Whether you are a home-based business who thrives by selling personally made products on Ebay, Etsy or other online marketplace platforms, a medium sized local manufacturer who sells to a localised marketplace, or a large-scale business who sells your products around the globe, in today’s marketplace it is no longer enough to simply be satisfied by creating good products. Regardless of if you’re a sole trader with a small group of products or a major organisation who ships products by the thousands, you can harness the power of good looking and high quality packaging to help add value to your brand and grow the perceived quality of your products. To help you out, here are tips to create your own custom cardboard packaging to boost your business:

Customise Every Inch of the Box

Whilst it can be tempting to only focus on the outside look of your corrugated packaging, it is critical to consider all available spaces to increase its appeal. For example, if your product has a particular ‘look and feel’ you can consider the inclusion of a product liner that enhances that look and feel within the package. This small change and attention to detail often has a relatively low cost and can dramatically change the perception of your product to appear more upscale.

Remember that Simple Works Best Sometimes

Before considering using bold and loud colours, it often pays to see if a simple design would work more effectively. Given how fast today’s consumer makes decisions, simplicity in design is crucial in getting your brand or product’s message across and ensuring it is heard.

Think about Creating an Unboxing Experience for your Customers

In today’s evolving marketplace, many consumers care about the “unboxing experience” almost as much as they care about the product you are selling. A brief search for unboxing videos on YouTube reveals literally millions of examples of consumers documenting their unboxing experience with many of these videos having viewership in the millions and tens of millions. This is a growing trend that brands need to understand and embrace if they wish to appeal to the changing marketplace and simply placing an item inside a box to protect it is missing out on an emerging opportunity to add value to your brand and engage with your customer when they unbox that product. You can use a “layering” technique to add interest and appeal. You can place your product in a separate container like a pouch or in a much smaller box to create intrigue or a sense of excitement around your product, emotions which are key to influencing buying decisions amongst consumers.

Make Sure that Your Design Complements Your Product

The primary consideration for your packaging design is your product. Before you start thinking about design concepts and colours, it is critical to focus firstly on the product that you are selling. For example, if you are selling food products, you should customise your boxes using colours that stimulate the appetite and designs that appeal to your target customer. The tips above are just some of the most important things that can help you get started. Customising your cardboard packaging to talk to today’s consumers will more than ever before help in setting your brand apart from the competition. You do not have to be a large organisation to attract customers, you simply have to make them realise that you sincerely care about them and their experience with your product and your customised packaging is a powerful way to express this.