Custom packaging is a key way for small businesses to stand out in the highly saturated ecommerce market. To foster a memorable buying experience and help build brand loyalty, we recommend using branded or unique shipping materials.
In this article we’ll look at nine creative packaging ideas for small business, exploring how you can customize your unboxing experience from the inside out. Each idea will also include average costs, helpful examples, and resources to help you get started.
External Packaging Customization Ideas
For ecommerce businesses, think of your packaging like it’s your storefront. Similar to a stunning window display, a well-designed shipping box will leave a positive first impression on your customers and tell them how they should perceive your brand.
Here’s a rundown of the best exterior packaging customizations you can make, with options for any budget:
1. Fully Customized Packaging
Price: $5–$40 per custom box (depending on size and extent of customization)
Fully custom packages are boxes, mailers, or other types of shipping containers designed to represent your brand through custom features on the inside, outside, or both. This goes beyond just a logo added to the exterior—it includes branding and custom designs printed throughout the box design. Fully customized packaging designs create a more immersive experience for customers and help increase the memorability of your brand image.
Fully customized packaging is great for increasing brand awareness as it inspires shares on social media and unboxing content, where shoppers film or photograph the process of unpacking new products. In fact,
- The hashtag #unboxing has more than 5.5 million posts on Instagram.
- In 2023, YouTube saw more than 25 billion views for videos with “unboxing” in the title.
Fully customized packaging is typically your most expensive custom packaging option, but it will create the biggest impact. It’s most often used for higher-end goods or subscription services.
Check out these successful examples of creative, fully custom packaging:
2. Printed Stock Packaging
Price: $1.25–$20 per piece (depending on size and extent of customization)
Printed stock boxes are another one of the top small business packaging ideas that features a custom touch without investing in entirely custom containers. These boxes take a stock box (or other shipping container) and add your logo to the outside. This type of customization is a great way to drive brand awareness and increase recognition without adding much expense.
While you can print logos onto your packages yourself, this is a very time-consuming process and requires investment in special printers and supplies. Instead, we recommend working with a shipping supplier that offers customizations. Most major shipping supply companies, like ULINE and The Packaging Company, offer customization options at very affordable rates. Simply fill out the design page, create the boxes you want, and order.
For inspiration, reference these creative examples of printed stock boxes:
Tip: The key to pulling off any kind of custom packaging is having a distinctive logo and strong brand identity.
If you’re serious about building a recognizable brand, consider using a logo design platform for access to logo generators, logo templates, and editing tools—or affordable custom logo design by professionals. Read our guide to the 10 best free and paid sites for logo design.
3. Logo Stickers
Price: 6 cents–$7 per sticker (depending on size and extent of customization)
Logo stickers can be used on the exterior of your shipping materials to easily and affordably add a touch of customization. Exterior logo stickers also allow you to easily add branding to any type of shipping container—making them perfect for businesses that use a variety of box sizes or multiple sources for their shipping supplies.
Adding branded stickers is the most cost-effective exterior branding option, and, once your stickers and boxes are on hand, assembly can quickly be performed in-house. Some of the best places to get custom stickers include:
Here are some examples of effective packaging logo stickers:
4. Custom Adhesive
Price: $5–$20 per roll (depending on the extent of customization, material type, size, and bulk discount)
Another cost-effective packaging idea for small businesses is adding custom adhesive to the exterior of your package. This design element is unique and will make your shipping container more memorable. Plus, assembly can be done in-house and the tape serves both design and utility purposes.
Some great resources for custom shipping tape include:
Take a look at the examples below for inspiration:
Internal Packaging Customization Ideas
Another way that small businesses can customize their packaging is by adding personalized touches to the inside of their packages. This can include using custom stickers or tags, branded void fill like tissue paper, unique boxes for your products themselves, or custom box designs. Done right, internal box customizations are another opportunity to make your unboxing experience special, increase brand recognition, and elevate your offerings.
Here are some creative ways you can fill your packages and add a custom feature to your brand experience:
5. Cards or Thank-you Notes
Price: 5 cents–$1 per card (depending on customizations and stationary quality)
Adding a handwritten or pre-printed thank you note is an easy and cost-effective way to add a personal touch to your small business packaging. Cards and notes offer another way for customers to engage with your business and help people remember your brand the next time they’re shopping. They also give ecommerce orders a personal element that helps enforce an emotional connection.
At the clothing boutique I managed, I would add handwritten thank you notes for any purchase over $200. My customers loved to receive these notes, and they helped the store earn repeat clients as well as shares on social media. Plus, they were easy to make—we would keep blank stationery on hand and fill them out anytime we received large orders or purchases from loyal customers.
The best places to find custom stationery and pre-printed notes include Etsy, ideal for smaller orders or more artisanal options, and VistaPrint, which we recommend for bulk orders.
Check out these creative examples of businesses that have added notes and cards to their packaging:
To encourage repeat visits and nurture customer loyalty, consider adding a coupon for shoppers’ next visits. (Source: Zazzle)
6. Logo Tags or Stickers
Price: 10 cents–$2 per piece (depending on material and size)
Adding a custom logo tag or sticker to your orders is a great way to convey your brand without breaking the bank on your small business packaging ideas.
Typically, custom tags are attached to clothing and small items like inexpensive jewelry, whereas custom stickers are placed on the outside of generic product packaging. VistaPrint and Sticker Mule are great sources for printing custom logo tags and stickers.
Here are a few examples of logo tags and stickers in action:
Warrior Creek adds a custom-branded sticker to the outside of its bags of beans so that every time their customers go to brew a cup of joe, they remember where they got it from. (Source: Sticker Mule)
7. Tissue Paper & Inner Packaging
Price: 2 cents–$4 per order (depending on material and size)
Another way to elevate your product packaging and add a personalized touch is to wrap the products within your packages. This shows customers that you took care with their order and that their goods are important and valuable. This level of detail helps your brand stand out and creates an additional opportunity to incorporate branding with customized materials.
Consider wrapping merchandise like clothing in tissue paper, glass goods in well-protected boxes, and jewelry in small, cushioned containers. Some goods will need extra protection, and others just look better when wrapped.
Here are a few strong examples of interior packaging that create a luxurious experience and reinforce branding:
Pandasew Jewelry keeps its jewelry safe and adds a nice branded touch with its custom jewelry boxes and bags. (Source: Etsy)
8. Custom Box Designs
Price: $2.50–$15 per box (depending on materials, bulk discount, and extent of customization)
Another packaging idea for small businesses is to customize your internal box design to fit your specific products. This will not only ensure your products avoid damage, but also show customers that you handle your goods with care. Custom box designs are also memorable and you can add interior logos and designs to reinforce your brand image.
There are two routes you can take to customize your boxes’ internal packaging. You can either purchase inserts that go inside stock boxes where you can nestle your goods or you can buy single-piece boxes with attached internal designs.
We recommend Flush Packaging for great custom box design services and even pre-made options.
Take a look at the examples below for examples of custom box designs:
9. Small Gifts or Samples
Price : $1–$50 per gift (Depending on what you decide to offer. Gift value typically correlates with order value)
Nothing makes a bigger impact than free stuff. Including a product sample or small trinket as a gift to your customers can increase overall satisfaction—and it creates a great opportunity to drive further branding throughout your packages.
Product samples give shoppers the chance to explore your offerings, encourage retention, boost brand recognition, and can increase basket sizes (and even impulse spending) if you offer a gift at a certain spend threshold. Simple gifts (like decals, koozies, or keychains) can be customized to display your logo, turning customers into brand ambassadors everywhere they go. Plus, bonuses like these promote a sense of good value and invite a brand connection.
Check out these examples of custom gifts and product samples in ecommerce packages:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Click through the questions below to get answers to some of your most frequently asked questions about custom packaging ideas for small business.
To make your packaging stand out, you should add branding to the inside and outside of your boxes or mailers, include notes, gifts, or coupons, and consider wrapping your products or securing them with custom box designs.
Custom packaging is more expensive than stock packaging, but small touches like stickers, custom adhesive, or a printed logo only add a few cents to each of your orders and will create a more lasting impression on your customers.
Bottom Line
Creative packaging boosts brand recognition, creates positive customer experiences, increases personalization, and helps you stand out from the sea of ecommerce businesses. While custom packaging ideas for small business may be more expensive than your standard shipping materials, the benefits it offers will pay for itself. Thanks to the wide array of custom boxes and packaging materials available, you can give your orders a branded experience from the inside out—no matter your budget.
