Today’s consumers expect personalized unboxing experiences that are tailored to their preferences and interests. Huda Beauty is a brand that fails to deliver in that regard, but it can certainly turn things around to provide a solid unboxing experience with just a few strategic improvements.
With that said, the brand certainly did a few things really well, but it ultimately fell short in terms of personalization, earning it a measly 3 out of 10 under UnDigital’s Unboxing Guidelines.
UnDigital scored Huda using the Unboxing Experience Guidelines for Brands, a ten-point, unweighted system designed around research conducted across millions of direct-to-consumer (DTC) packages. The scoring rubric consists of two major categories, Personalization and Presentation, which themselves are made up of five subcategories a piece.
The Personalization category’s five subcategories can earn a brand either 0 or 1 point, while those under the Presentation category can earn a brand either 0, 0.5, or 1 point.
Huda could have earned up to ten points, but earned just 3, signifying some major holes in its unboxing marketing strategy. Here’s what went wrong:
Huda failed to include my name in or on any part of the packaging other than the receipt or shipping label. Brands need to feature the customer’s first name somewhere inside the packaging, preferably on a branded asset or a handwritten thank you card, to ensure that their customers feel special and not like just another online order. We recommend featuring their name somewhere inside the box to maximize engagement, but Huda did neither.
Unlike its outcome regarding customer names, Huda provided product information directly on the packaging of our two products. Including clear use instructions helps customers start using their product right away, thereby removing friction from the unboxing and first-use experience.
While that is the most common approach, many brands are starting to include supplemental product information in the package, such as on colorized postcards or via QR codes that link customers directly to how-to videos. If you stick with the traditional approach, ensure your product instructions are easy to read. When sending small products with fine print, consider including supplemental instructions in larger fonts.
Earning a point in the relevance category requires that brands do something inside the box to make the experience relevant and personalized to the recipient. Huda failed to include anything but the ordered products inside a sterile brown package, making the entire experience feel generic and run-of-the-mill.
You don’t have to go crazy here; just throwing in a free sample or a piece of branded content goes a long way. Make some obvious effort to make the experience more relevant to your customer.
Every unboxing experience needs a clear call to action (CTA), if not several, but Huda failed to deliver a single one, leaving us wondering what to do next with regard to interacting with the brand.
During unboxing, customer engagement and intrigue are at their highest, making for a prime opportunity for a brand like Huda to ask us to follow them on social media or browse their newest products.
Don’t be pushy, of course, but be clear about what you want your customers to do once all is said and done. Encourage them (explicitly) to sign up for your email list, provide a 5% discount code for their next order, or simply ask them to follow your social media pages.
As an example, you're learning about Unboxing Marketing on our site. Here is our CTA explicitly recommending that you get a copy of our free eguide to continue your learning.
Huda didn’t share any details pertaining to their brand story or values, which is why they lost a point here as well. They should have provided a few snippets of text about their brand values, mission, products, or origins. Even one or two lines of copy would have boosted engagement and made us feel like we knew the brand a bit better.
Apply these points to your own unboxing experience by sharing what makes your brand unique. Perhaps your products are vegan; maybe you use a special ingredient that improves product effectiveness; whatever it is that makes your brand worth buying from, make sure to tell your customers.
Huda’s packaging was bland, generic, and simply uninspired. The inside and outside of the box were indistinguishable from any other brown cardboard box, and the filler material wasn’t branded, either.
Whether you go for a completely branded box or a discretely branded interior, your box should be distinctly your own if you want to stand out in this crowded touchpoint.
The products were blemish-free and in good condition, and the interior of the box appeared to be in good condition, as well, but the outside of the box had some blemishes and small moldy spots, indicating that it had probably been sitting on a warehouse shelf for quite some time.
Invest in quality packaging. Your customers expect it and will certainly be off-put by moldy, dingy packaging. We get that a box can get banged up during shipping, but do your best to provide a clean, frictionless unboxing.
Huda’s only real bright spot was in its space utilization. The box was a good size for the products we received, and they filled the remaining dead space with paper-based packaging materials. Just enough filler was used, avoiding excess waste, and we appreciated that they didn’t use any wasteful plastics.
Huda provided some basic return information on the order receipt, including the URL for their returns page, which helps make filing a return easier on the customer, but Huda could have made the returns process even easier by including a QR code link to their return page or a pre-printed shipping label.
The Huda unboxing experience wasn’t a complete disaster, but it was far from delightful. Huda needs to deliver a personalized experience, clean packaging, and some strategically branded content to get closer to that descriptor, and a CTA would help, too.
Customers expect DTC brands to get better at their craft as time goes on. They want personalized experiences, seamless return processes, and sleek, on-brand packaging. If you want to improve your unboxing marketing strategy, explore UnDigital’s guidelines and learn what customers are looking for. Be memorable, stand out, and drive repeat business with a curated unboxing experience.
