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The Cost Of Packaging
You may wonder about the portion of manufacturing costs reserved for packaging. What we actually see is the unit price, which doesn’t make even 10% of the total packaging costs. Most of the brands ignore the rest.
In this article, we will discuss the factors that we usually ignore, but they contribute to the costs of packaging.
Customer dissatisfaction
This age of e-commerce has made today’s consumers more aware of the role of packaging and other factors that contribute to product safety. Moving even further, customers now pay more attention to the aesthetics of product packaging as they consider it a representation of the product and brand. All this has been possible due to online shopping, which has raised packaging standards from different perspectives. You must fulfill these requirements, and it is going to have an impact on your manufacturing costs.
Damages and returns
A product can receive damage during the transit for various reasons. The most common reason for damages is improper packaging. Using a too-large or too-small outer packaging for your product can result in a heightened risk of damage, which can ultimately increase your manufacturing costs. The customer will refuse to accept the package and send it back, forcing you to either resend the product or refund the customer his or her money. You have to take into consideration these costs.
Packaging labor
You are going to need manpower to assemble and pack your products, and obviously, you are going to have to pay those people their salaries. If you are a growing business, but it is impossible for you to implement full automation at the moment, you are going to have to pay your labor for packaging operations. You may want to use semi-automatic solutions to reduce these costs. Not only it will speed up your packaging process, but it will also save you a lot of money.
Forward Logistics
Smart thinking can help you cut down packaging costs significantly. For instance, you may have heard about dimensional weight, which is a parameter that shipping carriers use to determine shipping costs per package. This parameter takes into consideration the dimensions of your products. It means that if you are able to reduce the size of the box used for the packaging of your product while making sure that its safety is not compromised, you have done wonderful work to save on the packaging costs.
You may want to discuss your options with a packaging consultant. Product packaging can be challenging, but not when you plan everything smartly and implement things by meeting industry standards. A packaging consultant can help you with that.
Influence Of Digitization On Packaging Aesthetics
Why does consumer-targeted packaging matter a lot? Isn’t it enough to work on the product quality alone? These are just a couple of questions among many others, and the answer to such questions is that consumers demand product packaging to be aesthetically pleasing. With the sale of the product being an ultimate motive, manufacturing companies have to think of ways that can attract a lot of potential customers.
It is hard to retain a loyal customer if you are not doing the right thing at the right time.
A potential customer gets to know about your product through its outer packaging. As you may already know, we live in a world of consumerism in which much of the attention is being paid to visuals. With so many manufacturing companies striving to use the product packaging as a branding medium, failing to develop an attractive packaging design can only result in fewer than expected sales.
Here, it may be worth mentioning the role of the digital medium, which has changed several parameters related to product packaging aesthetics.
Modern consumers do not have to go to physical stores to buy the goods they need. They just have to search on the web and place an order for a product that seems to fulfill their requirements. If your product is not that aesthetically pleasing, they will immediately click the ‘next’ button or swipe your product page away, which means that your product will go unnoticed. You will need to pay attention to colors and imagery.
Using the right colors and imagery is the most crucial aspect. You are going to have to perform significant research on the impact of colors and images on the psychology of the particular audience you are targeting. It means that a product that has so many sales in a specific region might not gain popularity in a different geographic location.
The exterior packaging for the e-commerce shipping of your product has to be durable and aesthetically pleasing.
Here are a couple of examples of how digital and social media leave an impact on the product packaging.
Product packaging overhaul by Johnson’s
Johnson's is a famous brand that has been producing baby care goods for a long time. It has recently made changes to meet eco-friendly packaging requirements. They have done it to meet demands from parents all around the world.
Be Green Packaging
Be Green Packaging offers an alternative to plastic packaging products by using a blend of renewable natural fibers. The packaging products they produce are durable enough to survive harsh shipping environments.
There countless other companies that have been brainstorming to make their product packaging compatible with e-commerce standards. The fact of the matter is that there is a tough competition going on in the packaging industry. Every manufacturing company must use packaging supplies that not only ensure product safety but also help in the branding process. Ensuring the durability of a package while making it aesthetically pleasing may be a tough ask, but it is no longer an option.
The best way to meet packaging challenges is to contact a packaging consultant, who will give you practice advice on how to create a product packaging that will not only be strong but also attractive.