COVID-19: One Year On

It's been almost a year since we (in North America) began to be severely impacted by COVID-19, leading to cancelled trade shows, office closures, and local lockdowns.

Since then, there have been several trend shifts and changes in the packaging industry, many of which are here to stay:

E-Commerce Ready

No matter what your product is, it's imperative that it is e-commerce ready when it comes to packaging. With so many stores now offering delivery or curbside pickup, many consumers are opting to make purchases online rather than in-store.

For brands who aren't already set up for e-commerce, this may present a few challenges when it comes to how protective your packaging is and ensuring that your packaging can stand out in pictures. Check out our recent post about differentiating your packaging here for more information on how to combat this.

Hygiene First

Hygiene has been at the forefront of consumer minds all year, and this will continue past the pandemic. It's imperative that you're able to protect your product from contamination until it gets to your customer, which can be done by integrating security features into your packaging or creating disposable or multilayer packaging.

Another measure that could help this is traceability software, which can be integrated into film. This software can track and record all information about the production of a product, the time and date the product was packaged, and all the production process steps. With this information, you can rectify any issues such as contamination or quality by tracing the issue back to one of the monitored steps.

Safe + Secure

Another way to offer a safety guarantee to your customers is to adapt your packaging to be tamper-proof. Consumers need to feel reassured that their product is packaged in a way that will remain protected and safe from contamination before it gets to them. With functions such as tear notches, tamper-evident shrink seals or labels, and child-resistant zippers, you can offer this guarantee to your customers.

This also applies to produce that may have been packaged differently pre-pandemic, such as grapes. Now brands are opting for lidding film or pouches with perforation for breathability, while still keeping the produce safe from contamination.

Staying Local

After the massive disruptions to global supply chains at the beginning of the pandemic, brands are trying to stay as local as possible to avoid any further delays or interruptions. In addition to having more control over their supply chain, this allows for better community engagement and can reduce extra transportation costs.

At Associated, everything we use, purchase, and produce is made in North America, with a few exceptions from Europe. Staying local also allows us to reduce the environmental impact of our products while ensuring better timing and reliability for our customers.

One more observation from the past year is that so many businesses are adaptable and innovative. In our community alone, we've seen companies band together to fill design gaps or donate their production space to fulfill the high demand for hand sanitizer (our incredible customers AG Hair were one of many to do this!). No matter how long we're in this unprecedented situation for, we're all in this together.

If you'd like to reach out to one of our specialists with a question about labels or packaging, contact us here!