Anastasia Beverly Hills is one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the nation. One would expect their unboxing experience to reflect the company’s meteoric momentum.
Sadly, the brand earned just 4 out of 10 on UnDigital’s Unboxing Guidelines in a yawn-inducing experience that was neither awful nor outstanding.
Here’s a breakdown of Anastasia Beverly Hills’s unboxing experience and why it left us feeling underwhelmed.
We reviewed Anastasia Beverly Hills’s package against UnDigital’s 10-point Unboxing Experience Guidelines for Brands. Our unweighted system was designed using insights from millions of DTC packages.
Our scoring system consists of two main categories: Personalization and Presentation. There are five subcategories in each category.
Personalization is the name of the game, especially in DTC sales.
When customers order online rather than purchasing in-store, they miss out on personalized interactions with a brand and its staff. By using the customer’s name on a handwritten thank-you note or other personalized package insert, brands can recapture some of that lost magic and make consumers feel valued.
Anastasia Beverly Hills only included a customer name on the packing slip, receipt, and return label. The company neglected to throw in any sort of personalized communication, which is why they lost a point here.
Ideally, we like to see brands include supplemental product information in engaging formats like a flyer or QR code that links to video content. Anastasia Beverly Hills didn’t do either, though they did provide product use instructions on the box.
In the future, we’d like to see some sort of extra product information, especially when products come in small packages like ours did. Still, they gave us enough information to start using the product right away, which earned them a point.
Relevance is something of a broad category, and there are several ways brands can earn a point here.
Essentially, Anastasia Beverly Hills needed to do something to make the experience relevant to the recipient. They could have achieved this by including a handwritten note, providing free samples related to the order, or delivering an order-specific insert outlining their brand story.
Unfortunately, the company didn’t do any of that. This is where the unboxing experience took a steep downhill slide for us.
Every unboxing experience needs to include a call-to-action (CTA). During unboxing, consumer engagement is at its highest. The customer is intrigued by your brand and excited to start using your product. Why not seize this opportunity by encouraging them to buy more or sign up for your mailing list?
Brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills are known for their timely, relevant CTAs. If you explore their website, it’s littered with great CTAs, which is why we were perplexed that the unboxing experience didn’t include any call-to-action whatsoever. Too bad.
Here's a (shameless) example of a CTA done right. We know you're learning about unboxing marketing, and we're giving you a clear next step to continue your journey.
When a company has a great story, it pays to share it. Anastasia Beverly Hills didn’t share so much as a snippet of its inspiring brand narrative. Consequently, the average consumer would have a tough time differentiating the respected provider from any of the thousands of run-of-the-mill budget brands on Amazon.
While you don’t need to provide a detailed company history during unboxing, you should at least provide a few lines of copy outlining your values, origin, or mission. Giving customers a glimpse into your brand can nurture feelings of loyalty and encourage future interactions. Another missed opportunity.
The product we ordered was delivered in a black bubble cushion wrap emblazoned with the company’s iconic capital “A” logo front and center, which was enough to earn half a point in the branding category.
That said, we would have liked to see some additional branding here.
Again, the key is to make the brand instantly recognizable to loyal buyers and new customers alike. To accomplish this, Anastasia Beverly Hills should have used other branded assets, like a package insert. They could have also placed the product in a small branded travel bag.
The package was clean and free from blemishes. However, bubble cushion wrap packages just aren’t as attractive, inviting, or protective as rigid cardboard boxes.
Despite that, the package and product didn’t display any visible damage or imperfections, which was enough to earn the brand a full point here.
Overall, the brand made good use of its packaging. The bubble cushion wrap package was an appropriate size for the product, although there was some wasted space.
The bigger issue is the company’s choice of material. It could easily reduce waste and decrease its environmental impact by switching to small cardboard boxes — with branded elements, of course.
Anastasia Beverly Hills makes the return process easy by including a pre-printed return shipping label inside each envelope. While we appreciate the effort, it’s merely a consolation prize that rounds out an otherwise ho-hum unboxing experience.
Still, there’s an important lesson here: companies must make returns as frictionless as possible for their customers. Providing a pre-printed return label is the best approach, but you can also include a QR code link to your returns page for good measure.
Was Anastasia Beverly Hills’s unboxing experience delightful? Not even close. Almost every small win was preceded by a huge missed opportunity. From the near-complete lack of personalization to the milquetoast packaging, the experience left much to be desired.
The unboxing experience is a chance to dazzle your customers and encourage them to continue their journey with your brand. While Anastasia Beverly Hills didn’t do anything particularly egregious or offensive, the overall experience was uninspired, impersonal, and forgettable.
