How to Affordably Create Unboxing Experiences that Drive Revenue & Go Viral

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One of the biggest trends of 2021 (Forbes) has been practiced by leading eCommerce brands for years: delivering an unboxing experience; however, it still remains one of the least implemented practices by emerging brands despite being well-popularized.

And this makes sense because most brands that we have the pleasure of partnering with fall into two categories:

(1) On one side, brand owners roll their eyes and state “it really doesn’t matter that much,” or

(2) They understand the importance but assume it’s too expensive and that the overall costs don’t outweigh the benefits.

But we argue there’s a different way. A sweet spot exists between those two sides of the spectrum where the best brands find a way to create a memorable unboxing experience at significantly lower costs than traditional avenues.

And even if you don’t think it’s right for you, we always recommend our clients to pay attention to some of the data and modern consumer behaviors. According to a Google Consumer Survey of 1500 people, 1 in 5 consumers surveyed watched unboxing videos as part of their purchasing journey (Forbes).

Let’s explore what most brands overlook and what most popular blogs do not cover (Noissue, Loop Returns, Big Commerce, Shipbob, The Good, Klaviyo, Red Stag Fulfillment)*

First, we’ll make the assumption that a brand has an established presence with an identified market need.

• One of our fastest-growing brands, Owl & Oak — which we’ll discuss in-depth below — proved their market need by pre-selling their product before buying large quantities of custom poly-mailers.
• Without proven demand, the risks of wasting valuable resources significantly increase.
• While we advise brands to focus on their specific resources and business plan, the time to implement can be right even as early as after the first 500 shipments or at 100 shipments per month.

Second, we’ll make the assumption that a brand is positioning itself as a premium.

• For example, if you’re selling commodity items with a strategy to be the lowest cost option, an unboxing experience is obviously not for you.
• We define premium as anything that enhances the customer experience to justify the reasons to purchase the product.

Think Different

• How Poly Mailers changed the game for Owl & Oak (and no, you don’t have to spend $20 per custom box)

One of our fastest-growing customers, Owl & Oak, utilizes a custom poly-mailer to ship their product via USPS’s First Class Mail (under 16 ounces). That means, with our discounted rates of ~$3.00–4.00 per shipment), they can pay slightly more for custom poly mailers, but significantly less than custom boxes.

Key Take-Aways:

• Think custom poly-mailers > custom boxes when applicable (e.g. not fragile items)
• Think keeping product weight under 1 pound to take advantage of shipping USPS First Class Mail. (Side note: Even if you prefer to ship in-house and not use Atomix, there are creative ways to access USPS Cubic Rate pricing. Speak with our team and we’ll let you in on a secret USPS most likely doesn’t want you to know.)

• How Custom Boxes drive retention for Paw Trackers (and yes, when you create an innovative product the box makes it that much more modern).

One of our most innovative customers, Paw Trackers, developed a dog collar that holds an Apple Airtag (AKA the next time you lose your dog, you can find him/her immediately on your Iphone. Genuis? We’d agree). They took the unboxing experience to the next level by adding a crinkle-cut and a Thank You note to their box.

Key Take-Aways:

• Little additions — crinkle cut, thank you notes, etc — go a longggg way when you find the right partners and use your resources wisely.
• We partner with several custom packaging companies — and no not the largest providers that charge $5–15 per box whereby no business could operate profitably.

• If you’re thinking sustainable, by far the best partners we work with are Noisseu or Ecoenclose

For example, Lyna Lyfe is a great example of utilizing sustainable packaging with a 3PL partner.

One of the common responses we receive from brands is “we understand the importance of personalization and high-touch but it only makes sense for the first 1–5,000 customers.” The main problems they identify are: (1) as they scale it becomes too time-consuming, or (2) they cannot trust a 3PL partner add the personalization, or if the partner can, they charge too much.

That’s where Atomix comes in.

We’ve worked with 50+ partners and have “scaled hand-written notes” because our team and operations are specifically designed to. For example, you can check out one of our partners at Freja NYC or follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn

Atomix Logistics

If you’d like to speak with our shipping experts, schedule a call with us at any time!

Additional blogs covering the unboxing experience: Omnisend, Sufio, What They Think, Supply Chain Game Changer, Packaging Gateway, Square Up, Ordoro, Whiplash, Fedex, Arka, Sendle, BYU,

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