COVID and The Cardboard Box Apocalypse!

Covid has created a lot of hardship for our world. There is no doubt that the start of the pandemic brought on some serious challenges for our society. But, as any other efficient and intelligent society does, we have adapted to life around the virus. The world has been experiencing a shift from small businesses and supermarkets to the lifestyle of eCommerce. Companies like Amazon have made a fortune during the pandemic, mostly due to the convenience of having purchased items directly shipped to your door. In some cases, it can take only 1 or 2 days! Now that is a competitive market. With so much online shopping being done, companies are experiencing backlogged orders and quickly depleting stocks on a global scale. Moreover, consumers are starting to completely adjust to covid life and take advantage of eCommerce and its benefits.

One thing that a surplus of online shopping creates is a surplus of cardboard boxes being ordered, produced, and shipped. Cardboard boxes are one of the most effective means of shipping various goods and products because they are cheap and easy to assemble. With so much online ordering being done, cardboard boxes are flying off the production line all the way to an Amazon warehouse and then to the front door of someone’s home. Packing supplies are also in high demand because they are usually complimentary items to cardboard boxes. Things like packing peanuts and bubble wrap are cheap and effective ways to make sure fragile items are not broken during shipping.

One time during the pandemic lockdown, I ordered a pair of shorts that were expected to arrive in about a week from the day I ordered them. I eagerly awaited their arrival and continued to check the mail towards the end of the week, hoping to see my order arrived and ready to open. However, after about 10 days of waiting, I realized something was wrong. Later, I received an email that my shorts had been damaged beyond repair during shipping and that I would be refunded within 20 days. This seemed crazy to me because shorts are nowhere near being a fragile item and do not require much care while shipping. My guess is that my shorts were being shipped over from China via shipping container, and were lost over the side of the boat when Captain Kooley hit a rogue wave somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. 

Whatever the case, I was very disappointed to not get my shorts. Perhaps next time that company ships a pair of shorts, they should take advantage of proper packing supplies to ensure that products arrive on time and in good condition. With all the cardboard boxes arriving at your door, make sure that you are properly recycling them. This is super important for saving our planet and making sure we are reducing the amount of waste in our society. The only problem with recycling boxes is that one has to cut them and break them down. This will require a bit of manual labor that most people are not regularly in the mood for; however, get yourself a good pair of scissors or a box cutter and you’ll be cutting through boxes like a knife through butter. Be careful of blisters, though, as they will form on your hands and fingers after a while.

Best of luck!

Tips To Move Your Inventory The Right Way

Do you struggle to keep up with consumer demands? Do you feel stuck between distribution center challenges? These factors, along with the challenge of ensuring fast shipping, can make the business survival a tough feat to achieve.

Most brands have to ensure safety and a positive product experience while packaging and shipping their products. If you want to deal with these challenges successfully, you have to move inventory the right way. Here are some inventory management tips to help you make the packaging and distribution smoother.

Housekeeping rules

While it’s one of the most fundamental tips, keeping up with housekeeping rules serves as a significant difference between easily finding an item and surfing through a crowd of products and supplies. Spending needless hours trying to locate goods results in the wastage of time, which is a precious resource. You have to make sure to organize everything nicely and in a logical order to save time and money.

Avoiding delays

Your warehouse operations will be affected badly if you are procrastinating unnecessarily. For instance, you have to inspect new materials as soon as they arrive. Processing damaged products or packaging is critical. Working efficiently will help you serve customers faster and more effectively.

Barcodes

Regardless of the size of your warehouse, picking orders can take a significant amount of time. You can use technology to avoid back-and-forth processes as well as manual errors that tend to be costly. With the help of barcodes, you can organize supplies and products in a better way. It will also help improve warehouse inventory accuracy. Your employees will be able to pick the right products at the right times.

Flexible reorganization

The methods you find effective in managing inventory and storage today may not work after a couple of years. That is why it is necessary to reevaluate your operations periodically and reorganize the storage space to maintain the product flow the right way. It helps particularly well when supply and demands change.

Quality control

If you want to ensure smooth operations, you have to maintain an efficient and safe environment. However, implementing an excessive level of checking can result in a bottle-neck before product packaging. You can speed up the production and packaging line and avoid bottlenecks by setting up appropriate systems in place. These systems may include the use of barcodes, utilizing dimensional weight checking components, and avoiding over-packing.

Benefits of efficient warehouse management systems

Whether you are a seasoned brand or a startup, using an effective warehouse management system will help you get the following advantages.

• You will be able to streamline your distribution processes and implement a robust warehouse management system.
• You will get end-to-end visibility of the entire inventory, especially when it is on the move.
• You can manage your products through all touch-points. That will help you ensure the safety and integrity of the package and product until unboxed and used by the customer.
• Your warehouse will be more organized, and you will be able to improve ROI.
• It will help improve every process involved in the fulfillment.

Establishing Packaging Stations For Omnichannel Businesses

The trend of fulfilling orders from retail stores is on the rise due to retailers shifting to e-commerce. This ship-from-store model is also known as the omnichannel business model, and it necessitates the establishment of packaging stations.

Logistic components of e-commerce order processing are usually the most challenging. That is because large distribution centers have to deal with a lot of products every hour. They have to receive, stock, and dispatch products the entire time. These distribution centers are responsible for shipping products to end consumers.

In such a scenario, the omnichannel model can be quite beneficial due to its efficiency. This model involves product fulfillment from a brick-and-mortar store closest to the consumer. The in-store personnel process and ship the order to the consumer.

Why is omnichannel effective?

With companies facing a significant amount of pressure to manufacture and source using US-based resources, costs of rent and goods tend to be higher. At the same time, consumers want everything they order shipped almost immediately.

The omnichannel model helps address these issues quite significantly. With retail stores fulfilling orders, large distribution centers can save on space, rent costs, and other taxes. It helps brands offer free shipping, increased cart sizes, and other services to keep their customers happy and loyal.

This fulfillment model also helps large warehouses avoid the need to create systems to fulfill large quantities and volumes of orders. Although omnichannel can solve several fulfillment problems in the e-commerce industry, the implementation of this model should be done carefully to drive positive results.

Creating an omnichannel strategy

It becomes crucial for a company to develop an implementation and management strategy when integrating ship-from-store processing. First and foremost, the company has to implement an e-commerce order processing system to allocate the necessary storage space to the process. Things to consider in this regard include the in-store inventory and distance between the store and consumer address.

The in-store staff, after receiving the orders, should gather products and prepare them for shipping.

The necessity of the packaging station

Not packaging the product properly can result in a loss to both the consumer and the company. In case of product damage, the company has to replace the order, which requires utilization of the entire supply chain for the replacement product. The consumer will not receive what he or she has been expecting. Even if there is no damage, not packaging products correctly can result in higher costs at the time of shipping.

A packaging station is a fully stocked area housing every resource required for the in-store packaging of e-commerce orders. These resources include materials and equipment required for product packaging.

Some packaging suppliers provide companies with a custom-designed packaging station that comes equipped with every material required for product packaging. Many vendors offer evaluations of your SKUs to make sure that your packaging stations are not overstocked.

If you want to be successful with your omnichannel approach, you must have the proper understanding of how to package products effectively. If you are not sure about how to package your products in the best way possible, you can discuss your requirements with a packaging vendor and ask for recommendations.

Packaging for Extreme Environments

Packaging for extreme environments is another realm that not everyone thinks about. Military, extreme sports, even aerospace all have packaging that needs to be factored into these extreme worlds. 

The main focus is designing a packaging that will withstand the extreme temperatures, mechanical stress, and also pressure so that the items don’t break down, or worse explode as in the case of rockets. 

When you are building this level of packaging, you have to be careful and know exactly how things will react, so do your research before designing this, and also look at the current environment you’ll be shipping these too. 

The Materials Matter 

With this, you don’t want to use just flimsy paper, or even anything that’s flammable really. It also isn’t good to use bioplastics or sustainable packaging for items that are this risky.

What you want is plastic that’s strong, such as reinforced or high-performance plastics. These are made to withstand the extreme fluctuations of temperature and characteristics. 

Metal is another. This is especially important for goods that have to deal with extreme heat, or maybe pressure. If the item is also highly flammable, being in a metal receptacle could prevent it from igniting, and thereby creating trouble. 

Composite layers are a third material. This is a layer of plastic and metal put together. This combination of this is ideal for items that are really volatile, especially rockets and artillery items. 

Overall, you want items that can be protected in these harsh environments, so that it doesn’t cause injury to the person shipping it, or others. 

Testing the Packaging 

You need to test the packaging too. with extreme environment packaging, never skimp out on this step. 

Testing for water is good, because some chemical reactors break down when there’s water, so it might be good to test it.   Rust is another common one with metals, as in the case of artillery, so make sure you use that. 

UV radiation is another.   UV damage is a common issue with packaging, and for those volatile packages, it may reduce or increase the effectiveness of what’s inside. In that case, you need to make sure that you test for this.

Impact is another, because some items, on impact, might reach it or explode. Using packaging that tests for this is good.

Finally, temperatures. Extreme heat and cold can cause reactions to the packaging, so when you test for this, make sure it won’t break down if it gets sent to Antarctica, or gets sent to the equator in the heat of summer. 

The Challenges and Benefits 

Extreme environment packaging makes sure that the safety of the product and its integrity is paramount.   With so many environments that can cause these items to break down, even the smallest of changes may cause a reaction.

Think about it. if you drop something like a volatile bomb too hard, you’re risking the lives of those who are handling it. with this packaging, you can prevent casualties, and also ensure that the packaging is good for the items at hand.

The biggest challenge is the complexity and costs of this, so that you can make packaging that’s durable, and works well.

You want to make sure that if you’re doing this, you test all of them, and optimize the packaging for these conditions. With new additives to one’s packaging being placed every single day, it’s important that you factor in all of these.

Extreme environments are common, and if you work with items that are shipped to these environments, it’s in your best interests to make sure that they’re properly taken care of.

Save your business's bottom line and don't buy this.

With all the regulations changing and the economy really shifting to an Ecommerce based economy we had to change with it.  I have seen a ton of opportunities and some of that takes extra revenue to do.  Our company found a way to do it but we had to cut back on some things.  The change for me has been to take over some of these tasks and to source a lot of materials for our company and how we are going to go about making these changes actually valuable to us.  The whole goal of the move was to save money and to allocate those extra savings into doing either more marketing or simply to pay salaries if things start to get a little dicy.  Even in 2021, I have seen some of our own partners affected. Cutting back on some things allowed us to save some money, so I have jumped into saving and expanding our company.

Marketing is key and so much cost is lost here for many companies.  We were one. Gift boxes are something we use all the time both for marketing and then also for some goodwill with our clients as well. These two areas though set us apart from much of our competition and skimping on the quality of either of these areas was not going to be worth the savings if we did not do these areas correctly.  Don't reinvent the wheel when it is already working well. So I went back to see what we had done and recreated it from the past marketing work.  That makes the most sense to me.

It took some time to really break down all the different pieces we would need and the quantities.  I knew what I needed and had to get the right amount of direct mailing and gift boxes created at a certain cost. These two tasks had a lot of individuals pieces involved and the fact is that I needed more information on packaging supplies to understand what I actually needed to do. Learning can take time and that also costs money.

Finding professionals that can help is key.  It also helps when they don't cost much money besides your time.  Online packaging supplies companies were my answer and it saved us big time.  What I actually found was that their customer service was basically a marketing team all on their own because they had created all of these things thousands of times for massive clients through the decades.  I got all the items lists fulfilled and customized and was given tips on tape to use and ways to lower costs by getting the correct items and not the off-the-shelf ones that we see at big box stores. This company took me through the behind-the-scenes look at what major corporate gifting marketing companies are doing and we were able to buy the same things we used before at a fifty percent discounted rate.  I used this for all our other products and boom, we saved a ton of money.

 Information was key and I would not have been able to do it if it was not available.  So think about this and try to apply it to your own company if you can. It can save thousands.  

Keep Your Home Clean and Recycle Wisely

We saw some huge changes last year.  Most of the world economy took a big dive and our State shutdown most foot traffic-based businesses.  It happened all over the county.  The shutting down of much of the United States Economy and the forced purchasing from online or nowhere has really made an impact on how we shop.  ECommerce is huge now and it really has blown up.  I personally have made over double the purchases I normally do online in a given year and I see that percentage increasing as time goes by.  The fact is though that I am also receiving a crazy amount of boxes in my home each and every week and I am having trouble getting rid of them.  Boxes are all over my home and garage and I want to talk about how I get rid of them and recycle them as best I can.

If you take together every family ordering all of these boxes and not recycling, that really adds up.  Not only will the cost of shipping increase but likely the landfills and sustainability of the industry will be limited unless we as a whole actually make a difference in the amount of cardboard used on a daily basis in this country. Morally I am a fan of recycling and if we all pitch in shipping costs will go down for all of us too!

The home does not need to be filled with trash.  So getting them out is key and doing it wisely is just good.  This is much easier said than done and as of a few years ago, I would have thought this was all a joke.  But a few months ago I looked in my garage and the boxes had piled in the corner to the ceiling because I couldn't get them in the trash each week.  I am not one to tear a box down with my bare hands so I found I could only toss away a few each month into the cans provided for me.  I know that recycling can be hard.  My own town does not allow my trash company to put out more than one can to do it in.  So my goal is to make that work for me and my family.  

After a lot of time I will cut to the chase.  Cutting the boxes down to fit in the can is the only way to actually allow me to get rid of them all each week.  WIth me getting 10 to 15 sets of packaging supplies and boxes in each week I needed to find a good way to eliminate them without hurting myself and especially my hands.  Scissors were just not a good idea and caused blisters and I am not able to tear them down so I ended up with a knife. No, it is not unsafe or over-kill.  It is the best tool for the job.  It is that simple. 

Getting a nice and sharp fixed blade knife was safe and kept me from getting injured.  I always cut away from myself and used gloves.  I kept a sharpener nearby so I could sharpen the blade if it got too dull.  That allowed me to be safer because I was not over-pressuring cuts.  I got all the boxes into the can each week from that point out. Do not fear, just be smart and enjoy.

Spotlight: Dunkin Donuts Packaging

 You’ve probably had Dunkin donuts before. They've been known for coffee, doughnuts and bringing that to others since the 50s.  This is actually something that was created so that people who were going to work were able to get some food before they got some coffee.  Now, it’s a place where anyone can get coffee, and even meals.  Its packaging is pretty iconic, which is why people enjoy it in its own unique way. 

The packaging Originally 

The original packaging is far different from the colors that you see today. They used darker, powerful colors to showcase that their doughnuts and coffee were rich. It offered packaging that really showcases the contents within. It even shows a creature with a dough like texture to it, called Dunkie, which shows the personality and also gives a humanlike touch to the branch. 

The logo did make it a little bit complex, but also, it’s known for the simple packaging that played a huge role in the expression early on, and is responsible for giving the business exactly what they were trying to do for people early in the morning.

They even had the 521 different varieties of doughnuts and coffee that are hot and fresh for you to enjoy. The Retro Pink 

They soon expanded, and during the 60s, a pink color was used. It was a bit brighter than what we see today, but it does showcase the times pretty well. With a growing economy, a lot of people had some great jobs, and with more technologies than ever before, this was something that people looked for. 

The pink also helped with getting a new demographic, which was the women that were now joining the ranks of the workforce.  This was something that was welcoming, bright, and really showed this, and it did gain more and more business, particularly, those spouses that are there too, and it’s something that was considered the best coffee for brands as well. 

Orange and Pink 

Another newer means of doing this was in the 70s when they started to warm up their logos, by using orange and pink together. This is something that we’ve seen ever since they did this, and it’s a huge part of the packaging from here on out.  It’s also important to mention that around this, they tried to expand the packaging and the product line too.

The munchkins, which were tiny doughnut holes, soon became a huge favorite amongst people. They are little and tiny options for sweets, and were found all around the different packaging, and they were super popular for this reason.

Since they were a part of the mornings of many, it became a huge part of the market, especially the cereal field. The book and good packaging is what created the packaging that we see today. 

Finally, we’ve started to see this packaging change. By the time 2019 rolled around, they changed their name to Dunkin, and the doughnuts that you get from this place now also are a part of their full breakfast menu. They have more sides than ever before, and merchandise for you to try, along with so much more.

This newer, fresher packaging look is great, because it allows for Dunkin to have symbols that are playful, engaging, and are available in a variety of different types of options. Plus, with their growing need for sustainability, including the content that they recycled and composted, they’ve offered more sustainable options than ever before. This will help with growth of not just their brand, but also keeping that brand image at the forefront.