What is Protective Packaging? What are The Advantages of Protective Packaging?

Protective packaging materials are designed mainly to shield, buffer and insulate a product from potential harm and damage/loss during shipping and storage processes.

Good looking packaging is nice to have for an end user customer but the main purpose of packaging is to protect your materials that are shipped out on a daily basis and help them to arrive at their destination in one piece. However, as you may have already noticed, that does not always happen.

The shipping process can be rough, especially when you are sending fragile items. In transport, packages have to face rough handling, movement or dropping.

You do not have to tolerate this damage risk and for this reason  while moving and shipping your products, protective packaging is a must. Without protective packaging, a product will almost certainly arrive to the end-user damaged. And while protective packaging does not prevent all damage, it can greatly reduce it.

Protective packaging can be used as a primary packaging or secondary packaging depending on the product contained within or the end-use application type. In both ways, the main goal is to ensure that the product arrives in a perfect condition to the customer.

 

Types of Protective Packaging

There is no universal type of protective packaging, there are many different types available according to your product and use purpose. But using the right protective packaging is crucial, and can mean the difference between a safe and intact shipment and a destroyed one. They may be created out of a wide range of materials including but not limited to plastic, metal, cardboard, etc.

Here is a quick list of some of the different types of protective packaging.

• Packing peanuts: They are used to fill gaps in the boxes especially to protect delicate items from vibration and scattering caused by air void.
• Airbed: Creates a cushioning effect between the corrugated box and your belongings with its air filled plastic tubes.
• Bubble wrap: Main and most popular protective packaging material in the industry that has air filled bubbles on a polyethylene sheet to fill the air void in the boxes.
• Bubble bag: A special type of bubble pouch to protect fragile and electronic items.
• Packing paper: It can be used for both gift wrapping and void filling. 
• Corrugated wrap: Useful cardboard sheets that consist of multiple layers which are used to wrap around the products and act as a shock absorber.
• Cool mailer: Protects your temperature sensitive products during transit.
• Cardboard Edge Protector: Its purpose is to protect products’ corners with its rigid angle form. 

 

How to Choose The Right Protective Packaging?

Most important thing is deciding on your priorities and these priorities depend on various factors such as your product type, brand positioning, ecological concerns, transit type and type, etc.

Once you choose what you care most about, then you can decide the type of packaging you need. 

Long Distance Protection

If you sell your products cross country or cross continental, your items have a long way to go with too much handling jobs. So you will need to increase the protection level of your packaging. You can use extra bubble wraps around the item, you have to use a cardboard box to place it, void fillers to fill empty spaces in that box, pallet wrap if you place your boxes on a pallet or each other, etc.

Heavy Product Transportation

If your commodity is heavy or bigger than a small parcel, it generally has to be taken care of gently and needs more protection against external impacts. You may need to use pallet wraps, corner protectors, bubble wrap, etc.

Packaging of Sharp Edge Products

If your item has rigid and sharp edges, one of your priorities should be to protect the edges. While one of the reasons is to protect edges from damages, you also need to take the responsibility to protect handling persons’ security during transit and storage. If  you do not create a secure packaging, sharp edges could cause job safety problems. Cardboard corner protectors are mostly used in this packaging type.

Temperature Sensitive Packaging

Pharmaceutical, cosmetics, flowers, sea foods,fresh vegetables, and fresh fruits need to be protected from temperature changes during transportation. Before the shipment they should be placed in temperature sensitive packaging. Cool mailer and cool box liners are generally chosen for this type of protection. Their reflective surface creates a thermal shield and acts as a barrier between the temperature and the product. They are especially designed to keep your products at the desired temperature during transit and storage.

Transportation of Large Amount of Products

If you are sending too much product at once, like a full container load, or a large amount of boxes, you certainly should use pallets. When you decide to use pallets, your number one supporter of packaging would be pallet wrap. You can use a flush core or extended core according to your needs. You can use clear pallet wraps for transparency and easy inventory control, and also you can use black pallet wraps for extra privacy and the protection of light sensitive products. Hand pallet wraps are the best option for the small businesses and machine pallet wraps are perfect for the firms that have large volumes of pallet load operations daily. 

Eco Friendly Packaging

If you would like your brand to take a step about environmental awareness, you may choose to use recyclable and compostable packaging materials. You can use packing papers, corrugated wraps, paper bags in your packaging.

 Appearance Centered Packaging

Your priority may be the appearance of the packaging rather than the protection. Lately using just kraft packing paper for packaging has become quite popular for small businesses. Even after wrapping your item with bubble wrap, you can pack it with packing paper to make it look nicer. Using bubble envelopes is a way of increasing the customer’s first impression’s satisfaction level. While they protect the product with air filled bubbles, they also look like you care much to place the order in a special case for the customer. 

Cost Effectiveness

Reducing your transportation costs is as important as reducing your damare rate and costs. If your priority is cost related, you have to protect your item from damage and possible return costs and find a way to decrease the transport cost. According to an article “the  products  should  be  packed  to  take  as  little  place  as  possible  in  order  to transport as compact and cost-effective as possible.”* Cardboard boxes, bubble wraps and bubble envelopes are the most popular protective packaging items for small parcel shipments. They are the most economical and protective way of packaging. 

 

Advantages of Protective Packaging

Adding protective packaging to their production/distribution processes is useful for both small businesses and corporations. Protective packaging creates measurable and trackable outcomes in the short and long run. 

• It reduces the risk of damage and loss during transit and your products arrive at their destination safely.
• While they are decreasing the damage rate, they increase customer satisfaction with safe deliveries.
• Customer satisfaction increases customer loyalty and your company’s sales in the long term.
• It reduces the rate of return based on product damages. Also decrease the cost of returns and refunds.
• Protective packaging increases the reputation of your establishment with high customer satisfaction.
• The organization gains a competitive advantage through the use of protective packing. 
• They also help your products avoid getting dirty during transport and storage.