Think about it. A customer at the grocery store, looking at row after row of cardboard boxes of tea, Keurig coffee cups or cereal, trying to decide which one to buy. If you were in their shoes, what would you do? You would pick up each type of tea, or coffee or whatever, and examine the carton – the design, the graphics, the words. Based on what you see there, you would make your choice. And that is exactly why packaging design matters. It influences customer decisions at the store. Corrugated cardboard is a highly versatile material used for everything from e-commerce packaging to industrial packaging.
Corrugated makes up the largest segment of the packaging industry in the U.S., and for a good reason. It serves many different functions for manufacturers, retailers and customers. And one of the most important reasons for using corrugated today might be that it is eco-friendly.
Manufacturers need packaging and shipping containers
For almost every industry, including e-commerce packaging, corrugated containers can be customized, to properly fit the product they will contain. Custom product packaging keeps products safe during shipping, and prevents tampering. Industrial packaging must be structurally sound, and may add print identifying the products, batch number, origin and destination.
With the growth of online shopping, there is an increased demand for e-commerce packaging. Cardboard containers are a versatile and cost-efficient choice for manufacturers and suppliers.
Retail displays need high end graphics
For retailers, the emphasis is on point of purchase displays and retail packaging. High quality graphics draw in the customer and are in fact a very direct type of advertising. Researchers have found that customers make purchase decisions at the retail shelf, in a matter of five seconds. Appearances do matter here, and custom branded packaging serves as advertising and marketing as well.
Retail cartons can also be customized for size, from counter-top to pallets. The information and graphics they contain play a crucial part in consumer decisions.
Corrugated is versatile and environmentally friendly
From e-commerce packaging to retail displays, corrugated cardboard cartons can fit many different purposes. It is also eco-friendly, containing up to 45% recycled material. It can also be recycled. Up to 91% of all the corrugated produced in the U.S. in 2012 was recovered and recycled.
That means corrugated has a very small carbon footprint. It has also become 10 to 15% lighter over the past ten years, using lightweight linerboard. This reduces the amount of material used in its making, which another plus from the environmental point of view.
Versatile, cost-efficient and eco-friendly, corrugated fulfills every requirement for a packaging material, and then some. From e-commerce packaging to industrial packaging and shipping, it plays an important, if unsung, part in our everyday lives.
