How to Pack Apparels for Shipping in India

Looking at fashion e-tailers like Myntra and jabong, one would wonder about the kind of packaging required to safely deliver apparel to the customers. The reason behind such curiosity is the lack of “fragility” of clothes. Clothes are not fragile and they can’t get damaged if you handle them roughly. Then why is there so much concern regarding their packaging?

All ecommerce businesses are evaluated on the basis of their delivery efficiency. Since there are no physical outlets or presentations that may be physically visited, the average customer perceives the quality of service on the basis of delivery time, quality of product received, packaging, personalization, and brand appeal. This is why a lot of emphasis is laid on logistics and packaging of apparels. The focus should not be only product quality but shipping quality as well. This would help you to enhance user experience and welcome repeated orders and new customers.

Here are some important considerations that need to be made before packing and shipping apparels in India.

Apparel Should be Delivered Wrinkle-Free

If you think you can impress your customer with wrinkled clothes, then you are grievously mistaken. The apparel may be made of the most exquisite fabric with out-of-the-world designs, but if it has wrinkles, then the customer will be terribly put off. To avoid such situations, make sure that the apparel is ironed and carefully put in the appropriate packaging before being sent off. Using a plastic cover would not only protect it from dust and moisture, but it would keep the apparel intact and properly sealed in a tamper-proof packaging.

Packaging Should Be Perfect

Packaging matters a lot when it comes to online shopping. Put your heart and soul into the package’s design because it will deliver long term benefits in terms of repeat purchases and enhanced brand perception in the eyes of the customer. If you have an attractive package, then customers will be more than happy to share its photos on social media and also spread the good word around. This will bring more benefits than your strongest marketing strategy, and that too at no cost at all. However, it is important that the attractive elements do not come at the cost of safety of contents. 

Package Should be Taped Properly

It is needless to say that all the packages need to be taped off properly. Cover all the (existing or potential) cracks, holes, openings, etc. with a good quality tape so that nothing falls out. A properly sealed package will reduce the chances of tampering and will keep moisture and dust out. No one would want to receive a damp and dirty piece of cloth, no matter how creative it may be.

Don’t Mess Up The Labels

Consider the situation where you (as a customer) are waiting eagerly for your package, and you receive an intimation that it has been delivered to a wrong address. This is the plight that your customers would go through if you mess up the labelling on the package. Make sure that the package is double checked before being dispatched to ensure that the information mentioned on it is accurate to the last detail. The efficiency of this process would depend on the QA checkpoints implemented by you. 

Add a Personal Note and / or Goodies

It won’t take much efforts to add a personal note of thanks or some goodies like discount coupons, free memberships, etc. Trust me, this goes a long way in ensuring a strong customer bonding with the brand and if you manage to win the heart of a customer, then he / she will not only make repeat purchases, but you will get the benefit of referrals. All this and more can happen with a simple personal note to the customer. After all, a happy customer will result in enhanced business prospects.

Use an Efficient Courier Service

Perform an extensive search for finding the best and most efficient courier service that would be able to deliver your products to the customers in time and without causing any damage to the package. Reliability is the most important factor when deciding upon a courier service as the performance of the courier service would reflect upon the customer’s perception of the business / brand.

Moreover, you need a courier service that is transparent in its approach and offers real time tracking for the shipments. This not only helps to reduce the anxiety of the customer, but also keeps him / her informed about the current position of the package. With such advanced communication technology around us, this should not be difficult to achieve. 

Some Important Points

In India, each apparel type is usually made in keeping with a particular occasion. This gives you a lot of scope to personalize the packaging by incorporating the applicable thematic elements matching the merchandise type, size, and weight. With online shopping comes the convenience of sending gifts to friends and family by purchasing products online and having it delivered to the intended recipient. This is a clear hint that the option of “gift packaging” should be offered to the customers. In my opinion, the packaging should involve customized packing boxes, appropriate padding, and a strong branding approach. These are quintessential to ensure the successful and safe delivery of apparel in India.

Do you have any queries? Would you like to share your views and ideas? Go ahead and pen down your thoughts in the comments section below. 

How Custom Printed Boxes are Helping Online Garment Sellers Beat Their Competition

How does it feel when you receive you favourite t-shirt (the one that you ordered online) in a bland and boring box that is literally covered in stamps and labels? It is a definite put off. Just imagine what this dissatisfaction could do to negatively affect your brand’s value for the customers. Would you want to take such a risk?

Investing in a branded customized packing box might not appeal to most businesses, but eventually, it leads to greater satisfaction in customers and enhanced brand awareness. An attractive packaging can be shared on popular social media by customers if they feel that adequate care has been provided to the packaging. 

This in turn translates into a powerful online marketing / promotional activity which would have otherwise required a huge investment to be able to pull off. Even with the marketing expenditure, it would not have been an easy task to convince people about the effectiveness of a packaging, at least not with the conviction that is conveyed when a genuine customer shares it on his / her social profile.

Why Custom Boxes Hold So Much Importance for Online T-shirt Sales?

You have to agree with me on this – “First impressions do count!” In the e-commerce business environment, product delivery is the most reliable way in which customers judge the business. Since packaging forms an integral part of the product delivery process and is basically the primary method of evaluation undertaken by customers, you definitely need to focus on it.

According to 2015 ecommerce packaging trends, businesses need to focus on improving their packaging as a premium packaging increases customer loyalty. You may have the best product in the world, but without an appealing package, you would never be able to achieve that feeling of opening a beautiful box and building anticipation about what’s inside. 

There are so many possibilities and ideas which can be used to come up with exceptional packaging solutions that would have more value than the product stored in them. When you can achieve this feat, then no one would be able to stop you for growing your business both in terms of size and sales.

Seek Professional Advice for Packaging Experts!

If you are not sure about the type of packaging that would fulfil your purpose, then get in touch with a packaging expert or consultant for some really valuable advice. Presentation may be a key element for wooing your customers, but other factors such as feasibility, protection, branding, frustration-free unpacking and packing, and speed of packing the products also play an important role. 

A packaging expert can help you to come up with the best packaging ideas that are not only consultant across all order sizes, but it also helps to establish a strong brand presence. Important considerations to be made while coming up with a packaging solution include colour themes, branding elements, mix of packaging materials, best combination of various materials, and labelling / marking details.