
In the booming e-commerce retail market, packaging is more important than ever. But in reality, few retailers take the role of packaging seriously.
Most e-commerce retailers are still investing tonnes of money in advertising, adding staff to solve problems with customers, investing in state-of-the-art IT systems, etc. But when it comes to packaging and packing for their products, they leave it up to the people on the packing line, even though more than 50% of those people are flex/temporary workers.
Suddenly, they’re the ones determining the success of the business. Their judgment on packing the product will determine:
Whether or not the product arrives damaged
- Over packing – causes customer irritation, wastes packaging material (increased packaging cost), unnecessary burden on the environment
- Under packing – the product may arrive damaged, even more customer irritation, worse environmental impact
- The last situation will increase the customer service workload
The number of returned products
- Influences profit or loss
- Decrease or increase in logistical handling
The way the retailer communicates their brand to the customers, the unboxing experience
- Creating customer loyalty or destroying the customer trust in your brand
Wow, sounds like a very serious job with a lot of responsibility, doesn’t it?
Isn’t it about time to give this situation some thought?
For example, let’s say a customer orders a jar, an electronic device, a teddy bear and some liquid fire gel. Can you imagine what needs to go into packing all these products so that they don’t get damaged? Do they know that the package has to hold up against minimum of 2 different logistic handoffs (trilling, dropping, etc.), even just for local Dutch postal orders? If the e-commerce company and the customer aren’t based in the same country the logistic handling can jump up to even more than 50 handoffs. Can you imagine the impact if the liquid fire gel leaks during transport and/or the jar is broken? All the other goods in that package will be destroyed, as well.
SHAPES Packaging helps you create clear guidelines and offers tailor-made training for your valuable employees – the engine behind your business.
As supplies for e-commerce packaging material continue to see rapid growth, everyone claims to be offering the best solution. But how can you pick the one that’s right for your business?
As an independent packaging expert, SHAPES Packaging supports you and provides advice on selecting the right packaging solution for your e-commerce retail operations.
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