Unboxing videos have changed the way customers experience product packaging. A shipment is no longer seen by just the person who ordered it. With a smartphone and a social media account, one customer can turn that package into content seen by hundreds or thousands of potential buyers.
That gives businesses another reason to think carefully about how products arrive. Custom packaging fo shipping still has to protect what is inside, fit into a practical fulfillment process, and control shipping costs. It can also, however, reinforce your brand and create an opening experience worth capturing on video.
The strongest unboxing experiences do not happen by accident. They begin with packaging designed for the customer opening the shipment and the camera recording it.
Make Custom Shipping Packaging an Extension of Your Brand
For many e-commerce businesses, the shipping package is one of the few physical interactions a customer has with the brand. The website may make the sale, but the package is what arrives at the customer’s door.
Generic packaging can do its job perfectly well from a shipping standpoint. Custom shipping packaging can do more by carrying recognizable elements of your brand into the customer’s home.
That can include a custom printed box or bag featuring your logo, brand colors, typography, or messaging. Branded tissue paper, tape, stickers, labels, and inserts can continue the same visual identity inside the package.
The goal is not to cover every available surface with a logo. In fact, simple, deliberate branding often works better, especially on video. A well-positioned logo, recognizable color combination, or short brand message may be much easier for viewers to recognize than a package crowded with competing graphics.
The packaging should feel connected to the experience customers already have with your website, products, and other marketing. When those elements are consistent, even a short unboxing clip can reinforce who the product came from.
Design the Package With Unboxing Videos in Mind
Packaging that looks attractive sitting on a table does not necessarily look the same through a phone camera.
Most customer-generated unboxing videos are not filmed in professional studios. They are recorded with smartphones in kitchens, bedrooms, offices, and living rooms. Lighting may be uneven. The camera may be positioned overhead. The video may be vertical rather than horizontal.
Those realities are worth considering when designing custom shipping packaging.
Make important brand elements large enough to remain recognizable on a small screen. Use enough contrast between logos, text, packaging materials, and the product itself so details do not disappear on camera. Highly reflective finishes may look impressive in person but sometimes they create glare under household lighting.
Orientation is also a consideration. Think about how the customer is likely to place and open the package. If interior messaging or logos naturally appear upside down from that position, they may also appear upside down in the video.
It is also useful to consider viewers who watch social media content with little or no sound. The packaging should communicate the brand visually without depending on the person filming to explain everything.
This is where designing for unboxing videos really differs from simply designing attractive packaging. You must consider what the customer sees and what everyone watching through the customer’s camera will see as well.
Create a Strong First Reveal and Opening Sequence
One of the most important moments in an unboxing happens as soon as the package opens.
Before choosing every insert, sticker, or piece of tissue, consider one simple question: What should the customer see first?
A product that has shifted to one corner of an oversized box creates a very different impression from a product that appears intentionally positioned. Properly sized packaging, inserts, dividers, protective materials, or other internal packaging can help maintain the presentation during shipment.
From there, an opening unfolds in stages.
A customer might first see the branded interior of a box. Beneath that could be custom printed tissue paper. Removing the tissue might reveal a thank-you card or product information, followed by the product itself.
Each step gives an unboxing video another visual moment without requiring an elaborate package.
The key is to make those layers useful. Tissue can contribute brand color while also protecting the product. An insert can thank the customer, provide instructions, encourage a review, or share additional information. A sample or small extra can create an unexpected moment when it makes sense for the business.
Even sound can become part of the experience. Peeling a seal, opening tissue, or lifting a well-designed closure can add movement and sound to a video.
The result should feel intentional rather than busy.
Make the Unboxing Easy, Accessible, and Worth Sharing
A word about form and function: a package can look beautiful and still produce a poor unboxing experience if the customer struggles to open it.
Excess tape, difficult closures, unnecessary layers, or packaging that requires several tools can quickly turn anticipation into frustration. That frustration becomes even more noticeable when someone is trying to open the package with one hand while filming with the other.
Packaging should balance security with ease of use.
Opening instructions or visual cues can help customers understand where to begin. Straightforward closures can make the experience smoother. Keeping unnecessary packaging to a minimum can also reduce the number of awkward steps between opening the shipment and reaching the product.
Accessibility warrants some attention in this conversation as well. Customers may have limited dexterity, reduced vision, or other needs that make complicated packaging particularly difficult to use.
Making packaging easier to understand and open can improve the experience for a wider range of customers while also helping unboxing videos feel more natural.
The goal isn’t simply to just create packaging that looks impressive before anyone touches it. The packaging should continue working well once someone begins opening it.
Protect the Presentation Through Shipping and Fulfillment
Designing an impressive sample package is only part of the process. Customers need to receive that same experience consistently.
Products move during shipping. Tissue shifts. Inserts slide underneath merchandise. A package that looked carefully arranged at the fulfillment table may look very different after traveling through a carrier network.
Choosing the right package size and appropriate internal protection can help maintain the intended presentation. Products should have enough protection to reach the customer safely without so much empty space that they move freely inside the container.
Fulfillment procedures matter too.
If your brand has established a particular way products should be positioned, tissue should be folded, or inserts should be placed, document that process for employees or fulfillment partners. A simple, repeatable packing procedure makes it more likely that the hundredth customer receives an experience similar to the first.
Businesses also need to account for different order combinations. Packaging designed beautifully around one product may not work when a customer buys two or three items.
Strong unboxing videos begin with what the customer actually receives, not the idealized package shown in a design mockup.
Test the Packaging by Filming It
One of the simplest ways to evaluate a package intended for unboxing content is to actually film someone opening it.
Before committing to a larger custom packaging order, assemble a realistic prototype. Pack the product the way a normal order would be packed. When practical, send it through the normal shipping process before evaluating it.
Then record an unboxing with an ordinary smartphone.
Watch the recording closely.
- Can you read the logo?
- Does the product face the camera when the package opens?
- Did anything shift during shipping?
- Does a glossy surface create distracting reflections?
- Is the opening process smooth, or does the person spend too much time cutting tape and removing unnecessary materials?
Also pay attention to pacing. If nothing visually interesting happens for a long period, the packaging may contain too many steps. If everything is revealed at once, there may be an opportunity to create a more intentional sequence.
Testing this way helps move packaging decisions beyond assumptions and into real world-testing. You can see what an actual customer or creator is likely to capture before producing the design at scale.
Turn Unboxing Into Ongoing Brand Engagement
A good unboxing experience can continue working after the package has been opened.
Packaging can gently encourage customers to interact with the brand through a social handle, QR code, hashtag, review request, loyalty offer, or other next step. These elements should support the experience rather than overwhelm it with promotional messages.
Businesses working with influencers or content creators can also provide simple guidance about what they would like captured. That might include the exterior package, branded tissue, product reveal, or another important packaging detail. The objective is to make sure important brand elements appear while still allowing the creator’s reaction to feel authentic.
With permission, strong unboxing content can also have uses beyond the original social post. Clips may support product pages, email marketing, advertising, social media, or other campaigns.
Businesses can then begin measuring whether the packaging is generating meaningful engagement. Glean clues from:
- QR scans
- creator codes
- tagged posts
- Mentions
- user-generated content submissions
- review activity
- post-purchase surveys
That turns unboxing videos for branding from a vague awareness tactic into something that can actually be evaluated alongside other marketing efforts.
Make Shipping Part of the Brand Story
By now, you know the takeaway: strong unboxing videos begin before anyone presses Record. They start with packaging that protects the shipment, represents the brand, presents the product thoughtfully, and creates an opening experience that translates naturally to video.
That doesn’t mean every business needs elaborate luxury packaging. A carefully designed custom printed box or bag, branded tissue paper, thoughtful product placement, and a clear opening sequence can make an ordinary shipment particularly memorable.
Brown & Pratt has been helping businesses solve packaging challenges since 1954. We offer custom printed boxes, custom printed bags, custom tissue paper, and a wide range of packaging and shipping supplies to help businesses build solutions around their products, shipping requirements, and brand. Contact Brown & Pratt today to explore custom packaging for shipping that can protect your products while creating an unboxing experience customers will want to remember and share.
