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Total package
Hi there,
As food and makeup sales shift online, the role of packaging needs to evolve.
CPG brands historically designed packaging to stand out on store shelves. With limited shelf real estate, packages had to draw shoppers’ eyes while crowding out competitors.
Online, the visual requirements are even higher. E-commerce brings an endless aisle, and labeling needs to have text simple enough and colors bold enough to stop a scrolling thumb.
But, brands no longer need to rely on packages to showcase products. E-commerce platforms can highlight products in their unwrapped form, or use photos to show shoppers natural ingredients or other unique features.
Even with the eye-grabbing opportunities that e-commerce provides, many platforms still rely on the status quo. Check out, for example, how Amazon shows its Valentine’s specials. How much more appealing might those strawberries be if we saw the fruit itself rather than a plastic bag?
Newer CPG entrants have begun to innovate in the way they display their products online.
Startup Daily Harvest, for example, raised $44M in Dec’17 and has grown its digital business by highlighting its products rather than its boxes. The direct-to-consumer frozen foods startup doesn’t show any packaging on its website — instead, it uses photos featuring the plants that go into each product, which would be difficult to do on store shelves.
Packages now cater to people who have already bought your product — the folks unboxing your food or makeup at home.
Online, a cardboard box or wrinkled bag won’t make the most convincing sales pitch. The product itself, its ingredients, and its benefits will.
We talk about packaging and 11 other trends reshaping the CPG industry in 2018 — from blockchain integration to private label growth and more — in our newest report. Download it here.
