Testifying Engineers

Ecommerce has become one of the biggest things out there.  With Amazon being one of the biggest companies out there, you need to look at the rise and power of this type of growth.

You need to understand that there is a boom in the packages appearing on doorsteps, and you should consider what this means from a retention and engagement perspective. The vast majority of packages are kind of bland, and it’s a means to an end.  It’s a delivery service, and nothing more, and you need to look at the real estate that you’re losing at the expense off effective branding.  You need to look at e-commerce at first being novel and nascent, but nowadays it’s mostly just a means to revenue.  We’re shipping current products in older boxes, and you need to look at how this is affecting your sales.

There is also the security factor, since the flashier the package, the more likely it’ll be stolen, but this also ignores the inside of the box or even the exterior in some cases. It’s unwise to give away the details of the contents but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it at least a little more attractive. Remember, this is the first impression they have of you, and you should look at possibly branding your boxes, since it creates repeat customers more than newer ones, and repeat does ultimately provide more money in the long haul.

Until recently, most of the brands have relied on e-commerce that wasn’t really remarkable or really impressive in terms of appearance and repression. But now, many of the traditional brands are waking up to the importance of this, and in addition, online retailers are discovering the benefits of extending branding past their websites, by identifying the packages for what they are, which is, of course, the initial touchpoint with customers. Many of these companies are treating shipping boxes as handshakes rather than little hellos.  This will be a more memorable perspective and a much better response for people.

From a printing standpoint, it’s really easy to beautify your packages, and you can do so quickly and in a cost-effective manner. This is great because gone are the days of spending a ton of money just for branded boxes.  You can create deeper experiences in everything from the shipping boxes to even point of purchase displays in order to jazz up customers. 

You want a versatile display, especially with the new graphics that you can use, and printing with less traditional approaches too.

You can cater to a much larger position of the market share due to informative and innovative direct printing, which then circumvents the traditional practice, of course, lithographic labels.  You can now offer displays that provide maximal impact, cost-effective full-color technology which allows for customers to save on the material expenditures and of course the shipping times.

There is also high-speed digital production that works and exacting color matching. This provides a hybrid solution, which lets you have a much better look. There’s a lot of different ways you can show of the brand too, from various containers to even the different instructions, and you can even choose different coloring for this.

With all of that being said, you can see here the importance of branded boxes. You need to look at all of the different factors, such as the low-key aspects on the outside, and a vibrant look on the inside.  You want to make it look really interesting inside, and bland outside to really have the best brand experience.

In our current year, you’ve probably heard about flexible packaging. There’s a lot of damage happening in our world due to plastics, not just in the oceans, but all over.  Flexible packaging is the seemingly obvious solution to this, which is essentially shrink film and standup pouches. While they are the most environmentally-friendly, they’re not a long-term solution. The problem is, is that it’s still made of plastics, and this is the most environmentally-friendly choice. But, you should know that despite going with this option, it isn’t the totally most environmentally-friendly option out there.

Let’s highlight some aspects of this, and why it matters.

Flexible packaging is the best choice for those products, especially for environmentally-concerned customers. In this age where plastics are under attack fully, it is obvious that you need something that benefits the environment.  Switching to glass bottles, boxes made of cardboard, and metal containers are all good alternative packaging.  But, the thing is, they’re not totally safe, and they aren’t always the best for the environment.

The thing is, you’re still leaving a carbon footprint in place.  The alternatives are actually more detrimental, but with the negative backlash over plastics growing, it’s only becoming a bigger issue.  Most of our geographical waste is plastic, but while the outrage is warranted, the focus only being on plastic isn’t.  the reality of it is, that even with our environmental problems involving plastic, it’s actually better to use this over the glass, cardboard, metal, and other alternatives.

Flexible packaging is oftentimes lauded as the safer option for this, but there’s a much higher carbon footprint than the plastic options. The move from this is a byproduct of greenwashing.

Greenwashing is, of course, marketing in which green PR products and marketing deceive the public into thinking that the products are safer, and are better for you to have. Natural medicine is another example, and the truth is, you’re actually not really getting a safer product out of this. Greenwashing is actually used to cover up policies and agendas.

For now, plastics are used, and while card cardboard and glass are options, they actually are not that good for the environment. They still contain waste and such.

So, what is the best option/ well, you need to understand that these alternative are still releasing carbon emissions, and they’re not really the best solution? You need to look at the future of flexible packaging and understand the best option is to have biopolymers and plant-based plastics instead.

These are better and offer no harm to the environment at all.  Shrink films that are bio-polymer are oftentimes the best in flexible packaging. These are like traditional plastics but are made from plants that degrade over time and compost quickly instead of taking forever for you to break down.

The best thing to do is to remove plastics completely. It’s the best way to ensure that you’re getting a real environmentally-friendly option. Otherwise, you’re really not helping the environment.

The current flexible packaging isn’t as good as you’d think it would be for a business, and that’s just the reality of it.  You need to understand that, with flexible packaging, comes the reality that not all is good, and if you’re reusing plastic, guess what? You’re still using plastic.

When packaging lets you interact with it, it actually can help bring more engagement to the customer. Whether it be coloring, folding, or even crushing or reading, it will allow you to connect with the product in a way that traditionally doesn’t. these are usually the end goals of interactive packaging. But, how does it work? What are some of the successful interactive packaging aspects? In this, we’ll discuss why you should consider interactive packaging and some important tidbits about it.

So what is interactive packaging? well, it can be an approach used in all kinds of packaging including boxes, polybag, or in any other product containers. In order to get customers to interact with the product, but also the packaging as well. Some examples include wine bottles with some “connect the dots” labels in order to get people who use it to draw on the label.

Another example would be the folding instructions you can keep with moving boxes to make it a clothes hanger. While there are many examples of this type of packaging, some of the applications will alert the customers of the quality of the package inside.  You can even get modified atmosphere packaging, which has freshness indicating stickers that are there to tell you how fresh they are.  You can see these changes over time as the product nears the level of spoilage. Once the bottom half of this is fully blue, the meat isn’t safe to have, which is a good way to help have meat in a safe manner.

Why should you use it though? Well, it offers brands a means to connect with customers on a more engagement level than ever before. It allows for many different opportunities to get the consumer into a more dynamic relationship with the product, and the company that is selling it. Regardless of whether the packaging supply is enhanced with either analog or digital capabilities, this type of packaging lets you get the products into the customer’s hands in a way that’s unique and will target the actual needs of the customer as opposed to the traditional packaging materials.

In our world, customers vie for the attention of many different people and having this interactive packaging will help you get a leg up against competitors, especially those that don’t’ choose to use these kinds of tools. Relying on design, colors, typography, and even just generalized aesthetics might be problematic when going up against competitors who are leveraging interactive packaging in order to get customers to play or inspect the product prior to your purchase. If customers get a product into their hands that answer the engagement via the interactivity of the product, there is a chance that they’ll get the product.

So who should use it? Well, it’s good for pretty much any business that wants to boost customer engagement with their products, and who can benefit from this type of packaging.  While some types of interactive packaging might be costly for some businesses, there are alternatives that are cheaper. The most simple implementation of this is to have interactive dynamics that can pull larger audiences without a huge investment financially.

You should take some time and figure out how you can use interactive products in your packaging in order to engage with customers so that you can give them something cool. If you do plan to use this, you’ll definitely want to make sure you’re not wasting extra money on materials, and from there, make sure that it fits with the needs of customers. That way, you’re much happier, and your customers will love everything about this as well.

For many packaging companies, they encourage people to have shrink film. But, how much should it cost? How much should you be spending on it? Well, the truth is, it depends. The total price of purchase of a roll of printed shrink is affected by a few things including the length, gauge, size, ink, and the colors of the film that’s chosen. In this, we’ll look at the different elements that play into the cost of this, and some of the different aspects you should consider for choosing the right kind of packaging items.

So how much does it normally cost? Well, it’s usually between $100-150 on most sites, but it can actually be a little bit different.  It is dependent on the other factors such as the length, width, and the gauge of the film that you choose to use.

The traditional printed shrink film has different various dynamics that go into it.  You should look at the thickness, the width, and the quantity, and from there, you’ll then make sure to price the shrink film correctly. For the most part, you should look at the parameters that you choose, and the different costs associated with this.  You might want to also look at the shipping costs of this too.

You also may not realize that it’s hard to give a price on this since most of the time there are other factors that will impact the cost. For example, the number of rolls you get, for example, more will cost less if you buy in bulk, the number of colors that are used in the graphics of this film, there is also the need or lack of an overcoat, depending on what you choose, since you may want a specific one for your design.

The size of the film does impact this too, for the larger this is, the higher the cost is as well. Finally, you’ve got the scrap factor, which is where you need to start up the press where you get the print in registration for the color. Since printing presses can run a lot per minute, a fair amount of waste can be created, and you’ll get charged for that if you’re not careful, so definitely make sure that you print accordingly.

Finally, you may want to make sure if it’s printed one up, or multiple prints on each side.  You’ll want to maximize the width of the press in order to keep the costs down.  You should also consider the ink coverage since many have colors added behind them, so they’ll have more density and depth, and this adds to the percentage of ink coverage, and also increases cost too, so make sure you factor that in as well.

You may also need to factor in the cleanup, and a press run time. All of that is, of course, amortized during the length of the run as well, and when you have one roll printed, it’s definitely much more expansive, and not justified for the application of this. If you’re literally just printing one thing, you may want to consider a label in that case, since they oftentimes are better for a few items, rather than one large item.

But, even though the quality of film is getting better, the thinner the gauge, the more stretch there will be, and this leads to gaps with no ink within your print design, and while some new presses have better web handling, usually, most of them are running 60 gauge shrink films in a thin manner, but some of them run as small as a 35 gauge, but that’s normally not typical, and not sued for applications.  You may want to consider a 6-inch core since this will minimize the revolutions that can lead to stretching.

Shrink film is great for packaging, but it can be costly. Learn to examine these different factors so you know exactly what it is you’re getting into, and the different aspects too.