prototype, testing, and design processes to make sure they work perfectly. The design of custom boxes is unique, both aesthetically and physically.
What's more, these custom boxes are also customized by printing a company logo, patterns, pictures, shapes, and any brand-related thing the company wants on them that influences customers’ decision-making.
Why Do You Need Custom Boxes?
Using custom boxes to package your products has a ton of benefits. For a start, it is a cheap way to build solid brand recognition and create much-needed buzz for your brand when you use quality customized material and designs. The whole package should give customers the first impression of a high-quality product. But if you’re still wondering why you need custom boxes, here are a few top reasons why most businesses are getting one:
1. Custom Box Is A Customer Magnet
Businesses that aren’t already using custom boxes for their products are missing out on the golden marketing opportunity. Custom boxes are designed to attract the attention of potential customers, and they are customer magnets with their unique design for aesthetics and functionality.
2. You Can Custom Boxes For Different Product Types
Irrespective of the specific type of product you offer the market, you can get custom boxes that fit. Companies that offer custom boxes can come up with packaging that fits your product and still appeal to your customers and potential buyers. Whether you need custom cosmetic boxes, shoe boxes or custom folding cartons, Arka can help you create the perfect custom box for your brand.
3. Products That Are Too Odd For Premade Packaging Use Custom Boxes
You should consider custom boxes if you sell odd-shaped products because standard, premade boxes won’t deliver what you need. If your products are relatively heavier, you’re better off using a custom box. It helps give your product the much-needed protection it requires, and your customers will be thankful for that.
4. Stylishly Cost-Effective
Custom boxes are a superb way to save a lot of money stylishly. This is important because one of the biggest challenges a business can face is saving. However, when you use custom boxes, standard/premade boxes, you’re going to face several challenges, one of which is the wrong size.
You can easily overcome this challenge by going for custom boxes. With this option, you can talk to a manufacturer about your product’s specific size and dimensions, and they will make a box accordingly.
5. It Could Increase Customer Spending
The use of custom boxes with their unique designs and fonts could increase customer spending on your products. Customers often make purchasing decisions based on their perception of the packaging and its design. So custom boxes could be a way to increase the number of products you sell monthly if customers find them more appealing.
6. Opportunity To Personalize Your Brand’s Touch
Brands that introduce some sort of personalized touch to the products they offer will likely receive more sales because customers will relate to them more. Custom boxes are one way to personalize your brand’s touch and make your customers relate to your products more. And if you’re big on safety as all brands should be, you can use a custom box to ensure that.
7. The Need To Extend Product’s Lifespan
With custom boxes, you should expect to attract more customers, improve sales, and even extend the lifespan of your product. It is normal for customers to consider how long a product will last before buying it.
Depending on your product, they can tell this if your brand uses good quality custom boxes, making them look forward to unboxing a product with even higher quality. Marks of guarantee on your packaging could even increase the value of your product. Remember that the guarantee of or psychological improvement in your product’s perceived quality builds trust and increases sales.
How Does Custom Boxes Impact Customer Decision-making?
Purchase isn’t and shouldn’t be the end of a sale. Your sale needs to be a full service, from the customer service and manufacturing quality down to delivery and packaging. Everything should contribute to making a successful sale.
A Custom box is a perfect way to help your product gain the recognition it deserves. It is an effective tool to pass on the message you, your product, or your brand stands for while securing the contents from damage. Here are some ways custom boxes impact customer decision-making:
1. Customers Prefer Well-Protected Products
This is no secret; customers prefer well-protected products, and custom boxes are aesthetically pleasing and are also made to hold and protect their contents. This is undoubtedly important because customers want the products they order to remain intact from manufacturers to the logistics chain.
Premade boxes don’t share the same dimension as your product and can lead to damages that will infuriate customers. However, with custom folding cartons designed to hold your product specifically, fragile content will be protected during the product’s shipping and delivery. A well-protected product means a happy and satisfied customer.
2. Custom Boxes Keep Customers Safe
While one of the main purposes of custom boxes might be to keep the product safe and intact, it could also keep your customers safe. In shipping products, you may need to list important info such as ingredients and any potentially toxic material present in your product. While listing such on your custom boxes might seem like it will negatively hurt your brand reputation, it shows you’re maintaining full transparency and safety.
Customers look for brands that are 100% honest with them, and mentioning such information will get you an equally loyal customer base and positive reviews. It also helps you avoid hurting first-time customers who could bring you negative reviews.
3. Custom Boxes Creates A Memorable Experience
We live in a world where we live a fair part of our lives on social media (social media influencers trump the rest of us). Social media is an increasingly important means for brands to promote their products but not without their customers. Unboxing videos on platforms like TikTok or Instagram attracts a lot of hype, and Influencers post these videos showing off new and exciting products they buy.
Products that come with packages that hold unique, quirky, or sophisticated traits will feel more inclined to record their reaction to these features in real-time. This is a great way to capture and promote a memorable customer experience.
And if you’re attentive enough, you can listen and take notes of suggested improvements to your packaging or product design. The more memorable experience your custom boxes create, the more patronage and even “cult following” your brand attract.
4. Building Brand Awareness and Recognition
Custom packaging is an underrated way to build brand awareness, and the more brand awareness, the more likely you are to get more customers. A custom box is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to show off your brand while using it as a form of advertising. Unlike with premade boxes, you get a chance to display relevant information about your products, your brand, and its message.
Besides, you have tons of competitors to deal with, but a custom box might be the deciding factor that encapsulates your brand. It is the first impression new customers will get of your product/brand. A unique custom box will have new and existing customers looking forward to unboxing them on social media.
5. It Grabs Customers’ Attention
A 2018 Paper and Packaging Board study shows that 7 in 10 consumers admit that packaging designs influence their buying decision. Custom boxes are one of the fundamental parts of capturing customers’ attention, especially from a marketing point of view, and consumers often choose based on packaging. Your custom box is often the first thing customers get exposed to and see, so leaving the first impression is crucial. With custom boxes, you can tailor the package your product comes in to represent and fit your product giving it higher credibility.
6. Everyone Appreciates a Fine Blend of Practicality and Functionality
Custom boxes are your best if you want your brand to offer customers a fine mix of practicality and functionality. A custom box is as practical as functional and could help your product stand out in a very competitive market.
What’s more? Innovative packages like custom boxes that also go on to solve issues competitors couldn’t garner well-deserved publicity.
7. Customers Want Eco-friendly Packaging
More and more customers seek eco-friendly products and packaging as they become environmentally conscious. People observe their carbon footprint more and are attentive to the effects their lifestyle choices leave on the planet.
With this awareness comes the need for eco-friendly packaging solutions, and custom boxes can afford you the choice to offer them. The more environmentally friendly your packaging and its product is, the more attention it will attract from loyal, environmentally conscious customers.
What You Need To Use Custom Boxes To Impact Customer’s Purchasing Decision
Here are some features that all eye-catching custom boxes must come with to impact customer’s purchasing decisions:
1. Unique Design
Your new and existing customers are more likely to return to your brand for another purchase if you sell products in a custom box with unique designs. Besides, we’ve all had a packaging or box we’ve refused to throw out and simply reused because of their unique, functional, and well-designed packaging.
2. Effective Logo
The average consumer attaches emotions to most of their favorite brands and products. More so, this extends to how they view the brand logo. To leave a lasting effect on your customers and build more brand recognition or awareness, you need an effective logo placed on all your custom boxes. An effective logo helps customers remember the brand easily, and if the emotions they identify with the brand are positive, they make a positive purchasing decision.
3. Readable Typography
Your font choice is just as important as your logo and could be a defining feature of your custom boxes. Use text to let customers know just how beneficial your product is to them but make sure the words are easy to read or scan through. Customers take seconds when scanning for products on supermarket shelves. Products that aren’t legible can prove frustrating to read, and potential customers will move on to other products.
4. Pay Attention To Coloring of the Custom Boxes
Eye-catching coloring is one of the fastest ways to grab consumers’ attention while boosting brand awareness. Remember that color plays an important role in custom boxes and their ability to influence customer purchasing decisions. For instance, the color red is a great choice in periods your company has clearance because it creates a sense of urgency in customers.
Conclusion
Most business owners ignore or look down on the power of packaging as a vehicle to tell and bring their brand's story to their customers’ doorsteps. Small businesses that use custom boxes have a chance to make every part of the customer’s unboxing experience exciting. What’s more, high-quality custom boxes can do the trick if you’re after a way to rebrand your business and escape obscurity.
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