The guide to creating the perfect custom e-commerce packaging | RAJA

Custom packaging: what better way to improve your customers’ experience of your e-commerce brand? After all, the packaging of your goods is the first point of physical contact between you and your customers.

But designing your own custom e-commerce packaging requires attention to a multitude of details, both technical and aesthetic. To create your own, follow this step-by-step guide.

If you would like to take this short guide to custom e-commerce packaging with you, download it as a PDF file now:

Think about the objectives of your e-commerce packaging

Before you even think about what you’d like in terms of bespoke packaging, it’s important to think about the goals behind your new packaging project. After all, you wouldn’t embark on a project that’s going to take you time and money without knowing what you’re aiming for, would you?

So take the time to put your e-commerce custom packaging goals on paper. Would you like to..

• Go P.O. Box on the first delivery? You’ll improve the speed of your deliveries, which is crucial to the customer experience of your targets, with customised cases, sleeves or flat cartons, for example.
• Improve the productivity of your operators during the packing phase… Customised packaging can speed up the rate at which your goods are packed, without compromising the ergonomics of your order pickers’ workstations.
• Reducing the weight of your shipments ? This is one of the major objectives of e-tailers who deliver express or internationally, and wish to reduce the empty space in their parcels, in order to save on the transport budget ?
• There is nothing like customised packaging to make your brand distinctive at first glance and to make the unboxing experience more pleasant.
• Limit the environmental impact of your packaging by opting for eco-design? In an era where consumers are increasingly aware of the impact of their purchases on the planet, many e-tailers are interested in the eco-responsible impact of their brand.

It is possible to select several objectives for a single bespoke package, and the more different objectives you set, the more precise the brief you give to your packaging designer should be, to enable them to materialise your needs effectively.

Keep in mind the protection of your goods

To keep this primary function of protection in mind, you need to detail to your custom packaging designer the product(s) you wish to package in your orders.

Take the time to explain any technical constraints that your custom packaging may encounter:

• Are your products particularly fragile and will they require extra protection, so your designer can incorporate more cushioning or stronger materials into your packaging.
• Ifyour products are luxurious or expensive, special care will need to be taken to protect them from theft, for example with a specific adhesive or strapping method.
• Are your products oversized or overweight? If they are very large, bulky or heavy, your goods will require a special choice of packaging products (e.g. double or triple fluted cardboard).

If possible, let your bespoke packaging designer know what product(s) they will be protecting, so they can test the best packaging and cushioning materials for your goods in-house.

Identify your marketing customisation needs

As you’ve already experienced in the first step of this guide, when creating bespoke packaging for e-commerce, it’s not uncommon for there to be marketing objectives behind it. Your packaging carries your brand, your values, and in this way helps to promote your products.

So think about the different marketing needs you might have in relation to this new packaging. For example, you might want to..

• Print your brand logo or slogan on the packaging, to make your brand visible at first glance. It could also be a specific packaging for one of your promotions, at a specific time of the year (Black Friday, the end of year celebrations…), which will influence the aesthetics of your packaging.
• Incorporate eco-responsible materials into your packaging, to affirm your CSR commitments. In this case, you should think about selecting the raw materials for your packaging carefully, but also clearly indicate the logos relating to these materials (recyclable, from responsibly managed forests, biodegradable, etc.).
• Develop word-of-mouth around your brand, thanks to the careful unboxing of your products. Indeed, today’s consumers particularly like to share the unpacking of their products on social networks: this trend necessarily influences the brief of your customised packaging, which must think about the pleasant side of unpacking, the famous “wow effect” sought after by so many e-tailers.
• If your project is based on this need, your custom packaging designer will have to take inspiration from your competitors’ packaging to find ways to differentiateyour product.

Make a note of these marketing objectives and include them in your creative brief.

Gathering the elements for the brief

If you are using a packaging specialist from outside your company, they will need to have an overview of your existing promotional materials, as well as your creative ideas. This is why it is crucial to gather all the elements that can help your bespoke packaging designer design your new packaging.

Consider transferring..

• Your graphic guidelines, including your logo in its various forms, your e-commerce brand colours and how you use them, and your typography.
• Your old packaging, if you have any. You can tell your designer what needs to be changed in this packaging, or what you still like about it.
• Creative inspiration, if you have any. This could be packaging from other brands you like, visuals that represent the mood you are trying to achieve with your packaging moodboards(those charts that bring together inspirational elements to stimulate creativity)…

The more creative input you can give your service provider, the more they will be able to suggest ideas that suit both your brand and your objectives.

Designing the specifications for your customised packaging

At this stage, you have a number of key elements in mind to pass on to your bespoke packaging designer, and now it’s time to compile them in a synthetic but exhaustive document: the famous specifications.

Clearly state your objectives (marketing and/or global), your technical constraints, your creative ideas… Don’t hesitate to mention the budget you want to spend on your custom packaging, as well as the number of units you want to produce initially.

Test a small portion of your orders

Thanks to your complete specifications, your custom packaging designer has been able to create the ideal packaging for you, adapted to your expectations. Perfect! But be careful: it would be dangerous to send all of your orders in this new packaging, without having tested it first.

So select a very small proportion of your orders to be packed in the new packaging to ensure that it meets all your basic objectives without compromising the protection of your goods.

You can prepare a flyer to include in your parcels, or an email to be sent out after receipt, to ask them what they thought of it, what they would change about it, what made an impression on them..

This test phase will also allow you to identify possible process changes during the packing phase for your operators, because changing the packaging also has a potential impact on the productivity of your preparers and on their daily habits: perhaps they need to be trained in the best packaging practices?

You’re ready to start customising your next packaging project. If you’d like to be accompanied by packaging design experts, contact our custom packaging department and let’s talk about your project!

And because good e-commerce packaging is meticulously prepared, check out our guide to the perfect parcel: you’ll discover other key tips for shipping your goods efficiently.