Applegate’s packing process is atypical. Customers who order from her don’t purchase specific items, but instead buy a random “scoop” of beads—each bead corresponds to something in her shop, so if a customer gets three red butterfly-shaped beads, for example, they’ll be sent three squishy stress balls. Applegate films herself scooping and sorting the beads before bagging up the items. “I think people just love watching the scoops unfold and get excited as they watch all of the items that are on the way to them,” she says. 

Starting in April, Applegate will only sell 50 packing videos a month to be able to keep up with the demand. Candy store owner Jessica Stevenson says that if she filmed a video every time a customer asked her to, it would be another full-time job. Instead, the 35-year-old picks one order a day to pack on camera. 

“We try to pick them at random,” says Stevenson, who runs Hello Sweets in Western New York and online. “We basically just want to show off our products. It’s a really good way to show other people what real people are ordering and what we have available.” 

Packing videos are powerful marketing. Harrington says hers have “dramatically” boosted organic sales. “We haven’t done any paid advertising since 2020,” says the 35-year-old Indiana resident. “We’ve relied strictly on the traffic that we’ve received through posting our packaging videos. It’s been an amazing game-changer.”

Stevenson has seen similar success; her husband was able to quit his job and join her full-time in the store, thanks to its 530,000 TikTok followers. Although she knows the benefits of making packing videos, she confesses, “I’m truly not exactly sure why people want to see them.” 

Rutledge suggests there are a number of reasons. “The human brain responds more to the anticipation of a reward than to receiving the reward,” she says. Therefore, watching your order being packed could actually be more pleasurable than receiving it. Rutledge also speculates that these videos can lead customers to form parasocial relationships with sellers, which makes their shopping experience feel more meaningful; watching an order be carefully packed and wrapped can “transform their order into a gift-giving experience.”

Even viewers who aren’t getting the order in question can have these emotional responses—and many of them also experience ASMR as tissue paper is crinkled, tape is ripped, and a soothing voice narrates the packing process. 

But boxing videos haven’t replaced unboxing videos, which means ultimately this is just another way we engage with consumerism on the internet—or, as Rutledge puts it, “a way of extending the consumption experience.” Like many trends on social media, packing videos glorify spending, though Rutledge argues that the phenomenon could actually “decrease thoughtless purchasing” as people seek out “a longer, richer experience.” 

Major brands may soon create their own #packingorders videos, but for now, this remains a trend dominated by small businesses. “It’s a great way for us to communicate and have that personal relationship with our customers,” Harrington says. “It’s just been something that’s really changed our brand for the better.”