Complexities of Designing for Omni-Channel

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This article covers the complexities that arise when designing for omni-channel packaging and how to navigate the challenges.

In a world where consumers expect to be able to purchase when, where and how they like, as well as growing pressure on retailers to reduce costs, omni-channel packaging sounds like the perfect solution. Enabling businesses to manufacture or produce one product and packaging, that can be sold through multiple channels. 

Omni-channel certainly seems to work digitally, but how does that success transition when it is applied to packaging. It sounds so simple, there are numerous great solutions for e-commerce, as well as bricks and mortar stores, so just take the best of both and combine right?

Unfortunately, the answer to that is a definite no… 

Simplism is a word described in the dictionary as “Exaggerated simplicity, as in concentrating on a single aspect or factor of a problem or situation while disregarding others”

Having experienced first-hand the challenges and complexities omni-channel can bring, why is it so complex to develop packaging solutions that work for both channels? 

1. packing

Most manufactures and FMCG suppliers have built their whole business and supply chain around supplying to bricks and mortar or high street retailers. They have spent many years refining and developing this highly automated process, which means that they cannot be easily adapted or changed to use stronger materials that provide greater protection during the more destructive e-commerce supply chain.

Opportunity to add extra protection or void fill is significantly difficult, as the packing machines run at incredibly high speeds, any small variations that slow them down could have a disastrous financial result for the business.

A typical design style for bricks and mortar could be a glued wrapper solution, as it provides everything the bricks and mortar supply chain needs, however it poses significant issues for e-commerce. The gapped flaps allow dirt into the product contained, it also means other packs during transit could easily hit the item being shipped, either damaging the primary product or causing it to leak. Wrappers generally require perforations to allow them to fold easily on the automated packing machines, but this is an engineered fail point in e-commerce, meaning that the pack will fail and rip open. 

I have completed supply chain testing where I dropped tins of powdered milk weighing approximately 3kg in a wrapper featuring perforations, it broke open on the first drop, but without the perforations and a ripper tape, it managed to go through a full 15+ drops without any problems. 

Using thicker and stronger materials to allow for perforations or provide greater protection, cannot only lead to increased storage inbound, but also put increase maintenance or downtimes through additional pressure on the automated equipment. 


Packing key take aways: 

  • Remove all perforations and replace with alternative methods of positive creasing to ensure clean folding 
  • Rarely is it commercially viable for manufacturers to accommodate automated machine speeds being reduced with an omni-channel solution 
  • Modifications to the machines will require significant time and costs, so the omni-channel pack will need to bring large benefits and opportunities as an end to end solution, otherwise it could be more cost effective to use a separate operation to handle the e-commerce fulfilment
  • Void fill, buffers and fitments will be incredibly difficult to introduce with high speed automation

2. Product

Fragile items are notoriously difficult to ship through omni-channel, requiring significantly more packaging in e-commerce, than for sales in bricks and mortar, especially with glass or ceramic products. You may not believe it, but one of the most difficult items I have come across to pack has been chocolate, especially when decorative or large bar formats. Not only is it fragile and can break easily, but you also have to deal with temperature sensitivities for hot and melting, or the opposite end of too cold and blooming!

Unfortunately, some items are just not financially viable to be shipped via e-commerce in their current iterations, however, many manufactures are starting to tackle the issue at source and not mask the issue with packaging.

Trigger sprays were a huge problem in e-commerce to begin with, but since then, a number of businesses have started to develop e-commerce friendly solutions to solve this issue at the primary product.

It’s important to think about the product value when launching products from retail to e-commerce, sometimes the packaging was costing nearly the same as the item being shipped. This is where the manufacturer has to decide if the item is really worth shipping individually, or look at combining it with other products to add value and convenience.

Something that surprised me greatly was how badly damaged metal cans became when drop tested, although the cans are round and provide a natural void space for corner drops or impacts. The weight and density of the product meant that a very small pack dropped from only 400mm could result in significant damage to the can and not being able to be opened easily. Collaborating with the customer and after presenting the initial test results, which highlighted most of the damage was to the base of the can, they suggested using a different design from another product. It had a small indentation and more ribbed design, providing more strength. Immediately we saw improved results and the damage reduced significantly. This goes to show the need for quick and dirty testing, as well as close collaboration between the supplier and the customer. 


Product key take aways:

  • Suitability of the primary product for omni-channel before packaging development
  • Quick and dirty testing for insights
  • Do not add packaging to mask the product weaknesses or issues, but make minor changes to the product, reduce packaging cost and material shipped to the customer

3. Primary Packaging

Whilst most primary packaging is developed for being displayed on a shelf in a store, it can pose a significant problem for e-commerce. It can mean the product has uncontrolled movement within, or increases the volumetric capacity significantly, as well as carton board packs can soon start looking very battered after a few impacts. 

How many packs have you seen on shelf that are much larger than the product contained? To make a product seem much greater value for money, or provide critical branding space. This can cause huge issues within e-commerce, especially in beauty, where items can be glass within a solid board box. Not an issue on a shelf display, but uncontrolled movement within the e-commerce supply chain is one of the biggest causes of damage. Movement is not an issue in itself, as sometimes it is better to slow something down gradually, rather than a sudden stop and impact, but its about the control. Wine bottles are a product that respond better to being allowed a small controlled movement and slowed upon impact. Spirits can sometimes also be packed in an outer box, which again allows uncontrolled movement 


Primary Packaging key take aways

  • Creates unnecessary excessive space from being developed to stand out on shelf
  • Poorly constructed designs, not suitable for e-commerce supply chain
  • Uncontrolled movement of product increases risk of damage

4. Material

Bricks and mortar supply chains feature mostly neatly stacked pallets and the product orientated upright, with either edge protection, top boards or some kind of wrapping to keep them in position. I say mostly, but have certainly seen other variations of this over the years.
However, this means the pack is usually designed for minimal material usage and fully developed with stacking strength as the key focus. Whereas in e-commerce, you have only have a 33% chance of the box being stacked in the correct orientation during loose loading to use this strength. You also need protection from impact over stacking strength. 

When designing packaging for omni-channel, you still need to achieve the stacking strength for bricks and mortar, but you also need to start thinking in X, Y and Z axis. How can you create strength from using waste in these areas. 


Material key take aways

  • Use waste material from the blank manufacturing process to create features like buffers, dividers or protection
  • Chosen a material and design that work in perfect harmony – do you need strength or impact resistance
  • Engineer the pack to ensure material is moved and used in only the necessary areas
  • Recycled liners, although seen as more sustainable can perform worse in e-commerce, resulting in tearing and requiring heavier grades

5. Protection

With a number of products transported on pallets for bricks and mortar, which provides a reasonable level of protection, this means that materials are selected for stacking strength in one direction and not for impact absorption. One of the worst products I had to try and protect so far was food cans, as the product was not damaged or unsuitable, they just looked absolutely smashed to pieces with huge indents after an e-commerce supply chain test. The trick was to design the solution, with as much protection in the impact areas, whilst not adding any further material and costs. Its very surprising how much a millimetre of buffering here and there can make. 

What’s the secret to protecting a product during transit, test, test, test and then test some more. Over the past 29 years as a designer, I have spent a significant amount of time in laboratories observing test processes, but most importantly understanding what the results mean. Watching the product move, how does it react, did the tape move, or the pack shuffle. Did you know you can easily fake a drop test for positive results. Just try mounting the pack in the drop tester with the corner slightly out of position, the pack will make a first impact on the corner, but rather than taking the full impact 


Protection key take aways

  • Careful consideration of product placement
  • Controlled movement will be required for some items
  • Fix damage or weak areas in the product before developing packaging
  • Testing is absolutely critical
  • Uncontrolled product movement is a large cause of failures

6. design

Most retail packs have some kind of display feature, which in turn creates significant engineering failure points within e-commerce. The challenge here is to make the pack easy to open, yet strong enough to not break open during an impact in the e-commerce supply chain.  

creating eye catching graphics to grab the attention from a competitor product on shelf. 

Essentially all of these elements go against what is required in e-commerce, why pay for expensive eye-catching graphics that will be scuffed, creased or marked during transit, or maybe advertising an expensive product contained. 

Attention to detail is a critical when designing for omni-channel, even down to the slot position or width on a design, why? I created a flower box for a customer, which had horizontal flutes due to it presenting as a bouquet and shaped from a square blank. I took it to the laboratory to test the compression strength, know it would not require a great amount, but wanted to ensure it would meet the customer requirements. During the compression testing, I noticed it had a two stage compression. This meant that the side panels broke and provided one reading, but then within 3mm more of compression there was another increase as the flaps of the box started to support the panel from compressing. By offsetting the flaps and not having them centrally within the crease as on a standard box by 2mm, it resulted in a single stage compression and a 20% increase in compression strength. 

Its important to think in 3d and check things that can be so easily overlooked like 2mm offset slots within the case design. 


Design key take aways

  • Remove all perforations, zipper rules, cut outs and windows
  • Use waste where possible to provide additional protection
  • Design the pack to work with the benefits of the material
  • Millimetre changes can make significant differences in performance

7. functionality

A bricks and mortar solution will be required to be easy to open and shelve in store, this usually means perforations or cut outs, which is an engineered failure within an e-commerce solution. One of the most simple solutions for retailers is a tray and hood. In store the difference of an additional few seconds can be a real headache for a retailer. They certainly do not want staff also having to have multiple pieces to deal with. What about flattening afterwards. All the product needs to remain in place when put on the shelf. 


Functionality key takeaways

  • Keep the functionality simple, its easy to over design or innovate

8. recycling

Mono materials, easy to flatten and kerbside recycle. Paper tapes for easy opening now available. 

At home kerbside recyclable and needs to be able to be flattened quickly 


Recycling key take aways

  • Mono materials make recycling much easier
  • Are the materials used easy to kerbisde recycle, regionally, nationally or internationally, the scalability of recycling
  • Is it clear for the end user what they need to do with the packaging, where to take it

9. Pricing

With all the added complexities, its easy to see the cost of omni-channel solutions double the price of the original retail packaging. This means it can see a project dropped very quickly if not financially viable. 

I complete a project for a customer, where I provided 5 different omni-channel solutions, why 5? 

Firstly you start with a base price of their current bricks and mortar solution which was a two part design, consisting of a fold over ends tray and a 0200 raw edge cover. 

Before I provided an omni-channel solution, I looked to see what opportunities there was for optimisation. The product was packed in a plastic bag and contained a significant amount of air, which meant the pack height could be reduced and add an additional layer per pallet, giving a xx% increase in pallet fill. 

Secondly I then took a basic 0201 and added an easy opening tape, this meant the customer could see what the cost of a very basic solution would be, that would provide an omni-channel solution. It also worked with their current closure equipment for the 0200 and was easy to place on the shelf, or for a home user customer to open. 

Third design saw the adding of a fully overlapping crash lock base. This meant that not only had the solution been reduced from two pieces to one, but would also be faster to erect on the pack bench and not require any new equipment in the production line. 

The fourth solution started to look at the pack being enclosed in a wrapper, that interlocked with a fold over ends tray, providing a much higher level of customer experience in store and at home. 

The fifth solution evolved to be a wrapper that optimised version four from a two piece to then a single one piece wrapper design, that incorporated the tray. This meant that it could provide both retail and the end user with an elevated customer experience, but was also optimised for cost. 

At every stage, each solution was tested to ensure it passed an e-commerce supply chain test, with a clear report and images supplied to the customer, showing them what they would get for the money and the customer experience upon opening. 

By providing this scale of solutions, it provided a number of opportunities for optimisation in cost and production, or an enhanced customer experience. 

How did the solutions do, well the basic design came in just under their current solution, whilst the most expensive was the fourth version in two pieces, which nearly doubled the packaging cost. However, it was a single piece solution and had easy closure tapes, meaning reduced tooling, printing plates, packing time, equipment and machinery. 

This allowed the customer to step back and see exactly how to align the omni-channel solution with their brand. However, it does also highlight how quickly costs can escalate to double a packaging spend. 


Pricing key take aways

  • Give options from low, to medium and high pricing
  • Provide a range from basic to luxury and allow them to see what they can have for what value

10. Print

Even something like the print can be a significant issue when developing solutions for omni-channel. Bricks and mortar packaging can require a multitude of information, from opening instructions to content, warnings, barcodes, branding, opening instructions and best before dates. This large amount of print does not leave much space for a shipping label that’s around A6 in size for e-commerce, which is usually applied on the top, exactly where the closure normally is on some retail packs.

Another issue is most bricks and mortar packs have the branding on the front face for maximum shelf presence, this sees large full colour print on the exterior of the pack, whereas e-commerce is all about the unboxing experience and features internal print with an plain outer. Multi-coloured internal and external print not only adds significant costs to cover both of the channels needs, but can also be a headache for some manufactures. It either means pre-printed paper reels on the corrugator with large minimum runs, or turning of the pallets in production, which not all sites have the facilities to do.

Exterior attention grabbing print can not only cause costs to rise and production to become complicated, but it can also create a risk of theft if easy to identify the contents and the product is of high value or desire. This is why most of these type of items are usually shipped in a plain brown box to increase security. 


Print key take aways

  • Can the product be quickly and clearly identified from all sides
  • Do not forget simple things like free space for address labels
  • Can the pack be used as a marketing tool, or does it require a plain finish to protect from theft

11. Testing

When it comes to testing, bricks and mortar performance is somewhat easier to predict, as BCT is a significant indication for success with the majority of packaging solutions, however with e-commerce, this could not be farther from the truth.
Whilst palletised deliveries require only stacking strength in one direction, e-commerce requires strength in all three axis, due to loose loading, where the pack can be in any orientation throughout the journey to the end customer. This is where the fun really begins though. The design can have as greater significance as the material itself in the success in the supply chain. It is vital for omni-channel solutions, that they are able to pass real world supply chain testing before being launched. 


Testing key take aways

  • Test quickly and fail fast to gain insights for development of the product and packaging
  • Theory does not always work in e-commerce packaging solutions, real world testing is a must
  • Test inhouse or attend the testing, as laboratories will only give you the results of pass or fail, not the insights you need

Summary

Whilst in theory omni-channel packaging seems like a silver bullet solution, but it is far from it. The needs of both channels are almost polar opposites to each other and hence why you cannot take the best from both supply chains and make a great omni-channel solution. 

This means you cannot apply Simplism to the approach, you have to understand all channel needs. So how can you make it work, well this part is simple, just “find the sweet spot”
There will always be compromises and challenges when it comes to omni-channel packaging solutions, but the secret is finding out how far you can go or compromise in those specific areas. 

Not only is a deep collaboration with the customer absolutely critical from a packaging suppliers’ perspective, but also a strong commitment from the customer, because without this, your project is almost doomed from the start. Involving all stakeholders early in the development from operations, marketing, packaging, procurement and logistics will ensure a more harmonised and balanced solution is created, that brings advantages to the complete business, or stopped early to avoid significant issues.

One of the most successful elements I have seen of a collaboration, was when I challenged the customer that the product was not suitable in its current form and the cost to protect it would make it not commercially viable. They went back to their own teams and investigated other options and suggested changing the primary packaging of the product to that from another product line. Surprisingly, they made some very minor changes, which the end customer would never have noticed in store or during use, but the difference in the supply chain test performance was significant. 

Whilst complex and challenging, omni-channel packaging solutions are not impossible to develop with the right insights and experience, or a silver bullet solution for sustainability and cost optimisation. However, they can bring great opportunities for new business and provide agility for many retailers in this ever unpredictable and rapidly changing world. 

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By G4v1n

Hello… I am Gavin

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