At Ashtonne Packaging, we help companies, including large, small, or start-up businesses, that sell and distribute pet products in identifying the best packaging for their products and their distribution model. We focus on ways to reduce transit damage, minimizing labor and freight costs, while building brand awareness.
Over the past two decades, the shopping and buying habits of consumers have changed significantly. Previously, the only way that consumers could purchase items would be to visit a retail store, buy the product off the shelf, and transport it to their homes. These products arrived at the retail shelf by utilizing a hyper-efficient distribution model developed and optimized over many years. Goods were shipped on a pallet via truck to a retail distribution center. Retailers would deliver the products to the consumer or brick-and-mortar stores.
In the early 2000s, the direct-to-consumer sales and distribution model blossomed and began to create distribution issues for consumer product companies. Companies had to decide how to integrate a distribution model that included small parcel deliveries directly to consumers’ homes, while still serving the long-standing retail distribution model. For companies selling fragile products like drinking glasses, light bulbs, and other fragile products, this transition has been especially difficult. The shift to small parcel deliveries significantly increased the damage of fragile goods in transit because the packaging was designed specifically to ship via the old palletized retail distribution model. Many companies' initial reaction to this increased damage was to add additional packaging materials (additional paper, bubble wrap, etc) to the pack to try to add protection. In some cases, this “over-pack” did help to reduce damage. However, the additional labor costs and freight costs associated with this method proved to be overall counter-productive.
Today, in the ever-growing and changing pet products market, the trend in packaging is sustainability and how that can be paired with custom branding and cost to entice repeat customers. Today's online shoppers (19%) consider price important, but trust in branding is more important. Customers are buying more products online in bulk, pet food packaging, and the concern here is ensuring food bought is fresh and the packaging has clear nutritional value identified.
Note that there is a huge appetite for American brands as they have been proven best in this market. This growth will allow for local and custom pet food packaging development, and companies that focus on improving safety and healthcare will reflect the biggest growth! Getting the packaging done properly will ensure that these companies can grow their sales and profits.
Here at Ashtonne Packaging, with our Design Team of trained experts, we have the ability to develop custom-designed packaging for pet product customers, especially those in a start-up or small business situations where you are competing with larger companies:
If you are ready to change your packaging partner and need one that with experience and expertise, especially in custom-designed packaging for pet food and other pet products, click below to schedule a meeting!