Custom branded packaging design enhances a consumer's experience by making unboxing the product that much more memorable. While this is important any time of year, it can be especially valuable during the holiday season.

The holidays are the perfect time to increase business. In fact, as Fulfillrite reports, 75% of consumers are open to trying new brands during the holidays.

Christmas may have come and gone, but there’s no time like the present to get a head start on next year’s holiday CPG packaging. Here are five tips to ensure your future packaging design is the best it can be.

_{Create a Holiday Packaging Plan}

Create a plan for how you will create your holiday packaging design. This enables you to start early and come up with ideas for how you will package your products next year.

Decide what CPG packaging elements you will use. These can include bows, festive tissue paper inside the box, special gift bags, or personalized holiday tags. If dimensional elements are not practical, you can use graphics to convey the some of these, such as bows, holiday patterns and gift tags. Also, special reflective inks, foil stamping and embossed paperboard can be used to grab attention.

Base your choices on your target audience. Think about your demographic and the types of elements they will expect to see in a holiday packaging design. Planning these details early will give you plenty of time to play with different options.

_{Locate a Supplier}

Planning early allows you plenty of time to find a supplier. You can begin stocking up on materials early if they're hard to come by.

Custom designed CPG packaging also takes time to put together. You’ll need to work with one or more suppliers to make sure all materials are available, minimum order quantities are met, and complex packaging designs can be fulfilled.

_{Establish Turnaround Times}

When planning your holiday packaging designs, find out how much time your suppliers need to fulfill orders. This is especially important for custom packaging designs where larger windows may be necessary.

Break everything down into steps. This will help you create a timeline so you can carefully manage your holiday packaging design.

_{Set Your Budget}

Designing CPG packaging can get expensive, especially when you look at all the options you have to get excited about for your consumers. A vital part of creating the perfect holiday packaging design is a budget.

Before you begin looking at materials, packaging types, or specialized containers, figure out how much you can spend. Integrate your holiday packaging design budget into your annual budget every year so the money will be accounted for ahead of time. This makes planning easier.

_{Plan with Sustainability in Mind}

The holiday season produces a large amount of waste through all the paper, ribbons, boxes, and bags used for gift-giving. Taking steps toward sustainability will make your holiday packaging design more eco-friendly. This makes a huge difference to the environment.

Use as much recyclable material as possible. Examples are paper and cardboard.

Provide reusable CPG packaging for gifts such as decorated boxes or cloth gift bags. Eliminate plastics where possible as materials like soft plastics aren’t recyclable.

_Conclusion

Using a custom branded holiday packaging design will appeal to consumers. It’s festive and makes it easy to give your products as gifts.

Consider using sustainable materials in your CPG packaging. This is important to many consumers and helps you remain in compliance with government regulations. Per Efficio Consulting, California passed legislation in 2022 mandating a 25% reduction in plastics used in single use products by 2032.

Plan early and add creating holiday packaging design to your annual budget each year. This will help you keep up with consumer demands and ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

PKG Brand Design is always at the forefront of new CPG branding and packaging initiatives. Subscribe to our blog for the latest package design industry news!