Contact Us
Consumers are faced with more choices than ever with supermarkets, warehouse retailers and megastores giving them endless aisles to browse. In this crowded retail environment, you need something to help your product stand out.
Shelf appeal is one of the longest standing tactics for encouraging customers to choose your product over competitors. In this blog, we explain shelf appeal and share 5 tips for improving your packaging.
What is shelf appeal?
The concept of shelf appeal is as simple as it sounds – it’s all about making your product appeal to the customer, so that it stands out.
There are many ways to create shelf appeal; from where your product is placed on shelves to which aisle customers find you within. But, possibly one of the biggest factors in helping customers choose a product is the packaging it comes in.
What type of packaging goes on retails shelves?
There are two types of packaging that could catch a customer’s attention on retail shelves. First, there is the product packaging. This packaging offers information about what’s inside and helps customers compare different products.
Second, there is shelf-ready packaging which keeps your product organised and easy to shop on busy store shelves. Without proper shelf-ready packaging, your product could become scattered and disorganised – making it hard for customers to find what they are looking for.
Once opened, most shelf-ready packaging leaves just a little space left for design. It’s important to use this space wisely with designs that stand out – such as bright colours, keeping your logo front and centre or highlighting product benefits.
5 tips for improving your shelf appeal
There are lots of tried and true methods in packaging design that help with shelf appeal. Here are 5 ideas to get you started.
When you’re ready to start designing, simply download one of our free packaging design templates.
Draw on colour psychology
The colour of your packaging may be the most important element for shelf appeal. Bright colours help you stand out and catch attention.
But, that doesn’t mean you should jump straight to vibrant red. Different colours offer different meanings, so you want to be sure to send the right message.
Colour psychology is a helpful tool for getting your packaging to resonate with your preferred audience.
For example, red is a popular colour in food packaging because it is known to stimulate the appetite. Green is another popular food packaging choice which suggests your product is fresh, healthy or organic.
We explain more of the colour meanings in our previous blog on colour psychology.
Get your text right
Text choices are another key element of your design. Most consumers don’t have long to make a choice, so you need to use clear, readable text to help them decide.
Text size is important – large text is typically easier to read, especially from a distance.
Choosing a font that is easy to read is important too. Most packaging uses sans serif fonts – these are the ones used online and in platforms like your email provider.
Finally, when you think about what to say; remember that short and sharp messaging works best. Focus on just one key message in each empty space.
Utilise hierarchy in your design
It might surprise you to know that designers are the ones who decide what order you read packaging. They use the principle of hierarchy to make some messages stand out first, while others naturally come second or third.
The size of text and images, their placement on your packaging and mixing up different fonts are all hierarchy tricks that can be used to determine which message is noticed first.
Hierarchy is a useful concept when you have an order to the messages you want to send. For example, a drink bottle might highlight the product type first (juice), followed by the flavour (orange) and finally, the brand.
A person looking for an orange juice at lunch can then quickly find the product they want and lastly, identify if it’s from a brand they trust. Ticking all these boxes in the right order can help them to make a quick purchase.
Give seasonal packaging a try
One of the tricky parts in business is getting people to try a new product when they already have one they know and trust. Novelty packaging can be a way to get them across the line.
Designing special packaging for certain times of year or limited release products can give people an added incentive to buy your brand. Once they have tried the product, hopefully the quality has them choosing you next time too.
Seasonal packaging is often most successful at gifting times of year; such as Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Novelty packaging can double as a gift box which saves time for the customers who purchase it.
Create variations of your design
With digital printing, it becomes much more cost-effective to work with multiple designs. There are no tooling or setup costs, so you can create unique designs for different product types with little or no extra costs.
Let’s consider an example – dumplings are a product with many different fillings, like beef, pork and vegetarian options. To highlight which product is inside which box, you could use different colours or imagery in your design.
Varied designs also help staff who are stocking shelves to quickly identify which product belongs in which location. Many retailers have specific requirements for shelf-ready packaging and they reject boxes that don’t fit the bill.
Design your own digitally printed boxes
With Echo Boxes Online, it’s easy to design custom packaging boxes that help your brand stand out. Our self-service platform includes free design templates for all the most popular box styles.
Order online and we’ll have your boxes ready for pickup or delivery in 7 working days.