Your automotive product packaging must be sturdy enough to ship and engaging enough to catch a consumer’s eye. With such variance in the size, shape, and weight of automotive parts and chemicals, how do you determine what packaging is best for your specific product? Developing custom packaging is the answer.
When you work with a package design partner to create packaging around your automotive parts or chemicals, you get a host of benefits. Custom packaging increases product protection, as it’s specifically designed to shield the item from harm. Custom-fitted packaging also reduces waste by cutting down on additional packaging material, allows for increased shipment loads, and diminishes logistics costs.
Ready to begin the journey towards custom automotive product packaging? Keep these tips in mind as you search for your perfect solution.
At the beginning of the packaging design process, you’ll want to decide if your packaging will be expendable or returnable.
Expendable packaging is a single-use design meant to be disposed of or recycled once it reaches the end user. The most common types of expendable packaging include corrugated cardboard and wood.
Conversely, returnable packaging is meant to be reused in the manufacturing and distribution cycle. Returnable packaging normally consists of items like bins, pallets, tanks, reusable plastic containers, or other reusable vessels. Returnable packaging typically has a higher up-front cost than expendable packaging. Also, it may not be as environmentally friendly as expendable packaging, as the end of life cycle is not often considered for these types of receptacles.
Your shipping cycle and unique packaging needs can help determine whether you should use expendable or returnable packaging. Generally, expendable packaging is better when:
Expendable packaging doesn’t necessarily equate to large amounts of waste. Many expendable materials — including corrugated cardboard — can be environmentally friendly, reusable, and recyclable. No matter if you choose a returnable or expendable option, your packaging should aim to minimize total supply chain costs and maximize cubic utilization.
Your automotive parts and chemicals’ weight and size have a great impact on what type of packaging you’ll need. When shipping large, heavy products, double or tri-wall corrugated cardboard boxes are a great choice.
For smaller components that aren’t as heavy, you can get away with a more lightweight box. However, you should bundle products when you can. When shipping a large number of small parts, you can individually bag each item and put them into a corrugated cardboard box that can handle everything. Or, you might consider adding die cuts to your box. They help your products stay in place and cut down on additional packaging materials you must use.
Your automotive product’s weight and size may also determine what style box you use. If you have large, bulky items that a person cannot lift into a fully-formed box, you might consider using double cover boxes. A double cover box is a four-sided strip that, when folded, forms a tube. The tube makes up the body of the box, and two trays cover the top and bottom to encapsulate the product. A packager places the product on the bottom tray, lowers the four-sided strip around the product, then drops the second tray on top. When these steps are complete, the product is ready to be shipped.
If you have a product that needs to be inspected throughout the shipping process, you might consider a design-style box. Typically, this design is most commonly seen on shoe boxes, and it’s a great choice for boxes that need to be opened and closed repeatedly. There are many different types of boxes and a custom corrugated manufacturer can help you decide which one is best for your unique situation.
Whether you’re selling online or in-store, your automotive product packaging has the opportunity to deepen your connection with customers. Custom packaging that uses your brand’s colors and voice elevates the customer experience and increases brand awareness. Additionally, corrugated cardboard packaging is durable, cost-effective, and sustainable. Using custom-printed corrugated boxes has too many benefits to ignore.
For retail applications, consider going beyond the box. Custom corrugated cardboard POP displays showcase your brand, share important messaging and imagery, and put your products on display in a way that captures customer attention.
At Dusobox, we’re equipped to take on your unique automotive product packaging needs. We’ve heavily invested in both traditional and digital print technology to provide you with the best customized corrugated cardboard displays and packaging.
We are a G7 Master Qualified Facility for all of our printing processes, including digital, offset, and flexographic. Our G7 Master status — granted by Idealliance — proves we have calibrated our equipment and systems to deliver consistent color every time. When you work with us, you can be sure your packaging maintains the integrity of your brand.
We’re focused on sustainability, recycling 20 tons of packaging material every day. We also have made great strides in bringing paper-based materials to market, a more sustainable alternative to plastics. This new paperboard product — called Mako-Board™ — is a sustainable replacement to synthetic, non-recyclable packaging material. With more consumers actively seeking out sustainable products, your business could benefit from our sustainability initiatives.
Contact us today to get started on your automotive product packaging.
Dusobox is a leading designer, engineer, and manufacturer of custom corrugated display solutions and product packaging.
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