How to Start a Subscription Box Using Custom Packaging

Subscription boxes are a phenomenon that’s shaking up the world of ecommerce.

Businesses selling every type of goods and services (you name it, there’s a subscription box for it!) are turning to the game-changing subscription model to ensure their business' future growth and success.

But subscribing customers aren’t just looking at the products inside the box – they are signing up for a full unboxing experience. They want the intrigue and excitement that comes with exploring the contents of a high-quality package sent straight to their door.

That’s where custom packaging becomes a subscription box's biggest ally. Any successful unboxing experience is all about the packaging products you use to transform a simple parcel into a full-blown unwrapping event.

Brands that strategically inject their personality into their box attract a loyal following of consumers who are increasingly looking for purchases that feel personalized and tailor-made for them.

Easily identifiable branding with strong visual appeal and Instagram-worthy content is central to the charm of any triumphant subscription box. What’s the best way to master that? With customized, branded packaging of course!

Are you thinking of starting a subscription box, or just wanting to up your subscription box game? 📦

Whatever your situation, paying attention to the details of your packaging design can help you sell products, establish a connection with your community and build that all-important customer loyalty.

Here are five vital packaging products that can be customized to enhance your subscription box and make it truly unforgettable. Better yet – they're perfect for small businesses, too.

1. Tissue Paper

To stand out from other subscription boxes that are your competition, your brand needs to shine through custom packaging. One of the best ways to kick-start some creative flair is by using tissue paper as a branding tool and customer service booster!

It’s true that tissue paper can be both pretty and practical. It's a blank canvas that can be customized with brand colors, name, logos, or illustrations – all of which instantly share personality with customers and spread the word that finishing touches really do matter.

Tissue can be designed to portray your brand's story and mood perfectly. You can use color, patterns and illustration to achieve a sophisticated and minimalist theme, or make it upbeat and attention grabbing.

Customized tissue isn't just a marketing tool for your subscription boxes. The luxury of unwrapping makes customers feel like they’re opening a gift, not just a mailer or box.

Propeller Coffee adds this extra opulence by rolling out the red carpet with its tissue – bright brand colors and logo front-and-centre that make it hard to confuse with any other brand. Their use of attention-grabbing red evokes a feeling of passion and energy, which are the perfect emotions for coffee lovers looking for a kick.

2. A Box or Mailer Bag

Subscription boxes have one key ingredient that's spelt out in the name – the box itself! It’s the first thing your customers see, so why wait for them to open it up to start their unboxing experience?

Make the whole box or mailer an instant hit by investing in custom printed colorful items, or by simply livening up the exterior using tape or stickers.

Take By Indeko’s unboxing experience as a perfect eye-catching example. Packed with love, care and heart, this creative and quirky brand has gone all out with their printed boxes – something that will definitely leave a lasting impression on their customers.

First-impressions count and all those colors will make customers feel they’ve found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow — what a visual treat!

3. Stickers

It's time to get stuck in! Stickers and stamps are great alternatives to a full overhaul of all your packaging. They provide a branded focal-point at a low cost, which is perfect for start-ups.

They can be used as a finishing touch to the exterior of a subscription box, or a tool to safely secure packages together. However you use them, stickers are the perfect way to help with brand recognition as soon as your customers start peeling away the layers of your subscription box.

Dojabox’s ‘unearthly relaxation’ subscription box proves they are lightyears ahead of their competition – but there’s no doubt that it’s their sticker that shines in the spotlight.

Quirkily illustrated and brightly colored, their out-of-this-world green lady is both memorable and compelling and is the center-piece of an unboxing experience that customers can look forward to, month after month.

4. Tape

Tape is far from just a way to secure products and packaging. When customized, it can be used as a excellent marketing tool for branding box exteriors that need a splash of recognizable decoration.

When used on the outside of your parcels, it helps make that all-important first impression that beats plain packaging tape any day!

This teacher subscription box by @teacher.matters uses an assortment of branded, on-point packaging items to send out goodies to school superheroes – and it’s their tape we love the most.

Not only marked with their name and logo, their use of a floral bird of paradise illustration as the background makes us feel calm and oh-so-special. And don't our teachers deserve just that?

5. Custom Cards

Everyone loves receiving a card in the post, so why not send one to your customers? Custom cards are a perfect companion to the storytelling element of your subscription box experience.

They're a way to create meaningful connections between customers and brands and they can look, say or show anything, from a handwritten note to a thank you message.

The Book Playbox is a subscription box business that not only sells creative and fun activities for children, but ensures their unboxing experience provides those same qualities too.

All their packaging elements elude youthful playfulness, including the added touch for a custom card to say thank you. Waiting in the final layer of their unboxing, the cards are an opportunity for gratitude, displaying their logo and social media links and including other relevant information on the back.

These cards are multi-functional, multi-talented, multi-awesome additions to any subscription box.

Inspiration Station 🎉

Got the subscription box bug and are now looking for even more creative ideas to inspire your own creations? Here’s how noissue customers around the world are using these packaging items to form incredible unboxing experiences.

Wrapping Up

No matter if you choose one packaging item or the whole lot of them, combining branded packaging with your subscription box creates an unboxing experience like no other for your brand.

Subscribe to style with custom packaging and make your products not only visually appealing, but ensures this memorable experience becomes a part of your marketing strategy!

Have you made your first step to creating a beautiful branded unboxing experience? Or maybe you already have a subscription box you’re super proud of?

Share your successes with the noissue community via a picture-perfect post on Pinterest or by tagging us on Insta!