Giving customers a great customer experience should be the end goal for every brand out there.
And those that sell tangible products know that the customer journey doesn’t end once they make their purchase at the register or click “BUY NOW” on their phone. Opening up their package is just as much a part of the process as everything else and is arguably even more important.
When done right, unboxing your products should be an absolute joy, the resolution of minutes or hours or weeks of building anticipation.
So, how do you give your buyers a truly unforgettable unboxing experience?
Hang in there. If you want to really deliver, this blog is going to take you through everything that you need.
Why is the Unboxing Experience So Important?
Picture it:
You’re a kid on your birthday. Someone hands you a present and you’re pretty sure it’s what you’ve been asking for all year. With your sticky little hands, you gleefully rush to open it, peeling back wrapping paper and packing paper, anticipation and excitement building more and more until, finally, you peel away the last bit of paper and your treasure is revealed!
Exciting, right?
Your customer’s unboxing experience should be just as exciting!
Okay, maybe not as exciting as “kid opening presents on their birthday” but the entire unboxing experience should be an absolute joy! After all, in today’s competitive business climate, great experiences with your brand can keep your customers loyal and set you apart, especially if you’re exclusively an eCommerce brand.
Not convinced? Here is what else a great unboxing experience can do for you:
- Make a Great First Impression: This might be the very first time a customer holds one of your products in their hands! Make it a great experience so they are eager to do so over and over again!
- Emotionally Connect: Building up excitement and anticipation can foster a sense of delight around your products and an emotional attachment to your brand. Plus, by making the unboxing experience awesome, you’re showing how important your customers are to you, which they definitely want to know!
- Set You Apart: If your competitor’s products are very similar to yours, then your packaging, that extra mile you go to make the unboxing special, can be just what you need to differentiate yourself.
- Make Your Products Seem More Valuable: You wouldn’t go through all of this extra work and investment and effort if your product was straight-up crap, would you? You wouldn’t and your customer won’t think so either. As much as we are told not to, we can’t help judging a book by its sweet-looking cover. Special packaging is for special products, isn’t it?
- Influence Future Purchases: If your product works great, looks great, and comes with an awesome unboxing experience, why wouldn’t your customer buy from you again and again?
- Encourage User-Generated Content: Do us a favor, would you? Go to YouTube, type in “unboxing” and count how many results you get. Just kidding, there are probably about a million unboxing videos on YouTube, and each of them probably has about a billion views. And while some of these YouTube personalities are content creators and paid to film their unboxing, plenty of them aren’t. Unboxing is fun, it’s exciting, and if you have a special enough experience, your customers will be all too happy to create unboxing videos for you. Encourage some user-generated content, they’ll probably be happy to give it.
How You Give Your VIPs a Great Unboxing Experience
Now that you know how important it is, here are some of the elements of the unboxing experience that you can tweak to make opening up your package as special as you can for your customers.
Package Design
Your package design is going to be the first thing your customer is going to see.
It’s also what the UPS guy is going to see and it’s what the neighbors across the street are going to see sitting on your customer’s doorstep. It is quite literally your first impression. So, why not make it a great one with creative design aligned with your brand?
And don’t stop with just the box. Make your whole package work for you from the infill (the packaging material that protects your product) to the packing paper, to the packaging tape.
Brand it all. Use your logo, use your color palette, use whatever you can think of to highlight your brand and up your product’s value.
Make Them Feel Special
Who doesn’t like to feel special?
To give your customers feel that warm and fuzzy feeling, try personalizing your packages or any included instructions with your customer’s name. Or consider adding a branded thank-you note included in your box or printed right on the underside of the box’s lid, so it’s the first thing your customer sees.
If you want to get really personal, handwrite the note! Your customer will definitely take notice and it’s a great way to show that you truly do appreciate their purchase!
Proudly Presenting Your Product
As soon as your customer opens up your box, your product should be the first thing they see (besides your thank you note, perhaps!) not a bunch of junk sitting on top of it.
Keep any extras in your package like receipts, promotional materials, or instruction manuals underneath your actual product to give your customer a full, unhindered view of the amazing thing they’ve just purchased.
And make the reveal the moment they’ve been waiting for by ensuring that your product is attractively displayed and packaged in a way that prevents it from sliding around to keep it looking its best on arrival.
Taking all of this care does wonders to increase the perceived value of your product and really let your customer know that they’ve just gotten something special!
Sweet Discounts
Aw yeah, the discounts!
Including some coupons or discount codes with your customer’s purchases shows your gratitude to them and, of course, encourages them to buy from you again in the future.
If you’re partnering with any other businesses, some cross-promotions would work great here as well.
Promote their business with their coupons and discounts and vice versa to double your reach!
A Feel-Good Brand Story
Even if it’s just included on a little card, including your brand story, or perhaps your product’s journey from creation to distribution to arriving at their door is a great way to personalize your business and relate to your customer. Whether you’ve got a beauty product or a tech product, it’s definitely a way to make the whole process feel more special and magical.
It also gives your customer something to think about, helping them to emotionally connect with your brand and to your employees or products!
Gimme the Goodies!
This is our favorite part!
Show your appreciation and gratitude to your new customer with little trinkets to differentiate yourself from your competitors!
Consider goodies like magnets, stickers, a pen or pencil, a lanyard, or anything else that aligns with your brand.
If your offerings work this way, then free samples of your other popular products are also a great way to get your customer excited about your other related products and encourage them to purchase from you again!
Plus, it will make the unboxing that much more special and exciting for your customer!
Some Tips to Promote a Great Unboxing Experience
Here are some tips to make your customer’s unboxing experience one that they’ll never forget!
Anticipaaaation
Is makin’ me late … is keepin’ me waaaaaitin’
Or it should be anyway! Build up the anticipation with emails that get your customer pumped about your product’s arrival.
Your product has shipped! Greatness is coming your way! Your product is arriving in 2 days!
Any of these will build up excitement and make sure your customer just can't wait to get that delivery notification!
Be Eco-Friendly
Nobody likes packing peanuts. There, we said it.
They’re messy, they’re annoying, and they fly away when you try to sweep them up.
There are more sustainable packaging products out there. Show your customers that you care about sustainability and your carbon footprint by using those instead.
Make the Return Process a Breeze
You can’t please everyone every time.
If, for some reason, your customer is dissatisfied with their purchase or, heaven forbid, your product was damaged during shipping, returning it should absolutely NOT be a hassle. Consider including a return shipping label.
This shows your customer that you’re thinking about them and their convenience.
Encourage Unboxing Videos
In those anticipaaaation emails we talked about earlier, it would be a great idea to include your social media handles and an invitation to follow your brand on the platform of their choice.
It’s also where you can encourage some content for your feed!
By offering discounts or a free product, your customers will probably be thrilled to record their unboxing experience when their package finally arrives and either make a YouTube video or post it to your socials.
This is a great way to gather up some user-generated content for your socials and spread the word to your followers and their (probably) one million subscribers. Unboxing videos generally get about a million views (just our guess, anyway) and they’re an honest, authentic, and raw way for your customers to drum up excitement about your brand and share genuine reactions with the world!
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Go Beyond the Box
If all of this seems like a great idea to you, but you’re not sure how to get started then Designity is here for you!
Our Creative Directors are ready and waiting to jump onto your packaging project and make your package design just as unique and amazing as your brand!
Check out our packaging and label services page and some examples of our work to see how we can elevate your package design and create an unforgettable experience for your buyers that leaves them thinking about your brand long after they’ve unboxed your product!
Does your packaging go beyond the box?
