Creating an unboxing experience, is it worth it?

Nowadays, packaging is not just about protecting what’s inside (although this is obviously a very important function of any packaging). Packaging, then, is also about creating an experience for your customer and increasing their positive perception of your brand. Make your customers feel special? You win, they win, everybody wins. Therefore it can be worth investing in and looking at your options. Once of the many internet fads in the last few years is the ‘unboxing video’. The concept comes from the rise in influencers and gifted PR items whereby social media influencers create videos of them opening items they’ve received in the post for entertainment. As a consequence, unboxing has gone from a seasonal pleasure to an online fad and is a great way of getting your brand noticed. In today’s world of social media and YouTubers, an unboxing video can get your brand extensive exposure, so it’s worth being camera ready if you can!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2mVPcN4l1A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eGu-zIdBBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pLAS7LX2ls

Despite the obvious advantage of the potential social media exposure of a good unboxing experience, it can also help to make your customers feel valued. Particularly if they are buying a high value item, the experience of unboxing their new item can feel like opening a present at Christmas! And who wouldn’t want to bring their customers that joy?

It is also an opportunity for ecommerce retailers to communicate with their consumers. Unlike the traditional shopping experience, ecommerce businesses have much fewer opportunities to communicate with their customers, and with a 26% rise in internet shoppers from 2014 to 2017 (and even more now), this is something ecommerce businesses need to overcome. By providing some sort of experience when opening and revealing the item, the brand is embracing the opportunity to speak to their customers.

Should everybody create some sort of unboxing experience?

Creating complex, experience-based packaging is not for everybody. First of all, it can cost quite a lot of money depending on the materials and design you use. So, if you’re selling low value items for example it really just isn’t worth it.

Also, it doesn’t appeal to all consumers. If you’re selling video games, for example, it probably won’t make a huge impact on your consumer’s opinion of your brand or not.

Unboxing experiences are like all those internet fads – just because everybody else seems to be doing it, does not mean you should too. Always think about your business, your brand, and your budget. Would it make a big impact on your consumers? Can you afford to do it? If you need any advice or guidance, speak to our team.

If you’ve decided on creating an unboxing experience for your customers, you might want to know where to start!

Make it part of your brand's story

We recommend thinking about your packaging as part of your brand’s story. What do you want it to say about you and your brand? Think about Apple, for example, they are known to be design gurus of the tech world and therefore their packaging is always sleek and minimalistic. It adds to their brand image and gives the customer their first, positive, impression of the product. This also means keeping your brand identity prominent. If you’re spending money on attractive, fancy packaging it needs to resonate with your brand and help to build your identity. Keep it in line with your other marketing campaigns and your existing branding style.

Keep it practical

It’s also very important to not let your unboxing ideas ruin the practicality of your product. No matter how pretty and well-designed your packaging might look, if it makes it difficult for the customer to open, any positive impression you’re trying to make will be gone. First and foremost, customers want their product delivered safely, they then want to get to their product with as little hassle as possible. All the added design, extras, and fancy bits that add to your customer experience should only be supplementary to the primary focus of your packaging.

Customer experience

This leads us to talk about customer experience. Make sure that you don’t just do whatever is easiest but think about what your target audience will love or hate. Who is in your target demographic? What are the people buying your products likely to respond positively to? With any marketing campaign or branding, you must use your personas to make decisions. Your packaging is part of your marketing, it is a chance to communicate with your customers, so use it.

Keep it personal

Keep it personal if you can. We wrote about adding a personal touch to your packaging a few weeks ago and we recommend giving it a read if you’re thinking about creating an unboxing experience!

Evaluate your ROIs

Evaluate your ROIs before you start an elaborate packaging redesign. If you have low value products, the chances are, creating an unboxing experience is not going to be worth the return on investment unless, of course, you’re using it to promote higher value items.

Still confused? Watch these unboxing videos to get some inspiration and talk to one of our experts!

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Is it worth it creating an unboxing experience?