Customized eCommerce Packaging Supplies Foster Brand Loyalty and Reduce Total Cost
Leave a CommentAlthough eCommerce saw an uptick pre-pandemic, the pandemic accelerated the growth as many brick-and-mortar stores were forced to close and relied on eCommerce for sales. This created a greater need for eCommerce packaging supplies.
As the pandemic becomes an endemic and brick-and-mortar stores welcome shoppers back at total capacity, custom eCommerce packaging is more important now than ever. During the pandemic, more than 50 percent of small businesses improved upon or added eCommerce portals, and 66 percent expect to generate more online sales after the pandemic ends than before. Ecommerce sales were up 110% in January 2022 compared to January 2019. With more businesses selling online and more customers buying online, customized eCommerce packaging is one way to stand out in a crowded industry.
Corrugated Packaging Supplies Meet Many Needs
Of all eCommerce packaging supplies, corrugated containers are among the top choices. This is because they meet customers’ needs in many ways through sustainability, superb product protection, marketability, which fosters brand loyalty. Customized packaging is also cost-effective and can reduce your total costs with the right partner.
Environmentally Friendly
Corrugated is made from paper, a renewable resource that can be recycled and reused. Most corrugated boxes today are made with recycled materials, which can help companies in various industries meet their sustainability goals.
Superb Product Protection
Customers expect fast delivery and secure packaging. Ensuring your packing is customized to your product is one way of ensuring the best protection and reducing total costs. Products that need to be returned, because of damage that might have been prevented with proper packaging, delay customer gratification and create frustration and mistrust from your customers.
Grow Sales
Corrugated packaging provides a blank slate for marketing. Branded eCommerce packaging allows you to tell your story, create an enjoyable unboxing experience, and ultimately create brand loyalty. Industry surveys have shown that branded packaging matters. An overwhelming majority of customers prefer corrugated packaging and 40% get excited about branded or gift-like packaging. Companies that use branded packaging often see repeat sales.
Highly Cost-Effective Solution
Optimized corrugated e-commerce packaging can reduce your total cost of ownership. Not only does optimized packaging use fewer materials and prevent returns from damage, which reduces your costs, but it can also reduce costs in other ways if you work with the right vendor. Complex configurations could be causing inefficiencies in your packaging line. The right vendor can redesign your packaging for greater efficiency. And a vendor that offers just-in-time delivery can save costs associated with managing and warehousing it.
As gas prices soar, rising shipping costs are keeping pace. Corrugated can help reduce those costs. In addition to product protection, right-sized corrugated packaging reduces materials used, resulting in lighter packaging (reduced shipping costs) and smaller packaging, so you can fit more product per truckload, saving you money.
What to Look for in an eCommerce packaging Supplier
Creating a cost-effective eCommerce packaging is complicated, with many variables to consider. If your packaging vendor doesn’t correctly control those variables, you may face several issues, including wrong box size, imperfect printing and color inconsistency, and a variety of other issues that can cost you time and money.
It becomes imperative that you work with a reputable and experienced corrugated box manufacturer. A partner that not only understands corrugated and printing but also takes the time to understand your needs, your product, and is mindful of your budget will not only provide you the perfect box for your and your customer’s needs but can reduce your total costs through packaging optimization, material choice, and design.
Advantages of Working With Progress
Progress Container & Display offers comprehensive cradle-to-cradle eCommerce packaging solutions. We can design, manufacture, and deliver customized eCommerce packaging while keeping your budget and total costs in mind.
3 Tips For Creating Effective Custom Point of Purchase Displays
Leave a CommentAlthough eye-catching packaging is always a great way to differentiate your product, attention-grabbing point of purchase displays can make a bigger splash in the retail environment. When running promotions, it might be hard to fit all you want to say on a box — that’s where custom point of purchase displays take center stage. Strategically implementing displays increases the likelihood customers will notice your product, resonate with the messaging, and make an impulse purchase.
An effective point of purchase display can give your business many in-store advantages and is even proven to increase sales by as much as 64 times over the same product sold from their regular shelf location. From simple signs to elaborate displays, Progress Container & Display has the experience designing temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent displays for any product promotion or discount. Whether you are a major brand with popular products or promoting seasonal products for a few months, we have the background it takes to deliver the look you need across numerous industries.
Ready to Convert Browsers to Buyers? Follow These 3 Tips For Your Custom Point of Purchase Displays
1. Make the Most Out of Impulse Purchases
Once shoppers are in the store and have the intention to buy, there is a much higher chance they will be influenced to add unplanned purchases to their cart. Make the most out of this opportunity with effective custom point of purchase displays and marketing, particularly as they wait in a long checkout line.
Keeping customers engaged during the added wait time allows you to turn an everyday inconvenience into an extended shopping experience. In addition, if your product is relatively inexpensive, like food and beverage products, you can experience measurable growth and sales impact.
2. Enhance Your Cross Marketing Efforts
Another great way to enhance the impact of your next product display is with strategic cross-marketing efforts. By placing your product near a complimentary item commonly used together, customers can conveniently purchase them, even if the additional item wasn’t initially at the top of their minds.
For example, office supply stores are known for driving impulse purchases by cross-selling protective cases for laptops, ink for printers, flash drives for computers, and other similar items. If you can demonstrate how the additional item is in their best interest with messaging and graphics, you add value to the customer’s shopping experience and facilitate repeat purchases.
3. Use the Best Display Type For Your Product
Whether you are ordering a large number of displays or a few, custom point of purchase displays can be expensive or not as effective without the right display for your product and guidance from a trusted expert. To best promote well-known products or low-priced novelty items, you need a display partner that can help you find the right in-store solution, ranging from dump bins to free-standing displays, end caps, counter displays, and more. At Progress Container & Display, we can walk you through the best solution for your product, company, and brand.
Dump bins are a great display solution for small products and selling large quantities. Examples include products like candy bars and gum. These displays are often strategically placed at the front of the store, are free-standing and accessible at all angles, and have plenty of branding space for creative messages, graphics, and logos.
Free-standing displays are also found in high-traffic areas and are accessible at all angles. They excel at visual appeal and turning attention to a specific product, including samples. As with free-standing displays, end caps offer increased visibility in high-traffic areas without needing to go down the aisle.
Unsure your current custom point of purchase display is the best solution for your bottom line? Our display designers are always here to lend a hand.
Why Are Custom Point of Purchase Displays Driving More Sales Now Than Ever?
We are seeing marketers increasingly turn to custom point-of-purchase displays for three key reasons. First, marketers are seizing the opportunity to reach their target demographics right in the store, a more economical spend than other traditional advertising expenditures. Second, the decline in knowledgeable sales representatives over the years has increased reliance on effective displays to attract and educate customers. Finally, an upsurge in impulse purchases has made custom point of purchase displays a critical touchpoint in influencing customer decision-making.
From branding to increased visibility and promotion-specific displays, get the space you need with a professional display to engage and educate buyers. At Progress Container & Display, we’ll help you keep control over how your brand is presented. With custom point of purchase displays developed by an experienced hand, you’ll have a full range of capabilities at your disposal to showcase your products with better displays and bolder designs that catch customers’ eyes.
Elevate Your Next Product Display with a Proven Partner
Custom point of purchase displays offer an excellent opportunity to get creative with retail marketing and see measurable impact with effective campaigns. Whether you’re ready to experiment with different ways to grab customer attention or are looking to better target impulse buyers with cross-selling, we are here to help you find the best display solution for your brand and budget.
From unconventional die-cut shapes to large logos, bright colors, and quality graphics, we have the flexographic, lithographic, and digital printing capabilities to make economical decisions for large and short runs. Curious about our start-of-the-art printing tools? Explore how the Gӧpfert RDC Evolution HBL 8-color printer and die cutter combines precision with efficiency.
Custom Countertop Displays Capitalize on Impulse Buying
Leave a CommentIf you aren’t using custom countertop displays at the checkout, you could be missing out on a lucrative opportunity driven by customer impulse buys. The average American will make 12 impulse purchases and spend on average $276 per month on impulse buys, up from $183 in 2020.
Custom countertop displays will create visibility for your brand. They can be used to showcase a product at a good price, feature seasonal items, remind the customer to purchase something, encourage add-on products that complement another purchase, or trigger a positive feeling about your brand. All of these can lead to an impulse purchase.
The display itself can impact the customers purchasing decision just as the product packaging can influence buyers. The display should not compete with the product but should make it easy for the customer to purchase it.
Custom countertop displays are used in nearly every industry, including automotive, candy and confections, food and beverage, health and beauty, electronics, toys, and home improvement.
Progress Offers Disruptive Custom Countertop Displays
From ideation through fulfillment, we will work with you to create a custom point-of-purchase display that will get noticed. With in-house structural and graphic designers, we will design your display so it maintains structural integrity throughout its intended life while helping you meet your marketing and sales goals.
Structural and Graphic Design Capabilities
The first consideration when designing a display is the retail requirements, which may differ from store to store. We have more than 50 years of experience and have worked with all the major retailers, so we can ensure your display meets their requirements.
The sales counter is one of the busiest places in the store, so your display will have to stand up to being handled and bumped. Displays that fall apart are not effective and are removed. Our structural engineers will ensure your display can handle the retail environment, and your product remains on display.
Customized displays allow you to use a variety of configurations, including customized inserts, multiple levels, peg hooks, and more. Multiproduct displays accommodate different sized products that might be sold together, such as sunscreen and lip balm, increasing the opportunities for additional sales. You can extend your sales by using a multiple placement display. These floor displays have inserts that become counter displays, where the remaining products can be consolidated and sold from a counter.
Our in-house graphic designers work closely with the structural design team to create and adapt branded POP countertop displays. Our designers can use your artwork or create unique graphics that appropriately convey your brand or product.
Printing Capabilities
Choosing the correct type of printing can impact how your brand is perceived. We can ensure the print on your display is consistent, crisp, and clean, and it is produced and printed most efficiently. And will stay within your budget. We offer flexographic, litho, and digital printing. Our Gopfert RDC Evolution HBL 8-color press can print inside and outside in one pass and provides the highest quality corrugated flexo direct print in the world. It allows you to have stunning print quality at a lower price.
Fulfillment Services For a Turnkey Solution
Our turnkey solution for Countertop display starts with retailer insights and takes you effortlessly through assembly and packaging. Our fulfillment services for countertop displays include building your custom countertop displays and pre-pack them with your products, enabling immediate deployment upon arrival at the retailer.
In addition to prefilling the displays, for floor displays, we also offer:
• Pallet displays. We can build and pack your products for display in big box retail stores, DIY, Grocery, Club stores, and other retail channels.
• Kitting projects. Bringing mixed materials such as foam and corrugated together to make a pack for quick assembly in your factories.
Are you ready to create custom counter displays that will drive sales? Contact us to get started.
The Key to Product Differentiation and Protection: Custom Corrugated Boxes
Leave a CommentNeed a better way to differentiate your products and streamline delivery? There’s a reason why supply chain success begins with custom corrugated boxes.
Promoting, protecting, and preserving products has never been easier with versatile, cost-effective, and durable custom corrugated boxes. As the variety of products has expanded, and delivery options have advanced, the demand for custom corrugated boxes has increased. As a result, finding the right-fit packaging supplier is more important than ever.
Corrugated packaging has become an irreplaceable solution in the global supply chain. Protecting products through transit and preserving them during warehousing is non-negotiable for businesses looking to nurture and grow their brand.
Custom Corrugated Boxes — Your Solution From E-Tail to Retail
It’s no secret that businesses that offer visually-driven products generate more sales in the age of digital marketing. From eCommerce businesses to brick and mortar stores, building a brand with custom corrugated boxes increases the value of your products.
Ready to get control over every touchpoint that matters, whether it’s in-store or at the front door? Fortunately, the versatility of custom corrugated boxes makes it easy to apply across industries. Whether you need extra liners and layers for stacking strength or a smooth surface suitable for printing, Progress Container & Display has the solutions you need to face rough handling, climate challenges, and printing head-on.
Brick and Mortar Retail Packaging
From shopping centers to convenience stores, supermarkets, and more, custom corrugated packaging is increasingly seen as an effective marketing tool and solution for businesses looking for cost-effective ways to stand out. With the ability to reach target audiences in pre-identified locations, custom corrugated packaging effectively acts as a billboard for key audiences without additional ad spend.
The type of printing used to create your custom printed retail display packaging can impact your customers’ perception of your brand. Present your products effectively in the retail space with print and design services that are visually engaging, consistent, accurate, and meet your goals. With flexographic, lithographic, and digital printing, Progress Container & Display can meet large and small orders alike with cost-effective, quality printing solutions.
Custom eCommerce Packaging
The value of brand aesthetics has only increased as online companies face fiercer competition for customers’ attention. With the explosion of eCommerce, products are more visually-driven than ever. From subscription boxes to electronics and high-end items, custom corrugated boxes positively impact a customer’s experience and word-of-mouth marketing in person and online via social media.
Faster delivery, relaxed return policies, and free shipping has fueled eCommerce growth. As your partner in supply chain solutions, Progress Container helps your business effortlessly adapt to ever-changing eCommerce trends. When it comes to securing your supply chain, your products are always in good hands with durable, edge crush and Mullen tested custom corrugated boxes. So whether you’re focused on streamlining your delivery process or producing structurally secure custom corrugated boxes to safeguard fragile items, Progress Container & Display has the design and manufacturing capabilities to meet industry standards and production goals while delighting customers every step of the way.
Sustainable Custom Corrugated Boxes
One of the best things about custom corrugated boxes is that it is an excellent alternative to flexible plastic packaging and has recently skyrocketed in popularity as environmental concerns have increased in urgency. Unlike plastic packaging, custom corrugated boxes are biodegradable, recyclable, and 100% renewable.
Is sustainable packaging the right shift for your organization? For products emphasizing health, environmental, and lifestyle benefits, sustainable packaging is a natural choice. Not only is corrugated packaging a great alternative, but customers respond to sustainability initiatives as well, with 74% of customers citing they would even pay more for sustainable packaging.
Certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI), the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC), and featuring an ISO 14001 Environmental Certification, Progress Container & Display meets fiber sourcing standards annually and is qualified to help you build sustainable supply chain practices.
However, the benefits of custom corrugated boxes don’t end at protecting the planet. Affordable recycled materials make our services more economical, and eliminating unnecessary packaging elements cuts down on shipping costs. If you still feel there is more to be done for ongoing sustainability initiatives, maximize your corrugated recycling initiatives with five eco-friendly corrugated recycling tips.
Ready for the Customization Process?
With your product dimensions on hand, messaging in mind, an idea of your shipping challenges and customer’s expectations, we can help prepare a prototype based on your needs. The right packaging supplier has extensive industry experience and proven packaging solutions, stays on top of ongoing trends from sustainability to marketing, and caters to the demands of your growing business.
Discover the True Cost of Your Current Packaging Supplier
Although you may have negotiated great unit costs for your packaging, you may be surprised to find total costs adding up to much more than anticipated. At Progress Container & Display, we take a holistic approach to supply chain solutions and help you optimize distribution on all fronts, including product damage, material waste, warehousing, handling, and transportation.
From addressing hidden supply chain costs with smarter packaging machinery to capitalizing on emerging packaging trends, turn to a packaging partner that is aware of industry changes and making strides toward advancement. If you aren’t confident in the capabilities of your current packaging supplier, there is no better time to build a partnership with a supplier that is fully equipped to grow with you.
How To Choose Industrial Packaging Supplies
Leave a CommentFrom the large and bulky to the small and fragile, your product can be shipped safely and arrive without damage if you use the right industrial packaging supplies. Using customized industrial packaging can even reduce your total costs.
What is Industrial Packaging?
Industrial packaging, also called tertiary packaging or transit packaging, are brown
(and sometimes white) corrugated boxes used to ship and store a product or several units of a product. Generally, industrial packaging is not the product’s primary packaging.
Although it is possible to buy standard off-the-shelf industrial packaging supplies, optimized packaging is preferred for the best outcome. Corrugated industrial packaging is a preferred choice for many reasons:
• Highly customizable
• Reduce wasted materials
• Reduce transportation costs
• Provide better protection
• Strong
• Recyclable
• Cost-effective
• Marketing impact
Strength to Withstand Tough Shipping Environments
Industrial packaging must endure a lot of rough handling. Individual packages shipping via FedEx, UPS, USPS, or another method can be dropped, be tossed around, or have heavier packages placed on top of them. And Palleted boxes must have the strength to support those stacked on top of them.
Two tests used to determine the strength of the corrugated board are the Mullen burst test and edge crush test. Both are useful in determining how well the box will stand up to shipping.
The Mullen test measures the pressure the corrugated can withstand before bursting. It is indirectly related to a carton’s ability to withstand internal or external pressure, such as an item puncturing the box.
The edge crush test is directly related to stacking strength and how much weight can be applied to the corrugated per square inch. This test helps determine if a box can withstand other loaded boxes’ weight when shipped on a pallet.
For companies interested in learning how their packaged product will behave in transit, there are a series of tests developed by the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA). They offer different levels of tests depending on your need and the weight of the package. ISTA also has test methods specific to Amazon, Sam’s Club®, and FEDEX air, ground, and express. Products are typically sent to a third-party lab for testing.
Linerboard and Medium Combinations Add Strength
Industrial packaging supplies rely heavily on corrugated board to make up the box and the inner dividers and other elements needed to secure products in place. A corrugated board is constructed of a combination of linerboard and medium glued together.
Liner board is the flat outer surface, and the medium is the fluted inner paper. Linerboard is available in various basis weights and surface treatments to suit specific applications.
Many factors account for the corrugated board’s strength, including the quality of the fibers that make up the paper, the liner’s and medium’s mechanical properties, and the combined board structural makeup — the number of layers, flute sizes, and adhesive.
Linerboard and medium are available in several combinations:
• Single-face — one linerboard with one medium
• Single-wall — the medium is sandwiched between two linerboards
• Double-wall — combines a single wall and single-face: three linerboards interleaved with two sheets of corrugated medium.
• Triple wall — combines double wall with single-face: four linerboards interleaved with three sheets of corrugated medium.
The flutes of the medium provide the cushioning for the corrugated board. Flutes are available in a variety of sizes.
The most commonly used for industrial packaging are B-flute, C-Flute, and E-Flute.
• B-flute was developed originally to protect canned goods and provides excellent puncture and crush resistance.
• C-flute is the most widely used flute and offers good burst resistance, stacking strength, and printing properties.
• E-flute offers great crush resistance and provides a flat surface for high-quality printing.
Double-wall and triple-wall combinations can be created using a combination of linerboards and flute sizes to provide a highly customizable solution.
Working with the Experts
Choosing the right industrial packaging supplies for products can be overwhelming because of all the decisions to be made to ensure it meets all of your needs:
• Board combinations
• Coating or special treatments
• Box style (e.g., Gaylord, regular slotted containers)
• Box size – optimized for a product, pallet/truck
• Printing – litho, flexo, digital
• And more
Tap into the knowledge and experience of professionals who have seen it all and done it all when it comes to packaging. Progress Container has been meeting the industrial packaging needs of customers for more than 50 years.
Our experience spans across industries, including building and construction, chemical and pharmaceutical, metal products, engineering, and automotive parts.
In addition, we can offer a supply chain assessment that can save you money by assessing a number of factors:
• Pallet utilization
• Supply chain utilization
• SKU management
• Packaging optimization
• Total landed cost related to assembly time with your packaging
Ready to save money on your industrial packaging? Contact us to get started.