Companies invest so much time in perfecting products, working out effective pricing, and brainstorming ideas to get their products to sell. However, when the time comes for a parcel to be sent to its customer, it will often be dumped in a box that’s too big with lots of bubble wrap - and occasionally divided into multiple shipments. While this may appear convenient in the moment, it can lead to complications such as damaged goods or delays in shipping times.
In this article, we’re discussing the pivotal role that packaging can play in improving customer experience and optimizing shipping efficiency. But first, let’s take a deeper look at the significance of customer experience and shipping efficiency.
The Significance of Customer Experience & Shipping Efficiency
At the heart of every successful business is a customer purchasing your product. Therefore, it is important to look after and nurture your customer. A great way to indirectly enhance the customer experience is to improve order fulfillment processes. Your customer will receive their parcel faster, and will be happier.
Enhancing customer service in this manner can set your company apart from its competitors, thus strengthening your brand perception. What’s more, satisfied, happy customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to other customers, resulting in increased sales.
More reasons why customer experience is important include:
- Strengthens brand reputation
- Customer receives better value
- Increased likelihood of repeat purchases
- Customer is more likely to recommend your brand
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of customer experience and shipping efficiency, let’s take a look at how packaging - specifically, packaging machinery - can improve customer experience.
How Packaging Machinery Can Improve the Customer Experience & Shipping Efficiency
We’ve already established that packaging is one of the most overlooked ways to improve customer experience. It may not be at the top of your list of priorities when deciding how to improve customer experience or how to improve shipping efficiency. However, investing in your packaging can be extremely effective.
Here are some ways packaging can improve customer experience and shipping efficiency:
Keeps Parcels Safe
Effective packaging will protect the contents of a parcel and keep them safe, which can be especially useful for fragile items. Effective packaging will ensure that your items do not break, thus lowering replacement costs and resulting in happy customers. The last thing you would want after selling an item is for it to break in transit - and the customer definitely wouldn’t want that either. That’s why you should make sure your packaging protects the contents of your parcel.
Provides Value for Money
Good packaging can provide value for money. This is especially the case for luxury items that may be on the pricier side. If more effort has been put into the packaging, this will show and will be consistent with the luxuriousness of the item purchased. For instance, if someone spends hundreds of dollars on a specific item, they will probably expect the packaging to be in-line with the product and its worth. Therefore, making sure the packaging is of a high standard will leave the customer satisfied.
Enhances the Unboxing Experience
Effective packaging can make parcels easier to open, thus improving the user experience. If a parcel is easy to open, it will save users time and can even make the experience enjoyable for them. On the other hand, if a customer was struggling to access the parcel due to poor packaging, this could become extremely frustrating for them and could waste valuable time.
Improves Order Fulfillment
Packaging machinery makes it easy to pack parcels, and they can be sent to customers faster. This improves the shipping experience, leading to prompt deliveries, and the customer does not have to wait around to receive their order. Thanks to services such as Amazon Prime that allow people to receive orders the next day or even the same day, many people now expect to receive orders as soon as possible. Using effective packaging machinery means you can fulfill this expectation, resulting in a happy customer that is more likely to recommend your products or services.
Shipping times have become a major factor in customer experience today, with many people even going so far as to neglect a sale and choose a different provider with a shorter shipping time. People want things as soon as possible, therefore it’s important to invest in packaging and shipping. If not, you risk losing potential sales.
