Are you leaving opportunities on the shelf?
Innovative packaging can do more than crunch supply chains to make them more efficient. It can directly increase sales using digital printing techniques, offering customers something different and attractive. By Thomas Neth - Business Unit Director - Electronics and Pharma
Opportunities to drive down logistics costs and increase sales are being left on the shelf as procurement for electrical appliances falls victim to a siloed approach to packaging.
According to new global research from DS Smith, exploring the attitudes of supply chain and sustainability managers in four major sectors, almost seven in 10 (68%) of electrical appliance manufacturers cannot take advantage of significant savings across supply chains because they have a siloed approach to procurement.
Worse, only 24% of these managers see packaging as a strategic priority, meaning the majority has missed the cascade of savings and benefits available to those with more holistic procurement.
Unusual results
We’re not saying that innovative packaging is the solution to increasing logistics costs and the need to reduce carbon footprints. It’s better than that. It can also directly increase sales.
Let me give you an example.
Versuni (previously Philips Domestic Appliances) makes a wonderful bagless vacuum cleaner, and we could see that the existing box wasn’t cleaning up the supply chain.
Essentially, many more boxes could be stacked into a standard container. This has implications for supply chain efficiency and reducing carbon emissions because fewer containers are needed to transport the same number of units.
By looking at the bottom line, this meant reducing overall costs by more than €2m per year.
Circular economy
Every package design is robustly proven out to enable supply chain resilience and introduce circular economy principles.
First, our technologically advanced testing tool ‘PACE’ (Performance, Assurance, Consistency and Environment) means every package uses the minimum material, is consistent in conformance and has the highest performance.
Secondly, our collaborative PackRight Centres guarantee that customers are always central to packaging design and planning. They also push customers to integrate the sustainable credentials of any package into supply chains so it makes an active difference and can be readily reused or recycled. This naturally introduces circular economy principles.
Shelf pop
But that’s not all. Remember – the box is triangular. This is an unusual shape for a vacuum cleaner, and this difference gave it a huge advantage on the shelf precisely because it looks different.
Digital printing technology means that units can be shop-ready from the factory, ready not just for more efficient journeys across supply chains, but for the shop floor. Because of its unusual shape, the product popped on the shelf. Sales increased.
Read the report to discover how to reduce your carbon footprint while increasing supply chain efficiency