Walk down the beauty aisles in your local Target or drug store, and you’ll find a plethora of glass bottles, vials, plastic tubes, bottles, and jars. For years, these package formats have been home to beauty products of all kinds — everything from makeup to soaps to lotions to specialty oils and powders.
As more beauty products are added to the shelves and even more find their way to consumers via e-commerce sites and online subscription programs, brands are faced with the age-old question: how do we differentiate ourselves from our competitors and attract new customers?
Not only that but, how do we attract new customers and make them loyal fans?
Aside from producing a great product, you must first attract your customer with great packaging. In fact, your package is often times the very first thing a customer sees. Regardless of what size business you run, you know how valuable the right package is for your brand.
While bottles and jars are the go-to for beauty products, flexible packaging in the shape of stand up pouches and pillow pouches are gaining popularity. They are lightweight and durable, offering a multitude of shapes and sizes, and can be filled with hard to hold product such as liquids, powders, and gels—all of which are perfect for the beauty industry. Not to mention the added benefit of being more environmentally friendly than the glass jar and plastic bottle counterparts.
Adding flexible packaging into your product line-up can get your goods into more hands, and satisfy some big consumer trends emerging in the beauty industry today, all to boost sales.
Flexible Packaging Gets Your Beauty Products in More Hands
Flexible packaging is the ideal package format for single-serving and samples in flex sticks, small pouches, and sachets. Sample-sized packages enable consumers to test out the product before they buy, introduces them to your brand, and when distributed correctly, simply gets your brand and product in front of more eyes. Shoppers of all ages love the ‘try before you buy’ approach to higher-end products. The single-serve format is also easy to open, apply, and toss, making them easy to use.
Flexible packaging also delivers convenience to the travel-sized product market, making them easy to pack, be it on an airplane or out on the town. These airplane-friendly, lightweight packages are ideal for packing in a suitcase, or purse, or even gym bag, briefcase or locker. They’re easy to open, use, reseal when applicable, and take up less space than rigid containers. Pouches also allow for more product removal than rigid containers and allow for a high filling volume to get more product into a smaller space.
Single-serving and small-sized packaging is a growing industry trend. Many health and beauty brands are recognizing the benefits of the stand-up pouch for items like collagen supplements and liquid hand soap refills because they’re lightweight, unbreakable, and resealable to prevent leaks or spills.
Flexible Packaging Ensures Product Integrity
Because efficacy is so important to many skincare products, an airtight seal is critical to ensure product integrity and prevent contamination. Pouches are formed with an airtight seal to do just that and can be equipped with tear notches, spouts, or resealable zippers to preserve the active ingredients inside.
Of course, integrity is important, but so is convenience, and flexible packaging delivers this to beauty and health consumers by offering these products to consumers where they’re at, oftentimes on the go. Flexible packaging will help you reach a larger consumer base by allowing you to offer your product in multiple sizes and shapes for frequent travelers, curious shoppers, and those with a busy lifestyle.
Bottom line: Consumers want their products to be effective and be easy to handle, or use. The right packaging ensures that the product does both.
Flexible Packaging Gives You More Room for Design
Pouches definitely give consumers convenience, and they offer something small vials and bottles can’t: real estate. With a flat pouch, you have more space for branding, your logo, product description, usage, and graphics than with a small bottle.
From daily dose and single-use packets to stand-up pouches with press-to-close zippers and tear notches, the printable area is larger than many other packaging options.
Digital pouch printing offers high-definition graphics on packaging of all sizes. Different finishes can be combined onto the same printed area, enhancing the product’s appearance. As the printing is applied directly on the pouch, there are no additional labels or shrink sleeves needed.
Flexible isn’t going to replace glass and plastic in the beauty industry, but it does deserve space on the beauty shelf as it delivers more package sizes and style options to please more consumers. By adding flexible into your product line-up, you’ll be able to reach a larger audience by satisfying current lifestyle trends like increased travel and on-the-go activities.
When designing your health or beauty package, have you considered adding flexible packaging to your line-up? Contact us today to learn more about how digitally printed flexible packaging can boost your beauty project sales.
