Packaging Cost Optimization 2025: Strategies for Efficiency, Sustainability, and Cost Savings

The importance of cardboard packaging cannot be underestimated. It is a crucial element for any business selling physical products, as it not only protects the content but also plays a fundamental role in attracting customers and communicating brand value. Black Friday and packaging boxes: all the solutions to choose from. With the arrival of Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping periods of the year, having an assortment of packaging boxes tailored to your business needs is essential. In this article, we will examine the different cardboard packaging solutions available to you ahead of Black Friday. Read also: “Paper and cardboard food packaging: a sustainable revolution in the packaging world” Why packaging is vital during Black Friday On Black Friday, businesses must manage a high volume of orders, making the use of reliable and practical packaging essential. Packaging boxes must not only protect the product but also reflect the brand's identity, offering an impeccable presentation to the customer. This is particularly important, as Black Friday provides businesses with a great opportunity to strengthen the relationship with their customers through a positive purchasing experience, which begins as soon as the package is opened. It is therefore crucial to choose high-quality materials that can withstand the rigors of logistics while ensuring great aesthetics and functionality. Custom boxes Custom boxes are the key to distinguishing your brand from competitors during Black Friday. These boxes are fully customizable in terms of size, design, and style. You can add your logo, corporate colors, and promotional messages to create a lasting impression on customers. During Black Friday, custom boxes can help you communicate your special offers and create a memorable unboxing experience. Well-designed custom packaging improves brand perception and makes every delivery a special moment for the customer, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth. Clothing boxes If your business is in the apparel industry, you will need boxes specifically designed to fit the garments you sell. Clothing boxes can be customized to fit t-shirts, pants, dresses, and more. Make sure to have a variety of sizes available so you can satisfy the diverse needs of your customers during Black Friday. Food boxes If you offer food products, safety and freshness are essential. Cardboard food boxes are engineered to keep food items safe during transport. Ensure your food boxes are made from food-contact safe materials and are moisture-resistant to preserve the quality of your products. Eco-friendly boxes Environmental awareness is increasingly important to consumers. Choosing recyclable cardboard boxes or boxes made from sustainable materials can help display your commitment to sustainability during Black Friday. This choice can attract eco-conscious customers and enhance your corporate reputation. Furthermore, sustainable packaging reduces disposal costs and simplifies the recycling process, offering customers a responsible and planet-friendly option. Strength and quality for your packaging Cart-One packaging begins with the production of corrugated cardboard sheets. We ensure they possess all the required features, the best performance, and a responsible attention to quality. Here are our products: Regular slotted boxes (American boxes) These are the ultimate cardboard boxes for packaging, storage, and freight transport. Made of corrugated cardboard, American boxes are shock and impact resistant; moreover, they feature a robust outer shell, making them suitable for shipping heavy goods. These boxes provide optimal protection during intensive shipping periods, such as Black Friday, minimizing the risk of damage and returns. Display boxes These are designed to contain and transport any type of goods, from food and cosmetics to pharmaceuticals, hi-tech items, and housewares. Countertop or floor-standing, display boxes are designed and built to guarantee maximum efficiency and visibility for your products. Ideal for capturing customer attention directly at the point of sale, display boxes represent an effective marketing strategy, especially for promotional products tied to Black Friday. Die-cut boxes These boxes are always delivered flat and can be processed by the customer either automatically or manually. Die-cut packaging boxes represent the best solution when you want to enhance the product contained inside. Functional and practical, they are primarily intended for packaging and transporting uniquely shaped items and products. They guarantee faster assembly, accurate protection, and a superior aesthetic finish. This type is perfect for products that require an exclusive design, ensuring an unboxing experience that leaves a mark. Special crates These are packaging boxes structured to contain and transport unconventional objects such as televisions and bicycles, as they require special formats with specific reinforcements. Despite requiring additional processing, special packaging crates are built to simplify every operation. During Black Friday, when the variety of products to be shipped can be very wide, these crates represent a practical and secure choice even for large-sized items. Plan your Black Friday packaging in advance Make sure to plan ahead and have an assortment of boxes tailored to your requirements. Advance preparation is essential to respond promptly to the order volume during Black Friday, when packaging and shipping speed are vital to guarantee customer satisfaction. In this way, you can impress your customers, protect your products, and achieve outstanding results during Black Friday. Discover all Cart-One solutions for your Black Friday packaging and optimize your business shipments with packaging that makes a difference. You might also be interested in: “Italy leader in recycling: 9 out of 10 paper and cardboard packages are recycled”

In our previous article, we described the key drivers of ecommerce packaging and the three main stakeholders in the value chains. Today, we will focus on e-consumers and how to create a memorable unboxing experience. We will first redefine where the term comes from. Then, we will identify how ecommerce packaging plays a crucial role during all ‘Moments Of Truth’. Finally we can make assumption about the key future trends. Please enjoy reading the piece, along with some wonderful examples of how our European teams have already started to create compelling packaging designs. Memorable unboxing experience – Why and when? “If companies want to increase their profile, specifically on social media, they must invest in the box as much as the product.” Paul Marsh, Managing Director – The Packaging Experts A memorable unboxing experience occurs when a consumer is so inspired by the packaging and the visual impact of a product they have bought online, they want to share it on social media. The ways consumers interact with ecommerce packaging – how they receive it, open it and engage with it - provide a big opportunity for brands, and can even help them go viral. But when did this new trend appear in the digital world? What is its evolution and how can we explain it? According to Google trends, people have been talking about their “unboxing experiences” for many years, but the term became widespread in 2008, as the “Unboxing Ceremony of Nokia E61” was the first to be recorded and published on youtube. Since then, the trend has grown to reach a peak in 2014, before stabilizing until 2019, and decreasing slightly in the last two years (probably due to Covid’s impact). However, most years there are substantial peaks in the month leading up to Christmas. Our role is then to co-create with our customers memorable unboxing experiences. How? By identifying the best opportunities to increase brand loyalty across the different Moments Of Truth. As we looked at in our previous article, these are shown below: Source: Google Memorable unboxing experience – A vehicle of brand image and message “If you were a customer who ordered something online, which is going to make you feel more valued: your purchase arriving in a generic cardboard box, or in attractive, bespoke packaging?” Beth Owens – Marketing Strategist Online purchasing is a completely different experience to shopping in physical premises. All of the touchpoints within the customer’s journey are changed, with ecommerce packaging replacing the role of traditional primary packaging. Let’s start with the arrival at the doorstep, which marks the start of the Second Moment Of Truth. At this stage, the ecommerce packaging is the first thing a customer sees, and is therefore responsible for carrying a brand’s key messages, including its sustainability policy. In the below example, developed by the Blue Box Partners’ Alliance, the packaging design generates a great first impression. It provides fantastic incentive to open, and promises to deliver a memorable unboxing experience. According to Dotcom Distribution, 40% of online shoppers would share an image of their purchase on social media if it came in branded packaging . Memorable unboxing experience – The Ultimate Moment of Truth or the way to go viral! A great unboxing experience is like the cherry on the cake: the final thing that makes something perfect! Ecommerce packaging can prolong the consumer’s exposure to a brand’s vison and allow a wider scope for positioning and storytelling. As they open the box, consumers will continue their journey, offering the brand further opportunity to display coherent and homogeneous messages. At the same time, brands can propose additional services, and further information on how to reuse their packaging. In the first example, parents can build a baby mobile for their children: This is similar to Amazon’s initiative in July 2020, “Less packaging, more smiles” which encouraged consumers to upcycle the boxes into pet houses and robot costumes. Or this example below, where online shoppers are invited to reuse the box to sell items of clothing on Vinted! In both these examples, you can clearly see that packaging design enhances the brand narratives. It is not just “a box”, but a chance to take customers on a journey,which is vital for inspiring repeat business. And, according to Forbes, acquiring new customers can cost up to five times more than retaining your existing base. Ecommmerce packaging – Reusability and returnability features to ease sustainable behaviours The next example raises curiosity and awareness of after-use recycling possibilities. Research shows 62% of online shoppers are more likely to purchase from brands using sustainable packaging. Moreover, “Returnability” features are key: they simplified life for the consumer by using glue tapes to reclose and resend the original product. These examples, all made out of corrugated cardboard, a mono-material solution that enhances recycling rates. Using sustainable products and communicating about it allows brands to cultivate an image of strong ethics and social responsibility. It has become a global concern, clearly shown by an increase in searching results of 140% within the last 12 months. Finally, as we discussed at the beginning of the article, the concept of the “unboxing experience” started with electronic products. Let’s close the loop with another example from that industry. First of all, consumers today are equipped with more electronic devices than ever before. The average UK household owns 9.16 devices. Secondly, society is increasingly concerned by the impact of so many electronic devices on the environment. Therefore, we are seeing a huge demand for reconditioned products that are delivered online. To avoid shipping the original box inside a new box, we can offer a packaging design solution with a retention system that overcomes logistic strains while minimising resources and void. To conclude, Packaging design has become a powerful tool that can have an impact throughout the customer journey. Not only does it help to engage and inform consumers, it can help to retain them too. As a result, packaging plays an important role throughout the act of purchasing, where consumers are influenced not only by a product, but by the entire memorable unboxing experience – resulting in the Ultimate Moment of Truth. Seduced by unexpected extra offers or benefits within the ecommerce packaging, the consumer will be keen to share the moment with others, creating viral content that will increase eWOM (e-Word Of Mouth), and become the Zero Moment Of Truth (ZMOT) for another consumer looking online for the same or a similar product. What can we expect for the future ecommerce packaging? As technology continues to evolve, and advancements such as AR (Augmented Reality) or IoT (Internet of Things) become commonplace, the concept of a memorable unboxing experience becomes even more important. Companies will need their brand perception to evolve alongside their products, and packaging design has a crucial part to play in promoting both consumer engagement and sustainability. If you need support in designing packaging for e-commerce, our team is at your complete disposal: contact CART-ONE for a personalized consultation.

The beverage sector also needs to renew its packaging to meet the greatest needs in terms of sustainability and recycling. In detail, among the solutions that can make the market evolve in this direction, we find beverage cartons. The latter represent a packaging solution that combines several factors that determine its sustainability, including easy recyclability and low carbon emissions to protect food and beverages, so as to allow safe transport and use. What will the beverage packaging of the future be like? ACE, The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, together with its members, including SIG Combibloc, BillerudKorsnäs, Elopak, Stora Enso and Tetra Pak, spoke on this topic. All the forces in the field, in fact, aim for the future to create an increasingly sustainable, renewable, recyclable cellulose-based packaging that has the least possible impact on the environment. Implementing this roadmap will require decisive action on the entire supply chain, in order to obtain a production that is correctly oriented towards the creation of green packaging. First of all, work will have to be done on sustainable procurement and on the recovery and recycling of materials placed on the market. In detail, the 10 commitments that must allow a more sustainable production of beverage cartons can be deduced from the roadmap drawn up. Separate collection: its critic role in sustainable development The first and ambitious commitment is to reach 90% of separate waste collection, with a recycling rate of at least 70% within the next 10 years. Separate collection, if done correctly, can become a real resource that reduces the need to find raw material based on virgin cellulosic, so as to have additional attention to forest ecosystems. Decarbonisation strategy: continuing the fight against climate change We have already spoken in the past of the importance of decarbonization strategies, protagonists of a real revolution in the fight against climate change. Also for the packaging sector for beverage products, this objective is put in black and white through the implementation of decarbonisation strategies of the production and distribution chain. The goal is to achieve the reduction of 1.5 ° degrees / centigrade set by the "Science Based Targets initiative". Forecast for 2030: this is how the beverage carton will be composed If the commitments are maintained not only by companies, but also through political measures at European level that aim to foster innovation and sustainable packaging production and the economic benefits that these entail for the manufacturing companies themselves, then we will have a modern beverage packaging. and suitable to meet the needs of the modern consumer. By working with a supply chain approach, it will therefore be possible to obtain a packaging with the following characteristics: In renewable and / or recycled material in its entirety Fully recyclable and recycled Made with sustainable and certified raw materials even in the case of virgin raw material Packaging solutions with the lowest carbon footprint will be preferred The beverage packaging production sector chooses the path of the circular economy and recycling to respond to the challenges in Europe, so as to contribute to the achievement of climate neutrality in support of the protection of biodiversity and the environment, while always having as objective consumer health and safety.