Since the inception of e-commerce in the early 1990s, not only has online shopping grown exponentially but, especially during the COVID-19 shutdown, it has been the only way that your customer could get your product with brick and mortar shopping virtually at a halt. And as we see retail morphing in real time and many traditional retailers going away, online presence is more important than ever. Needless to say, this is a crucial time for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors online.
How Cosmetics Packaging Has Changed With E-Commerce
If you’re like most cosmetics brands, you have a website and some form of e-commerce strategies to get your product to customers who shop online. And yet, over the years, the packaging industry was slow to embrace the new way people shopped by offering lighter, more easily configured and less breakable options for packaging.
From a Three-Dimensional Experience to a Two-Dimensional Experience
Cosmetics are inextricably interwoven with image and have an emotional component. The brick and mortar experience could convey that from the shelving to the staging, and appealed the customer’s emotions in real-time with the product. Now, e-commerce has come along and required the same job in a two-dimensional online setting without the benefit of the other 5 senses.
Your Online Presence Needs to Fulfill That Emotional Connection
In a way, an online presence may be able to convey an emotional connection better than a retail store experience with the right marketing and social media strategies. In this setting, packaging is often just as important as the product inside and plays that important role in product selection.
Cosmetics, as an image-based industry, still relies heavily on a personal experience with the customer. But conveying that experience online is a whole new experience and an important consideration in your packaging. Your brand, your product packaging, your logo and your design will need to transcend that online experience.
Added Functions to Consider When You’re Shipping Products
When it comes to e-commerce, it’s not only about how you convey your brand but also how you get your product to your customer. Particularly when you are shipping from online sales, you need to take a good look at how your packaging will stand up. When you consider that your products will be making a long journey to your consumer, you need to consider multiple solutions.
- How can you keep your rate of return high considering the costs of added packaging materials and shipping?
- How can you prevent damage done in shipping?
- How do you consider temperature variables and how will they affect your product?
- How can you reduce your shipping costs by keeping your packaging smaller, lighter and less breakable?
E-Commerce Packaging Partnerships
E-commerce is no longer the future. It is the here-and-now. Understanding how your customers will experience your brand and packaging in an online landscape is indispensable and strategic packaging partnerships are more important than ever. At APG, we’re here to help. Contact us today to see how we can partner with you to enhance your e-commerce packaging and brand presence.