Packaging design is about making a long-term investment. 

The way a product is packaged can impact how customers perceive the product and ultimately determines the brand and product success. 

For companies looking to get serious returns on their product, making packaging a focal point can be incredibly beneficial in a marketing strategy. 

So, what are some things you can ensure through your branding and packaging strategy  to ensure the maximum ROI? 

How to Calculate your Packaging ROI

Your ROI will highly depend on your industry and packaging goals. 

ROI can take form in many different ways. 

In simple terms, your ROI calculation will look something like this: 

(Return – Investment) / Investment x 100% 

This formula can provide a simple bottom-line ROI on any capital purchase. 

However, let’s take a look at some of the factors that may contribute to your packaging ROI. 

Sales Results

For many businesses the main contributor to investing into custom packaging is boosting their sales results. 

Therefore, tracking your sales after launching a new packaging design for your products will give you a pretty clear indication of what your ROI actually is. 

You’ll want to take your investment and subtract it from your sales results (or vice versa) to figure out how much profit was made with your new investment. 

Reducing Damage

Packaging is designed to protect products from any potential damage. 

For businesses who have had prior issues with damaged products, this will be one of the main contributors to calculating your packaging ROI. 

How much money did your business save on recalled products due to damage since your new packaging design release? 

The best way to calculate this is to take a closer look at your business expenses in the past that have contributed to product recalls, refunds or replacements. 

Establish a Connection with your Customers

Well-executed packaging design can do a lot for your brand. 

The unboxing experience itself can help establish a connection with your consumer and show off what your brand is all about. 

The first to an impactful unboxing experience?

Thoughtful visual design. 

The better your packaging looks, the more likely it is to appeal to customers in a meaningful way. 

Color, imagery, font, shape – all of these different elements can come together to create something that customers resonate with and want to keep coming back for. 

Of course, the strategy is highly dependent on the industry your product is serving. 

For example; food packaging benefits from clear and concise designs as the product is already very visual. A cosmetics brand, on the other hand, will want to embellish their packaging to match their products. 

Understanding your target audience, what they like, and what they don’t like will help tailor a design that actually works to create brand equity. 

Balancing form and function is also crucial as the packaging not only needs to look good but also perform well. 

The best way to increase ROI is to take a deeper look at competitors and industry giants to see what packaging types, designs and materials worked best for them. 

That can help you establish a baseline for what your packaging design needs to accomplish and what kind of sales results are possible. 

Powerful branding can have immense benefits for a brand if executed well. 

Think of it as another salesperson, and use that approach in your design. 

How can your packaging design showcase your brand effectively? 

The right answer will highly depend on your product, industry, missions and target market. 

But one rule applies throughout…

Be genuine and thoughtful! 

Consumers are looking to make more authentic connections with brands, so let your packaging tell your brand story for an increased ROI. 

Working with a packaging expert can be incredibly beneficial to ensure you’re investing resources in the right elements for your custom packaging design. 

Protect your Products at all Costs

No matter how good your packaging looks, it needs to perform well too. 

Packaging design that gets you the most ROI blends performance and aesthetic appeal together to create the right fit. 

So, once you have an idea of what branding elements you’d want to incorporate, it’s time to think about safety.

One of the top priorities for packaging design is reducing the chance of damage to your products for a consistently effective unboxing experience. 

Your product will likely travel far and wide to reach customers, and the goal is to keep it intact throughout the journey. 

Investing in the protection of your products will be saving you an immense amount of costs on damaged product recalls in turn increasing your overall packaging ROI. 

The structural design and material of your packaging will be the main contributor to your products safety. 

Minimizing the dimensions and avoiding excessive materials will not only save you on costs, but will keep your products much safer. 

In other words, strip your design down to only what you need. 

Not only will your product be adequately supported, but you’ll also be saving a ton on shipping costs for your custom design. 

Think of your structural designs on a long term basis as well. 

Easy-to-assemble packaging structures like collapsible boxes and auto bottom boxes will save you on time during the packaging process of your products making it more efficient and ultimately increase your ROI. 

Consider what materials are being used, the product journey from packing to shipping to customers, and what you can do to optimize design’s safety and performance.

An optimized supply chain with consolidated vendors can also help reduce costs and positively influence sales results.

From producing the custom box to packaging your products, maintaining a healthy supply chain will play a critical role in increasing your ROI.  

Consider the Customer Experience

Lastly, and perhaps, most importantly, increasing ROI goes hand in hand with improving the customer experience. 

The feeling customers get from your packaging and your brand can significantly influence how they feel about the product itself. 

Customers value convenience, clarity and authenticity. 

Really, it’s simple to incorporate these pain points into your packaging design to create the ultimate customer experience. 

Going for lightweight packaging that is efficient and compact helps since it drops fees for you and customers, which ultimately adds more value to your brand. 

Furthermore, using thoughtful packaging elements like promotional inserts,  tissue paper or stickers also elevates the overall packaging experience. 

It shows that you have put care and thought into how the packaging looks and feels, which resonates more with customers looking to build connections with the brands they purchase from. 

Especially in the wake of the eco-conscious shopper, using sustainable materials and shipping methods can also help increase ROI given that your brand has created a clear brand narrative and mission that customers resonate with. 

Not only is your brand doing something for the greater good, but it’s also adding value and a bigger brand story attached to your product. 

Customers are also just more willing to spend a little extra for products that are sustainably produced and sourced. Therefore, sustainable packaging solutions may just be the thing your brand needs to increase your packaging ROI. 

You can also work with packaging experts to ensure your design has all the right components to really connect with customers and that you are spending your resources on suitable materials and structures. 

Finally, having metrics set up to evaluate packaging performance and success can help you further improve the design and create the best custom packaging for your brand. T

The more you measure and improve, the better results you’ll see when it comes to ROI!