Orange: that's the colour of Incu's shop signs, shopping bags and marketing campaigns. When the co-owners of the men's and womenswear boutiques, Vincent and Brian Wu, pushed the green light on their online store in September last year, it made sense for the same tone to take pride of place in their packaging. Today, if you order a Karen Walker dress, Peter Jensen skirt or Rittenhouse top from Incu.com.au it will arrive wrapped in brown paper with orange ribbon.
“We're not seen as a very big and corporate style store so we wanted to keep it a little bit more minimal and make it look a bit more personalised with the brown paper.”
Down in Melbourne, womenswear brand Motto takes a similar approach. The Richmond-headquartered womenswear business has eight boutiques, a wholesale arm and a four-year-old online operation overseen by Lauren Browne.
“When customers come into our stores it's a very warm, feminine, friendly atmosphere and we wanted to make sure that we weren't just putting [garments] in a plastic bag, a bit of bubble wrap and off it goes. We wanted to make sure that when they opened it they had that same feeling [as in store], to make sure they matched each other. You do need to have similarities and people need to know you're the same company,” Browne says.
Rather than rely on off-the-rack packaging to generate that same “warm” feeling, Motto.com.au uses customised solutions. Customer orders are wrapped in tissue paper, sealed with a Motto branded silverleaf sticker and slipped into a calico bag. The designs on the bag change each time a new batch is ordered so that it's “a little bit more special”. Then the calico bags are wrapped in black satin ribbon.
“Rather than buying ribbon from a store we use fabric and cut it in a certain way so it doesn't fray then get them put on rolls. You have to be a bit imaginative otherwise it does cost a lot of money,” Browne says.
The final touches are the inclusion of a handwritten card and chocolate heart, included on every one of the 150 orders Motto ships a week.
“It's probably costing at least a couple of dollars a parcel not including the time to do it which we don't mind because the rent obviously is different to a bricks and mortar store,” Browne says.
Another believer in the complimentary note is Sarah Pettitt of high-end suiting and shirt specialist, Farage. As creative co-ordinator of the men's and women's brand Pettitt not only includes cards in dispatched e-store orders but will personally ring customers to confirm the receipt of their online order. It's the way she can conjure up Farage's in store service.
“Keep it as close to the experience as the customer receives in store because that's really the point of the online store,” Pettitt advises. “It's for someone who can't get into store to get that same treatment.”
One longstanding bricks-and-mortar retailer that made the move to e-tailing in 2009 is Brown Sugar. Established in 1975, the womenswear label is more than familiar with packaging options for its network of 40 retail stores. Marketing co-ordinator Ashley Rogers says Brown Sugar uses satin drawstring bags, tissue paper and cards to recreate their in-store feel, but she would still like to see other packaging options.
“Carry bags of all shapes, sizes and materials still seem to be the top priority for packaging suppliers, however they are irrelevant to the online world. Boxes are commonly available although they are too bulky for garments and can also look a little worse for wear once they arrive at their destination. I would love to see more soft packaging options such as fabric drawstring bags and pouches in different colours and prints as well as eco-friendly options,” Rogers says.
The good news for Rogers – and all other e-tailers – is packaging suppliers are slowing changing their product mix to suit online retailers' needs. Business development manager at New Directions, Adam Beydoun, says e-tailers now represent 25 to 30 per cent of the packaging company's clients. Two years ago they made just up five per cent.
“Due to the increase we are working on developing a new product range specifically tailored to suit the online retail market,” Beydoun says. “The introduction of new foldable boxes as well custom printed ribbon are just a couple, the rest still remain a secret due to launch later this year in time for the Christmas season. We have also had to increase our stock holdings of gift boxes and tissue paper to keep up with demand in recent times.”