A poor online shopping experience can end up in a loss of customers…

It's a 'packaging thing'!

The competition for shoppers used to be between high street retailers and eCommerce stores basically, didn't it? It was a battle for consumer spending that online businesses were gradually winning, as shoppers increasingly opted to simply buy online. After all, who wants to traipse to the shops or get the car out and head for the local retail park when you can get all the stuff you need at the click of a mouse?

Times are changing, though. Yes, the popularity of Internet shopping is massive, and is rising year on year, but if you’re an online trader not quite going the extra mile for your customers, beware. If a similar online store to yours offers a better customer experience, your regular shoppers might desert you in droves, making the switch to a retailer who makes them feel, well, more valued. 

It's about customer experience as well as convenience

Who doesn't shop online these days? All of us have purchased something from an eCommerce store at some point or other. It's just so convenient, especially at times like during the run up to Christmas, when the shops are crowded and the car parks full. Without even leaving the armchair we can browse, compare, buy, review... and we can place an order with ease before looking forward to fast delivery direct to our door. At least, we'd better be able to! If our desired items are out of stock, or they take too long to arrive, we don't like it: we vow to take our hard-earned cash to another eCommerce store in future, in fact.

As online shopping increases, our expectations as customers rise in tandem

To think well on an eCommerce store, we need them to treat us well. One direct correlation can be found between poor product packaging and a poor customer experience. That's right. It's not 'just' about stock availability and speed of delivery, we expect our packaging to be excellent, too, or, again, we'll simply switch online stores (probably never to return to the previous one).

If you're an online retailer, don't risk losing customers and having your reputation undermined, by failing to place enough importance upon amazing packaging design being part of a heightened customer experience. Grow your customer-base all-year-round by always providing an unquestionably positive online shopping experience: with packaging excellence being a key contributor to that, to showing customers that you care:

1: First and foremost, make sure your products are protected. Use strong packaging that can withstand the journey there and a possible return. Yes, the packaging needs to be clean, presentable, professional, making a great first impression... but the goods need to arrive at the customer's address undamaged, too. So, it's a case of striking the perfect balance between style and strength.

However...

2: Don't overdo it. Only use packaging that's fit for purpose – avoid excessive materials and material quantities. Too much card, paper, tissue, shredded paper, bubble-wrap, overflowing stuffing etc., could result in product damage in transit through the package bursting or tearing. And you don't want that.

3: Make the package quick and easy to open. Customers will LOVE you for it. When their much-anticipated items arrive, they want to get at them as quickly as possible. They don't want to faff around with scissors, using their teeth to break seals, stressing and straining to get the package open (with lots of mess being made). Make package opening a quick, clean, stress-free experience. Incorporated tear strips are what you need.

4: Make returning goods hassle-free. Every year in the UK, millions of online-bought goods are sent back, for all sorts of reasons. Not making product returns easy can seriously hurt an online business's profits and reputation. The package and internal wrapping/extra padding needs to be reusable and not a nightmare to put back in. Customers will appreciate you making sending items back easy for them.

5: Is your current packaging easily disposable? Customers might like the look of the package when it arrives in the post or by delivery van, just as they'll appreciate their purchased items arriving in one piece. Great. They may also think that your branding inclusions are a lovely extra touch: you've used personalised messaging ('Thank You', 'Enjoy!'...), there's even tissue padding with your company name and logo on. Wow. So far, at every step it's all been a very pleasant online shopping experience indeed. But hang on, the packaging now won't tear up; you can't get rid of it easily; it won't fold; you can't cut it up; it's not recyclable, for goodness' sake! "Spend my hard-earned cash shopping online with you lot again? Hmm... Not sure now."

Find the perfect packaging solution!