Does your packaging pass the digital-shopper test?

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It is no brainer to say that good packaging design helps in swelling up sales numbers. The question is this: is your packaging design as good for click-and-scroll format as it is for brick-and-mortar format? E-commerce was thriving even before the pandemic. But in the post-pandemic era, even those who were hesitant of buying online are turning to online shopping for reasons of safety coupled with convenience and better deals & discounts. It is vital to integrate this shift in market dynamics in your packaging strategy to leverage this trend better. To get you started, in this blog we have put together some ideas which will help you to come in the good books of digital shoppers.

Eye Catchy Design is the Rule of Thumb

Be it the physical shelf or digital shelf, packaging design that calls out consumer attention from a distance and presents stimulating facts about the product in a neat and clean fashion is always a win-win design. However unlike physical shelf, on the digital shelf consumers will not be viewing actual packaging size; what they will be viewing is a thumbnail image of the actual packaging inside a small window. Some ecommerce platforms provide zoomable image, but that is only after you click on the product and land on its dedicated page. So practically your packaging should be able to communicate the most important product facts in the most captivating manner even within a thumbnail size image. This is the reason why minimalist packaging designs rules the rooster across product categories.

(Image Source: amazon.com)

Explore Packaging Canvas

In traditional shopping, your product container is the canvas of packaging design. But shopping in digital environment is quite different. Your canvas of packaging design is not limited to just the product container; entire Product Detail Page (PDP) is your packaging canvas. Optimize your Product Detail Page to tell engaging product story and showcase product features effectively. Your visuals need to be sharp and high-definition. Content has to be short and scroll-stopper. High legibility of fonts and forthright communication is the key. One advantage of PDP is that you can upload multimedia content, i.e. you can upload a product demo video or GIF to make your product story more interesting and engaging. You can also include FAQs about the product in this section. It will help consumers to make an informed buying decision. 

(Image Source: amazon.com)

Delightful Unboxing Experience

When consumers shop online, the packaging that they see on the website or app is not the same that arrives at the doorstep. For the safety of product during shipping, it is packaged inside another box or wrapper. It may not be feasible for every business to create a separate design for this exterior packaging. But at least make sure that the exterior packaging has your brand logo and some basic branding. The process of removing product out of this exterior packaging as well as from interior packaging should make for a delightful unboxing experience. This is a memorable interaction of product with consumers and can be leveraged to reinforce brand values and personality.

(Image Source: youtube.com)

Frustration-Free Packaging

Try to keep the layers of packaging as minimal as possible. This will reduce packaging waste as well as account for less carbon footprint. Evolved consumers care about whether the brand they are associated with respect the environment around them. In fact, Amazon provides a special Fulfilled by Amazon feature for sellers to deliver Frustration-Free Packaging (FFP). Only those products with minimal packaging layers and easy-to-open designs qualify for FFP. 

(Image Source: sellerlabs.com)

SKU for Digital Shelf

Yes, the pack size does matter on the digital shelf. Often consumers tend to lean towards large pack size when shopping online. This is because bigger pack size is associated with more value and a better bargain, which is an essential reason for many shoppers to shop online in the first place. Also when shopping online, consumers have to shell out shipping fee. To compensate this, consumers often shop for the larger pack size. Obviously there are many factors that come into play when deciding the SKU such as product category, target audience, price points and consumption patterns among others. But do optimize your SKU for the digital shoppers.

(Image Source: justdial.com)

Don't copy-paste your physical shelf strategy for the digital shelf. Both environments are quite different and same strategy will not help you to yield desired outcome. If you are running a local business and think that you might not gain much by changing your packaging design strategy to woo digital shoppers think again! There is growing positive consumer sentiment towards local businesses. Government policies and initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India are further strengthening this sentiment. We at Purple Phase Communications, make sure to create perfect packaging design for digital and offline shelf for our clients.

If you have any questions or ideas you can write to us at info.purplephase@gmail.com OR connect with us at https://purplephase.in/contact