As a business owner, your primary goal is to boost sales and improve your profit margin. Every single business decision you make will affect how well you achieve this goal, including your choices concerning packaging. Whether you are just starting out or already have years of experience, there are certain packaging mistakes you want to avoid. Each of the following can lead to a potential loss in sales, hurting your company.
Making Dramatic Changes
If your brand is already well established, then making any major changes to your packaging can easily cost you sales. Customers are probably familiar with your current packaging, and adjusting its appearance may make it harder to find on the shelves. Even if they can still locate your product, changing the general layout or shape of the packaging may cause it to be less convenient for your clientele. Generally speaking, updating your packaging is fine, but you should always focus on minor tweaks and be sure to test them before making larger changes.
Not Picking Sturdy Materials
Selecting the wrong packaging material is another seemingly simple action that will lose you sales. If the materials you select are flimsy or not of good quality, your product is less likely to make it to store shelves or safely to customers’ homes if they order online. In the case of items in the store, customers are less likely to select a product with damaged packaging, as they will be worried about the quality of the item itself. This can lead to fewer sales and increased costs for you in terms of retrieving leftover or damaged products.
Forgetting Key Information
The key when designing packaging is simplicity, but you still want to make sure that all the relevant information is displayed and easy to find. If, for example, you sell orange juice, customers will want to know whether there is pulp inside. If you sell headphones, they will want to know what type of plug they use. Leaving out details like this can cost you sales from customers who are unsure about your product and unwilling to spend money on an item that may not meet their needs.
Not Testing
Another common mistake is to simply design your packaging, have it produced on a large scale, and start selling your products. Before you invest money in packaging, you want to make sure that it meets your customers’ needs. You can ask a focus group whether your product appeals to them and what they think of your packaging. Then opt for short-run packaging so you can test how your product does with your planned box or container. Once its success is clear, then make the investment in a larger order. Otherwise, you may be stuck with packaging that will not sell.
Not Preparing for Returns
No one wants to think that their product will be returned, but it does happen frequently, particularly with online purchases. During the packaging design process, you want to keep returns in mind and try to create a system that will let customers easily get your item back inside its box or container. If they aren’t able to do so, there is an increased risk of the product being damaged and not being able to be resold. Customers may even become frustrated to the point that they decide not to buy from you again.
