Shrinkage and Design
Packaging design brings your product to life and allows consumers to build a relationship with your brand; and if you get that design right, it creates emotional engagement such that your consumers buy your product. Design has to be more than pretty pictures and not just about the attractive imagery on the box. What separates 'Flipflop Design' from our competitors is we not only produce stunning designs but address the issues that surround packing, minimizing the risk of shrinkage (loss prevention). It is estimated that shrinkage costs the industry globally as much as €174 billion, with a further €34.8 billion being spent on trying to respond to it. In addition, the knock-on effect on out of stocks and defensive merchandising could be costing another €17 billion a year. Taken together, if the average retailer could reduce their shrinkage by just 25 per cent they could see their profits grow through reduced costs and increased sales by as much as 18 per cent.
What is Shrinkage?
The fundamental role of packaging is to deliver every product to the consumer in perfect condition at minimum cost and environmental impact. However, in order to achieve this goal, retailers and manufacturers often face competing challenges and tensions concerning the way in which products should be packaged, not least relating to the growing needs for sustainability, the differing and frequently competing demands of various parts of the supply chain as well as the need to apply product protection devices. Packaging generates shrinkage in a number of ways, including (but not exclusively) by:
allowing their contents to become damaged in transit; causing contamination through leakage; contributing to product loss through misidentification; losing their contents; become too unsightly to sell, suffering decreased shelf life and consequent reduced sales; being more likely to be stolen.
Where products are subject to the use of additional security protection, they can suffer from:
product information being obscured; stacking and presentational problems; annoyance and frustration to consumers; damage to product packaging.
How do we Take Practical Steps to Minimise the Risk of Packaging Related Shrinkage?
Improve product identification.
Reduce the risk of products being damaged.
Minimise the risk of theft.
Improve the way security devices are used.
Examples of Shrinkage within Retail Packaging > >
