As consumers increasingly shop around, Hayley Simon, head of Staci Create, looks at how to unlock the power of packaging to build brand loyalty and encourage repeat spending.

Fragmented, frequent purchasing

Variety and value continue to be key motivators for online shoppers. Consumer card spending data (ONS, published 6 February 2026) shows notable shifts in spend across merchant categories, including ‘department stores’ and ‘discount stores’. The former accounted for a total of 8% of online spend in 2024, while online spending with discount stores rose from 2.3% in 2019 to 6.2% in 2024.

The data comes as little surprise. You only have to look at the popularity of marketplaces and the evolution of retailers, such as Next and M&S, which have added more third-party brands to their ranges, to know that proliferation of choice is a big draw for shoppers. John Lewis has become the latest department store to expand its portfolio. It added 100 new clothing brands late last year and has since launched Topshop and Topman. It’s clear that variety is vital for attracting shoppers.

Volatile consumer confidence, economic turbulence and soaring living costs are fuelling an even stronger push towards value. Shoppers want their money to go further and will invest time in hunting down the best deals.

The challenge for retailers is that variety and value are making shoppers more and more transient. Average spend per transaction, per cardholder is shrinking, while overall spend is increasing. The ONS data shows average spend per online shopper increased by 16.7% in September 2025 when compared with 2019, while their spend per transaction decreased by 13.8%.

Purchasing is becoming more fragmented and frequent, with the average cardholder now making 35% more transactions online. Retailers have to work harder than ever to win and keep customers. Personalised packaging offers a powerful way to standout and engage shoppers.

Data-driven personalisation

Personalised packaging can deepen emotional resonance with shoppers. It can create a connection with customers that delivers moments of delight, boosting levels of satisfaction and perceived brand value. When done well, it transforms a functional transaction into an engaging experience that drives repeat purchasing and advocacy. To achieve this, personalisation must be meaningful, useful, regularly refreshed and underpinned by strong data and insight.

Reliable data and analytics enable retailers and brands to shift from mass-market packaging to truly customised in-pack and on-pack content. Customers can be segmented by shopping habits, buying motivations, purchase history, seasonality, demographics, their engagement with promotions, and a wide range of other attributes. Messages, images and promotions can then be tailored, so that packaging continually appeals to customers.

Being meaningful and useful

When packaging is personalised according to shopper behaviour and motivations, it becomes meaningful. It becomes a point of interest that’s worth engaging with. Customised promotions and discounts can be included inside e-commerce orders, which customers will find useful. Bespoke on-pack messaging can deliver information that matters, making shoppers feel valued by a brand and more inclined to share their experiences.

Meaningfulness and usefulness can be enhanced through smart, connected packaging. Linking to digital experiences by including QR codes on pack, for example, can extend the brand relationship. Customers can be easily directed to content that helps them to make the most of their purchase or they can access exclusive online content tied to personal goals and values. This could be short videos about the sustainability impact of their purchase or practical lifestyle hacks.

Personalised loyalty rewards are another way of increasing meaningfulness and usefulness. Including rewards linked to a customer’s behaviours and preferences can turn packaging into an incentive system. Hidden codes, special offers, invites for early access and exclusive drops can create a strong sense of customer recognition and reward, which strengthens brand loyalty.

Keeping it fresh

Packaging personalisation is most effective when it’s regularly refreshed. Frequently updating messages, visuals and promotions prevents on-pack and in-pack content from becoming stagnant. It avoids the ‘same old’ thinking among customers, replacing this with anticipation and expectation. Shoppers actively start looking for what’s new and different when they receive an e-commerce order, boosting engagement levels and loyalty.

Seasonal themed designs, limited-edition promotions and tapping into cultural moments, such as major sporting events, as well as life milestones including birthdays and anniversaries, are powerful ways to keep packaging personalisation fresh and engaging. This all requires customer insight and sophisticated fulfilment processes, which enable variable data printing and customised inserts.

Brand storytelling and customer collaboration are also effective methods of keeping packaging personalisation fresh. Weaving narratives into pack designs and inviting customers to co-create artwork or share experiences can turn packaging into an interactive touchpoint. This gives customers more reason to connect and reconnect with the pack and the brand behind it. Again, customer data and insight are important. Shoppers have to be at the heart of storytelling, and they have to find collaborations meaningful and useful.

As online shopping habits become more fragmented and frequent, retailers and brands face even fewer touchpoints to build emotional connections. Personalised packaging can prove a powerful point of difference, which creates standout, strengthens brand loyalty and creates opportunity to bring back emotional richness during increasingly digital-only transactions.

Hayley Simon is Head of Staci Create, which is part of bnode – a global business with services in more than 200 countries. Staci Create operates within the group’s 3PL business unit, Paxon, and specialises in the design, sourcing and delivery of branded packaging and marketing materials.

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