Why online grocery stores make your packaging design look sh*t

And here’s how to stop that from happening

AUTHOR:
Finlay Brazier

The thing I miss most about doing the weekly grocery shop, now that I do it online, is perusing the packaging design. Well, that and pushing the trolley like a race car around the supermarket. Each week my wife and I plan our meals, order groceries online and they're delivered to our door. Since arriving in the UK, 90% of our shopping has been done this way, although we do have a great local veggie shop, fishmonger, Italian deli and butcher that we like to utilise when we have the time.

The supermarket customer journey is changing. People will inevitably seek out technology that makes their lives easier, allowing more time to eat with their families instead of shopping for them. We see this upward trend in Mintel's research, which revealed that in 2018 Brits spent £12.3 billion on online grocery shopping and sales are predicted to reach £19.8 billion in 2023. 

My weekly shop has highlighted the packaging design problems that brands face in the online grocery space. The sensory experience is reduced, we can no longer rely on touch, smell and sound. Honey, somebody shrunk the grocery store! Products are no longer viewed life-size – instead they're presented to shoppers as small digital images, often as unrecognisable blobs of colour, text and graphics. The problem with this is that it’s not always clear what the products are, and they aren’t nearly as appetising to the eye as a full sized tangible product. Yes, underneath each product is the brand name and description, but the human brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than text. Online grocery stores are designed to be browsed visually first and text is secondary, and many won’t make it this far, once again reinforcing the importance of packaging that can translate into this digital realm.

We have client briefs that ask for instagrammable packaging design or a design that has on-shelf impact and differentiation from competitors, but requests for packaging that performs well in online retail is not the norm or not nearly as mainstream. This article will hopefully empower food and beverage businesses to evaluate how their packaging design will look, or currently looks, in a 150px x 150px square image. If your core strategy is focused on this click-to-cupboard model then I believe considering how your packaging design works in this digital realm is vital to becoming an online grocery powerhouse. 

So, let's get into the meat and potatoes: what are some practical steps you can take to create a great buying experience and succeed on screen?

Scalable & Versatile

The principles of logo design have strong application in the online supermarket space. As a designer, we're taught to consider how a logo will work in colour, in black and white, larger on a billboard and small as an avatar online. A logo needs to be scalable and versatile because it lives in so many different places, and now so does packaging. 

Whether in your hand or viewed at 150px wide your packaging design needs to look great, grab customers’ attention and sell-through.

Content

For packaging to succeed in the online space it needs to be refined down to its simplest form. As Hans Hofmann said "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak". With products being presented in such a small space, clutter needs to be removed so the necessary can speak. It's a simple formula: simplicity = impact and clarity. Knowing what to remove and what's necessary relies on a clear understanding of your ideal customer, what is important to them and what makes you different from competitors. Once a clear simplified hierarchy is determined then the visuals can be developed from there, but you should always keep your ideal customer's needs in mind.  

Visual

I believe scroll-stopping packaging relies on the design principle of contrast. Contrast creates a focal point, an area to which your eye is naturally drawn, as it gives an element greater visual weight or impact. Contrast can be created by using shape, colour, size or position. Brands also need to contrast competitors; it's about not following industry leaders but standing out from the crowd. A book that has influenced my practice is Marty Neumeier's Zag. Neumeier argues that these days brands need to "radically differentiate" to stand out in a cluttered market. It goes without saying how important this is when lined up next to competitors on an online grocery store. 

I believe that big text, large colour blocks and bold graphics will succeed, and intricate details that are harder to see will ultimately suffer, in this online context. However, details and textures do have their place in the post-purchase experience, which I will discuss later in this article. Camden Town Brewery is a great example of bold colours, large text and clear hierarchy with only a few visual elements to process. If you compare this to Fourpure brewing company, it's still a brilliant design but the intricacies of the design make it harder to visually digest at the smaller scale leaving less of an immediate impact on the consumer. 

Benefits and Back Label

Digital platforms allow for additional information and benefits to be lifted off the packaging and presented to the consumer in a consistent way across the online grocery store. Ingredient lists and nutritional and allergy information are easily viewable in a table format. Product descriptions are presented in a neutral typeface, with no additional design elements. Let's not forget the difference good copywriting can make to this section.  

A couple of the main online grocery stores offer the ability to upload numerous pictures and even video content about a product. At the moment this is an underutilised section, with numerous brands only uploading different views of their packaging. This could be a game-changing section for creative lead brands; it's the perfect place to talk visually about product benefits or portray taste. Why not show customers how your product tastes before they even put it in their virtual basket?

Photography

Great product photography and retouching is an art-form in itself, taking ordinary products and showing them off in their best light. When your main selling tool is a small digital image, making it the best it can be is essential. A great product photographer will spritz beverages with water so they look refreshing, they'll straighten labels, make sure packaging has shape and volume, create natural shadows, adjust colours, remove blemishes – the list goes on. It takes time and money to get this right, but quality photography says a lot about the quality of the product and consumers will pick this up immediately.

Image Composition

Box, can, bottle, tube or jar? The packaging format you select has some effect on how your product is presented in the online grocery store environment. Obviously, price, availability, production restrictions and product freshness affect what packaging format makes sense for a particular product. Online grocery store product images are scaled to fit the space available, so products that have square proportions fit remarkable better than tall skinny products such as wine bottles. Yes, images can be enlarged but depending on the platform it can take up to three clicks to get a full-sized image. This is not a friendly customer experience and is not time efficient. We need to remember that online grocery shoppers are time-poor and will not always take the time to thoroughly view your product. First impressions are everything.

Post Purchase

So the customer has been through the online grocery shopping journey, and the products arrive on their doorstep. This is where the tactile experience begins and the brand comes to life. The post-purchase experience is a key factor in driving repurchase and becoming memorable in the customer's mind. Packaging with functional features such as being easy to open or resealable, or stacking nicely in the cupboard, or being environmentally friendly are all factors that drive repurchase. Along with taste, packaging designers can make the product look amazing but it's on the company to create a product that tastes great. Innovative textures and intricate details, especially on premium products, help differentiate them from their competitors and become memorable. Packaging “easter eggs” or creative copywriting put through the brand filter build lovable packaging brands. For example, on the tear tab of the Coffee Supreme pouches, you find the words "Open Sesame". It's fun, playful and a brand interaction that's only possible offline.

The UK online grocery store still has a long way to come. China and South Korea are leading players in the auto-replenished market, for example – via the click of a button, or by simply asking Alexa or Echo, products are ordered and shipped directly to your door. The UK’s grocery market is not at this level of automation yet but brands with a positive post-purchase experience in the future could become part of customers’ recurring replenishment shopping list, which guarantees regular sales. Yet another angle for businesses to consider.

Summary Checklist

So, here’s the shortcut – 10 ways to win visually in the online supermarket environment:

1. Does your product format best utilise the square image e.g. would cans look better than bottles?

2.  Are you including additional images or video content?

3. Is your messaging simplified and is it targeted to your audience?

4. Are you utilising contrast, for example big text, large colour blocks and bold graphics?

5. Are you using any intricate details that are harder to visually digest at the smaller scale

6. Does your product still look impactful when scaled down to a smaller size? 

7. Does your product stand out compared to competitors on the online grocery store?

8. Is your product photography clear and high resolution, or is it time to invest in new product photography?

9. Will your packaging wow when it arrives at the customer's doorstep, does it tick the functional boxes and have features that will drive repurchase?

10. Does your packaging have “easter eggs” or enjoyable copywriting cultivating the brand voice?

The online grocery store is an interesting developing sector and without doubt one to watch. Hopefully, you have discovered ways to improve your online grocery store presence. If you have any questions, or would like some help developing your online grocery presence, feel free to email me at Look At That. We create brands and packaging with personality. Simple and engaging solutions for the food and beverage industry.