Your packaging is the moment that your ecommerce customers first get to experience their digital purchase in the physical world, so it’s a powerful point of impact. Get the packaging right, and it can convey the message, ethos, and identity of your brand, creating a positive impression and encouraging repeat purchases. Here’s how to do it.

1) Keep in mind your target audiences

Your brand and product have a clear audience or buyer type in mind, and the packaging needs to be in harmony with this. Consider the type of materials, colours, shapes, and sizes that best reflect your message. For instance, if your audience is environmentally orientated, pick a material such as cardboard to match these sensitivities, and avoid using non-recyclable foils and single-use plastic wraps. Keep an eye on how your target audience is changing in response to external forces such as political change, media shifts, and cultural evolutions, too, and make sure you keep your packaging in line with these. 

2) Do some Competitor research

What are your competitors doing in terms of packaging for similar products and market niches to yours, and – more importantly – is it working? By knowing what’s going on, you can position your packaging accordingly. You don’t want to be too similar to your competitors, so if you think it’s a good idea to align with a competitor’s general packaging idea, ensure that there are some very noticeable differences between your packaging and theirs. Simple changes, such as fonts, textures, and tones, can help you to make your branded giftboxes shine. 

3) Choose Colours carefully

We’ve mentioned colour a couple of times already, but why is it so important? Research shows that it takes fewer than 90 seconds for consumers to make subconscious conclusions about a product, and 85% of these make their decisions based purely on colour. For instance, positioned at the lower end of the spectrum, blue is a colour that makes consumers feel calm and reassured. However, the sensory aspects of colour don’t stop there. Colour psychology also considers the importance of hue and saturation in setting one brand’s colour apart from another.

4) Be careful on the use of your logo

It’s tempting to cover your own branded gift wrap rolls in your logo, especially if you are selling them instore. After all, if customers love your brand enough to want branded paper, it must mean that they adore your logo, right? Even if they do, always keep your brand identity at the centre of your decision-making. If your brand is bold, confident, and energetic, then having lots of logos on the box will reflect this. If your brand is conveying a waste-free or ‘less is more’ message, keep it minimal.

What next?

Branded gift wrap and gift boxes can make a real impact on brand saturation and market impact. If in doubt, speak to one of the Kudos team and make sure to see visuals that will make your brand go POP!