7 Tips for Designing Your Retail Packaging Boxes

Have you ever ordered something and felt immediate disappointment when you received it? Without trying it out or even seeing the item itself, you couldn't shake the feeling that you had made a mistake?

Packaging is more than a marketing tool. Your product’s packaging is part of the experience customers have with your products. The initial response to value occurs when they first touch and see the packaging of an item. Packaging can:

• communicate quality
• validate purchases
• drive repurchases
• create loyal brand fans
• increase social engagement

Keep reading to get design tips for retail packaging boxes to help you create boxes that could be the star of your customer’s next Instagram story!

How to Design High Quality Retail Packaging

Designing a packaging box might seem like a simple task—until you start the process. Suddenly, you realize there are a lot of elements that will affect the outcome. Here are seven tips to design high-quality packaging that will help you win brand fans.

Be Clear & Conscientious

The wording on your packaging is incredibly important. We see two common mistakes made by brands: either they try to pack in way too many eye-grabbing elements, or they fail to explain key aspects of their product. It is important to include a hierarchy of design that leads the consumer through the experience and communicates all important information.

Even if items are bought online and never sitting on retail shelves, your packaging should still convey important selling points and instructions for use. You should use all parts of your packaging—even the inside of your box—for a design that uses space in creative and economical ways.

Use Brand-Consistent Elements

Keep the packaging in line with your website and marketing materials. From the wording and font selection to the colors, you want the consumer to have a cohesive experience that makes them a long-term fan. Professional packaging designers should understand your brand enough to nail the look and translate it into effective packaging. High quality packaging is both beautiful and highly functional.

Choose High Quality Materials

If you are pursuing a quality-loving audience, it’s a given that your product should be high quality—but don’t neglect your packaging! Choose quality cardboards and other materials that will hold shape and feel good to the touch. Everything from smooth matte or silky pearl finishes are going to impact the sensory experience your customer has when making a first impression about your brand.

If marketing creates a first impression through visual elements, UX design, and messaging, your packaging will solidify the first impression through first physical contact.

Know Your Audience

You need to have buyer personas that describe real people who are purchasing your product. You should understand their pain points and what they appreciate. By understanding your customer, you will be better able to create the messaging, visual design, and packaging materials that are most appealing to them. What are you promising to them and how can packaging help fulfill that promise?

Stand Out From the Competition

Know your competition and find ways to be different. Generic brands will often follow in the footsteps of the leading brands, but not you! You are going to make a name for yourself and that requires knowing the field. Once you understand the players, you will start to see the gaps in the market where you can capitalize on quality-loving customers that aren’t being targeted by the competition. Win that base and you can expand to appeal to other groups with similar needs and wants.

Use Surprising Design Elements

From embossing words on a box to including windows for the initial product reveal—there are many ways to grab the attention of your audience. You can include a special coupon for a next purchase or a thank you note. You can even use personalized packaging elements to help increase your buyer’s instant connection to the product.

You’ve already convinced them to purchase, but now you are convincing them that their choice was a great one. Surprising design elements can help set your company apart from the competition and create a memorable experience for your buyer.

Consider the Experience

Make your packaging easy to open. Even how the customer opens the package is going to leave an impression—good or bad. Have you ever wrestled with razor-sharp plastic packaging, only to swear you will never buy from that brand again? Luxury skincare brands or top-shelf supplements, on the other hand, use boxes so nice, you don’t want to throw them away!

Consider how your customer is going to experience the unboxing process because it’s a very real possibility that you might be part of one in the day and age of YouTube and Instagram!

Solutions for Quality Retail Packaging Design

Are you in need of packaging that sets your brand apart?

Bay Cities Packaging & Design is here to help you create the kind of packaging that forms a lasting impression. We will help you consider your customer base for a design that will communicate value, and then we’ll make sure it’s sturdy enough to stay intact during shipping. Check out some of the work we’ve done for other clients: