The traditional role of secondary packaging has been to protect the primary package as it travels through the supply chain to its final retail destination. Packaging engineers are always looking for cost savings by light-weighting materials, using more recycled materials and reducing the volume of packaging.
But the recent trend of having secondary packaging play a dual role as transport platform and merchandising tool to attract consumers at the point of purchase has caused new focus on the topic from both packaging engineers and their cousins in marketing. A report on secondary packaging released this week by the PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, at the group's annual PackExpo in Chicago gives analysis on the trends that continue to drive change and examines how consumer package goods and retail companies are lowering overall packaging costs.
From a consumer demand perspective, the trends affecting secondary packaging include the growth in e-commerce and secondary displays for in-store promotions, which have increased corrugated usage.
Separately, the push by leading retailers such as Walmart to become more environmentally sustainable is resulting in a move to reusable containers while increased labor costs are driving the push to create merchandising platforms that are ready to be placed on the store floor with minimal or no set-up.