Packaging

Should you change your packaging for Black Friday or other shopping events?

Shopping bags for black friday
Lots of sales, mean lots of packaging! But, should this packaging stay the same as it always does or should you adapt your packaging for events such as Black Friday?

It’s Black Friday next week! Black Friday, if you don’t know, is one of the biggest shopping events of the year. It started in the US but is not a global event and is increasingly popular in the UK. People from across the world flock to the internet for big deals and epic savings. In fact, in Britain alone, people are expected to spend 5.6 billion on Black Friday this year. Source:  https://www.finder.com/uk/black-friday-statistics

So, lots of sales, mean lots of packaging! But, should this packaging stay the same as it always does or should you adapt your packaging for evens? This article will depict the advantages and disadvantages of changing your packaging for big shopping events and promotions like Black Friday sales.

Let's start with the pros of changing your packaging for Black Friday  

Monetizing on Black Friday is very beneficial to many e-commerce businesses in particular. The event isn’t attractive to all but gives many the opportunity to get rid of some stock before big Christmas shopping or just make some quick, easy sales. An important way to monetizing even more on Black Friday is to consider your packaging as a further promotional product.

We’ve talked about how you can use your packaging as a marketing tool before, but for Black Friday for example, you can showcase what’s on offer for your customers in anticipation of their Christmas shopping. Using inserts or samples can really drive more Christmas sales – plus this is a really easy way of adapting and optimising your packaging without changing the whole thing!

Using your packaging for marketing

Using your packaging as a marketing tool isn’t just about adding promotional material like inserts and samples, but it’s also about making sure that your packaging showcases your brand in the way you want it to. So, making the most of the Black Friday sales and creating a memorable experience for your customers can help to drive more sales in future. This doesn’t have to mean drastic changes to your packaging but small, opportunist changes can be very beneficial.

On the other hand, adapting and simplifying your packaging for big shopping events might also help you, or your 3PL, to manage the fulfilment. If your packaging is usually quite complex, you might want to simplify it for the sake of the sale to make life easier for everybody during these big shopping events. You mustn’t compromise on the security of your product but cutting costs by removing the frills can help you monetize on the event (especially if you’re offering big discounts).

You need to think about cost

Cost, then, is one of the disadvantages of changing your packaging specifically for a shopping event. Even if you simplify your packaging – it is still going to cost you. If you’re in the early stages of your ecommerce business, packaging changes might just be completely out of reach. In which case, think about leaflets and inserts etc.

Plus, there’s not always an absolute need to be changing your packaging for these events. If you have decent, high-quality packaging anyway, this will showcase your business in a positive way anyway. Sometimes, brands can over-emphasis big events and can actually put people off business from them. If everything is branded as a ‘promotional product’ then it can be very off putting. This, then, is another disadvantage.

There are other disadvantages too...

Another disadvantage of changing your packaging for events like Black Friday is that you can appear to be too promotional.  Yes, whilst using the opportunity to market other products etc. through your packaging is a good idea you can over do it. These customers have already bought a product from you so they might be put off by promotional packaging. It’s all about understanding your audience and getting the balance right.

Our best piece of advice

Figuring out what to do with your packaging can be very challenging and confusing so, one of our best pieces of advice is to consult professionals about your packaging and fulfilment. When you’re running a business there are so many other things you need to think about so it can be extremely beneficial to consult a professional. If you want to learn more about hiring a 3PL, read some of our other articles.

April 16, 2020
by 
Mark Jones
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