Nearly half of consumers say that they've stopped buying a product altogether specifically because of difficult-to-open packaging.

According to a survey of 1,000 American consumers and business professionals from printing service Uprinting, nearly 79% of consumers say that they've needed a tool to open packaging at least a few times a month, while more than 40% need a tool almost every week. Another 70% say that frustrating packaging makes them think less of a brand, while 35% say that fixing bad packaging would make them buy from a brand more often.

"There’s a widespread assumption in product development that consumers will forgive packaging if the product itself is good enough," Uprinting said. "The survey data says that’s no longer a safe bet."

The issue extends across product types and generations too. When asked to identify the most annoying packaging they encounter in their day-to-day, 19.6% of Gen Z respondents pointed to snack bags, and 22.8% of Millennials flagged condiments and sauces, while 28% of Gen X'ers and 36% of Baby Boomers pointed to medications and supplements. Millennials are also the most likely to respond to a bad packaging experience by switching brands (31.3%), while Gen Z leads all generations in leaving bad reviews (17.4%), Gen X is the most likely to vent on social media (10.8%), and Boomers are most likely to return the product (10.3%). 

The survey identified a troubling trend among procurement and purchasing professionals as well, who appeared most likely out of all business categories to quit on brands for poorly-packaged products, but least likely to leave a review or complain on social media.

"They just leave. No complaint, no review, no chance for the brand to course-correct. The packaging failure never gets registered. The customer is simply gone," Uprinting noted.

On the flip side, 72% of consumers said that they would be loyal to a brand offering simpler packaging, while 22.3% said that they would recommend the brand to others, and 14.7% said that they would switch over from their usual brand.