Think about this: You order food online and after 30 minutes your hot soup arrives cold, cold sushi arrives warm and your crusty pizza arrives soggy. How would you feel? Disappointed? You might even decide to ditch the restaurant in the future.

As a restauranteur, it is very important to make sure that you provide the right packaging for different food categories. This not only ensures that your food is delivered in good condition but also protect the contents from outside contamination while maintaining the same quality and freshness that one would receive at a restaurant.

In a recent study, 60% of respondents claimed that food packaging is the most “critical factor in ordering delivery.” Food and drink containers can do more than just transport food from one place to another. For starters, it can help your brand to attract customers as well as retain the existing ones.

After all, we all enjoy our sushis delivered at the doorstep in an eco-friendly, air-tight, and aesthetically pleasing containers, right?

A little creativity can go a long way toward making each order an experience worth cherishing with your family and friends. Let’s take a few considerations that you must keep in mind when designing your restaurant’s packaging boxes.

5 Tips to Make Food Delivery Packaging Attactive

Offer sustainable practices

Whatever you do, always remember, that this is the era of millennials and generations z and both generations are influenced by the concept of sustainability. Customers these days are more than willing to pay more for brands that operate with little waste. Sustainable packaging is one of the most impactful ways brands can demonstrate a deeper level of commitment to safeguarding the environment. Using eco-friendly, FDA compliant packaging made from post-consumer material is one-way restaurants can concretize the circular economy.

Choose packing material that can be reused, recycled, composted or turned into energy. For example, Plastic containers can be made from recycled plastic, such as PET that allows easy recycling after use.

Reinforce your brand

The packaging is one of the most important brand touchpoints when it comes to marketing. Your packaging will interact with hundreds of people.  If this experience is positive, there's a much higher probability for repeat purchases. But most of all, it has to evoke the ethos of the restaurant as well as entice new customers. People like keepsakes and ease-of-use. Food delivery packaging should provide both.

Think recyclable glass bottles with quirky messages and reusable bento boxes with your brand’s tagline. Seeing branded food and drink containers in their kitchen can elicit a hunger response.

Attractive packaging with the right message acts as a catalyst to connect with customers and retain their loyalty. All this can be done through smart use of fonts, colors,  illustrations and smart choice of packaging material.

👉Also Read: 3 Family Meal Kits Ideas To Increase Online Food Orders

Go Minimal

One thing that turns off the new, fast-paced digital generation is the clutter. They want to keep their lives as minimalistic and they expect the same from the service providers they choose to interact with for their lifestyle needs.

That being said, no one likes to be distracted with a lot of messages, especially when "food" is what they have on their minds at the moment. Stick to no-nonsense approach. Sometimes, simple works best.

See what goes best with your branding. Even if you want to raise awareness about concepts like farm to table, source of ingredients or sustainable packaging, try to keep the messages short and impactful.  Sending our recyclable glass bottles with your delivery? How about hanging a small “Throw me Not” tag to the bottle? Your customers would appreciate the effort without feeling overwhelmed.

Personalization is a Norm

How would you feel if you received a personal note every time you ordered food from your favorite restaurant? It feels nice, isn't it? Especially when you haven't had the time to visit the restaurant for a sit-down meal.

Humans like to feel special and most of all remembered. Consumer expectations are evolving rapidly and the massive growth in personalized marketing has compelled brands to think about how they can add a personal touch to their print and packaging.

Well, it doesn't always have to eccentric, per se. Sending out small Thankyou notes with their names printed on them would give a “nice touch”, and keep your business on top of their mind every time they opt for online delivery.

Make it Convenient

On-to-go is the way to go for today's “no-time for cooking” generation. They want to do everything on the go, even ordering and consuming food. Consumers enjoy the flexibility of online delivery and with that they expect restaurants to deliver their food in containers that are lightweight and require the least effort and time to open, store, and carry around. For restauranteurs that means investing in materials that embody innovative packaging designs and formats.

Driven by the desire for more flexibility and variety, paperboard packaging, ovenable lidding films, stand-up pouches, directional-tear sealant films, and flip-top fitments are suitable for on-the-go lifestyles are also making an impact on the industry.

It’s time to make smart decisions

Restaurant delivery packaging offers numerous benefits to your business – from ensuring food safety to maintain the right temperature and establishing brand image. Embracing the latest flexible packaging trends and selecting the right materials you can grow your online delivery business and boost profitability for your restaurant.

So, what are your restaurant’s food delivery needs? Think about the type of food you will need to transport, distance your food needs to travel, and what are the temperature requirements. All these should help you make a smart decision.