Frustration-Free Packaging Redesign

by Brad Oberstadt - Chainalytics

Amazon.com® new Frustration-Free Packaging initiative not only cures online shoppers of “wrap rage”, it is also a benefit to other retailers selling products online. Frustration-Free Packaging strips down the original retail packages to the bare essentials or the lowest point of protection needed to ensure the product gets to the customer undamaged.

Amazon.com recognized that online retailers don’t need the marketing or theft deterring characteristics of traditional retail packaging. Frustration-Free Packaging gives Amazon.com and other online retailers an excellent opportunity to save money in reduced packaging material cost.

Just look at this example by Fisher-Price®. By re-engineering their packaging to the frustration-free format, they were able to reduce a long list of materials, creating a much more cost effective and sustainable package for their pirate ship toy, not to mention making it easier for the consumer to open. Amazon reported the below material savings in just one package:

• 1576.5 square inches of printed corrugated package inserts

• 175.25 square inches of PVC blisters

• 36.1 square inches of folding carton materials

• 36 inches of plastic-coated steel-wire ties

• 2 molded plastic fasteners

• 3.5 square inches of ABS molded styrene

Multiply these numbers by thousands of annual sales units and you are making a large impact towards reducing your company's sustainability footprint.

Interested in bringing the benefits of Frustration Free Packaging to your company? Contact the packaging engineers at Chainalytics, info@chainalytics.com. They have helped hundreds of companies redesign and re-engineer their packaging to realize material cost savings and significant supply chain cost reductions.

"Paper vs. Plastic" – The Grand Debate

By Rob Kaszubowski, CPP - Chainalytics

As a packaging engineer, I am hounded by aunts, third cousins and other long lost relatives at family reunions and gatherings. I am repeatedly asked the timeless question: which is better...paper or plastic bags?

The short answer is easy: neither! Paper and plastic bags each have different components that make them a drain on natural resources and a strain on the environment. When it really comes down to it, each option has its pros and cons. Advocates from each platform will tell you their option is better than the other. It just depends on who’s banging their drum louder that day to make you listen to them.

Both materials are recyclable, but the rate that consumers recycle them is minimal at best. Paper is degradable, whereas plastics take over 1,000 years to decompose. Yet, plastic bags require less energy to produce and recycle. The list goes on and on and teeters back and forth without really steering you to truly believe one is greater than the other.

The grand “Paper vs. Plastic” debate has started to stir again, with California’s recent attempt to ban plastic bags completely. The bill was rejected in Septmeber, as challengers thought the regulation pushed the limits on consumer choice too far. Either way, the push is on for consumers to utilize reusable bags across the country.

The “Paper vs. Plastic” debate brings up a common challenge for most organizations: what are the best materials to use for packaging? With so many factors to consider, such as cost, protection and the environmental impact, it is important to understand the pros and cons of all material options. However, researching and testing a number of different materials can be time consuming and expensive.

The packaging consultants at Chainalytics have extensive knowledge of materials, are experts in evaluating packaging materials and can help your company select the packaging materials that best meet all of your packaging needs. Contact us at info@chainalytics.com .