One of the great delights of doing what we do is watching companies launch, grow, and succeed. A few have even become huge success stories: appearing on shows like Shark Tank, Ellen and Stephen Colbert, and business magazines features. A few of those companies have eventually been acquired for millions of dollars.
The old adage, if you are not moving forward, you are falling behind is absolutely true. It happens when other companies learn from what you have accomplished and how you did it. They want your market share and if you are not a fast-moving target, you may be easily caught and passed up.
Is your e-commerce packaging up to date?
Much like your computer, if your packaging is more than a few years old, it is probably out of date. Your competitors have copied and even improved on your packaging by adding new features and better graphics. What was new and exciting a few years ago has become tired and maybe even a little boring.
A few questions to ask yourself.
How does my packaging compare to my top three, high profile competitors?
Am I as happy with it as I was when we first launched it?
What does my packaging communicate?
Does it reflect the company we are today?
Has my packaging kept up with my other marketing such as logos, company colors, graphic designs, etc.?
Are my box sizes appropriate and fit my products properly?
An insight based on working with thousands of entrepreneurs.
First, let me say, if you did not like your answers to the questions above – it is NOT your fault. You have been busy trying to build a business and have been on an incredible learning adventure, perhaps for years. You’ve overcome many hurdles, and after the usual amount of self-doubts along the way, you have endured and are now finally beginning to reach a level of success and profitability. Your packaging design has not been “broke” so it has not required “fixing”. However, your new goal is to get to that next level, and to get there you are possibly contemplating a packaging rebranding and/or redesign.
DTC Packaging Presentation and Performance!
Sometimes, it is all about aesthetics and the unboxing experience. In other situations, it is as much about functional performance. Size and configuration questions are two practical reasons driving packaging changes. Since you launched your business, your product’s sizes and shapes may have changed. Your configurations and counts may have evolved as well.
Now your box may be a little too tight or more likely, too large, requiring additional void fill. Many new companies tend to initially oversize their packaging “just in case”. Combine that with smaller product or order sizes and your packaging is costing you much more than it should in terms of purchase price, storage space, and shipping cost.
Are you shipping in the lowest possible tier? You may find this this post interesting about dimensional weight shipping. Modifying and reducing your box size less than an inch MAY save you as much as two dollars per box. Perhaps that was not a big deal when you were shipping a handful of boxes, but now that is probably a big, substantial cost savings.
Brand Identify – a self-taught lesson
Below is a photo of one of our initial business cards. You can see where the original plan was to focus on what my wife and I knew best – flexible packaging, AKA plastics. It did not take us long (within our first year) to determine our logo was not getting great reviews, the company name was too long, and we really had no desire to promote plastics. Customers were asking for greener products and eco-friendly packaging became our new primary product with branded close behind it. In short, our “brand” really did not reflect who we are and what we offer. We made the decision to rebrand and probably owe our success to that single decision.
One of the great advantages we all have as a new, small business is that we can make decisions and implement them quickly. If that does not work, try something else because we can change course at will. Coming from a large company, corporate environment, I now recognize that flexibility and speed to market may be our greatest advantage against older, larger competitors. Years ago, we coined a phrase “eco-consistent packaging”. It was not a revelation to us; it was simple advice to make sure your packaging reflects who you are and what you do. Sadly, it often does not but the good news is you can always change that.
If you are ready to at least discuss a redesign or rebranding, we are the right company to engage. We have helped to create and re-create millions of boxes over the course of the last 12 years and we can save you time and money while producing a box that fits perfect and looks great.
Call us at 630-551-1700 or contact us at Salazar Packaging. We also invite you to visit our gallery where you will see a small sampling of our work and the companies who trusted us, sometimes with their first box and in other situations, with their redesign.
Related posts:
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/a-great-e-commerce-box-is-more-affordable-than-you-think/
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/drives-e-commerce-subscription-box-redesign-rebranding/
