Brand packaging is all about first impressions. It’s the reason a customer’s eyes lock onto a particular item on a crowded retail shelf or the way time seems to stop when they open that order they’ve been waiting for. What’s more, it can directly impact customer perception of quality.
That’s why brand packaging, and all that comes with it, is a platform that shouldn’t be wasted. There are ways to elevate the experience even if your budget is tight or you’re looking to simplify in the name of sustainability. Sure, standard product packaging might get the job done—but it’s a missed opportunity to delight your customers and to foster brand loyalty. Read on to learn how to maximize the impact of your brand’s packaging.
What is brand packaging?
Brand packaging refers to the physical elements surrounding your product, from the visual design (think color, typography, and imagery) to the materials you choose and the unboxing experience as a whole. Great packaging fuses brand identity and personality with protective measures required to transport items onto retail shelves and into customer homes.
Brand packaging is a particularly useful tool for ecommerce businesses that can’t rely on in-person shopping experiences. The act of opening custom-printed boxes, for example, is a uniquely intimate moment that helps brands connect with their customers. In an unboxing moment, you have a customer’s complete attention as they move through its contents.
Primary and secondary packaging
Brand packaging can be broken up into two main components: primary and secondary packaging. Primary packaging refers to the first layer of packaging around your product, like the glass bottle you select to house your small-batch olive oil or the custom insert that cushions your homemade soaps. Secondary packaging includes anything beyond that—like tissue paper, mailer boxes, and additional brand materials or collateral like postcards, instructions, or brand stickers—that you tuck into or onto the box.
8 examples of effective brand packaging
Looking to get inspired by ecommerce businesses with next-level brand packaging? Here’s a starter pack of brands across food and beverage, beauty, apparel, and more:
1. Food Period
Food Period is a subscription service built on the idea of seed syncing, or eating specific nutrients according to hormonal fluctuations during a menstrual cycle. The cyclical nature of Food Period’s order fulfillment presented a unique opportunity for connection with their customers. “What I love about a subscription box is that, depending on whether you’re monthly or quarterly, you’re able to actually take your customer on a journey through each box,” explains cofounder Britt Martin (also the head of partnerships at the custom sustainable packaging provider Arka). “A lot of people think about what’s in the box, but people forget that a huge opportunity is actually the box itself.”
“Packaging is your first physical touchpoint with a new customer and your continued touchpoint with a subscriber,” she adds. “Those physical touchpoints are so rare in our increasingly digital world. When you think about marketing from a retention perspective or a referral or upsell perspective—the box and the packaging is really an opportunity."
2. Fishwife
Fishwife is known for its brightly illustrated, custom boxes adorned with cheery riffs on traditional tinned fish themes. As such, the brand treats packaging as more than a vessel for its cured seafood; it’s an opportunity to visually translate the current feeling at the heart of the brand. “We’re quite fast and loose with our overall visuals and logos and branding because we are constantly evolving the brand,” cofounder Becca Millstein says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.
Rather than sticking to one static illustration year after year, Fishwife allows the visuals on their packaging, website, and other customer touchpoints to evolve. “It makes it so much more interesting and fun to allow the brand to be the living, breathing creature that it really is,” Becca says.
3. Brightland
The olive oil company Brightland has packaging that is, as you might expect, bright—especially in contrast with the simple white colorway of its physical bottles. That standout white hue does double duty for the brand. “In addition to our bottles being really beautiful, they also protect the oil even better,” says Brightland founder Aishwarya Iyer. “So we sort of hit a double whammy in terms of form and function.”
Different capsule collections feature different moods and exterior packaging color palettes, greeting the customer with the brand’s tagline: “A Little Bit of Happiness, All Bottled Up.”
4. Glossier
The skin care and beauty brand Glossier became an early cult favorite for its stripped-down (but boldly labeled) boxes, puffy pink product bags, and seasonal stickers. More recent iterations of brand packaging have offered customers the ability to scale back for environmental reasons, especially for subscribers receiving frequent shipments.
“There’s a balance that we try to strike between the aspirational and the practical, [and] there’s these subtleties that we try to incorporate into everything. Something like a happy face on the bottom of your box that a lot of people wouldn’t catch, but for the people that do catch it, it’s like a little wink. It’s the secret handshake that helps you connect at another level,” Glossier’s deputy creative director, Adriana Deleo, told Into the Gloss.
5. Allbirds
The sustainable shoe brand Allbirds is known for its use of eco-friendly materials and quirky brand personality. The shoeboxes are a great example of both, incorporating brand messaging and engaging the customer through a distinctive shape: a unique roll-out box design made from 90% recycled cardboard, emphasizing the brand’s commitment to creative and sustainable solutions.
When the company released its first high-performance running shoe, the Tree Dasher, it hired Enlisted Design to create its equally unique packaging: a molded capsule formed from 100% compostable materials—a perfect example of how to carry brand values through to a customer’s tangible experience.
6. Graza
The olive oil brand Graza, with its deep green bottles, electric green tops, and cartoon labels, is a distinctly unfussy presence on a grocery store or kitchen pantry shelf—and that’s by design. Everything about Graza’s brand identity is geared toward making high-quality olive oil accessible and joyously versatile. As founder Andrew Benin explains on Shopify Masters, the squeeze bottle format, similar to what chefs use in restaurant kitchens, was actually inspired by a soap bottle in his shower.
“This was my version of art,” Andrew says.
7. Heyday
For the canned goods company Heyday Canning Co, nostalgia and retro vibes reign supreme. The brand’s heritage look was created by branding agency Outline, which helped develop the eye-catching containers for Heyday’s soups, stews, and beans. For the color palette, the team looked through vintage produce label designs, as well as iconic imagery like Andy Warhol’s infamously vibrant Campbell’s soup can paintings, to pin down a spectrum of shades that felt rustic and nostalgic, but also bright and instantly memorable on grocery store shelves.
“When you are designing a brand for a physical product, you have to figure out how you’re going to distinguish between the different flavors or variations as part of the packaging,” explains Outline cofounder Ky Allport. “So color was a big factor. We knew we wanted a family of products that have a really fun relationship to one another on the shelf, [instead of] a single color across the board.”
8. Omsom
Outline also worked with Omsom, the “proud and loud” purveyor of Asian ingredients and prepared meals, to create packaging that reflected their raucous and unapologetic brand personality, and supported a game-changing primary packaging decision made in the early stages of consumer research.
Through both interviews and watching people cook in their own kitchens, cofounders (and sisters) Vanessa and Kim Pham realized that bottled and jarred sauces didn’t have a strong reputation among their audience. “A lot of folks would use them once, lose them in the back of their fridge somewhere, and by the time they found it, it was, like, crusty around the edges and didn’t feel fresh,” Vanessa says. Plus, glass was heavier to ship and store—non-starters for a company that began as a solely direct-to-consumer brand.
Instead, they landed on portioned packets, designed around maximizing ease, convenience, and flavor through the concept of ratios: one packet to one pound of whatever you happened to be cooking. “That simplicity of not having to measure, having a fresh packet every time, was so critical to what set us apart and allowed us to really cut through the noise as a brand,” Vanessa says.
This foundation led to another breakthrough when it was time to design secondary packaging with Outline. “Their whole concept was about energy and fire and smashing things and cooking, so we designed their introductory sampler packet like a matchbox,” says Margaret Pilarski, head of strategy at Outline. The key piece in that decision process, she adds, was a willingness to make the connection between packaging and the overall brand identity. “Somebody could have come to us and been like, ‘I need just a box.’ A matchbook brings that brand to life and makes it even more exciting for a consumer.”
What to look for in a packaging supplier
Once you have a concept, the next step is finding the right combination of packaging solutions to bring it to life. That might mean engaging a designer who specializes in custom packaging boxes, or, if you’re planning on handling your packaging design in-house, finding a third-party supplier who can create the final product.
Here’s what to keep in mind when reviewing packaging services:
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Do they have a track record of custom solutions? When comparing packaging suppliers, ask to see previous projects they’ve handled, and ask about their design process. Many companies only offer standard-sized boxes or inserts, but others work with clients to design packaging to your exact specifications.
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Are they trend-aware with innovative materials? Depending on your packaging vision, you may want to find suppliers with a working knowledge of newer, more eco-friendly materials, such as biodegradable packaging.
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Do they fit your budget? Many larger companies, like Uline, feature colored mailers and basic boxes that can be customized in-house with brand collateral, while others like Noissue specialize in specific materials geared toward ecommerce brands. In the beginning, you may find it’s easier to buy standard-sized boxes or mailers. As you grow, it will become more cost-efficient to partner with a packaging supplier that can provide a more custom-fit solution.
Brand packaging FAQ
How can brand packaging set you apart from the competition?
Packaging is an opportunity to distinguish your brand’s personality, quality, or thoughtfulness in a competitive field. If you sell your product in retail stores, packaging also allows you to visually stand out from others on the shelf.
What are the important elements of brand packaging?
There are several important elements to brand packaging, which can be ranked according to your specific goals or product. Consistency of branding elements and style, ease of use, communication of important information, and environmental impact are a few examples.
What sustainable materials are popular for brand packaging?
Compostable materials like cornstarch, cassava, and coconut fibers and post-consumer recycled materials are popular alternatives to paper or plastic packaging.
