On our home calendars, the holiday season has not yet begun. But for ecommerce store owners and business owners like you, the holiday season is already well underway. You most likely started prepping for the busy season last month.
This year, data shows that consumers are not slowing down when it comes to ecommerce shopping. In the same way ecommerce is growing steadily, consumer mindsets are also growing to embrace sustainability. By 2021, the sustainability market will reach $150 billion as more and more consumers choose products that are healthy for the world. Consumers also care about the way businesses treat the planet. In fact, they demand that businesses have eco-friendly practices. So how can your business appeal to customers? Eco packaging.
As you prepare to pack, ship and repeat for the holiday season, here are a few eco packaging options you can implement immediately to help you ship in a sustainable way. Not packing for the holiday season? You can implement these eco packaging solutions any other time.
Eco Packaging Filler
You’ve prepared your perfect products. Before you ship them, you want to make sure they’re packed safely and securely.
Your first reflex is to reach for the bubble wrap or styrofoam. And why not? Bubble wrap is lightweight, convenient, affordable and provides ample cushioning for your products. It can even be used as an insulator for your temperature-control needs.
It’s fun to pop, but bubble wrap is not always fun for the planet. Regular bubble wrap is made of plastic. Every year, eight million metric tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans. Once dumped, plastic doesn’t break down easily or quickly.
Eco-friendly, recycled bubble wrap exists. But although it is an eco packaging option, it’s not always the most aesthetically pleasing for your customer.
There’s an alternative that will both protect your products and delight your customer—paper packaging filler.
There are many options when it comes to paper packaging and many ways to use them. You can choose from crinkle paper, cardboard wrap or brown wrapping paper.
Crinkle Paper
Perfect for nestling your fragile products, crinkle paper is exactly what it sounds like. Paper is crimped and cut into strips, which then can be used to fill empty space in boxes and hold items in place during shipping. Crinkle paper also provides a delightful unboxing experience for your customers visually.
Corrugated Cardboard Wrap
Similar to the flute of a corrugated cardboard box, this wrap is a thin, pliable cushioning alternative to bubble wrap.
You can wrap your products with it, or place around the lining of your shipping box as added cushioning.
Recycled Packing Paper
Recycled packing paper has the aesthetic of a nest for your products, just like crinkle paper. You can scrunch up your paper to use as box filler, press into the bottom to hold your products in place, or even wrap your products with it before placing in your box.
Gummed Paper Tape
You’ve packed your products safely and securely in packaging filler. Now, you’ll need to seal your box so it doesn’t fall apart during the shipping process. Before you grab a roll of plastic packing tape and seal away, we have an eco alternative to propose.
Gummed paper tape is an eco packaging material you can use in place of plastic clear tape. It’s a secure, water-activated tape that comes in two major forms—reinforced and unreinforced. Reinforced paper tape has thin glass fibers stretched across the tape, making it stronger and more tamper-proof. This form of paper tape is slightly more difficult to recycle.
Unreinforced paper tape is still a hardy option, holding up to 30 lbs of weight. This form of paper tape is biodegradable. It’s 100% recyclable and pulpable, so if left on a box during the recycling process, it won’t need to be separated.
Like plastic tape, paper tape can be easily cut into for easy unboxing. But it bonds to boxes in a much stronger way, making it almost impossible to tear off like regular plastic tape. This will prove useful during the shipping process.
Recycled Shipping Boxes
The easiest and most visible eco packaging change you can make today is your shipping boxes. If you’re an ecommerce store owner, your shipping boxes will be the first physical impression you make on your customer. Customers are looking for and noticing how eco-friendly businesses are, so make your first impression memorable.
Eco-friendly doesn’t have to be expensive. Brandable Box offers one of the lowest prices on the market for 100% recycled shipping boxes. And the best part? You can put your logo on your recycled shipping box for free.
This makes recycled shipping boxes the most affordable eco packaging change to implement for your business today.
If you’re not ready to jump into eco packaging for every part of your shipping process, we recommend starting with just your shipping box. We’re not just saying this because we’re biased. Delight your customers before they even pick up and open your package. Make a memorable first impression by choosing 100% recycled shipping boxes with your logo on it.