Does your product packaging and point of purchase display sell the product? You are missing out on an important opportunity if your answer is no. The way you present and package your product can help to sell it, even if you aren’t there to explain and sell your product. The packaging can be a silent sales person and help to increase your revenue and promote your overall brand.

Like a book is judged by its cover, your products will be judged by their packaging and presentation. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should box up your hand-made fiber pieces, but adding a band of paper around a felted soap, for example, gives extra space and opportunity for you to draw interest to the soap, build your brand and ultimately close the sale. If you’ve already developed hang tags for your products, that may be enough “packaging”, but some items may need more explanation than you can fit on a small card.

When you’re developing your packaging, remember to keep it consistent with the rest of your presentation of your artwork. Some of other points to think about are:

• Can you make your packaging “green”? Try to use recycled materials or a package that can be re-purposed.
• What about adding that little something extra? Perhaps a small piece of yarn or ribbon tied around the product. For our gift wrapping at The Purple Pomegranate (my store), we use purple boxes, raffia to tie around as a ribbon and a small pick to go in the bow made with a purple dried pomegranate and a piece of eucalyptus. Customers love the extra touch of the pomegranate and the wrapping is instantly recognizable as being from The Purple Pomegranate.
• When you develop your packaging, keep you target audience in mind. The packaging would be different if your items were intended for children as compared to products sold for men.
• If you can, take a look at what your competitors do. Can you develop packaging that is completely different from what your competitions does? Use colors or textures that make your product stand out from the rest.
• Make sure to give as much information as you can. Remember that this information is helping to sell your product. Give instructions on how to use the product, tell what the “ingredients” are and most important tell a story. Give the consumer enough information to make a decision about buying.
• Finally, make sure that your price is showing clearly. This is very important in a retail environment as many customers are hesitant to ask about price.

For those of you who sell your products online, “packaging” is how you show your product online, the quality of your photographs and also the presentation when the customer receives the product. Even though they might not see the packaging before they buy, a customer who receives a product with that “something extra” in the packaging, will be more likely to buy again and tell all their friends about you. So spending a little time and extra money on the packaging is well worth the effort and gives you an opportunity to create a dynamic “silent sales person”.