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ISTA’s Omnichannel Survey Trends

The omnichannel market (retail and e-commerce) poses significant challenges to package designers, product manufacturers, retailers and the distribution system.

Brianobanion

The omnichannel market (retail and e-commerce) poses significant challenges to package designers, product manufacturers, retailers and the distribution system. How do you provide enough product protection when the distribution channels are so different? The choices made about the packaging strategy have a significant impact on damage rates and costs.

This past fall, ISTA surveyed product vendors to determine how they are addressing the challenges in the omnichannel market. In addition to documenting the relative use of the various omnichannel packaging strategies, the survey also attempted to determine if there were linkages between several variables, as reflected in how the damage rates vary by the distribution channel, the packaging strategy, the packaging cost (as a percentage of product cost), the product category, the product cost and shipment volume, the scale of product distribution, and the size of the company.

Omnichannel Packaging StrategyOmnichannel Packaging StrategyIn order to tease out these linkages, the survey addressed general product damage information, including damage rates for various channels and the relative volume through each channel. It also addressed the omnichannel approach, or the identified the packaging strategy used for omnichannel at present and in the future. One approach is to use legacy brick and mortar packaging design for sale both in-store and home delivery. Another is to use new omnichannel package design for sale in-store and home delivery. The third considered approach is to use different packaging for brick and mortar and home delivery.

Alongside these facts, the survey identified company demographics such as the size of company, scale of distribution, product sector presence, packaging cost as a percentage of product cost, product shipment volume/cost, and expected future growth of e-commerce.

The survey also asked about their supply chain scenario of most concern. This series of questions identified the largest pain points for product vendors as defined by the country, supply chain segment, and mode where the most damage occurs.

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