A major national retailer of clothing, accessories and apartment items for young men and women previously had transitioned the fulfillment packaging for one of its brands. The clothing retailer made the switch from corrugated shippers and air cushioning to padded mailers from Sealed Air. The motivation was to reduce cost for both shipping materials and freight, by improving cube and reducing weight. Additionally, the material source reduction would better support the company’s environmental profile.
- Using excess packaging
- Not improving sustainability
- Expensive packaging process
- Heavy packaging
- Sustainable/Green packaging
- Reducing weight
- Cost savings
- Improves labor efficiency
- Responsible use of packaging supplies
To differentiate itself from other retailers, the retailer required that the supplier have the ability to print brand supporting graphic images onto the exterior. (For many of these products, they were also using expensive tissue paper and a ribbon around the items before placing them into the shipper. This added more expense.) So when IPS Packaging offered an alternative solution, the door opened to secure this win. The customer was hesitant about making the conversion, but concerns were addressed by a professional IPS Packaging specialist.
Packing takes place at various stations on the warehouse floor. A rack over the table holds the different mailer sizes. The operator reaches up to grab the appropriate size, fills it with product and removes the pressure-sensitive tape which exposes the self-sealing adhesive. Using mailers not only reduces costs, but also improves labor efficiency since it takes less time to load and seal vs. a corrugated shipper.
IPS Packaging's Pregis AirSpeed® 5000 systems are also used at this distribution center. The systems are located in a section of the warehouse that is still using corrugated shippers to pack the second brand's products which are not appropriate for padded bags.
