Online Storefront > Brick and Mortar

In today’s age, people often don’t go out to the store anymore to buy much of their supplies, new clothes and shoes, and even groceries as of late. Online shopping has begun to dominate markets to the point that brick and mortar stores aren’t nearly as profitable as online stores. It’s a strange time to be alive, one where you can make more money running a business from the comfort of your home than in a storefront on a regularly busy street.

But I’m not sure businesses can be blamed for this change. Businesses merely adapt to what consumers prefer, and consumers far prefer shopping from their computer than they do getting out and about in their vehicle and browsing store shelves.

Is it really any surprise to people that this is what the trend of the times is, though? When you have major convenience and ease of shopping from home, why would it be any different?

For example, I save a lot of money not driving to a store that may be 30 minutes away from me. Instead, I can look on a website, decide what I want, hit “buy”, and it’ll be shipped in shipping boxes to my house within the week. Sure, I don’t get to have my product right away, but guess what? I didn’t have to spend a single dime on gas or whatever else may catch my eye when I’m at the store.

Just as well, I get to save a lot of time, too. Instead of using up an hour of my time driving to that 30-minutes away store and then back again (not even including the time spent browsing their shelves or walking around their store), I’m only using about 5 to 10 minutes of my own time online sifting through different products.

I think that’s absolutely the most convenient part of it all, honestly. It’s not just money saved in gas going somewhere. It’s time that’s saved, something that everyone wants more of and no one has enough of. Think about every excuse someone could make. “There’s not enough time” dominates that list. While people in fact do have enough time, it’s the fact that it’s better used elsewhere.

So, it really shouldn’t be a shock to consumers that going online and adapting to the ways of the world is the preferred method for most new businesses. It’s convenient. It’s easy. It’s cheaper. It’s time saving. And everything you order is delivered to your front doorstep in some nicely branded shipping boxes.

 

Some Simple Tips and Tricks for Effective Shipping

If you have been looking for quick tips on how best to ship your products, then look no more.  Before I start compiling a list, though, I need to point out that, although most customers aren’t going to notice if you are doing a great job with packaging and shipping, they are definitely going to notice if you are doing poorly.

So as you approach the task of shipping your product, approach it with the right attitude, which really will help in yielding the best results.

• As soon as a customer makes an order, start filling up those shipping boxes! Ideally, the last portion of your day should be spent packaging your orders and preparing for them to be sent out the following morning.  People become severely disgruntled if it takes too long for their item to arrive, and they aren’t going to continue giving you their business.  You really need to make the effort to figure out an effective system, and this includes an organized station of all your shipping boxes, packaging tape, and other supplies.
• At this point, free shipping is the way to go. Customers are going to be more than happy to continue shopping from you if they get free shipping.  It’s not going to gouge your business like you might think it will.  AT the very least, don’t purpose to make a profit on your shipping fees.  Anyone can smell this from a mile away, and it doesn’t leave people feeling impressed, to put it mildly.
• Be prepared for shipping your product. Have all of your shipping boxes and other shipping supplies on hand, so that you never have to wait to send out an item simply because you ran out of packaging materials.  That is simply not acceptable.  Have your carrier selected and a rate negotiated.  In short, you should not be figuring out how to ship something when it’s actually time to ship something.

• Proper packaging is tantamount to shipping success. You want your product in excellent condition, and you also want to provide your customer with a fun and unique unwrapping experience.  It’s things like this that keep people coming back.
• Use your resources. There are so many amazing and effective shipping tools out there, from free blog posts written by successful ecommerce business owners, to all manner of software and tools.
• Nowadays, shipping is just plain simple. You can calculate our postage for free on the internet, and even print out the postage right from the internet.  There’s no excuses for doing it badly!

The future of Packaging design

For a lot of people, the future is definitely something of interest, but you may not know what the packaging future is. The newest technology, trends, and projection of the market can definitely be quite interesting, and we’ll talk about what’s going to happen down the road. 

So what’s in store? 

Well, the service providers will definitely be at the top, and people want a shopping experience that is totally inclusive more than anything else. With the new advances, people will want products that help cater to their needs. They’ll move away from the same mass-produced items, and instead offering packaging that’s specialized to fit the needs that you have. 

The new packaging trends 

Packaging is probably going to be one of the biggest game changers. People want something that’s convenient, and good for the environment.  There are some big changes happening in this industry in particular. One of the biggest is dissolvable packaging, as this is something that doesn’t rely on utilizing fossil fuels, in order to make sure that it doesn’t decrease your carbon footprint, which is what consumers want to have. 

The materials that are raw, extracted from different plants, utilizes natural dyes and sweeteners, and also uses the skin of veggies and fruits is something that the food industry is looking to utilize, and let’s be honest, more and more companies are looking at this as well. It also does go beyond what the customer wants for packaging. 

The cool thing about this, is that you can literally consume this packaging. This can help with creating packaging that is sustainable, and also is something that will innovate the use of plastics. A lot of people want to start using less and less plastic, and with dissolvable packaging for various items, such as laundry detergent for example, this is the set of a new, revolutionary product for many. 

Save that space 

Another big change tat happens in the packaging industry, is that they’re trying to save space. More and more companies, especially those selling cans and bottles, are looking for new, innovative ways to save space, and also reduce the transport, waste, and storage of this. What that means for us in the packaging industry, is that the normal bottles that you’re used to, may be a thing of the past.. 

This may start to opt for rectangular or square kinds of packaging, and while not totally exciting, it’s something that definitely is becoming more innovative. Boxed water for example is something that’s becoming a staple for the current industries too. 

Package it smart 

Smart or active packaging is another big part of this. Smart packaging makes unboxing fun, has better visuals, preserves and protects the product better, and offers security and authenticity along with a connection that really is eye opening. This is something that a lot of consumers are trying to also look at, in order to make things more effective. 

While it doesn’t create new shapes, it’s basically repurposing the current shapes, offering new packaging capabilities that were otherwise not known. 

Printed electronics 

You see this in different LED and OLEDs, along with smaller power sources, and also better, more effective and smaller data storage. 

Advanced and printed LEDs are becoming something that definitely plays a role in packaging. 

For example, screens that are sensor-activated, or even creating labels that utilized OILEDs are starting to change the way that you’re able to create the best packaging experience out there. 

These are but a few of the major changes, and that, along with sustainability, is something that we are brands are going to definitely see more.