A question about packaging

[JamesSJ]

Hey guys

My business up until now have been solely online.

I have been developing a real world product recently and we are good to go - I have found the factory to manufacture and am now looking into packaging for the product.

For the initial run i will be producing only 300 pieces to let me test out fulfilment, marketing ideas, advertising methods etc.

In the initial run i will be simply putting the product in a very simple plain box with a printed label.

I was thinking just the customers details and our logo / strapline.

Is there anything else that should be considered on the external package?

When we move to the next phase our run will be in the thousands and eventually there will be variations of the product - so i will need to consider how to package those in something a bit more professional than a plan box with sticker...

But what should you actually be putting on the actual box - note that at this point we might be selling in others stores so we need the box to be more professional and i guess it will need to contain info on the contents (which varitaion) , specs of the products - dimensions / weight.

Legally what else needs to go on the box?

I see barcodes on boxes - where do these come from ... should i be considering those?

So any info would be much appreciated on what actually should go on packaging is my question!

And also in the initial 300 run - is a logo and customer details enough?

 

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[Jake]

The bar codes are UPC's. You can purchase them online. Search UPC code or cheap upc and you'll find a bunch of sites selling them. I'll leave the rest of the questions to others

 

[mapaul04]

I think it will depend on what type of product you have as to whether anything is required on your packaging.

If I were you I would look to the successful companies selling a product similar to yours and imulate what they put on their outer packaging.

 

[JamesSJ]

I think it will depend on what type of product you have as to whether anything is required on your packaging.

If I were you I would look to the successful companies selling a product similar to yours and imulate what they put on their outer packaging.

Thanks guys.

Jake - i'll look into that - thanks!

mapaul04 -Thanks. there is no one really doing exactly what I am doing. The product I suppose would be similar to those silicone keyboard protectors - although it's not really for a keyboard... it's a much tighter / untapped niche. A similar idea though - it offer protection from water damage and dirt for another companies product.

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00WCIEGrycaUko/Laptop-Silicone-Keyboard-Cover-Skin-Protector.jpg

I suppose it might need some kind of disclaimer that any damage to the product is not our issue - although i did think about building in a guarantee that if they did damage their device whilst using our product we would replace it (the device not our product!).

Also there will be various models of the product - so that needs to go on and i suppose stock information for our own tracking?

I guess that would be a start?

Any other info would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

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[TedM]

How are you planning on distributing? If you have a partner who is experienced in marketing - let him guide you.

If this is a retail environment sale then you need to box to scream out "Take me now" - so whatever information can be picked up in the 3 seconds you have.... i'd read "Why We Buy" to get some ideas....but, i think the packaging needs to take into account who is reading it (old people, young people); how far away they will be from it ; and what information you can get across visually IMMEDIATELY. that's for the part that will be seen. the other sides - legal stuff; how to use it, etc.

 

[JamesSJ]

How are you planning on distributing? If you have a partner who is experienced in marketing - let him guide you.

If this is a retail environment sale then you need to box to scream out "Take me now" - so whatever information can be picked up in the 3 seconds you have.... i'd read "Why We Buy" to get some ideas....but, i think the packaging needs to take into account who is reading it (old people, young people); how far away they will be from it ; and what information you can get across visually IMMEDIATELY. that's for the part that will be seen. the other sides - legal stuff; how to use it, etc.

Thanks for your reply.

In the initial 300 run i'll be doing distribution from home to get some insights into how that process works and any tricks i'm missing from a marketing point of view.

In terms of how do I get in front of the audience? Well i'm lucky enough to have some authority sites in a similar niche to the product i'm creating... so initially I will be just running ads on those sites and using my email list to drive traffic to the new product site.

I also have some solid contacts with people who have sites exactly related to the product I am creating and even have some good contacts with the actual parent company who owns the device I am creating the product for (they only sell online - so if i can get the product listed by them then i'm sorted)!

So I will pretty much be selling online first and foremost.

Once that takes off then I would approach retailers who stock the device my product is for.

However i would like to nail the packaging first time so that when we do move from online to offline there's not so much work required to do so - though i'm guessing retails will have their own requirements for packaging?

 

[Vigilante]

Hey guys

My business up until now have been solely online.

I have been developing a real world product recently and we are good to go - I have found the factory to manufacture and am now looking into packaging for the product.

For the initial run i will be producing only 300 pieces to let me test out fulfilment, marketing ideas, advertising methods etc.

In the initial run i will be simply putting the product in a very simple plain box with a printed label.

I was thinking just the customers details and our logo / strapline.

Is there anything else that should be considered on the external package?

When we move to the next phase our run will be in the thousands and eventually there will be variations of the product - so i will need to consider how to package those in something a bit more professional than a plan box with sticker...

But what should you actually be putting on the actual box - note that at this point we might be selling in others stores so we need the box to be more professional and i guess it will need to contain info on the contents (which varitaion) , specs of the products - dimensions / weight.

Legally what else needs to go on the box?

I see barcodes on boxes - where do these come from ... should i be considering those?

So any info would be much appreciated on what actually should go on packaging is my question!

And also in the initial 300 run - is a logo and customer details enough?

Hey. Hope you are well.

I have packaging companies that can help you. My first assumption though is you can live within plain white packaging until you have physical store retail distribution. All of our early orders were in plain white box packaging. On the outside, we just did model #, UPC code, made in China sticker, and if we wanted to get fancy a logo.

Online customers DO NOT CARE. They throw the packaging away, and they made the decision to buy your product before they ever saw the packaging. So... if your initial distribution is going to be online to start, you literally can go with simplistic packaging to begin.

 

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[JamesSJ]

Hey. Hope you are well.

I have packaging companies that can help you. My first assumption though is you can live within plain white packaging until you have physical store retail distribution. All of our early orders were in plain white box packaging. On the outside, we just did model #, UPC code, made in China sticker, and if we wanted to get fancy a logo.

Online customers DO NOT CARE. They throw the packaging away, and they made the decision to buy your product before they ever saw the packaging. So... if your initial distribution is going to be online to start, you literally can go with simplistic packaging to begin.

Awesome - thanks!

All good here - very busy right now... lot's happening.

A couple of things inspired from our conversations in HK!

Yeah (see my post above), it is all going to be online initially.

The made in China thing - again... yeah i guess by law if you manufacture there you have to say that somewhere?

Ok - i'll be looking into this.

In terms of what happens when i move from my intial 300 run up into the thousands i was thinking of using somewhere like this to handle the fulfilment - JMWant Global Warehouses

It appears my factory in China can ship to those guys the packaged products and those guys can distribute - all i would need to do is hook my site up to spit out the delivery addresses every 24 hours to that warehouse place and they do the rest. That's the plan anyways!

 

[Jake]

In terms of what happens when i move from my intial 300 run up into the thousands i was thinking of using somewhere like this to handle the fulfilment - JMWant Global Warehouses

I'm not sure about internationally but I know some U.S fulfillment centers link directly into ecommerce platforms alleviating the need to manually forward orders. Might work for you.

If you've got a minute shoot me a pm. Curious to know how your training went in Thailand and if you have any future trips lined up. I'm in Bangkok for the foreseeable future so look me up if you stop by.