Shipping Materials – Time to Cut Out the Cost of Shipping the Material Itself

If you are a purchaser at Amazon perhaps you’ve answered a couple of surveys and feedback questions about packaging; was the size of the package right, was the merchandise protected, etc.? Obviously, shippers are trying to reduce costs and Amazon Prime is trying to reduce its shipping costs too, as well they should, remember efficiency means higher profits, but let’s take this conversation to a higher level shall we?

You see, there was a worthy article in the Wall Street Journal titled; “Bubble Wrap Is Losing Its Pop,” by Loretta Chao published on July 2, 2015. There is also a brilliant YouTube video by the same title you can watch online (Wall Street Journal YouTube Channel). The YouTube video description states: “Sealed Air Corp. has revamped its iconic Bubble Wrap. The new product dubbed iBubble Wrap looks like the traditional packaging material but there’s one catch: it doesn’t pop,” and the video states the new material ships ‘flat’ without air at 50-times the width on the role, meaning 50-times more product can ship out prior to use. WSJ article states that, shippers can pump the air in On-Site as needed, saving the shipping and logistics costs for the iBubble Wrap.

This is a brilliant innovation for the shipping industry and will save shippers millions of dollars, and cut down on the need for huge buildings and rooms to store it all.

Oh, and by the way, while I am still on this topic; it’s time to redesign cardboard too, it needs to use 30-50% material but remain the same to better strength – it can be done, needs to be done, and there is a shortage of cardboard for recycling and it is quite costly too. Not to mention the trees. This was actually a subject of dialogue at one of our recent think tank meetings. Why you ask? Simple, we will have to cut down fewer trees, send less recycled cardboard to China and also have the contents safer meaning less breakage and fewer returns for shippers, online retailers, manufacturers and the gifts you send out during Christmas.

Each rendition of the iPhone we expect improvements right? Sure, but what about the packaging it is shipped in, the packaging and boxes everything seems to be shipped in, what has changed? Sure a few changes but if you went to sleep 30-years ago and woke up living as homeless person in a cardboard box you’d still feel right at home, nothing has changed, so get your mind out of the gutter and start thinking beyond chanty town.