Every electronic product basically consists of three parts: the electronics, the enclosure, and the package. In my experience most entrepreneurs focus on the development of the electronics, and to a lesser extent on the development of the enclosure.
But, very few entrepreneurs give the proper attention to the retail package until the last minute. That is a big mistake.
Packaging serves two primary purposes: sell the product and protect the product. If your product will be sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores then both purposes are equally critical.
In the beginning, when no one recognizes your brand or product, the package will have to essentially do all of the selling.
Because of this fact, some may even argue that in a retail store the packaging is just as important as the product itself!
On the other hand, when you sell your product online you don’t need the package to sell the product for you. The website will instead do that. So in this case the primary function of the package is to protect the product during shipment.
A hardware clamshell is a single piece container that consists of two halves joined by a hinge. The hinge allows the two halves of the package to close together around the product just like the shell of a clam.
Products that are small, that don’t consist of numerous parts, and are lower in cost will typically use a hardware clamshell.
In basic terms a hardware clamshell consists of three sections: the blister that is custom shaped to perfectly fit your product, the flat backside, and the graphic insert card.
This article comes from predictable-designs edit released