Baking & Snack - March 2018 - 109

EQUIPMENT
Display Packaging

Verdict
As online shopping grows, food manufacturers seek new opportunities for retail packaging.
by Nico Roesler

The journey a product takes to get to a consumer is very
different from what it was 10 or even five years ago.
Click-and-pickup options at grocery stores are becoming more popular, meaning some people may soon see
it as strange or overwhelming to walk down a supermarket aisle. Consumers are ordering food by talking into
a smart speaker, and drones are being tested to deliver
online purchases. These advances are happening faster
than many can keep up with.
Online grocery shopping is one of the fastest-growing sectors in US retail, economists say. Twenty-three
percent of shoppers bought groceries online during a
3-month period ending in April 2017, according to the
market research firm TrendSource. Other consumers are
using their Google Home and other smart speakers to
order goods. If someone asks Amazon's Alexa to order
another pack of their favorite granola bars, they show up
as early as the next day. This eliminates the need to go to
a store, look at a shelf and choose the attention-grabbing
product. In the baking and snack packaging world, it's
difficult to judge what changes may be in the near or distant future to adapt.
"We've always said packaging sells, but I think that
may change," said Bill Kehrli, vice-president, sales and
marketing, Cavanna Packaging.
While channels like club, grocery and c-stores will

exist for the foreseeable future and create a demand for
retail-ready packaging, changes could be on the horizon
if consumers move their grocery shopping online, where
all the eye-catching designs and innovative displays
aren't all that necessary. So, why do it?
These questions and more are on the minds of many
bakers and snack manufacturers as they look at the constantly changing retail landscape. "Manufacturers need
to better understand the product journey through the
online retail channel to better prepare for new routing and, ultimately, the various products their branded
items will be comingled with for final shipment to the
consumer's door," said David Potter, vice-president, supply chain and product engineering, Plastic Packaging
Technologies.
How will that bag of potato chips travel with cans of
soup or non-food items? Will the primary package need
to be reinforced or upgraded to sustain a more unpredictable final phase of shipping and handling? The questions abound, but many equipment manufacturers don't
see this as a seismic shift in strategy. Ironically, things
may go back to how they were before the Internet even
existed. Long before intricate display packaging was required to stand out on the shelves, all that was needed
was a simple box or wrap that held the product together.
Manufacturers still need to get the product from the

Flexible equipment that
can produce simple
multipacks and retailready designs provide the
ability to serve online and
traditional retail channels.
Cavanna Packaging

www.bakingandsnack.com / March 2018 Baking & Snack 109

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking & Snack - March 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - March 2018