e-commerce packaging is one area where retailers are increasingly demanding value. Using too much or too little packaging than necessary means incurring large costs through damages or transport inefficiency. Items ordered online often travel great distances to arrive at people’s doorsteps. So every piece of packaging has to perform at its best. This means that while adequately protecting products, it must also comply with regulations and minimise environmental impact.

The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN) recently published “Packaging and the Internet”, a useful guide to packaging goods for multi-channel delivery systems. The report contains practical guidance on designing packaging for Internet retail. As an example, the dimensions of outer packaging should be selected to give a good pallet fill.

The report also mentions that, despite being difficult to predict and specify at first, the outer packaging should have the right combination of strength and weight. That is an area where collaboration and constant feedback between packaging manufacturers and buyers will be crucial as it will lead to increase in the VALUE of the packaging.

What are your experiences and thoughts on e-commerce packaging?