Packaging is undoubtedly essential for protecting products during shipment, but the importance of packaging extends far beyond that to include many other vital functions.
Some of the other main functions of packaging include providing information about the product or package, increasing brand awareness, and simplifying storage and transportation. Each of these functions of packaging design is vital for caring for your products, boosting your business and serving your end user.
What Are the Key Functions of Product Packaging?
Without packaging, getting a product from a manufacturer to an end user would be frustrating and challenging. The various functions of packaging make it possible to move products through the supply chain.
Packaging Must Protect Products From Damage
When you look at the purposes of packaging, product protection naturally takes first place. As products move through the supply chain, they could face rough handling, exposure to outside elements and other potential damage.
Packaging must be robust enough to keep products safe from:
- Humidity or moisture due to wet weather or poor storage conditions: Accessories like commercial moisture barriers and humidity indicator cards are effective for keeping items like electronics, food and medicine secure from moisture.
- Harsh light from outdoor storage conditions: Sunlight can damage products like medications and electronics, making it important for your packaging to offer protection.
- Heat from storage or transit conditions: Some products need to be kept at cool temperatures to maintain the integrity of the product.
- Contamination from dust, odors and particles: Keep dust and particles out of products with protective packaging.
- Vibrations and bumps: During transit, products may slide and get jostled around. Your packaging should ensure the products can withstand these natural bumps.
- Static electricity: Anti-static packaging protects electronic components and prevents dust- and moisture-related damage.
If you manufacture and ship delicate or fragile items — or items with unique packaging requirements — military-specification packaging may fulfill your needs. Military specification packaging, or mil-spec packaging, meets the highest and most precise packaging standards to prevent property damage and loss. Mil-spec options have far greater packaging capabilities that ensure items reach the end user intact and in quality condition. This also helps companies prevent financial losses due to refunds for damaged goods.
Packaging Should Provide Essential Information
Packing should also relay information about quality standards, ingredients and safety indicators. For example, shipping labels may include safety indicators for temperature-sensitive products.
To relay this information, packaging often displays barcodes and transportation labels, and there are standards and guidelines that every company must follow for packaging to move smoothly through the supply chain. For example, all barcodes and labels should be easily visible to ensure that packages are tracked properly and reach the correct destination.
As such, packaging plays a vital role in customer service and customer satisfaction. The right packaging ensures that end users have peace of mind and can track their orders from the shipping destination to their front porch.
Certain items — like fragile products, medical items, military goods and electrical appliances — may require specialized packaging with unique labels. These ensure items are handled properly, which is important for the safety of the delivery workers, recipients and the goods themselves.
Packaging Should Allow for Multiple Pieces or Components
You can get the most out of your packaging when it allows you to store various components conveniently and securely. When you think about packaging and its uses, it should include the ability to contain a disassembled product in one container. While this may not always be possible depending on the product, an ineffective packaging design could lead to spending extra on additional primary and secondary packaging to house all the separate parts.
When your company invests in premium packaging solutions, you get more than just a box. You can get foam inserts, desiccant humidity control packs — which draw moisture and aromatics for odor control — and other accessories so that your disassembled products are delivered to end users as one convenient package. A good packaging design also ensures that the product’s various parts are laid out in a way that makes each component easy to find.
Packaging Can Promote Your Brand or Product
Using packaging to promote your brand is an excellent way to optimize packaging functionality. Look at some of the largest global brands, like Amazon, and how they use product packaging to engage customers and spread brand visibility. Using packaging to promote your business is beneficial in several ways:
- It makes an impression: Packaging is your first point of contact with end users. It can help you make a good first impression before customers have even viewed or used your product.
- It is a cost-effective investment: Even though the return on investment is undeniably worthwhile, some marketing strategies have high initial investment costs. High-quality packaging with clever branding is a cost-effective way of promoting your business and your products.
- It creates brand trust: Using packaging to promote your business does more than build brand awareness — it also creates brand trust. When your branding is on your packaging, customers may feel more assured. When they receive their deliveries, they will immediately know the package is from your company.
Packaging Can Make Storage and Transportation Simpler
The small details make the greatest difference to the supply chain. For the supply chain to run as efficiently as possible, packaging should be convenient to store and easy to transport. Examples of how you can make your packaging more functional in the supply chain include:
- Choosing compact designs: A significant part of a good design is making the packaging as economical as possible. Unnecessary weight and size mean storing and shipping fewer packages at a time, and that translates to longer lead times and extra costs due to additional trips — especially if you have a larger inventory. Opt for compact, stackable packaging that can maximize the number of packages you can store and deliver at a time.
- Choosing ergonomic packaging: The supply chain can operate more efficiently when packages are easy to lift, hold, store and move.
- Durable packaging: It helps the supply chain if packaging helps maintain product integrity during storage and transit, as it reduces the number of additional measures you would need to protect items.
Protect Your Products With EDCO Mil-Spec Packaging
Investing in mil-spec packaging assures you that packaging fulfills all its functions. With premium packaging, you enjoy peace of mind that your products are protected from external elements and arrive at your end user intact.
For more than 60 years, EDCO Supply Corporation has supplied the highest quality mil-spec packaging to various industries. Our packaging meets military levels of preservation. With our mil-spec packaging solutions, your business is assured some of the best packaging on the market. Explore our range of products online, or contact us to request a quote today.
