My Authority on eCommerce:

As the owner of an eCommerce business and 3PL Company, our packaging and the entire unboxing experience is something I’ve spent a lot of time on. I’ve always known that making this experience unique and memorable is one factor that would keep our customers coming back to us and make us stand out.

DermWarehouse.com is a reseller of professional strength skin care brands. We sell about 100 brands on our site and I’ve always recognized our packaging as an opportunity to tell our story and make our customers remember us. When any of our customers go to place a skin care order, I want DermWarehouse to be the first place they think to go. We accomplish this in several ways: We have a great product selection, our customer service is outstanding, and because of the story we tell on our website and through our eCommerce packaging. Our customers remember our story and we’ve gained loyalty because of it. Over the years, we’ve tried out tons of different marketing materials in our packages. Some were a flop and others have performed really well (more on that later!).

Based on my experience over the years in seeing what has worked (and what hasn’t), I know how much of an impact these marketing materials can make. Let’s dive into what it takes to formulate an idea and strategy for your marketing materials, the costs associated, potential results, and some examples from our own brands.

Table of Contents: Marketing Materials to Include Inside eCommerce Packaging

• Formulating Idea/Strategy

  • It’s important to have a clever hook where there’s alignment between your product and brand story.

• Example from our In-House eCom Brand

  • I’ll walk you through how our eCommerce company leverages samples and marketing collateral inside of our boxes.

• Costs

  • I’ll walk you through the costs associated with samples and marketing collateral from our company so you get a better understanding of what this costs us, so you can prepare for costs.

• Results

  • We’ll share the results we’ve seen with our brands and discuss the potential benefits it can have for your eCommerce company!

Formulating Idea/Strategy

Coming up with a great idea and formulating a strategy is the first and most important step in getting materials into your packages that accomplish your marketing goals and will really stick with your customers. First, you need to think about your objectives. Don’t just throw something in your packages for the sake of throwing something in, because you think you’re supposed to. Think through the strategy and determine what you’re looking to accomplish. Regardless of your business, your main goals are likely to 1) get customers to remember you, and 2) get them back to your website!

A local Columbus T-shirt company, Homage, includes a pack of cards (baseball, football, etc) in each of their packages. They also include stickers. This aligns with their nostalgic-based apparel theme and it’s extremely memorable. If you’re a customer and get a package from Homage, chances are next time you go to order a vintage t-shirt, you’re going to remember this box. There’s great synergy between sports cards and the sports apparel they sell.

Maybe you’re launching a new product that you want to announce. Maybe you’ve gotten some great press that you want to share with your customers. Maybe you’re planning a sale or want to give a discount for repeat customers. Maybe you just want to surprise everyone who opens your box with something fun. Bottom line is, think carefully about what you want your message to be and how you’re going to achieve it. Think about your brand and how you want to come across, and then go from there.

Another important factor to consider is what resources you have at your disposal. Do you have a graphic designer that can create some great marketing collateral or do you need to decide on something that you can design yourself (or that requires no design elements)?

There’s a lot to consider when developing your unboxing strategy, but make sure you’re putting in the time to think it through and develop a unique, memorable idea. Also keep in mind that you may have to try a few different ideas before you succeed.

Example from our In-House eCom Brand

For DermWarehouse, we went through a lot of different ideas before landing on what really worked. When we first opened our doors in 2016, I included a personalized letter in each and every customers’ package. I talked about the samples I was including and about the product they purchased. Obviously, this level of personalization isn’t scalable, as it took up so much time. As our business grew, I knew it wasn’t sustainable.

Learn More About Developing and Growing an eCommerce Business HERE.

At another time, we wanted to promote our social media channels so we offered to send customers a gift card if they tagged us on Instagram or Facebook. This worked well but it was also extremely hard to manage so we had to nix it.

After a lot of trial and error, we finally found our sweet spot. The key for us has been in showcasing our brand’s personality (and I always recommend you do the same!). We’re a family-owned and dermatologist-owned business. We make sure to remind people of this in our marketing materials and people love supporting us because of that (and also because we offer great products and great customer service, of course).

In all of our packages, we include a packing slip that has a hand-written letter printed on it (we were able to write something out by hand and have it show up on all of our packing slips). The message says “Thank you so much for your business! – The DermWarehouse team and Parks family.” It’s something so simple and was so easy to set up, yet our customers love it. I can’t tell you how many people reference this hand-written note in the reviews that they write about us.