Packaging, the new competitive lever for e-commerce? | RAJA

To gain market share in an ultra-competitive sector, some e-retailers are successfully investing in the physical aspect of customer relations.Packaging generally represents a minority share of your logistics budget. It is often overlooked in comparison with transport, logistics IS (WMS, TMS…), or warehouse costs. Yet packaging impacts all aspects of your logistics as well as customer satisfaction.

Contents

1. How to stay profitable?
2. Improve re-purchasing
3. Reduce transport costs
4. Boost your brand awareness and customer loyalty

e-commerce: the place of all battles

E-commerce is 22.3 billion euros in revenue, up 13.2% in the first quarter of 2018. With more than 37 million cyber shoppers, e-commerce is definitely anchored in the habits of the French [Fevad Q1 2018]

Initially hegemonic, the pure players are now sharing the digital space with other players

• physical retailers benefiting from the reputation of their physical network
• but also with distributors and manufacturers who can reach consumers directly or via marketplaces.

from now on, the challenge is to attract more and more buyers but above all to keep them loyal because online acquisition is becoming increasingly expensive.

E-commerce: how to remain profitable?

Advertising represents up to 80% of the marketing expenses of e-commerce sites, yet the cost of acquisition on platforms (Google, Facebook, Instagram…) is increasing every year. To continue to be profitable, e-commerce has no choice… It must

• improve the overall conversion rate
• optimise costs

You’d be surprised how much your choice of packaging can affect your chances of success! Here’s some evidence based on key figures to convince you.

Revisit your order tunnel and reinvest in the physical dimension of the customer relationship

fact #1: Everyone is investing in digital and the competition is tough. You’ll have to differentiate yourself elsewhere.

The results of the latest CMO Survey on marketing spend in Europe and the rest of the world show the massive investment in digital. In an increasingly saturated environment where acquisition is based on a bidding system, spend is mechanically increasing

• Digital spend still rising compared to non-digital marketing

• Spending on social networks is on the rise, increasingly seen as a complementary acquisition channel to Google

You think you’ve done everything possible to optimise your online conversion rates and you ruin all your efforts for a bad choice of packaging (the famous duo of packaging + cushioning explained below).

Online retailers are investing heavily in mastering the ordering tunnel (from acquiring new leads to payment), but there is a need to go further and innovate in what comes afterwards: receiving the package.

you need to reinvest in the physical dimension of the customer relationship. This stage, which is sometimes neglected, is nonetheless crucial [read: theanalysis of Zappos, the brand that has become a global reference for the operational excellence of its customer relationship]

The right packaging protects your goods

fact #2: 73% of consumers will not reorder from an e-retailer if they have received a damaged parcel (Package Insight).

3 simple tips to know the state of play

1. Monitor your breakage rate like milk on the fire.
2. Filter out the reasons for complaints to customer service about packaging and work to reduce the rate.
3. Do a little research on social networks to check that people are not complaining about the condition of your packages (packaging and/or carrier problems) and assess what they say about your main competitors in this respect.

you have to decide on the strength of the cardboard. It is its thickness, known as the flute, that will determine its strength. To put it simply

• single flute for cheap and solid goods,
• double flute otherwise
• or even double-wall reinforced for export.

if you want to be more precise, refer to the table below, taken from our RAJA packaging guide,Once the flute has been validated, your packaging fulfils its first mission: protection. But don’t be satisfied with that. We talked about competitiveness in the title, let’s go further in the following paragraphs

The right packaging reduces transport costs

thechoice of packaging can become a competitive advantage if it helps to improve your margins, as we suggest here.

Fact #3: transport is expensive! “We used to use wood curling as cushioning for certain categories of products. After several trials, we switched to air cushions. We saved on the cost of transport (of the order of a tonne of material transported!)” Laurent Caplat, founder of BienManger.com

For your domestic shipments, reducing the weight of the packaging must be your first objective. To do this, you must develop your packaging + cushioning duo in order to reduce the overall weight without minimising the protection. For international shipments, the volumetric weight is increasingly important. You therefore have two choices

Situation 1: reduce the weight of the cushioning and therefore of the package

• Perhaps you can use a more protective bubble film instead of paper packing? Or switch from wood curling to paper packing? Or, like BienManger, opt for air cushions? Ask our advisers for free at 3912, and they will suggest several solutions that you will just have to test.

Caution: think about reducing the use of plastic, especially if your consumers are sensitive to the ecological aspect. With the emergence of #ZeroPlastic campaigns and the growing public awareness of this issue, be vigilant about your customers’ reaction to your choice of cushioning. Be aware that RAJA offers more eco-responsible solutions such as cushioning made of recycled plastic for example; or paper cushioning. Here again, our advisors are at your disposal to find a suitable solution

• To reduce the volume of packaging, we invite you to look for a cardboard box that is best suited to the dimensions of your products. Our RAJA tool will help you find the right cardboard box from among the 1,200 formats available!

Remember: the better the packaging fits your product, the more you will save on cushioning and the lighter your package will be.

Situation 2: Do without cushioning to reduce the volume of the package

testez les emballages qui intègrent directement un calage mousse ou film. Bonus : vous économisez l’étape du calage lors de la préparation et faites ainsi gagner du temps à vos préparateurs de commande.

Astuce : pour valider vos tests d’emballage + calage, n’oubliez jamais d’envoyer une petite dizaine de colis à des adresses témoins afin d’évaluer l’état du colis à l’arrivée. Que ce soit par les services de La Poste ou par messageries, votre colis doit arriver dans un état acceptable visuellement (et la marchandise à l’intérieur intacte évidemment).

Le bon emballage fait sourire vos clients et vous apporte du paid media gratuit

Et si votre emballage devenait une star sur Instagram comme c’est le cas pour les emballages du fleuriste Bergamotte, des déballages des colis Cheerz ou des boites Sezane. Voilà des exemples concrets d’entreprises qui maîtrisent le parcours client jusqu’à la livraison et arrivent à générer des réactions ultra bénéfiques pour la Who hasn’t dreamed of getting free publicity for their brand from enthusiastic customers?

Fact #4: Customers are sensitive to the personalisation of the packaging and are more likely to recommend an e-tailer whose packages are personalised. The feeling is even stronger if the customer orders often (Schorr packaging)

here are a few ways to embellish your parcels, even if the aim of this article is not to detail the different ways of personalising your shipments nor to detail the ways in which cognitive marketing can help you generate enthusiastic reactions. However, these can have an impact on the overall preparation time spent per order

• Tissue paper
• Personalised labels
• Customised adhesive (or customised strapping for 123roulements.com)
• Plastic wedges with a pattern
• Customised boxes or crates, as adopted by many RAJA customers and more generally by many brands in all sectors: Cheerz, Cultura, EasyParapharmacie, Lacoste, QuiToque, Sézane, Vestiaire Collective…

conclusion

This article is above all a means of exploring ways of improving your competitiveness. Don’t think of packaging as mere packaging. Packaging must certainly protect in order to fulfil your obligations towards the customer, but it must also become a performance lever for your logistics operations and a physical ambassador for your brand

1. To really dig into how your packaging can become a performance lever for your logistics, don’t hesitate to consult the first 5 chapters of our packaging guide [about 20 min reading time]
2. To give you some inspiration for customising your shipments, here are some examples below:

La Redoute: l’enseigne qui s’est fortement digitalisée ces dernières années (marketplace, application mobile, nouveau site Internet…) investit dans de jolies boites afin de renforcer le lien avec ses client(e)s. Comme les collections, le design des boites sera amené à changer en fonction des saisons et des grands événements.

Des marques encore jeunes comme Bonne Gueule, Cheerz ou Sézane investissent aussi dans la personnalisation pour fidéliser immédiatement leur clientèle face aux mastodontes.

Joolz va plus loin ! Le spécialiste des poussettes et sièges auto pour bébé, imprime sur ses cartons des instructions permettant de donner une seconde vie à ses emballages. En quelques étapes, ils sont transformés en renne, boite à oiseaux ou chaise pour décorer la chambre de l’enfant.