The Fulfillment Innovation Wheel: At the Box Personalization

ShipHero recently launched The Fulfillment Innovation Wheel to help 3PLs understand what capabilities and service offerings they need to implement in order to be successful and to help online retailers and brands choose which 3PL is right for them by allowing them to ‘check the boxes’.

The Fulfillment Innovation Wheel listed a set of twelve (12) capabilities that fulfillment providers and logistics companies should implement to continually delight their customers and push themselves towards greater success and innovation.

The twelve capabilities are:

1. 2-Day Delivery
2. Same Day Shipping
3. At the Box Personalization
4. Designed for Returns
5. Sustainable Fulfillment
6. Resilient Shipping
7. Distributed Fulfillment
8. Data Now
9. Automation
10. Scale Up and Out
11. Integration Stack
12. Professional Services

In this article, we will be diving into Capability #3: At the box personalization.

‍And be sure to stay tuned for future articles as we deep-dive into each capability.

Capability #3: At the Box Personalization

At the Box Personalization is all the little details in your product’s unboxing experience that truly make customers fall in love with your brand. Imagine getting an unexpected hand-written note, a coupon, or a gift in the box along with your order.

All the excitement and gratitude experienced by the thoughtful presentation of your items generates customer loyalty, while also providing a targeted marketing channel for cross-sell and upsell of items. Not to mention, 59% of Americans receive packages weekly, and 10% receive packages daily. That is quite a large marketing audience in terms of packaging…

By pairing At the Box Personalization with modern-day customer data and analysis, retailers can give more personal, more thoughtful experiences than ever before; say, a gift that they truly love or a coupon for an item they had considered purchasing. You may not sell to Brad Pitt, but your customers will be screaming “WHAT’S IN THE BOX” every time they open your package with these benefits of At the Box Personalization:

Spread Your Brand Organically

Corporations have been successfully using At the Box Personalization for decades, with some customers fully relying on Youtube unboxing videos to guide their purchases, and you can see unboxing ideas all over on Pinterest.

Drive Customer Loyalty

In today’s competitive e-commerce market, most retailers do not manufacture unique goods, so your market differentiators are going to live in that extra ‘wow factor’. At the Box Personalization is proven to cultivate brand loyalty and give customers that jolt of consumer surplus that only comes with getting more bang for your buck -- that’s right, we’ve all been conditioned by the Happy Meals toy.

Create Sales Opportunity

Along with the purchased item, retailers can incentivize cross-selling and upselling other products, essentially transforming your packaging into a targeted marketing channel. You can include coupons for relevant or wishlist items, or you can include a gift that requires purchase of other features or parts. And because this occurs in the post-sale phase of the buyer’s journey, it won’t come off as another sales gimmick.

The sky is truly the limit when providing high-quality personalization to your customers, so don’t get weighed down by your 3PL or fulfillment provider. Many fulfillment providers today simply do not provide At the Box Personalization because it reduces efficiency and increases costs.

However, smart fulfillment companies like ShipHero continually innovate their capabilities to offer you a wide range of At the Box Personalization options. Our customers love that ShipHero can easily customize their unboxing experience. We attribute this success on the Fulfillment Innovation Wheel to Capability #3: At the Box Personalization.

‍Stay tuned next as we cover Capability #7: Distributed Fulfillment! Fulfill Your Dreams… Everywhere. ShipHero.

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