The biggest challenge in running an eCommerce business is retaining customers. Customer loyalty is earned and built one experience at a time – which is why every order shipped to a customer represents a golden opportunity to deliver a great experience.
While making every shipment a meaningful, memorable customer experience sounds like a huge undertaking, eCommerce businesses frequently use a tiny trick to win customer loyalty: packaging inserts. Packaging (or packing) inserts are complimentary items online stores send to customers along with their orders. These “freebies” are typically small enough to fit inside the free space of the package, hence the name packaging inserts.
Packaging inserts have long been used to accompany medicines, taking the form of a document in tiny print that informs the consumer how to administer the medication. Today packaging inserts have evolved and are used to help turn shipments of all types into positive experiences.
Here are some ways how packing inserts can help deliver a great customer experience:
Amazon began its eCommerce journey with online bookselling and quickly mastered the art of packing inserts. With every book purchase, customers also receive a free bookmark that carries a special marketing message such as a coupon code, kindle book advert, etc. As customers use the bookmarks while reading, they are reminded of Amazon’s marketing message. Even if you are not selling books, packaging inserts like bookmarks, coasters, stickers and magnets are still great awareness and loyalty building tools – anything customers will see and use repeatedly makes a good packing insert. The higher brand recall value such items create? Priceless.
No one says no to free samples. Especially something exquisite like handcrafted leather goods. Galen Leather knows this very well. The brand shares free handcrafted leather goods with every purchase which not only surprises customers, but also makes them want more Galen leather products.
One prime benefit of packaging inserts is that a single insert can help create a chain of future transactions. For instance, you can insert promo codes, discount offers or referral codes in the package that customers can use to make future purchases. Promo codes can also be limited to a specific time period to increase the chances of immediate conversion.
Customer testimonials are hard to get. Not all customers tend to write reviews voluntarily. You have to request and also motivate them to do so. That is where ‘Thank You’ notes come into play. You can write (or print notes that look handwritten) and include them as packing inserts. You can use the same handwritten note to include a request for a testimonial. The personal touch combined with the humble request is likely to win you both a testimonial as well as repeat business in the near future.
Sometimes the smallest of gestures creates the biggest result. The same applies to packaging inserts as well. They are small in size. They are not cost-prohibitive. And for eCommerce businesses, they represent yet one more opportunity to enhance the overall customer experience.
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