Packaging trends for 2021 for a better customer experience

Brands today need to have a primary focus on experience, this primary focus will help strengthen a brands customer loyalty and overall lifetime value. Brands can achieve this at several different touch points within the business model.

But one area where this can really be achieved with so much value add is at the packaging level. In an article published on the Inc.com authored by Maria Haggerty, CEO of Dotcom Distribution, she lists 4 trends that are helping brands win on customer experience, here is what she had to say...

 

1. Sustainability: We're noticing our clients moving to more sustainable packaging choices at a faster pace now compared with pre-pandemic times. These earth-friendly alternatives come in a variety of materials, such as boxes made from 100 percent post-consumer waste and petroleum-free inks. Our 2021 e-commerce study revealed that consumers overwhelmingly prefer to support sustainably focused brands. In fact, 82 percent of consumers prefer to receive online orders in boxes rather than poly bags, and over a quarter of those individuals cite environmental concerns as the reason for their preference.
    

2. Minimalistic: This may sound counterintuitive coming from someone who runs an e-commerce fulfillment company, but for some brands, giving their customers a more satisfying experience actually means focusing on less. This is not mutually exclusive to, but goes hand-in-hand with, the environmentally friendly packaging trend.
    

3. Story driven: What does your brand stand for? How do you support your people and communities? What are you doing to give back? How do you source the ingredients and materials used in your products? These used to fall into the "nice to know" category, but today are questions consumers care about, and expect answers to. Why? Because people are brand-conscious, meaning they see what they buy and whom they buy it from as a reflection of themselves, their values, and how they're contributing to the world.
    

4. Coded: QR codes were really on their way out the door not too long ago. But with the pandemic emerged the era of touchless transactions, putting them back on the map. Putting QR codes on inner and outer packaging components--from tissue paper to boxes and mailers--is an easy, engaging way to direct customers to any online property you want to promote. It also doesn't require any additional packing materials, which can help save on marketing and shipping costs.
    

I personally like #’s 3 and 4, because these two can easily be accomplished by using InterApp to create interactive packaging. The InterApp creator platform enables a brand’s creative department to easily embed video into packaging through the use of augmented reality. 

Video is a powerful media that a brand can use to tell its story, but what’s more powerful is when it is embedded into the brands packaging as exclusive content for the consumer to engage with through their smartphone with InterApp’s Apple and Android consumer app.

 

As Maria explains in the article, QR codes are a great way to direct consumers to any online property or unique landing page. The InterApp consumer app has the ability to scan QR codes but provide a more interactive experience as compared to any other QR scanner in the market, and that does not include any unique setup from a brand. 

 

But unlike QR codes that just only take you to a web page, augmented reality or AR is being used to create dynamic interactive experiences that augment from the packaging, when this is easily done in the InterApp creator platform this experience can be, video, animation, photo galleries/lookbooks, unique interactive hyper-links and 3D content.

 

In today's direct to consumer driven market, where brands are fighting for consumers attention and loyalty, the brands that are going to prevail or the ones that focus on customer experience through packaging and adopting new technologies such as InterApp to achieve this method.

 

Learn how to inject some WOW inside and outside of your packaging projects and have fun doing it. You’ll also gain expert insight into what’s going on in the packaging market, by attending the Project Peacock, virtual packing event on  JULY 15, 6 - 9 PM ET. Click here to register