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Packaging is not just a means to protect your product, but it is also a valuable opportunity to connect customers to your brand. The trendiest and most social media shareable packaging has become a focal point in today’s advertising and marketing strategy.
Organizations are integrating unique and creative packaging into impactful digital marketing campaigns to exponentially increase brand recognition and exposure.
But though designing and manufacturing unique packaging can improve your business, custom packaging can quickly become a costly investment. Finding the balance between communicating your brand through packaging and managing your budget can be difficult – especially if you don’t know your options on the cost of packaging.
However, you don’t have to worry! Plenty of inexpensive packaging design options are available and still creative and unique! In this article, we will look at a few of these options that will impress your customers and maintain your budget!
Go Digital
Source: Semaine Health – PakFactory
In the past digital printing typically costs less than offset printing, but image quality is less than offset printing. However, even though offset might give a better quality print now, advancing digital printing technologies are quickly closing this gap to the point where we may no longer require the long process of lithographic printing in the future.
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To save cost on your corrugated/e-commerce packaging, opting for digital is the way to go! You’ll save tons of money when developing your creative packaging designs while receiving a faster turnaround time, as digital printing is much quicker than offset lithography.
Learn more about the difference between digital and offset printing.
Alternatively, Go Vintage
Vintage designs are currently in fashion and don’t cost a fortune! Theme your packaging design in vintage styles using ribbons from vintage material off-cuts, reprinted newspapers, or even use custom-designed vintage labels or stickers — more on this later — to add a unique flare to your packaging.
Source: PakFactory
Using vintage fabrics for your package can also serve as a cute packaging idea that doubles as a free item in the eyes of your customers. These fabrics can be reused to wrap another gift or upcycled into a quilt, handkerchief or scarf!
And though the vintage style is ideal for retro and vintage products, you can still add some vintage flourishes to any type of product for a unique design bound to attract customers’ attention.
Try Interior Prints
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You can include a custom printed box design to your package’s interior for only an additional 5 – 10% of your production cost. With the growing popularity of online shopping, personalized interiors are an inexpensive packaging strategy that leaves a lasting impression.
That said, we recommend an interior printed pattern to showcase a sleek and minimal brand design. And though this gives your package a luxurious and expensive-looking appearance, achieving a printed pattern with Offset or Digital printing with Full-Color CMYK requires no additional cost!
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You don’t need PMS Color nor any special paper & ink to achieve this look. All you need is to ensure your artwork executes well with your brand to make the patterns look impressionable.
Custom Sleeves
Introducing a custom printed packaging sleeve is a creative and unique way to present your product to customers. This affordable packaging design works with any product and can be further personalized to facilitate the brand experience.
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For example, a drawer or slider sleeve can highlight branding with a unique packaging design that heightens the unboxing experience for a fraction of the price a fully custom box would cost. It costs less but will enable you to be as creative as possible.
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Additionally, if your company is doubly keen on being cost-efficient and eco-friendly, then going with box sleeves is one way to hit two birds with one stone.
Because sleeves don’t compromise a box’s structural integrity, customers can also reuse this packaging instead of throwing it away.
Foil Stamping
Not long ago, (hot) foil stamping was more expensive because of the labor-intensive process. Today, most packaging and printing companies offer various foil stamping options at different price points, making this a viable packaging design option for companies on a budget.
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Typically for high-quantity orders, if you add additional options, such as foil stamping, spot UV, and embossing, the cost would only increase by about 10-15% of your total production cost.
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Therefore, you can create extra embellishments to your brand packaging to increase its value without paying an exorbitantly higher price.
Choices for foil stamping range from contemporary, modern, luxurious, striking, or patterned designs – whatever you deem fit for your product and brand, foil stamping is one cool packaging option that doesn’t require you to empty your pockets!
Tissue Paper and Box Inserts
Whether you’ve chosen a fully customized box or something more standard with a printed logo design, adding customized interior elements is a great and inexpensive packaging idea to create a fully branded experience for your customers.
Source: PakFactory
Since tissue paper is made with thinner material, you can benefit tremendously from the low material cost and a positive branding experience for your customers.
However, tissue paper is one of many things you can include in your box. Adding an insert like a personalized note or card is another creative way to extend the unboxing experience, leave a lasting impression on customers, and influence future buying habits with your brand.
Source: PakFactory
In addition, these cards can also be a great way to remind customers of your social media channels and encourage sharing of your product and creative packaging designs on social media, which further adds to your brand’s potential reach.
Stickers and Labels
Stickers are another versatile way to put customized finishing touches on packaged goods. We briefly mentioned these with vintage design, but stickers and labels are not limited to just that! If you’ve added tissue to your package, combine that with custom logo stickers to make your logo the first thing customers see when they open your box.
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Source: PakFactory
Like many other packaging items, sticker prices drop with higher print quantities, so the cost depends on sheet or roll printing and size or shape. But overall, stickers are a budget-friendly option to add a little customization to your packaging design.
Add stickers to the packaging interior or exterior to create a custom look for less money but still give customers a unique brand experience.
Browse our full catalog of stickers and labels here!
The Wrap Up
With the emergence of e-commerce, packaging has become a vital part of the product and your brand, so always remember how powerful creative packaging design can be.
In today’s competitive market, custom packaging is a tool to shape how customers think, see and talk about your product. However, this doesn’t mean you must break the bank to achieve this! Use our affordable and cool packaging design tips to uniquely package your products and create striking impressions that leave lasting brand experiences.
Lowering operational costs is an enticing idea for many small business owners. Less money spent on operating means more money saved. Or better still, put back into the business.
But if you're selling a physical product, there are some costs you just can’t avoid.
One is obviously procurement of your product. The other is the medium used to sell it - if that's retail, you'll need a store; if it's online, you'll need a site. Marketing your product isn’t free either; then there are the staff that help you to do all over the above - yet another expense.
And all these things are the first places leaders look to save money: fewer people, a less costly web host, more efficient marketing or a cheaper product manufacturer.
But no matter what physical product you sell, there's one other consistent expense that's always, always, overlooked as a place to lower operating costs.
And that place is your packaging.
For growing and scaling brands, lowering packaging costs can often mean that growth is easier to achieve, and scaling requires less investment.
And this is why it’s one of the first places you should look to save a bit of cash, no matter what position your business is currently in.
In this article, you'll learn 7 points for better packaging, and how you can lower your packaging costs without sacrificing security or performance.
Chances are that you want to lower your ongoing costs because your costs are too high.
But rather than waiting for the worst, it's best to reduce your packaging costs when you’re not in a ‘do or die’ situation.
With the luxury of time on your side, your cost savings will be more effective, sustainable, and easier to implement.
Not to mention you won't have the added stress of needing to solve a problem! So in short, start thinking about saving on packaging costs immediately.
Your packaging is more than just a simple box you put your products into when sending them off. If you're laser-focused on boxes, you'll lower your box costs - not your overall packaging costs.
What goes inside your box to keep the contents safe?
Tissue paper, kraft paper, packing peanuts, and other void filler are also packaging costs. (The fact that you need a product to fill up empty space inside a box is a sign of money being burned - more on this later.)
Also, consider physical things like tape, document pockets and mailing bags, and your e-commerce fulfilment process and courier services.
A quicker, more efficient fulfilment process means that you (or your team) will spend less time sending orders and have more time to focus on other things.
However, prioritizing the cheapest delivery service may save you money but cause headaches if their service is unreliable or hard to work with. Finding a courier service that’s reliable and easy for both you and your customer mightn’t be the cheapest option out there, but it adds value for everyone.
Tissue paper from here, boxes from there, packing tape from those guys, and invoice pockets from the corner store.
You might be getting the lowest price for each product, but what does it really cost you? Having to juggle orders from multiple vendors creates headaches and the potential to under order, over-order, or forget to order at all.
Building a long-term relationship with a single provider can help you bring costs down while also minimizing the chance of stock and order issues. It’s also easier for you to leverage economies of scale when all your products come from one supplier, rather than spread out over multiple.
Many packaging suppliers have unique ordering software that helps you keep track of your current packaging stock and automatically reorder when volumes get below a certain quantity.
Many of these platforms allow you to work with engineers and provide feedback about new prototypes, ideas, and redesigns of packaging. A single platform for a single point of contact with your end-to-end packaging supplier simplifies custom packaging in all its forms while keeping costs down.
Swapping out the humble corrugated mailer box for a smaller, more straightforward packaging solution is another quick and easy way to free up some cash.
Clothing that's flexible and durable doesn't need the weighty security of a cardboard box. Consider sending your apparel in a custom mailing bag.
Waterproof and durable, these bags are physically smaller, meaning you can save space in your warehouse or buy more. Using a mailing bag also means you don't need to use tape to seal a box closed.
In what seems like a complete contradiction of the previous point, a corrugated mailer box can be the ideal solution for brands selling both in stores and online.
A lightweight box should be enough to get a product from the mall back home, safe and securely.
But if you're also selling online, the same lightweight box is an unnecessary expense. If you need a rugged packaging solution to send via a courier, why not use it in-store?
Luckily, corrugated mailer boxes are customizable in just about every way. They'll keep your products safe throughout the transport process, but also stand out on retail store shelves.
Smaller accessories like socks, wallets and gloves can benefit from smaller alternative packaging solutions, too. A paper can is entirely customizable, and small enough to save space and postage costs.
Ask yourself if a typical box is the most financially viable option for your business, or is it just the go-to solution that you opted for.
Your staff are the ones that interact with your packaging more than anyone else. They take it from the shelf, fold it, fill it, and send it where it needs to go.
They do this many times a day. It may be the only thing they do all day.
Therefore having a process documented in black and white can help save time, and therefore money.
Consider documentation for:
Assembling boxes
Warehouse layout and storage locations of packaging supplies
Minimum thresholds for reordering packaging
What products get what packaging products
While these things won't directly save you cold hard cash, they'll make it quicker and easier for new staff to get up to speed, and save time for even the most experienced workers.
Most importantly, though, it'll save headaches for you and your team.
Value engineered packaging is packaging that's been created from the ground up specifically with your product(s) in mind.
It's optimized for your product, uses as little material as possible, but also doesn't sacrifice on performance or security.
Brands can also use a single value-engineered packaging option for multiple products. An engineer creates a prototype for numerous products and then amalgamates them into one packaging solution.
This means that you have fewer packaging stock-keeping units (SKU) to manage, and can then leverage economies of scale when buying your new packaging.
Another benefit of value-engineered packaging is that it's unique - not just in terms of the printed design, but the overall visual aesthetic.
You're able to specify that you want your packaging to have curves to match your actual product, or an overall shape similar to your logo.
Value engineered packaging presents more branding opportunities and the chance to create packaging that adds value to your customer's purchase.
One of the benefits of value-engineered packaging is that you can create one solution for every product you sell, commonly called "packaging rationalization."
But of creating something from the ground up isn't for you, there's still a way that you can reap the benefits of packaging rationalization.
Earlier, you read how void filler such as tissue paper or packing peanuts is a sign of wasted space - and it is. Chances are that wasted space is there because you use an off-the-shelf sized box that 'does the job' for as many of your products as possible. And the empty space is filled in.
While using a single box is a good idea to keep costs down, wasted space costs you money, and void fill isn't the best at...well, filling the void, or adding security.
Enter the custom insert.
As you can see, a custom insert is a stage that presents your product to the world.
A custom insert means that you can leverage:
A single box size for all SKUs
A unique packaging component for every SKU that you sell
Eliminate any chance of your product moving inside the box
Create a top-shelf unboxing experience, so your brand name is remembered.
Once again, it's an experienced packaging engineer that can create the ideal insert for every product in your range, meaning you can buy boxes in larger quantities (and save money) while buying more realistic levels of inserts.
You've just seen several ideas to help lower the ongoing costs of your packaging supplies. While every business is different, and some may be more relevant to you than others, what's consistent here is that packaging can be a savings goldmine.
Whether it's redesigning your packaging from the ground up, creating efficient fulfilment processes or switching from one packaging product to another, there's money to be found.
Spend some time assessing your current packaging supplies, and consider thinking outside the box to improve your packaging strategy - no pun intended.
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