Story time. This is how we saved tens of thousands of $$$ by making a simple packaging change.

‘Twas the month after Christmas in 2022.

Sales were starting to slump in home goods.

Profits had been dropping for a few months already.

Why Were Profits Dropping? 

➡️ Extreme downward pricing pressure. Most brands were liquidating piles of “Covid inventory” at cutthroat prices. 

No fun.

➡️ Said inventory had been bought at a ridiculous landed cost due to the cost of containers. 

Do you still have nightmares about this, too?

➡️ FBA fees were increasing. 

By a lot.

➡️ Consumer demand was drying up. 

Who needs a second bread box, after all?

All of these, and some other reasons—that I probably am suppressing as a coping mechanism—caused our net margins to plummet.

How We Got Creative

So we were looking for creative ways to lower our COGs.

Enter our retail ready colour box.

Designed by a talented 99Designs artist in 2018, we had never considered changing the template.

Until now.

So we got some factory quotes.

Looking at the Cost Difference

The difference in cost for a colour vs. black print on white box was in the 10’s of cents per unit.

Annually, across our product line, it would save us tens of thousands.

And here’s the kicker—it polled so much better.

Customers loved it.

Saying it looked “higher end” and “more like something they would gift.”

So, we jumped all over that.

Completely overhauling our entire product line.

Secondary Benefits

There were secondary benefits:

➡️ Much faster design for new products. 

Therefore at a lower cost.

➡️ No product photos on the boxes allowed us to not worry about minor aesthetic product changes over time.

➡️ Our clean, minimal box design makes us stand out in search.

And there you have it.

Innovation for the Win

Innovation in times of need creating better ultimate outcomes.

What’s an impactful innovation you’ve been part of?

Save Money on A/B Testing

Are you doing A/B testing? Want to save a lifetime 10%?

My friends at ProductPinion hooked me up with a coupon code. You get 10% off, and in full transparency, I get 10% too.

Go to their site and use code: CPP