There are many ways for a company to make a good impression on its customers: the customer service team, the social channels, even the website. Packaging belongs on that list, and it’s the one that gets overlooked the most.

That’s a missed opportunity, because as business gets more digital, your product and its packaging are among the only physical touchpoints you have left with a customer. Everyone looks forward to receiving a package. Unpacking it (“unboxing,” as everyone calls it now) is an experience, and an experience is a chance to impress. We kit, pack, and ship orders out of our Lindon warehouse every day, and we’ve watched good packaging change how a delivery lands.

Here’s why packaging matters more than you may think.

1. Packaging is your point of difference in a crowded market

Ecommerce is a crowded field, and your brand should use every chance it gets to stand out. Great packaging is one of the cheapest ways to make your mark.

If you ship in standard, ubiquitous stock materials, your customer’s unboxing experience is the same forgettable one they’ve had a hundred times. Packaging has come a long way in recent years. There are affordable, appealing options at every business size and budget.

2. Packaging is another way to reinforce your story

Part of a good business is a good story, told through everything you do. Your website and social channels are unified around your brand’s look and mission; your packaging should be part of the same story.

Your logo and colors are a great start, but the details are what make it memorable: the tissue paper, a handwritten thank-you note, the way the items are arranged when the box opens. It’s the same thinking we put into onboarding kits, where the box itself is part of the gift.

3. Packaging protects your product and your delivery time

The first job of packaging is to protect what’s inside for the whole trip: sturdy materials, products that fit the box, nothing rattling around. Damaged or opened packages have to be reprocessed, which means delays, and a late or broken delivery undoes everything the contents were supposed to say.

Fulfillment is our daily work: our FlexONE™ team picks, packs, and ships webstore orders every day, and the packages that arrive well are always the ones that were packed deliberately.

4. Packaging can support your online marketing

A good unboxing experience doesn’t just delight the recipient. It gets shared. Unboxing is a genuine phenomenon online, with people filming the whole reveal from sealed box to first use, and popular unboxing videos rack up millions of views. That user-generated content is marketing you didn’t have to buy.

Considering an upgrade to your packaging but not sure where to start? Tell us what you ship, and we’ll help you design packaging (and the branded products inside it) that sets you apart.