Elevating the Unboxing Experience: A Guide for Ecommerce Brands

All of us remember the experience of opening presents on Christmas day.

It’s the excitement and anticipation of not knowing what is inside, and wanting to savor the moment.

In other words, this is ‘unboxing’; the excitement experienced by the clever and attractive presentation of consumer items.

In recent years, unboxing has gone from being a seasonal pleasure, to an online fad, to a powerful ecommerce marketing tool.

In fact, unboxing has become such an expected experience in the industry, that Instagram accounts like ThingTesting report out on how products are package and round that up into the overall customer and venture capital review of any ecommerce company.

If you want to make a lasting impression on your customers, your packaging and presentation is a vital ingredient.

Does the Unboxing Experience Matter?

This boils down to a pretty simple question.

If you were a customer who ordered something online, which is going to make you feel more valued: your purchase arriving in a generic cardboard box, or in attractive, bespoke packaging?

The product within is exactly the same, but the perception between these two examples couldn’t be more different.

In the former, it is just a ‘thing’.

In the latter, it takes on the positive attributes of the brand itself; attention to detail, high value, and a great service experience. This is what turns customers into repeat business.

It’s been proven that people are naturally drawn to products and packaging that looks good.

Out of any of our senses, visual stimuli has the greatest impact on our perceptions.

A study from 2013 found that attractive packaging stimulates the reward-seeking areas of the brain that are associated with impulse purchasing.

Plain packaging, on the other hand, garners very little response.

In sum, making a positive impact on your customers’ purchasing decisions is impossible without considering product presentation.

What a Great Unboxing Experience Can Do For Your Brand:

1. It helps your brand tell it’s story.

If you aren’t leveraging your brand’s unboxing experience to the fullest, you’re missing out on a brilliant opportunity to express yourself.

Unboxing is about much more than making your products look good; it’s about crafting your brand’s narrative.

Your narrative is integral to communicating successfully why customers should choose you over alternatives.

This is about emotion as much as what your product or service offers.

Simply listing the selling points of your offering isn’t going to make you interesting or exciting.

Your brand narrative is effectively the answer to the question “Why should I care?”

A great brand story includes:

• How your brand got to where it is today.
• What you are aiming to become.
• What makes you different from everyone else in your industry.
• What you guarantee your customers.

Refining your unboxing experience will go a long way to helping you craft a powerful brand narrative.

Instead of just words, you are giving customers tangible proof of your values.

Because unboxing takes place in the ‘post-sale’ phase, it also avoids the risk of coming across as a cold-hearted sales pitch.

You already have your customer’s money, so anything extra you give them falls into that all-important ‘value-added’ category.

It shows that you value your customers and your interactions with them, which breeds trust and belief in your ethos.

2. It drives customer loyalty.

In ecommerce, customer loyalty drives business success. ‘Last’ impressions are just as important as first impressions.

Product delivery is effectively the last point of contact that your customer will have with your brand, so make it a memorable one!

From an economic perspective, long-term customer relationships are much more profitable than having to spend resources attracting them from scratch.

But building these partnerships isn’t as easy as it sounds; according to a study by Bain & Company, between 60% to 80% of customers don’t return to the same company from a product or service, even if they were previously satisfied.

This is because brand loyalty isn’t simply about whether the product or service is ‘good’.

In an increasingly competitive retail market, there are a dozen brands who are probably making as ‘good’ a product as you.

What brings your customers back is when you offer that extra ‘wow factor’ that sets you apart from the crowd.

You might have an excellent product that your customers are happy with, but it’s very difficult to capitalize on this if you don’t give them an experience that is unique.

A great unboxing experience is like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae; everything else might have been great, but it’s those little extra touches which put you head and shoulders above the rest.

3. The opportunity to go viral.

Let’s face it, putting together a great unboxing experience can get expensive.

When your package might only be seen by one person, or by one household at the absolute maximum, it can feel difficult to justify the cost.

But what if your efforts had the potential to be seen by a virtually limitless audience?

In the world of Social Media, this potential is very real.

Social Media and unboxing are virtual bread and butter.

‘Unboxing’ has become its own genre with a cult following on sites such as YouTube.

Some specially dedicated channels develop huge followings, with views that reach into the millions.

According to Dotcom Distribution, 35.3% of consumers had seen an unboxing video in 2015. In 2017, this had risen to 36.8%.

Why? Because we love to live vicariously through those who are engaging with our greatest desires.

It could be the latest iPhone or Adidas sneakers, or even just the pleasure of the unboxing itself.

It engages with those primal consumer desires that brands have to tap into in order to be successful.

This makes it an incredibly friendly way to get your brand out there.

An image or video of someone ‘unboxing’ your product can allow your brand to reach entirely new markets, which may have been difficult to reach or discover otherwise.

4. It gets influencers excited.

Influencers have quickly become a vital weapon in the arsenal of marketing strategy.

Consumers have become increasingly mistrustful of traditional advertising techniques, which are commonly misleading.

By contrast, influencer marketing is cheaper, more targeted, and more likely to lend a brand credibility if the influencer is seen as an authority in a particular industry.

Because it’s effectively a modern version of ‘word of mouth’ marketing, you need to pull out all the stops to ensure you make a favorable impression.

It’s important to remember that influencers are not the same as a celebrity ‘endorsing’ a product.

There are overlaps, but influencers are for the most part ordinary people who build their large followings and business from being perceived as trustworthy.

This means they are unlikely to promote a product that they don’t believe in.

A strong unboxing experience is an excellent way to build a rapport with influencers that could lead to strong partnerships, as personalizing their initial experience with your product will win you major points from the outset.

As we previously mentioned, content based on the unboxing format also has the potential to get your brand a lot of exposure.

If this is applied in the context of influencer marketing, then you have a powerful formula that is highly beneficial to your brand.