The technology also unlocks sustainability and consumer loyalty benefits, according to panelists on a \u201cfuture of packaging\u201d webinar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using digital printing to enable customized consumer experiences, on-box advertising and more sustainable packaging solutions is a top trend in e-commerce packaging, according to speakers during a virtual event Tuesday on the \u201cfuture of packaging\u201d hosted by Orora Packaging Solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
E-ecommerce generally has grown in popularity over the last 20 years, with the most significant spike occurring during the pandemic, said Ryan Fox, corrugated packaging market analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. During that time, cardboard box consumption also spiked: \u201cWe saw it grow almost 2 million tons during the during the two years of the pandemic when there was lockdown,\u201d he said. While e-commerce has renormalized to pre-pandemic levels, it is still considered a strong market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More brands are doing business through online marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart and Target rather than shipping their merchandise directly to customers, according to Chris Bradley, chief marketing, design and sustainability officer at Orora, which also offers printing solutions. He said that\u2019s blurring the lines between primary and secondary packaging, especially with the greater use of digital printing technologies that can add the same graphics from an internal package to an external shipping box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they can get their package through the supply chain without having to be repackaged again by the marketplace, they avoid handling fees and they\u2019re in control of the brand experience,\u201d Bradley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panelists said another benefit of digital printing \u2014 which sends a digital file to a printer that uses ink jets instead of plates like with flexography or lithography \u2014 is that it enables printing on the inside surfaces of a box. As package theft increased during the pandemic, \u201cthere were several brands that I know of that pushed a lot of their graphics to the inside of the box\u201d to prevent passersby from knowing the contents while still enabling a strong customer experience, Fox said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, customization and printing inside the box comes at a price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInside and outside print is not always cheap,\u201d Fox said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re talking about a corporate gift, a couple extra bucks in the packaging is a huge difference maker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Effective advertising medium According to EFI\u2019s research, packaging is the second-most effective channel for driving commercial growth. While consumers can install filters or blockers to weed out online ads, on-box ads directly reach them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanders cited a domestic logistics company\u2019s assertion that \u201cthere is a 14-point year-on-year increase in likelihood to repurchase based on a premium packaging experience,\u201d which is \u201csignificant movement on a loyalty metric.\u201d He also noted a Kantar analysis that found consumers experienced a 4.1-times higher recall of ads printed on Amazon boxes compared with traditional media campaigns, saying the boxes act as \u201cmini billboards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn-box advertising is an emerging ad category,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing it in North America right now. We\u2019re not seeing it in any other part of the world. But it is a very effective way to communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n E-commerce packaging is also a growing medium for third-party advertising, such as Amazon boxes with ads for newly released movies or TV shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unboxing positive consumer experiences Receiving and opening a box results in the user experiencing emotion as opposed to logic, Sanders said, offering a unique marketing opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen a box is received and it\u2019s well decorated and even tailored, it\u2019s a premium experience and emotion is connected to it,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThese brands or retailers have an opportunity to build loyalty off of that emotion. It\u2019s very powerful and it\u2019s very unique to a corrugated box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscription boxes \u2014 weekly or monthly shipments of products like pet supplies, cosmetics or meal kits \u2014 are an example of curated experiences as a reward for consumer loyalty. They\u2019re becoming more popular and demand for corrugated is consequently up for this application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s always an unboxing experience; you don\u2019t hear of people doing \u2018un-bagging\u2019 experiences,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cOne of the things that I\u2019ve seen that\u2019s been very successful is to customize each one of those boxes for their subscribers, and that creates word of mouth and just the \u2018wow\u2019 factor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sustainability The focus on sustainability has \u201ca lot of momentum behind it, and people really seem to care about it,\u201d Fox said, adding that box buyers are looking for three key sustainability factors: right size, right quantity and recyclability. He noted that research finds consumers are more likely to recycle a box after seeing a recycling message, such as a scannable QR code that leads to recycling instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digital printing is another way to boost sustainability, Sanders said, in large part because there are no big plates to dispose of when designs change. Traditional printing methods result in \u201cmillions and millions of plates every year that have to be manufactured, have to be shipped and have to be stored and or recycled,\u201d he said. Digital printing also uses less energy and the inks are applied in a way so they don\u2019t affect recycling, Sanders said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using digital printing allows brands more variability and customization at a lower cost because digital files can be easily swapped out rather than creating entirely new plates for each small tweak. This lets brands slightly alter packaging designs intended for different regions, for example, which \u201cwe\u2019re seeing more and more of,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThey\u2019re asking for this kind of design interpretation instead of just printing a million of the same design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source : packagingdive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The technology also unlocks sustainability and consumer loyalty benefits, according to panelists on a \u201cfuture of packaging\u201d webinar. Using digital printing to enable customized consumer experiences, on-box advertising and more sustainable packaging solutions is a top trend in e-commerce packaging, according to speakers during a virtual event Tuesday on the \u201cfuture of packaging\u201d hosted by Orora<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,64],"tags":[802],"class_list":{"0":"post-10550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corrugated-folding-carton","8":"category-latest-news","9":"tag-ecommerce-packaging"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10735,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550\/revisions\/10735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>In retail, and e-commerce in particular, \u201cthere is difficulty in standing out, cutting through and building loyalty,\u201d said Kerry Sanders, vice president of market development at digital printing technology company EFI. \u201cPackaging, for brands and retailers, is a valuable activation platform. And it really will help these brands or retailers develop better customer experiences, which then translates into better loyalty and better repurchase rates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Customization and emphasis on the user experience are acutely evident in the \u201cunboxing\u201d trend sweeping social media, in which a content creator opens their new box on camera and details their initial impressions of the product and packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Brands also can use the outside of the box to illustrate their sustainability work, Bradley said. This can occur in a variety of ways such as displaying a standard Sustainable Forestry Initiative or Forest Stewardship Council certification stamp, or a reference to a specific brand-led sustainability initiative. Bradley mentioned a previous employer that printed information about its \u201csave the bees\u201d campaign on its packaging, which \u201ccreated some really strong brand attachment with our customers who were really excited about that program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n