In the highly competitive e-commerce market, the aesthetic elements of packaging have occupied an important unique position in delivering the product to the buyers. It has become a differentiation tool among similar kinds of products from different e-commerce stores. Packaging attracts the attention of the customers to a particular brand and enhances the product image and influences consumer’s perception of the product. The package appearance has a strong impact on influencing consumer’s purchase decisions than advertising. An appealing and successful packaging design with relevant design, pictures, and decorations is more successful in attracting consumers.
Now, the packaging itself has become a promotional tool for e-commerce stores. The customer’s buying behavior gets affected by the quality, color, wrapper, and other characteristics of packaging. Packaging can increase sales and market share while reducing promotional costs. Packaging performs multi-tasks and functions that describe the product and its features and communicate with the customers and safeguard the product. E.g. the packaging of the product tells about different components, usage of the product, and also tells about some precautions if the product has any side effects.
Packaging includes the names and the brand names, brand logos, pictures of the product, different kinds of labels such as constituents, manufacturing and expiry date, warnings, price, usage instructions of the product, company name, company address, etc. and the main function of the packaging is to easily and safely distribute the products.
Roles in Promotion:
Packaging is a very important component of promoting, designing, and plays a prominent role in marketing. An honest and effective packaging will absorb a lot of consumers and will increase people’s intentions on buying products. If the product has a good quality and unique packaging, it remains in the mind of the customer for a long time and therefore the customer wants to buy that product at the time of shopping, so packaging promotes the product while doing nothing.
Packaging should also be designed to promote product sales. It will influence the customers and hence change their shopping behavior towards that brand, which will help the organization generate more sales and revenue. When customers are attracted towards any product so it is usual that they will buy that product multiple times and also refer the same to their kith and kin. This increases the sales and revenue of the company and it can be done only by attracting customers towards any product at first sight and usually the first impression is the last impression that will lead to an increase in the existing sales performance.
Role of labeling:
The packaging appears to be an important consideration factor in purchase decisions that are made at the point of sale where it becomes an essential part of the selling process. The customers purchase more quantity of a product after seeing its label so it is clear that labeling influences the customer’s buying behavior but many other factors influence it as well.
Role of Colour:
Have you ever wondered why the food store outlets and other food-related brands always brand themselves in yellow or red colour? Because these two colours incite the craving to have some delicious food. Similarly, colour also plays an important role in the marketing of the product. It is the most powerful visual component of any product. It maintains a customer’s interest and is identified with that product in the mind of the customers. The colour itself embodied many ideas and is often sufficient in itself to communicate the message of the image it represents. Some researchers explain about the packaging of colour is the most important factor that attracts the consumers and changes their intentions towards any brand and then their buying behaviour will automatically change from no purchases to start purchases.
You can communicate with the customers through your packaging colour either negatively or positively. It is estimated that 62-90% of customers’ assessment and evaluation is based on colours alone. Colours have many effects on consumer’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours; so marketers should focus on the long employ of colours as a visual device to support cognition and thoughts and grasp consumer’s attention towards the product. The green colour is a symbol of nature, red colour is mostly used for food-related products, blue and black are symbols of mostly sports products.
Role of Packaging material and wrappers:
Wrappers and packaging material also plays a prominent role as many customers don’t buy a product that has creepy packaging material and wrappers. A study shows that the trust of buyers in a product or brand declines gradually when its packaging is damaged. More than half of the potential customers can be left the store due to this. In today’s time, the customers look for stylish and unique packaging so they expect a good packaging material. The packaging material can also affect sales in a negative way if the product is of good quality but has no quality material of packaging. There is no significant difference between product involved consumers and uninvolved ones in terms of package design preferences for the healthiness expectations that it generates.
Green Purchasing:
In recent years, consumers have also become cautious towards green purchasing because of the grown consciousness for environmental protection. Green purchasing implies purchasing environmentally friendly products. Thus, if you deal with an industry in which you are selling environmental-friendly products then make sure that your packaging is not contradictory to your products and brand. In simple words, if you are boasting yourself as an environmental-friendly brand then the packaging should be also environmentally friendly.
Conclusion:
In this article, we have found that packaging should be treated as one of the most valuable tools in today’s marketing communications. Elements such as an appropriate and vivid picture of packaging color, which gives customers a happy feeling, or an easy handle/open/dose/dispose of, package shape. All these elements contribute to each important effort to catch consumer’s attention and interest. The printed information on the packaging label helps the customers to buy a product. Packaging has a better reach than advertising does and can set a brand apart from its competitors. It promotes and reinforces the purchase decision at the point of purchase and every time the product is used. Packaging in different serving sizes can extend a product into new target markets or help to overcome cost barriers. Packaging can even drive negatively affect sales brand choice (especially in the context of children’s products).
