Automation Takes a Vital Role in Direct to Consumer E-Commerce

With direct to consumer e-commerce expected to grow in the near future, manufacturers need to consider automation advancements that can help ease the process.

Truck And Boxes
PMMI Business Intelligence, 2022 The Future of Automation in Packaging and Processing

After pandemic-led shifts in warehousing and distribution, nearly half of consumer packaged goods companies expect direct to consumer shipping to increase over the next three years.

That’s according to PMMI Business Intelligence’s 2022 report “The Future of Automation in Packaging and Processing.” If direct to consumer (D2C) e-commerce grows as expected, it will impact the automation needs of consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) and how they think about automating their production lines.

D2C E-Commerce: Opportunity and a Challenge

CPGs traditionally reach their customers through retailers and distributors. But this means they have no direct contact with customers, so they are unable to harvest consumer data which would enable them to become more responsive to the needs of customers.

For this reason CPGs are increasingly turning to D2C models of retail, offering benefits both to customers and company balance sheets.

Automated ArmPMMI Business Intelligence, 2022 The Future of Automation in Packaging and ProcessingThe switch is not seamless though; shipping D2C requires minimal mistakes as errors incur more costs than other shipping methods. This makes automation a vital tool, and it’s already happening.

“Some of our clients have fully robotic pick-and-pack warehouses and that is just for e-commerce,” a mid-sized OEM says in the report.

The logistics process and packaging required for products destined for stores won’t change significantly, and the demand for shelf-ready packaging will avoid the need for split-case picking for deliveries to brick-and-mortar retailers.

But when it comes to e-commerce retailers and D2C shipping, PMMI Business Intelligence analysts expect to see changes in product packaging and shipping requirements. For products being shipped to e-commerce retailers, the expectation is to see smaller pack sizes with minimal branding.

This is where speed enters the equation. The primary packaging of a product may still proceed at the same speed, but if secondary packaging involves, for instance, packing batches of six rather than 12, this means it needs to proceed at a faster rate. This is one opening for automated solutions.

Split-Case Operations As a Solution

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