LETTER FROM THE IoPP DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION
How well do you navigate parcel delivery’s packaging challenges? If any doubts remained about the impact of the online consumer, the COVID-19 pandemic has dispelled them. It is significant and here to stay. The message is clear for those who package products: Evolve with the trends or risk becoming irrelevant. Online consumers in 2021 are nuanced, to be sure. But more broadly, they fall into two general groups. Some are experiential consumers enamored with the “unboxing” experience. These consumers consider the package-opening experience equally important as the product. The many unboxing videos on YouTube provide ample proof. A longtime friend is someone I put in the second category of today’s online consumers. Prior to 2020, he rarely purchased anything online. Retired, shopping at stores gave him another reason to get out of the house. When the pandemic hit, he turned to ordering everything online as a health precaution. He quickly fell in love with the convenience of e-commerce. Despite being fully vaccinated, he tells me he can’t foresee ever returning to in-store shopping. Unlike those in the first group, my friend says he doesn’t give much thought to the unboxing experience. Just give him what he ordered, undamaged and in reasonable time. Two different consumer mindsets, but both craving deliver-it-to-me-now convenience, which has heightened another challenge for packaging—an unprecedented crush of goods—consumer and B2B— ordered online and needing delivery. On time and undamaged. The exploding volume of parcel deliveries is making that task increasingly daunting for delivery companies. I’ve watched parcel drivers literally run from their vehicles to houses—and sometimes toss or drop packages on porches—in their haste to stay on schedule. As parcel delivery continues its incredible trajectory and taxes logistics systems, is your packaging a star at every touchpoint? Do you know all the strengths and weaknesses of the materials you’re considering— for both function and design impact? Do you have the packaging savvy that enables you and your team to make good decisions? IoPP is here to help, whether it’s a course, a webinar or a title in our bookstore. How can we help you succeed?
Best Regards,
Jim George Director of Education Institute of Packaging Professionals
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