Unboxing videos are now a cornerstone of luxury brands’ digital strategies.
In 2021, viewers watched unboxing videos more than 1.1 billion times and spent over 60 million hours watching content. As video content becomes an everyday experience, unboxing videos are becoming key for luxury brands to find and delight new customers.
According to a 2023 study at the School of Business Management, NMIMS Mumbai, unboxings have a concrete influence on consumer behavior. Researchers found that parasocial interaction—the psychological relationship in which viewers feel they personally know mass media performers—does directly influence purchase intent. The more aligned or ingrained viewers are with an influencer, the more likely they are to trust a recommendation.
McKenna Sweazey, a global luxury marketer and member of the Metaverse Fashion Council, says that unboxing is an integral part of a luxury brand’s strategy today, despite it seemingly going against the opaqueness they maintained in the past.
Xenia Adonts outside of Miu Miu’s Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024–2025 show (Photo by Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images)
“Luxury brands like control. The best influencer marketing means letting go of control, but unboxing lets them take back some control, as the brand experience begins with the box,” she explains. “Luxury brands are selling quality and exclusivity in tandem, and unboxings allow viewers to look at the glossiness of the leather, the weight of the handbag, the shimmer of the bracelet. It’s purely focused on the product.”
Sweazey sees this as a smart move, especially with items that don’t necessarily need to be tried on, such as jewelry, bags, and shoes. Unboxing videos help underscore the item’s value and, in turn, become an important part of a brand’s strategy when it comes to customer acquisition. “These high-margin items drive the bulk of a luxury retailer’s revenue,” she says.
For Monica Awe-Etuk, a fashion influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers across several platforms, the appeal of unboxing videos comes down to emotion.
“There’s a joint feeling that ‘we’ got something new, even though you might not be the one using it,” she says. “It’s a mix of people cheering you on, being nosy, and wanting to know what the next big thing is.”
Her YouTube channel is where she sees the most unboxing traction, especially for bags. However, the viewers’ appetites have shifted, emphasizing the need for creators and brands to be platform-specific and continue to evolve strategies.
Left: Monica Awe-Etuk at the PH5 New York Fashion Week 2023 presentation (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Right: Xenia Adonts outside the Gucci Cruise Show 2025 at Tate Modern (Photo by Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images)
“In 2021 and 2022, there was a ton of money flowing, and people wanted unboxings from me on YouTube,” Awe-Etuk states. “I saw a decline on that channel in 2023. I keep unboxing videos on TikTok, where they still want to see what’s in the box.”
In recent years, she’s seen luxury brands get even more selective about influencer marketing. It becomes more about honing in on those who can convert viewers into spenders rather than those who just offer up aspirational photos and videos to spread awareness.
“The evolution [of luxury marketing] lies in focusing on attracting younger customers with high potential and enhancing the wallet share of existing shoppers,” says Dana Telsey, the CEO and chief research officer of Telsey Advisory Group, a consumer-focused brokerage and banking firm. Brands must balance trying new things and keeping auras of exclusivity, especially as Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers, raised on YouTube unboxing videos, come into the picture. According to a Bloomberg report, Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s luxury spending is expected to grow three times faster than previous generations, so unboxing videos remain a viable and lucrative way to connect with consumers. Sweazey says that brands need to continue to evolve and expand their thinking around what an unboxing means in a purely digital landscape.
“Luxury brands have already moved towards environments such as Balenciaga’s digital runway show. There are fashion designers in Roblox and luxury items for sale, such as a digital Gucci bag,” she explains. By entering the digital space, Sweazey says brands might be able to create even more buzz without having to send out physical products. “Digitally, brands can completely remove the utility of a bag while keeping aesthetics, status, and an exclusive price point. Designers can be more creative and take more risks. The digital universe is the next big opportunity.” And consumers are ready to take different influencers’ guidance and watch them unbox millions of items.
