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As a customer in the 21st century, buying things online is certainly a quick and convenient way of shopping. But, as too many consumers have been made aware of in the past; internet shopping comes with its own set of risks and annoyances.

A recent survey asked people to share the most annoying thing about receiving a parcel in the mail. The results revealed that unsuitably sized packaging- where the product could have easily been housed in a smaller package – tops the list of respondent’s grievances.

From a business’s perspective, addressing certain pain points like these in the buying process can enhance your company’s reputation and encourage people to buy from you again.

By getting any issues ironed-out with your packaging, delivery and returns procedure, you will build trust with your customers and demonstrate your commitment to good customer service. In this post, we will run through some the results of the survey and examine some of the ways in which companies can address some of these customer pains with more carefully considered packaging.

Customer Irritation: Packaging that’s Unnecessarily Big

Packaging that is far too big for the tiny products inside was listed by over a quarter of respondents (25.6%) as being the single most annoying thing about receiving a parcel in the post. This could mean that the cardboard box or padded envelope is too big for the average-sized letterbox and therefore the customer will have to go out of his way to either collect the parcel from a neighbour or head to the collection office to fetch it instead.

When you’re an e-commerce business trying to make it in a globalised marketplace, customers will remember the stores that use unnecessarily large packaging and they will associate your web store with the extra ‘chore’ of having to pick up their own parcel from the post office – where’s the convenience in that?

Using unnecessarily large packaging is also very uneconomical for businesses, as the extra-large and bulky materials costs more to buy and store in your company warehouses. Smaller, more cleverly designed packages can work out as the more reliable and cost-effective solution to this problem. If you would like a free packaging audit and review, get in touch with Russell or Greg – sales@hub-packaging.com.

Customer Irritation: Packages Arriving in a Crushed or Ripped State

Next up on the list of internet customers’ packaging annoyances is receiving a parcel in the post that has become damaged or ripped in transit. 22.8% of people agree that mail arriving in this condition immediately turns consumers off as they worry if the goods inside are still present and in good working order. From a returning customer perspective, many people will be discouraged from buying from you again for fear that the product will fall out of the packaging and never make it to their front door.

After ripped and damaged packaging, 19.8% of people also cited bad packaging, which actually causes the product inside to break or become unusable, as their next biggest bugbear.

Have a look at this video of one customers experience of a delivery from a well-known internet business:

As a business, using ineffective packaging that’s likely to break or tear shows a general lack of attention to detail from a branding point of view, but more importantly, it shows the company’s lack of interest in providing a good customer service. Clever packaging solutions are strong and durable enough to withstand transit.

Customer Irritation: items that use too much Packaging Material

Parcels which are not adequately protected with packaging is one thing, but packaging in excess also annoys 10.5% of consumers. Packaging in excess refers to products wrapped in layers upon layers of bubble wrap or protective plastic, and/or refers to boxes which are far too big and stuffed with other bits of unnecessary void fill.

Customers are turned off by businesses which show a lack of care to the environmental impact of their packaging solutions. Plus, with packaging innovations in recent years addressing the need for packaging materials to be recyclable, there really is no excuse for businesses to be overzealous to the point of wasteful with their packing materials.

To discuss smart packaging designs, which minimise the amount of materials needed to protect your goods, contact Hub Packaging today – Click to visit our Contact Us page

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