The year 2022 is almost over and this is the perfect time to discuss and consider your 2023 plans and goals, especially in terms of your e-commerce packaging. Whether this year was great or disappointing, the new year brings a brand-new opportunity for success and profit, and your packaging can play an important role in your 2023 results.
One of the easiest but most important things you can do is to review your e-commerce packaging. If it is a current design already in use, are your truly happy with it or is it time for a long overdue change? If it is a new company or new product launch, you already know most costs are higher than originally projected so designing for economy from the beginning can save you dollars and heartache later.
We’ve been making exceptional e-commerce boxes for a long time, and we know most of our customers and clients are usually driven by these five packaging objectives:
- To enhance the customer experience
- To reduce unit cost
- To reduce 3-PL packing and assembly costs
- To minimize shipping costs
- To reduce shipping damage
Our branded packaging advisors will be glad to discuss your specific needs but in this blog post, we will focus on the first two most popular reasons for new packaging design.
Is the Goal for 2023 to Deliver a Better Customer Experience?
Everyone wants to improve their customer’s unboxing experience and create that special photo or video for social media. There are many aspects to this, ranging from graphics (design and color(s)) to ease of opening. We are often times asked to increase the product’s visibility when the box is open for a better presentation, of course without creating a damage problem, especially on glass and other fragile products.
We do structural, not graphic design work. However, over the course of the last fifteen years, we have worked with dozens of excellent graphic artists who specialize in corrugated e-commerce DTC packaging. If you do not have your own, packaging-experienced graphic artist, let us know and we will be glad to help you connect with someone who understands the difference between creating digital (web) images and images that are going to be printed using a standard flexographic print process. Visit our gallery to see some great examples of work we have produced.
If the goal is to reduce cost per unit?
Reducing costs is always desirable, especially if you have been shipping DTC for the last few years. Packaging materials are getting more expensive, shipping costs are skyrocketing, 3PL charges are adding up quickly, and the custom printed DTC box you are paying less than $2.00 for may be costing you $4.00 to pack and an additional $8.00 to ship. Would you spend a few cents more for a box if it saved you dollars in those other critical areas? Here is the good news – in most cases you do not have to spend more to reap those savings. You simply have to work with a company that understands those costs and due to extensive experience is able to show you how to manage and minimize them.
Structural design (re)work is not always about correcting a past mistake, though in some cases it is. Out of line costs are often the result of too much focus being placed on how a box looks, rather than how it is going to be produced, shipped to the 3-PL, assembled at the 3-PL, and eventually shipped to the customer. Sometimes, the product itself has changed (new supplier for internal components), or perhaps the product count and configuration have changed. Customers tend to be unpredictable, and they don’t always buy the way our marketing and business plans projected they would.
Help is a call or click away!
The most important thing we have learned in the last fifteen years is that every customer, product and situation is a little different. A brief call and conversation will almost certainly help us determine the best path forward for you. and check out the related post links below because we have a dozen different ways to enhance the way your packaging looks, while reducing your overall costs. Call us at 630-551-1700 or contact us via this link so we can connect and learn more about your application.
Related posts
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/taking-your-e-commerce-box-from-good-to-great/
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/modular-packaging-design-for-e-commerce-dtc-packaging/
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/expert-advice-to-help-reduce-your-dtc-packaging-costs/
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/intentional-design -for-dtc-e-commerce-packaging/
