In an age of rapid growth for e-commerce and digital shopping, your packaging can be one of your most powerful marketing tools. With around 20% of retail sales happening online, product packaging has become an increasingly important part of the customer experience. Here’s why a product unboxing strategy is a crucial element of marketing and how you can take advantage of the unboxing experience to build your brand, connect with customers, and drive sales.
What is Unboxing?
In simple terms, unboxing is the process of opening a boxed consumer product. But today, unboxing has become about much more than merely opening a box and taking out the product.
With the popularity of YouTube and the social media influencer boom, unboxing has turned into a key part of the customer experience and has become an important avenue for brand marketing. People increasingly look to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for product recommendations, with social media influencers using long-form videos on the platforms to unbox and showcase products that fit in their niche.
There are even entire YouTube accounts dedicated to the unboxing experience—the channel Unbox Therapy, which focuses mostly on unboxing technology products, has 18.2 million subscribers and generates millions of views on each video. And the massive kid’s channel Ryan’s World, which has more than 48 billion total views and 30 million subscribers, started with toy unboxing videos and reviews.
The popularity of unboxing videos provides an opportunity for brands to get in front of potentially millions of new customers through paid partnerships with influencers or organic means. But unboxing isn’t just for the tech or toy industries, and it’s not just the responsibility of your influencer marketing team. No matter what industry or niche your products occupy, you should be designing an unboxing experience that draws customers in and helps them connect with your brand.
Why is the Unboxing Experience Important?
Product packaging is a key part of the customer experience and offers an opportunity to connect with your audience while building your brand.
No matter what your brand identity is, your packaging should reflect it. Whether your brand voice is whimsical and cheerful or sleek and luxurious, your product packaging is a chance to further develop your brand personality and tell your story. You should approach the unboxing experience as an important element of your brand building and marketing, creating an experience that elevates and reflects who you are.
The unboxing experience adds an element of excitement to your customers’ interactions with your products and brand, drawing them in and creating an emotional experience. This helps customers better understand who you are, develop a deep and meaningful connection with your brand, and increases the chance that they’ll turn into long-term, loyal customers.
While getting featured on an influencer’s social media accounts shouldn’t be your primary motivation for designing an unboxing experience, it does provide a potential unique marketing opportunity. With influencers in every market niche across social media channels, your brand has the potential to go viral in unboxing videos. You have the option to target influencers with paid branding opportunities and sponsored posts, or you can hope that influencers come across your product on their own and share it with their followers. Whether or not you have an established influencer marketing strategy, the popularity of social media unboxing videos gives you the potential to reach a much larger audience.
How to Design an Innovative Unboxing Experience
Designing the unboxing experience should be a key part of your e-commerce warehouse fulfillment strategy. It’s important that you take the time to thoughtfully create an unboxing experience that aligns with your brand messaging, tells your story, and allows customers to connect with your brand products in a meaningful way.
As you design your product packaging, try to think of the unboxing experience from your customer’s point of view. What designs or features would catch their eye? What would get them excited to open the box? Is there anything about the current packaging that might inconvenience them or get in the way of the unboxing experience?
Start with the box that your products arrive in. Using a box that’s branded with your company colors, font, logo, and any brand tagline creates an instant connection and helps build brand recognition. You should also consider what the products will look like when the customer opens the box—securing them in place with unique packaging material or dividers that match your branding can help ensure that your product is well-presented.
While clever packaging designs might catch the customer’s eye, unboxing doesn’t have to be all about the trendiest way to show your product. Design choices as simple as adding a small freebie or a note of appreciation can go a long way in making your customers feel valued, helping to create a positive unboxing experience that builds a connection and turns one-time customers into loyal brand advocates.
Create an Unforgettable Unboxing Experience With Boxzooka
Designing your brand’s unboxing experience can be a daunting task, especially if you are new to your industry. Wondering how to start? Boxzooka is here to help. Our team of account managers can help you create and individualize every aspect of your unboxing experience tailor-fit to your budget. Led by our account management director’s more than a decade’s worth of experience in luxury retail, we can ensure that your product packaging can provide an unforgettable unboxing experience to your customers.
By Brendan Heegan
