For most consumer brands, yes. A custom printed shipper costs roughly a dollar more per order and buys you the one physical moment where a customer is already excited — which is when sharing, advocacy and repeat purchase are cheapest to earn. It is a weaker case for commodity products with no brand personality, or where margins leave no room for the bet.
Do not waste the moment
The package arrives. The customer ordered it days ago, maybe longer. They are, for a few seconds, paying full attention to your brand — which is more than any ad you will ever buy can claim.
That moment can upset them, leave them indifferent, or give them one more pleasant experience with your brand. Those are the only three outcomes, and the box picks which one.
Is a custom shipper always right?
No. The cases where it is genuinely questionable are where the product is a commodity with no brand personality to express, or where margins are so thin that every cent counts and the return on the experience carries real risk.
Even then, I would argue it more often than not. The return on enhancing the customer experience tends to hold up across product types and across tighter margins — because the alternative, an anonymous brown box, is not free either. It just spends its money somewhere you cannot see.
What is the ROI?
Work an example. A product costs $20 and sells for $100. Adding a custom box costs an extra dollar per order. If that dollar generates social photography, video and shareable moments from people wanting to show off the experience they just had, you have converted a customer into an advocate, an advertiser and a salesperson.
At scale, the value of that is significant — far beyond the cost of achieving it. Compare it against what you pay to acquire a customer through paid media and the arithmetic usually stops being a close call.
How do you create a share-worthy experience?
There is no cookie-cutter answer that transfers from one brand to another. The work is matching the brand personality already visible in your site, your product packaging and your social messaging, and carrying it through to the shipper. If the brand is playful, funny, sarcastic, edgy or whimsical, the box should be too. Consistency is what makes it read as intentional rather than decorative.
Leave no stone unturned
Most brands stop at printing the logo, a tagline, or an inspirational quote on the outside of the box. That is fine, and it does not create a surprising, share-worthy experience.
Ideas that go further:
- A clever thank-you message printed on the box floor, revealed when the product is lifted out
- A message on the inner flaps, not just the outside
- A hidden QR code inside the flaps, so it has to be discovered
- Different inside and outside colors that meld when the flaps fold in
- A box that talks to you — we built one, the Talking Shipper
- Trivia questions printed on the underside
- A survey printed on a flap, with an offer to cut it out, mail it in and get a goody bag with the next order
Then think about what goes inside
The most common insert is an advertisement card, usually a postcard. Sometimes a thank-you card or a coupon code to encourage the repeat purchase. The savvier version is a hand-signed thank-you card — and customers genuinely do post online or email in, naming the person who packed their order.
You can go further than that:
- A limited "golden ticket," or another high-value prize (check sweepstakes law and how you pre-advertise it)
- Custom scratcher cards offering discounts on future orders
- A thank-you card printed on flower-seed paper — plant the thank-you, grow flowers
- Void fill made from seed paper, turning packaging material into something with intrinsic value
- A catalog, brochure or self-published newspaper with genuinely interesting articles about your brand and its world
- A tip sheet on the best ways to use the product
- A brand sticker, or another promotional item with real functional use
- A small unexpected treat — a printed bag of candy, something that costs little and reads as generous
The list is endless, and the same rule applies to every item on it: it has to match the personality of the brand. An expensive insert that feels off-brand is worse than no insert.
One practical caution
Every added component is a SKU your fulfillment partner has to receive, store, pick and never run out of. Design the experience, then design how it gets executed ten thousand times — including what happens when one component is back-ordered. That conversation is worth having with your 3PL before the print run, not after.
Do not stop at the website
It is a motto worth keeping: leave no stone unturned on the customer experience. Use the moment when the customer is excited to receive the package as one more opportunity to continue the relationship, and find ways to go beyond and turn them into an advocate.
We do custom shipper and retail box design, sourcing and production in house, alongside the fulfillment — so the idea and the execution are handled by the same team.
PackagingCustomer experienceBrand