Under pressure
As consumers have more and more choice about how they buy, Rob Carle, leading e-commerce specialist at DS Smith UK Packaging, explores how the packaging and storage industries are collaborating to meet changing needs.
Retailers in 2017 are facing fierce competition to provide the fastest, most seamless experience possible, no matter how a consumer chooses to purchase goods. In particular, the growth in e-commerce is exerting unprecedented pressure on the supply chain. It is fundamentally altering customers’ expectations and demands in a way reminiscent of the dawn of the modern supermarket.
In the packaging industry, we are used to keeping ahead of the technological curve, but the e-commerce supply chain represents a whole different set of challenges.
There are up to 50 touch-points in the e-commerce supply cycle, each of which brings its own unique risks. There are potentially 50 separate opportunities at which a package could be mishandled, damaged or lost. Whether it’s something as simple as a package being returned to a depot several times following a failed delivery or the more futuristic vulnerabilities created by a delivery via drone (as DHL is already doing with medical supplies in Germany), packaging needs to be structurally sound and more adaptable than ever before.
Before launching a new pack, thorough testing is crucial. To show how seriously we take this, we’ve invested in a testing facility that replicates the rigours and forces of the e-commerce supply cycle until we’re confident that the package has the strength it needs to protect our customers’ products – regardless of type or length of its journey to a consumer.
As warehouses face increased pressure to hold more and more stock, as well as manage the unpredictable returns process, it is critical that space is optimised. While corrugated usually comes flat and stores easily in a warehouse, other types of packaging such as rolls of bubble wrap, air pillows and jiffy bags can be trickier to stack and therefore take up valuable space. One way in which the packaging industry is combating this is to explore smarter ways of eliminating void fill without using lots of different types of packaging. It is impossible to have bespoke packaging for every single shape and combination of goods so it is vital to design packs which fill the void while still guaranteeing protection and a positive unboxing experience for the consumer.
We work closely with our customers to look at how packaging can work more smartly, looking to eliminate inefficiencies and make gains, however marginal, that could remove friction from the supply chain.
Another challenging part of the supply chain is managing the returns process. Packaging needs to be designed with the return in mind. It must be quick and easy for the consumer to repackage and ensure the product is returned to the warehouse in a saleable condition. The warehouses then need to be set up in a way that can respond swiftly and get the returns back into stock for re-sale in a matter of hours.
Retailers need not fear change and should try to embrace this step change in shopping habits with enthusiasm, not trepidation. Innovative and thoughtfully designed packaging can go a long way in responding to the challenges of modern retailing and bring about untold efficiencies to the supply chain. In today’s increasingly pressurised world, it is a critical factor that cannot be ignored.
