Consumers prefer clamshells to cardboard

The old saying of “don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t seem to apply when it comes to food packaging. Recent research has shown that consumers have a strong preference for clear plastic clamshell packaging over printed cardboard boxes, with 402% more purchases recorded for clamshells.

Klöckner Pentaplast recently conducted eye-tracking research through Clemson University’s CUShop to evaluate how different packaging styles influence consumers’ point-of-sale behaviour.

Eye-movement metrics results revealed that consumers looked at clamshells faster, more often and for longer periods of time.

The research made several interesting findings:

• Research participants fixated on clear plastic clamshell packages for 343% longer than paperboard packages
• Clear plastic clamshell packages received 675% more fixations that paperboard packages
• Clear plastic clamshell packages were found 40% faster than paperboard packages
• Clamshell packages were purchased 402% more than paperboard packages, with some products seeing as much as 500% more sales in the clamshell package over the paperboard package

Conducted in a re-creation of a shopping environment, the study examined differences in how consumers shop for products when they have the option of a clear plastic clamshell package or a printed paperboard box. Sixty-eight consumers participated in the research, aged from 18 to 65, with diverse income distribution. Of these 68 participants, 76.5% claimed to be the primary shopper for their household.

The participants were given one of five random shopping lists and instructed to find a men’s razor, an electric toothbrush and an air freshener. There was only one type of each of these products available, but it was available in both a clear plastic clamshell and a paperboard box form. These were positioned side by side.

The experiment was carried out over two days, with the order of the packages reversed on the second day to eliminate any bias based on positioning.

All participants wore Tobii mobile eye-tracking glasses which recorded their eye movements of 30 times per second. The eye movements were recorded onto an SD card and used to corroborate the results and provide insights into why participants purchased particular items.