Introduction
Would you pay to transport air? Presumably not. Yet, in 2023 alone almost $11 Billion worth of bubble wrap will be produced. Almost all of it for for protecting packaged goods in transportation. Bubble wrap is just one example. Packaging material provides protection through cushioning, but that significantly increases volume, reducing transportation efficiency. The resulting pollution and cost is increasingly at the center of a concept called “right-sized packaging”. As the name suggests, right-sized packaging is all about creating the smallest packaging possible that still affords the necessary protection. In this blog lets examine the 5 top benefits of right-size packaging
Right-sizing the package
There are many paths to achieving right-sizing. Here are a few examples:
- A brand may choose to create a product-specific custom package, perhaps with new material, packaging shape, origami folding techniques etc. However this is also an expensive path. It can work for a company with deep pockets and just a few SKUs.
- The second path involves smart robots to scan the shape and packaging requirement of individual items, and use standard material, perhaps from a continuous roll, to custom-wrap each package. Quadient, a manufacturer of such smart robots claims its systems reduce package volume by as much as 50%1
- Many firms use one or two box sizes to keep procurement costs down and use packing material as necessary to create a snug fit. By using data analytics and modern tools it is possible to increase the number of package sizes without increasing procurement cost. This can be an excellent approach to result-driven, incremental right-sizing which is both cost effective and easily implementable in most firms.
Benefits
Whatever the approach, right-sizing delivers tangible benefits almost immediately.
- Cost Reduction: Brands pay a lot of money out of pocket for each package. Packaging companies charge for material, packaging costs, transportation costs, and increasingly in Europe, for waste material disposal as well. Thus right-sizing can directly reduce cost and improve the bottom line by reducing the need for the packaging material in the first place.
- Environmental Impact: Consider the avoidable environmental impact of delivering a package to your customer’s door: Essential packaging is one thing, but the need to add packing material means the environmental impact of the entire supply chain of that packing material, as well as the extra fuel spend for more trips to transport goods to customers. Considering that the global eCommerce industry is now worth over $5.7 Trillion2 the environmental impact certainly adds up.
- Strengthened supply chain: Reduced time and space for packages means more efficient transportation and fewer trips. This directly helps get goods to customers faster, and the longer the shipping distance, the more this effect manifests itself due to more transit points along the journey. Sustainability of supply chains is a complex topic with no “silver bullet” solution. Instead, it is a result of doing a number of things right. One of them is making packaging more efficient.
- Improved brand reputation: Brands are more than just producers of goods; they are also value evangelists. The community of loyal customers each brand builds around itself announce to the world what that brand is all about. Right-packaging helps brands evangelize their support and sensitivity to many causes that their customers care about too. Proactive initiatives to improve environmental impact are even more welcome, because they seem more genuine. All in all right packaging is a smart move for brands which want to project a reputation of being conscious and caring about important issues.
- Makes a brand future-proof to meet regulatory compliances: Governments all over the world are moving towards more and more stringent measures to reduce carbon footprints. As with everything else, there is a learning curve that each brand needs to go through to ensure its packaging solutions are future-proof and fit well into the company’s long term cost and brand strategy. Starting early with efforts like right-sizing is a great way for brands to migrate to packaging solutions that aren’t just future-proof, but future ready!
