As I came up as a designer and I started to present to footlocker, Dicks Sporting Goods, Target and then later The Apple Store and Best Buy I was amazed at how much input the retailers had on everything from color (ever wonder why all the electronics in Best Buy are black?) to overall product concept. Retailers have always had a lot of opinions based on what they see happening in their doors. With the consolidation from mom and pops, to regionals, to big boxes those opinions have got more influential… those opinions while well intentioned, are always based on data of past performance, not marketplace trends and not based on what is best for the brand. In other words, they are a good input when balanced out with other inputs.
Now we have another consolidation going on with Amazon. The interesting thing is Amazon will sell anything. They have publicly said if there is one person in the world who wants one of something they want to be able to sell it. However that doesn’t mean it will come up high in their algorithms. That is a combination of reviews, clicks, and pay to play on the back end.
This particular influence on packaging I find positive though. I had to go through several packaging redesigns specifically for the Apple Store. They just wanted us to make really expensive packaging with magnetic flaps, UV inks, and over done OoBEs. All that stuff takes away from the percentage of the BOM devoted to the product (or raises the retail price, or kills margin) and it just gets thrown away. Amazon is influencing brands to do the opposite. They have an “Easy Packaging” standard which is basically the simplest craft box with one color printing, 100% designed to be shipped and recycled. That is a good thing in my opinion.