Holiday Packaging Guide For 2022

Whether you're a small e-commerce business with a simple online storefront or a large company with an omnichannel approach, don't consider holiday packaging out of your budget or time.

Customized holiday packaging is critical if you want your customers to choose your products when they are looking for gifts in-store or picking up your products from a crowded online marketplace.

Customized packaging for the holidays can promote joy and happiness, providing your customers with another reason to impress you and buy. It can help you out competitors and showcase your brand's personality.

This article will take you through some of the holiday packaging trends you can take advantage of and expert tips for planning your packaging run during the season.

5 Popular Holiday Packaging Trends

Here are 5 packaging trends to help you win a good first impression of customers with a holiday packaging.

1. Vibrant colors

85% of consumers buy products based on color.

If you want to buy the holiday gift for your best friend. You go online to view a bunch of products and list two. However, one has stock packaging, and the other has red, white, and gold, which looks festive and elegant. Which one would you buy? Probably the latter.

Color is a great way to grab consumers' attention in a crowded holiday market. Increasingly, brands are choosing to express this through their packaging. With holiday packaging, you can choose vibrant and happy colors that convey a celebratory mood to your customers or opt for blues and grays like a winter wonderland. Go traditional or outside. All colors are fair game for the holidays. Some popular holiday colors are green, red, blue, white, silver, and pink.

2. Detailed and complex design patterns

Detailed patterns on packaging naturally invite clients to take the time to engage in all design work.

Try using abstract shapes, tiny illustrations embedded in the design, or color-coordinated theme-based patterns. You can also use different printing materials on geometric designs.

3. Nostalgia

Everyone seems to be reminiscing about a simpler time in today's overly complex world. Holidays are the time that brings everyone together, which usually creates a degree of nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a stylish packaging idea for the holiday season. To evoke this feeling, you can use old-fashioned designs, familiar childhood patterns, characters, or even classic holiday images and elements.

4. Sustainable Packaging Materials

Sustainability values are even more critical to today's customers. While many conscious shoppers avoid splurging on purchases on regular days, they are more careful when shopping during the holidays.

Generation Z is especially aware of the environmental impact of their choices, so choosing sustainable materials such as recyclable boxes and upcycled protective packaging is a great way to attract more holiday shopping.

There are many ways to make sustainable packaging more attractive and luxurious, making the trend both intuitive and compelling.

5. Playful and festive illustrations

Illustrations are excellent packaging design elements that create a lasting first impression and tell consumers what they will find inside or how they will feel when they hold the product.

Take the power of illustration up a notch during the holiday season by using playful colors and holiday-themed illustrations such as candy canes, Christmas trees, snowflakes, or your holiday avatar. These will bring an artistic look to your packaging while maintaining your brand's message.

Tips for planning custom holiday packaging

With increasing competition and a shift to a predominantly virtual shopping experience, businesses need to make precise preparations to convince customers to buy from them - and planning custom-themed packaging is one of them. Here are some tips.

1. Incorporate seasonal designs

The holiday season is a valuable time to offer limited-edition packaging designs. Seasonal design gets people in the holiday spirit, excited to snap up exclusive items, and makes your products stand out from the crowd.

There are several reasons why incorporating seasonal design into your brand personality can work well:

• It will make a great gift.

• It will have an Instagram aesthetic.

• It will give your customers a fantastic unboxing experience.

You can also combine seasonal design with digital printing and online illustration to make your packaging more interactive and engaging.

2. Start holiday packaging early

Don't let the logistics of the holidays catch you off guard. There are many important dates and event components when planning year-end sales.

Create a calendar or Slack channel specific to the holidays and start your packing conversations a few weeks before the significant fall holidays to ensure you have plenty of time. This also applies to reordering and stocking boxes. It would be best if you also communicated your holiday packing plans with the rest of your team to encourage brainstorming of ideas to share and get everyone on the same page.

3. Pay attention to production and shipping deadlines

Despite the planning, you may still miss your supplier's deadlines. For example, your ideation process may take longer than usual, or you may not be able to find the materials you want to use. All of this can lead to production delays.

As each brand strives to stand out, suppliers are experiencing delays and shortages to keep up with demand. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is also affecting bottlenecks in the supply chain. Avoid this and contact your packaging supplier at the beginning of the year and the end of the second quarter for holiday production schedules and shipping requirements so they can provide you with estimated dates to submit all specifications. This will ensure your packaging is ready to go before your big holiday sale.

4. Prioritize holiday packaging for seasonal products

While creating holiday packaging for all products may seem like a good idea, it may not be feasible or realistic. The more products you have, the more money and time it will take to prepare the packaging. Most importantly, the exclusivity factor will not exist if you modify the packaging for all of your products rather than a select few.

As a matter of good practice, it is wise to prioritize holiday packaging for in-demand products and unique sets such as candles, lighting, electronics, and stocking stuffers during the holiday season. To do this, compare your recent customer shopping patterns, research your holiday buying history over the years, and conduct market research to understand which products customers typically purchase during the holidays.

Based on this, you can create customized holiday packaging for some products that are likely to sell more during this time. 5.

5. Streamline your process with your packaging supplier

Your packaging partner is your eyes and ears on the box manufacturing floor. They will alert you to any production issues, advise you on viable designs, and work to keep you on schedule. Take some of the stress from the inevitable holidays and use tools like our box designer to know that your packaging will arrive as expected.

Custom Holiday Packaging with East Color

East color is a leading printing and packaging brand in China. We can provide you with a one-stop custom packaging service from design to production, helping you quickly get your packaging design off the ground. Custom holiday packaging welcomes you to contact us.