Is Your Retail Packaging Ready for its Close-Up?

With "likes" and "favorites" taking center stage in retail, trends like "retail hauling" (i.e., the YouTube version of calling a friend to brag about a recent shopping spree) are creating a market environment in which posting to Instagram, Facebook and other social sites is now a natural follow-up to making a purchase.

Social is also playing an increasingly larger role in online retailing. Photos of Birchbox picks, PetFlow.com boxes and other online retail packages frequently appear among the 250 million images shared on mobile devices and desktops each day, highlighting the opportunity e-tailers have to cash in on the social media bonanza.

But there's a catch: How can you ensure that packaging makes the cut for social sharing in a way that's both impactful and cost effective?

The Science of Packaging for Social Shares
In today's e-commerce marketplace, it's all about creating affordable packaging that inspires customers to share their experience with friends and acquaintances across a range of social media channels.

The type of packaging that works well for one brand may not deliver the same results for another, even if the brands occupy the same retail category. But in general, there are several things all online retailers can do to optimize their packaging for increased social shares. Consider the following three tips:

1. Start with the brand experience. E-tailers need to understand that packaging is an extension of the brand experience, and therefore needs to be consistent with the brand messaging consumers encounter at other stages of the customer journey.

By carefully identifying the brand experience they're trying to promote, online retailers can begin to explore creative and cost-efficient packaging solutions that deepen customers’ relationships with the brand, ramping up their level of excitement about purchases and improving the likelihood of social sharing.