3 ways to increase customer loyalty with packaging

Brand loyalty is becoming bigger and bigger these days. We’ve talked about the “unboxing” effect that is taking the packaging industry by storm. Customer want to feel connected to the brands they love, from the moment the package is in their hands. Here at The Packaging Group we’re more than just selling you the supplies you need. We’re also interested in helping your business succeed in branding. It’s important to think about how to increase customer loyalty with packaging.

Get Online

Promote your online business! Social media is all the rage right? So make sure your customers are getting online, following you, and shopping again online. Add an insert to the packaging requesting your customers go online to right a review. Reviews can go along way to increasing your sales and online reputation. We all trust a company that has good online reviews? It’s okay to ask for your customers for a positive review on the company or products. It’s even easier if you offer them something in return.

Discounts

Something you can offer your customer for in return for positive reviews is a discount code. You can also include these without asking them for anything. Just think back to how many times you’ve purchased something from a company again because you received a discount code. If you liked their product, you’re going to go back. Why not reap the benefits of a sale later on? Your customers will appreciate the discount and will think of you in the future.

Cross Sell

So they’ve already purchased something for you, great. They’re now opening the package eagerly to finally get their hands on your product. Give them more reasons to shop with you again. Get them online, offer them a discount, and tell them what else they should be buying. Cross selling is a great way of increasing your sales and will help you determine how people are buying. Suggest other products customers may also like so they look to continue shopping with you. You never want them to purchase something and never come back, so give them a reason to come back.



Now that you know what should go inside the packaging to promote your brand, get your packaging supplies! We have a great collection of #packaging to keep your business running.

Start by shopping our boxes.

3 ways to increase customer loyalty with packaging published first on https://www.thepackaginggroup.com/

Case Study: Polyester strapping saves money

THE PROBLEM

A large lumber mill customer that turns trees into dimensional lumber had been using ¾ x .023 regular duty steel strapping at a cost of 5.6 cents per foot. They were spending a large amount annually on steel strap. The customer was interested both in saving money on their strapping and also in finding a safer material to use. 

THE SOLUTION

We recommended a substitution to 5/8 x .035 Polyester strapping. This material had a cost of just 1.6 cents per foot, a savings of over 71% per year. The customer needed a total of five sets of strapping tools in order to run the polyester strap. 

We showed them an assortment of battery and pneumatically operated tools. Even after paying for the start-up tool cost, the customer still saved 71% in the first year alone. 

LET’S RECAP

• Spending way too much money annually
• Steel strapping dangerous to use
• Labor is up due to time consuming process

Switching to a polyester strapping and purchase 5 sets of tools. 

• Strong and durable product, works just as well as steel
• Polyester less expensive than steel
• Much safer for workers
• Savings of 71% on product plus labor

Not sure if you saw the pattern in this case study….. 71%. That’s a huge savings, even after the start up tool cost. When you think steel and plastic, you usually think that steel is going to be a stronger material. When it comes down to the right application and saving money, plastic strapping can be a major cost saver.
Case Study: Polyester strapping saves money published first on https://www.thepackaginggroup.com/

Case Study: Polyester strapping saves Christmas

It’s that time of the year, we’re all in the Christmas spirit. We thought we’d share a case study with a company that was loosing money during the holidays before they came to us. So enjoy some eggnog, get in the holiday spirit and learn about saving money with plastic strapping!

PROBLEM

A producer of Christmas Trees in North Carolina needed our help. In order to transport more trees on a single truck, and to facilitate the transfer of inventory between retail locations, the customer began bundling the trees in compressed pallets held together by strapping. The customer was concerned that the ¾ x .025 high tensile steel strapping they had planned on using was going to be costly to them and dangerous for the workers who opened the bundles since the trees were under pressure.

SOLUTION

The Packaging Group proposed a new method of bundling the pallets that used polyester strapping (shop here) rather than steel strapping and also used a pneumatic combination tool hung with a tool balancer at the strapping site. After a number of tests, we recommended a 5/8” x .045 polyester strap as the ideal answer to the customer’s concerns. The polyester had a lower cost than the steel, was much safer to work with, and allowed the customer to more quickly complete the bundling process. Additionally, the organization of the work area, particularly with the use of a pneumatic tool suspended from a balancer, allowed the customer to decrease the time necessary to bundle each pallet. The savings to this customer exceeded ten thousand dollars annually.

A producer of Christmas trees was bundling trees on a compressed pallet held together by dangerous and costly steel strapping.

• Dangerous to workers who opened bundles
• Very expensive product
• Time consuming

Converted to polyester strapping and use a pneumatic tool hung with a tool balancer at the strapping site.

• Polyester strapping has a much lower cost than steel strapping
• Polyester is much safer to work with
• Customer can complete a bundling process much quicker, thus saving on labor 

After converting to polyester strapping, the customer was said to save over 15% annually on product and labor.

With the dramatic increase in the cost of steel, many companies are finding that polyester strapping provides the same performance as steel strapping but at a fraction of the cost. Polyester is the most rigid of all strapping materials. Polyester is nick resistant and can be sealed with seals, heat, or friction welds. Polyester offers the greatest strength and highest retained tension of all plastic strapping. It’s frequently used on heavy duty loads that need high initial tension along with high retained tension during handling and storage.

In the spirit of saving? Be sure to check out the full line of application equipment and accessories, including seals, hand tools, power strapping machines and dispensers.

Case Study: Polyester strapping saves Christmas published first on https://www.thepackaginggroup.com/

Plastic Strapping Qualities

The recipe for plastic strapping.

What goes into plastic strapping and what are the qualities of strapping? Any manufacturing formula for strapping involves a tradeoff of qualities. For example, if maximum strength is desired, plastic material often becomes susceptible to lengthwise splitting or feedwheel milling. This can cause some serious problems in other areas not desired.

It’s important to know what qualities of plastic strapping. This helps you decide on the right strap for your application. The tradeoffs of qualities is what makes choosing strapping a little tricky. Luckily we’ve put together the chart below to give you a quick look at plastic strapping qualities. 

Break Strength– The amount of force required to break the strapping is expressed in pounds.

Working Range Tension– Elongating the strap to a point where it wants to recover, but not so much that it can’t recover. When strap will perform to the best of its ability.

Retained Tension– The strapping’s ability to hold tension over time.

Elongation Recovery– The strap’s ability to return to its original state after tensioning.

—-> More strapping terms

Additional qualities of plastic strapping.

Polyester strapping and poly strapping have additional important qualities. Let’s go over three of them that may need a little more explanation.

Their surfaces are unusually slippery.

This enables the typical strapping tool or machine, which employs a feedwheel, to consistently pull high tension because the overlapped pieces of strapping slide over one another easily. With manual tooling, operating effort is minimized. 

They resist abrasion unusually well.

If moderate abrasion causes particles to build up on strapping surfaces, these particles can impair the operation of a strapping tool or machine.

PRO TIP: The Signode BXT3 poly strapping tool has a blow-through hole, used to easily get rid of particle build up after time.

They are unusually split-resistant.

Lengthwise splitting causes serious feed problems when a strap end, ragged from splitting, travels through a chute or is threaded through a pallet void.

 

Make sure you go check out our selection of plastic strapping today and don’t forget to click those share buttons below if you enjoyed what you read!

Plastic Strapping Qualities published first on https://www.thepackaginggroup.com/

3 ways to get repeat customers with packaging

E-commerce and how to gain repeat customers.

You want to know how to get repeat customers online. Well, besides making a super-awesome, blow your mind type product that people just “have to have”, there’s other ways to help. I’m guessing you know where we’re going with this. You’re at The Packaging Group, so we’re going to show you ways to use packaging.

3 ways packaging can help you get repeat customers online.

1. Tape
2. Boxes
3. Bubble 

So, all the things needed to protect a product in a package, right? Well, yes and no. It’s more than that. Let’s go over each to see how you can improve customer retention.

Tape

Maybe the first thing that people will see besides the box. Tape is more than just securing the boxes together to protect your product, it can represent your brand. We suggest our water-activated tape for two reasons. It’s going to be the best way to protect your package during shipping and they can be customized. Instead of having to spend a lot of money on a custom box for your products, why not choose to have your tape branded instead? It’s cheaper and looks just as nice. Water activated tape with your brand, logo, or messaging will show the customer you care about what’s inside the box.

Boxes

You’ve heard of unboxing, right? The fun of opening a package for the first time and getting to see how the product is displayed and protected in its packaging. If you haven’t heard of this yet, just search google or YouTube for “unboxing” and you’ll see just how popular it is. Why not give your customers the same experience with your products? The joy of opening a product for the first time should make them feel like a kid on Christmas morning. The last thing you wanted on Christmas was a poorly protected box ruining your gift! Don’t waste money on custom boxes with graphics all over them, we already talked about doing that with your tape. Make sure your box is strong enough to hold your products. Choosing the right corrugated can be the make or break for a customer. No one wants to see what’s inside a box that’s been damage. They may not even open the box to look and just return it right away. Can’t decide on the right box? Try shopping our top 30 boxes.

Bubble 

Bubble wrap and bubble packaging in general is a great way to keep your products safe during transit. In the packaging industry we call products like this, fill. From Styrofoam packing peanuts to air pillow and bubble wrap, it can all help fill the space inside the package to help prevent damage. Another plus side to having some good fill inside the box, it adds another layer of mystery. First the customer has to rip away your branded tape from this sturdy box. After that, they have to sift through the peanuts or move away the bubble wrap from their gift. Adding more anticipation to the unboxing process while protecting your products at the same time. This one seems like a no-brainer.

Let’s enjoy getting mail again.

We’re all sick of junk mail these days, and we probably all have too many credit cards as it is. Let’s make sure your customers keep coming back and using those credit cards with your online site. Make them excited about getting mail again from the moment they see their package is delivered. Your brand extends beyond your website. Make sure it’s one cohesive package with these packaging tips to help you gain repeat customers.

3 ways to get repeat customers with packaging published first on https://www.thepackaginggroup.com/

How to prevent damage during shipping

0.5% of all products lost are damaged.

Well that number is super small, so I don’t care. This will never add up.

WAIT!What if your total sales revenue was 10 million?

I’ll let you do the math on that one. Hint: It’s a significant number!

Seen this before?

 

Let’s fix that!

There’s several things you can do when trying to prevent damage during shipping. 
First let’s start with the stretch wrapping process.

Stretch wrap to protect pallets.

Do you know what a properly contained pallet looks like?

Stretch wrap used to contain a pallet will protect it from damage if done correctly. Containment force is the squeezing pressure that the film puts onto the load. Containment force must be consistent from top to bottom, creating a single package or unit. If containment force isn’t done properly, the pallet will shift and fall during transit. Just think of those huge trucks and their wide turns they’re always taking. Now imagine that pallets shifting their weight from side to side during the turn.

If your pallets end up like this after shipping, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

• Keep a consistent containment force from top to bottom. 
• Wrap the pallet evenly and consistently, using the same number of revolutions.
• Make sure you know the film weight, so you can keep it consistent and repeatable in the future. 

Load the trailer correctly.

No matter how properly you wrap a pallet with stretch film, it won’t protect against the space between pallets. Like we mentioned before, those pallets WILL be moving from side to side during their travels. It’s science. How about when those trucks are breaking? You guessed it, those pallets will move front and back.

• So make sure you’re balancing the weight evenly throughout the truck. 
• Place loads with similar heights and weights together.
• Fill the empty space.

How do I feel the empty space during shipping?

Dunnage Air Bags is the solution.

These guys are great for filling the void between pallets, helping to protect your loads from damage during shipping. They also look like really comfy pillows for your pallets. It’s a long trip, make sure your pallets get the rest they need.

Dunnage Air Bags are the most cost effective way to fill those voids and block and brace your shipments. They’re economical- in loads that are mostly the same a single dunnage air bag can brace an entire trailer. They eliminate load shifting that can cause major damage during transit. They’re super easy to use. Dunnage air bags can be installed in a few minutes with ease. Air Bag Inflators help to quickly bring the bag to size needed to protect your packaging. Deflation is also simple, they deflate fast and can be removed quickly for easy unloading.

 Now you on you’re way to preventing damage during shipping. Be sure to check out our Packaging Library for more great info on our products and solutions.

How to prevent damage during shipping published first on https://www.thepackaginggroup.com/