How Much Is Bad Packaging Design Costing Your Business?

If you haven’t thought much about your packaging design, then its poor quality is probably going to cost your business money. Of course, due to busy online and offline shopping shelves, there is a need to create a stand-out design that will mean your customer picks up your product instead of your competitions’.

However, bad packaging design is not just about avoid haphazard designs that are unpleasing to your customers’ eyes; this is also about creating sustainability for the environment and cost-effectiveness for your business. To simultaneously improve our business bank accounts and the world around us, we must start thinking ergonomically when we design our packaging.

The problem with excess packaging

Excess packaging will not only annoy your customers by taking up unnecessary space in their houses, offices and bins; it will also cost you money. It will cost you money because you are irritating and losing customers; paying for additional packing material; investing in extra storage space, and spending extra cash to transport all the extra weight that the packing adds to your products.

Moreover, carelessness when designing your packaging will shine through when your customers receive the products. By simply falling on those commonly used plastic packaging methods, and not even personalising them to your products, your customers will think you are trying to sell on the cheap. Even within the capitalist society in which we all live, don’t insult your customer – they are fully aware of cheap-skate companies. The short-term costs of investing in proper design will certainly save you bad reviews in the long run.

The environmental cost

In turn, bad packaging will also cost the environment. It will cost the planet because you are superfluously using the world’s limited resources; increasing pollution by requiring extra transportation for heavier products; and using up extra land to store the products. This is not sustainable, and your customers won’t appreciate your thoughtlessness for the world around them.

Today, there are growing numbers of environmental and sustainability movements, as well as more and more people opting for eco-friendly, vegan and vegetarian lifestyles than ever before. This alone should be enough to convince you that investing time in green packaging solutions is a worthwhile endeavour.

The alternatives to bad packaging

There are thousands of other options to traditional packing methods now. Instead of using plastic, you can buy on-demand corrugated cardboard boxes which are personalised to fit your product exactly. This not only cuts down on excess packaging, but its snug fit also looks just as professional as plastic alternatives.

If you simply can’t go without plastic packaging, there are now many sources of recyclable plastic packaging. This will be better than nothing. You could even leave a little note to your customers in product boxes which suggests a way for them to reuse the packet – this way, you’ll at least illustrate to your target market that you do care.

Moreover, if you are transporting a delicate product to a customer, there are now many alternatives to those environmentally-unfriendly packing peanuts.  From using nearly-weightless popcorn to using inflammable coconut husk and flexible, spongy peat moss. Alternatively, if you want your alternative to look similar to the usual packing peanuts, corn-starch packing peanuts are similar in size, shape and consistency and can be easily disposed of by dissolving them under running water.

Best fitting packaging

Common sense should tell you that customers prefer well-fitting packaging. Think of all those Apple products you’ve bought. They come in neatly packed boxes; the product is nested within holes fit exactly to the items size, and the box slides open with ease. You should aim for this, but if you do this with sustainable packaging methods, you will be on to a winner in this new generation of eco-warriors. Moreover, you already know your aim must always be to follow what your customers want if you want a profitable business.

So, if you are told you packaging is unsustainable, you should think that it is unsustainable in two senses. Firstly, it’s not feasible for your business to continue unsustainably, because your customers won’t like it and because you are using up extra money that you needn’t be. Secondly, its unsustainable for the environment that you love doing your business in.

Though you may be worried about the short-term costs of investing in alternatives, you can be assured that you will save, if not increase, your business bank account’s earnings if you switch to sustainable packaging. Spending just a short amount of time searching for eco-friendly alternatives and rethinking your packaging is the least you can do for the world, your customers and for your business.



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