The recent pandemic has rescheduled our unboxing priorities. Subscription boxes must comply with the highest set custom packaging standards to secure a lifetime of customer loyalty.
There is no doubt that the post-lockdown era has shuffled customers’ buying behaviors. They now choose more e-brands than ever in history. From March 2020 to March 2021, online purchasing rose by 49%. Compact disposal downtime and health precautions have smoothened the way for more subscription services.
What are subscriptions?
Customers subscribe to receiving their favorite items on a monthly or weekly basis. Such services have gathered pace over the past few years as buyers prefer getting their products on time and without going to the retail stores. People consider the services to be convenient, time-saving, and presenting a pleasing shopping experience too.
The last one depends on the customized subscription boxes. When customers order subscriptions online, they look forward to getting the physical boxes. Why? The retailing experience is missing on online portals and can be compensated for by aptly designing the subscription packaging in the most enticing manner.
What do brands have to gain from this?
Obviously, there has to be a catch in box designing otherwise, the boxes are only going to add to the total costs.
Subscription service brands use their packaging for multiple functions, broadly categorized as follows:
- Controlling the supply chain
- Influencing more sales revenues and customer retention
- Getting better brand recognition
- Effective management of resources
At the first glance, all these may look overwhelming. Read on to get a more simplified version of these important business goals.
Smoothening supply chain
Transporting products is no mean feat. It includes passing through an array of handlers and conditions. Establishing your own transport system is not feasible for a small or new subscription brand. But what can be done is to control the supply chain factors to ensure product protection along the way.
For starters, the custom printed shipping boxes are tailored to fit the exact product measurements. It lowers the frequency of the products moving around inside the boxes and getting damaged. Next, the subscription boxes convey custom handling guidelines. It informs the logistic firms how to store, transport, and carry the boxes.
Such use of the subscription packaging boxes helps to eradicate accidents and make sure that customers get their orders on time and in the original conditions to prompt them to keep their subscriptions for longer.
Upping the sales volumes
After all, it is a primary aspect of custom subscription boxes. Nothing works better to allure buyers than directly sending satisfactory boxes to their locations.
Designing the boxes with the brand image, complementing colors schemes, and box styling combine to give a memorable box look to customers. It makes unboxing special and fun. Something that entices them to remain loyal to the subscription brand and rely on it for future orders too.
Buyers demand exceptional box cuts, above-ordinary box looks, and personalized messages to accompany their subscribed products. Just an ordinary box appearance is not considered good enough to keep buyers asking for more brand services. Pleasing subscription boxes are seen as an added value and something that customers desire to receive every time they receive their subscriptions. As result, brands that offer all these custom box components gain from improved sales revenues.
Expanding brand recognition
What does subscription custom packaging offer to branding? It provides an additional platform to emit an unmissable brand identity.
The boxes are embossed with unique brand logos and titles printed with distinct colors and fonts. These form an attractive brand illustration that customers instantly spot and memorize. Familiar brands experience 10 times more customer inflow than ambiguous ones.
This is why certain popular brands have persistent brand images that buyers know of and can immediately spot among the crowd. The boxes offer portable branding that passes many customer hotspots and gets seen by many potential buyers.
Custom printing the subscription boxes allows brands to personalize the boxes as per individual buyer needs. The new wave of consumer’s value authenticity and candid communication from the brands they support. A leading survey reports 85% of marketers believe consumers want to be communicated with as an individual rather than a demographic. They tend to respond more strongly to branding features that are offbeat yet immensely relatable.
Manage resources more efficiently
Not every subscription brand has the financial power of Amazon and eBay. But what they can control is how the available resources are put to more effective branding use.
Subscription boxes rank first among the most viewed customer tool. They directly communicate with buyers and encourage them to share their positive shopping vibes with others. The many YouTube unboxing videos cost nothing to the brands but add a lot of gravitas to the brand image.
Moreover, the basics of subscription packaging contain affordable reusable boxes that can be flexed to form creative packaging forms. This lowers boxing costs by a huger margin and offers a robust spot for branding too. Thus, less costly brand marketing coupled with higher sales volumes are the right ingredients for improved profit levels.
Minimize wastages
Another element that is dominating all retail markets is sustainable packaging. Customers want to lower wastages and hence opt for packaging that complies with their requirements.
Polls reveal that among popular packaging strategies (such as including free samples and personalizing design), packaging sustainability (44%) is the most critical factor encouraging online shoppers to purchase again. Â
While consumers might indicate they heavily value sustainability, our experts note that this is true as long as sustainability doesn’t infringe on the products’ functionality. For example, a dairy subscription company might want to swap out their plastic milk container with paperboard. However, if the new bottle disintegrates in the fridge after just a few days, consumers won’t celebrate its enhanced sustainability. The secret lies in increasing sustainability while keeping quality intact.
Conclusion
The many eye-opening facts about custom packaging subscription items remain popular among buyers and brands alike. These encourage subscription companies to take their packaging more seriously.