Unwrapping and unlocking brand potential with the packing orders trend

The Emergence of social media trend

Social Commerce has taken the world by storm, first witnessed in 2006 with Nokia launching its E61 model. While this trend only gained traction in 2010 with a growth in google searches for "Unboxing" reaching a search volume of close to 2.5 million searches on the Internet.

Understanding Unboxing Trends For Your Company

In simple terms, "#unboxing" is a community retail marketing strategy which involves consumers creating user generated content through which they create visual content showcasing them receiving and opening products they have purchased from a brand. These videos took the internet by storm for the primary reason being they provide a sense of authenticity.

Compared to traditional testimonials and reviews, this trend offers significant potential for buyers as they have the option to not only see the product first hand, but additionally have the ability to be a part of the excitement of the unboxing. Providing brands with a notable increase in their organic marketing efforts.

Another notable benefit of this trend is the fact that it makes the concept of product virality significantly easier to achieve for your company, as it aligns directly with the concept of transparency in the modern marketing environment. Thus, increasing brand visibility.

However, adapting your strategy to take advantage of upcoming trends is significantly important in order to prevent your brand's marketing efforts from plateauing. Combined in the right way with rising trends such as #packingOrders can help create a visible and complete product journey map right from the time the customer places and order with your company to the exact moment of delivery.

What Is the #packingorders Trend?

Unboxing trends, have a proven track record of increasing organic marketing reaches however, unboxing is outdated due to the fact that the internet and Gen-Z are always on the lookout for more added value from your brand. Now that there is a clear understanding behind the fact that this packing orders trend is part of a larger social commerce landscape, let's dive deeper.

Fundamentally, this trend has risen significantly amongst micro-businesses on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram through short form content.

Micro-brands utilise this strategy to engage consumers and non consumers through the effective showcasing of behind the scenes' footage of brands packaging their respective consumers orders. This trend is effective due to the sole reason that it reaches out to your brand's target audience with a more experiential focus, touching upon the human side of business practices.

Elements of the trend.

Micro Businesses that utilise social commerce as their primary focus aim to create visually engaging content that showcases their passion towards their customers even after they have placed an order. Highlighting their commitment and authenticity of the brand.

This practice is usually inclusive of numerous elements, namely, creative and personal touch along with a hint of story telling. Additionally, the use of relevant hashtags that are trending on Google, such as #packingOrders, in turn increasing their discoverability further without compromising on its organic nature.

Why is this trend sustainable?

This trend is growing significantly within the marketing landscape due to its ability to interactively exploit human nature. One of the most common yet fundamental traits as humans, is not solely the urge to purchase and own products of desire but also is the fact that we as humans enjoy the experience of purchasing something new. Thus, allowing us to understand the sustainability of this trend in the long run, as these human traits are ever existent and not going anywhere.

Unique Features and advantages of order packaging.

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) sensation.

The most notable feature of this trend is the aspect of ASMR that is seen to be as one of the more engaging elements of the trend. In simple words, ASMR can be understood as the process of creating video content while emphasising on sounds that potentially can create a pleasurable sensory response for viewers be it tingles, goosebumps or a sense of relaxation merely as it is the human bodies' response mechanism to watching such content. An ideal example of this in relation to packaging orders would be crinkling noises of the packaging material, gentle label placement as well as geometric and precise folding of packaging, etc. This sensory element of the trend, tends to create a unique engagement experience for consumers interacting with such content.

Behind-the-Scenes Live Experience.

The second feature highlights upon the importance of the behind the scenes experience. This is another essential element when it comes to the implementation of this trend by your company. In simple words this feature is the foundation of the trend providing users who order products from your company with a live and engaging experience showcasing the real life process that goes behind the packaging of orders. This creates an element of transparency.

This brings us to the second element, which is consumer engagement through added educational value created by your company/LLC. On a deeper level, consumers remain engaged because they are made to feel like they are a part of the production and delivery process, fostering a sense of community amongst your consumers with your company.

Additionally, through these live experiences customers have the ability to increase their sense of trust with your company as they are able to understand the extent to which quality control measures, hygiene and sustainability standards are maintained within your organisational landscape.

Finally, the combination of these elements through the creation of live experience, allows for users to partake in real-time interactions with your company, be it answering questions while creating these videos or even adding personalised touches for their orders such as personalised handwritten notes, etc.

Building Trust and Brand Authenticity.

The final yet most impactful aspect when it comes to the implementation of this trend, is the trust and authenticity building aspect. As mentioned in the previous point, live packaging allows customers to be assured of the quality of the products they have ordered and are about to receive. This boost in consumer confidence is of paramount importance in social and e-commerce practices, as it demonstrates the organisations' commitment towards transparency. This honesty, shows consumers as well as non consumers that your company has nothing to hide.

Thus, acting as a significant comparative advantage which sets you apart from your direct computors who may be lacking the ability to offer such authenticity to its customers. In turn, creating a USP (Unique selling point) for your company

Tips for a Successful #PackingOrders Campaign

Now that we have a clear understanding of the elements behind successful order packaging, video content, here are a few key tips to maximise your marketing efforts organically through this trend.

Choosing the Right Platform for your brand

The first step to a successful campaign is choosing the right social media platform for your company based on an in-depth understanding of your target audience. Through critically analysing your target demographics behaviour and preferences, aids your company significantly when it comes to choosing the social media platform through which customers are anticipated to be more receptive and interactive.

Once identified, your company must ensure that the platform of choice is in direct alignment with your organisational values and vision. An example to better understand this would be that if your sole organisational foundation is focused on story telling, Instagram or TikTok would be Comparatively, better than a LinkedIn platform, which could be profitable more for B2B businesses as compared to B2C companies.

Finally, consistency. Once identified and chosen your social platform or choice, it is crucial to ensure a consistent engagement with your visual customers. Implying consistent posting of content as well as in time responsiveness to engage with your audience and maximise the push potential of the social platforms' algorithm for a wider reach.

Exploiting creative touches

The second step is exploiting creative touches. Experimenting with unique and appealing content formats such as videos, interactive quizzes or even live streams tends to increase the retention of your target audience's attention.

In addition to these engaging formats, it is essential to craft an engaging and interactive story behind your companies vision and mission in order to build a sense of community and belonging for your customer audience. By creating an emotional connect with your audience can significantly boost your marketing reach.

An added element which has been seen to prove highly effective in the recent months is the added touch of personalisation. Brands along with the lives behind the scenes packaging can also increase engagement by creating personalised messages for the customer and showcasing the creation of these messages live on video during the order packaging process.

Lastly, leverage the element of surprise. Just when you thought that personalised messages and live videos of orders being prepared are highly effective, adding an element of surprise in the videos can boost your marketing efforts even further.

For example, when a customer orders a pair of shoes, and you create a video showcasing the packaging of their order, throwing in a free pair of socks or discount coupons as a surprise creates an increased sense of excitement and joy not only for the customer who has purchased the product but also for those non-consumers who may not be engaging with your products but indeed do engage with your social content.

Real-Life Success Stories

1. Mermaid Straw: In 2018, Lisa Harrington founded her company, Mermaid Straw. With over 2.1 million followers on Instagram, the brand focuses primarily on sustainable straws for the environment. In an interview conducted by Wired, founder Lisa mentioned the sole reason for her success was her unique ability to engage customers through order packing videos. Shortly after the implementation of this trend, she noticed that almost one in every ten customers would leave a special request upon checkout asking for their order to be packaged live. Thus, showing how these engaging videos increased her engagement with customers significantly yet organically.
2. Sana and Will Saleh, Lala Hijabs: This brand is another successful company when it comes to using packaging videos to create a sensation of curiosity around the brand. Founders Sana and Will initiated their small business with a picture post of them wearing unique and dyed hijabs for fun. However, posting these pictures on TikTok created a sense of curiosity, with individuals from the audience curious to know where these products were purchased.
   In order to leverage this curious sense of emotion. When the first round of orders came in, the founders created a live video on TikTok, showcasing them not only packaging the products but also adding a touch of story telling, which overnight went viral. The brand growth speaks volumes for this strategy. With their behind the scene's footage being posted consistently, since launch their reach is over 144k followers and a whooping 4.2m likes. Thus making their small business highly profitable due to the significant organic increase in their brand's social visibility.   

The Future of #PackingOrders

#PackingOrders has not replaced the traditional trend setters, "#unboxing videos. This means that in the end, #PackingOrders are merely a new emerging trend that can be leveraged to further engage with your consumers.

In the ever-changing digital landscape, consumer expectations are always on the rise. This social media video trend has emerged as a powerful tool that companies can implement in order to showcase and prioritize marketing elements such as personalisation, community building and the transparent nature of organisational practices. This forges a win-win environment for both company and consumer, where brand loyalty increases while simultaneously boosting your brand growth.

As you embark on your social commerce journey, implementing these trends into your companies marketing strategy can prove to be highly effective. Remember, adaptability and innovation are the two essential elements to keep in mind when it comes to meeting your consumer's ever-changing needs. Position yourself well and ride the wave of the #PackingOrder trend to build a path for sustainable success in the competitive era of e-commerce. 

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