Printed Packaging Design Plays a Key Role in Differentiation

Printed Packaging – Inside the mind of the shopper in-store

The in-store experience has long held a major role in driving purchase behaviour. In-store activities have a big impact on trial, with 20% of shoppers reporting they tried a new product specifically because of in-store taste samples or an in-store display. A key in-store goal is to get the shopper to actually touch their package. The consumer is exponentially more likely to buy once they touch, and how the product looks and feels in their hand will make a big difference.

Shoppers look to packaging and printed packaging design to inform their product purchases.

 

38% purchased a new product because they enjoyed the packaging.

28% switched brands because the packaging was different. This is where brand consistency plays a key role.

 

If your company is known for a certain shape or look, ensure that your packaging is consistent to help the shopper feel secure and trust your new and current offerings.

22% of shoppers said that they made a recommendation to a friend or colleague based on the package while they were in-store. Beyond peer recommendations, shoppers are looking at products on the shelf and searching online at the same time, for more information, better deals, reviews, etc. Brand leaders must make it easy for the consumer to quickly cross between physical and digital channels with their product (via QR codes in-store and consistent packaging images online) to help control the marketing narrative and promote sales.

 

Printed Packaging – Expectations of the Online Purchase

 

People expect the online to mirror the offline shopping experience. They expect continuity of brand and product regardless of whether they are surfing on their mobile phones or cruising the store aisles. Sixtyone percent of people expect the product packaging they see online to be exactly the same as what’s on the shelf in their local store. Shoppers do not grasp the difficulty of the logistics required to pull off such consistency. Peoples’ expectations of packaging differ, though, when they buy online and have something shipped to their home.

Forty-seven percent of people expect the product image online to exactly match the product packaging that arrives on their doorstep, revealing that shoppers have more grace for things that are conveniently (and cheaply) delivered to their door. This seems to indicate that what they buy in-store must be of a premium quality because they go purchase it, the product doesn’t come to them at home. Minor variations are OK with 37% of shoppers. Only 9% are flexible in thinking that it’s OK if the packaging is different in color or imagery.

 

*Source Packaging & The Digital Shopper