9 Must-Know Packaging Innovations & Trends for Businesses

Modern problems in supply chain, inventory, and retail operations create a need for innovative solutions. The importance of packaging evolution can’t be overlooked when it comes to streamlining retail business or ensuring safe product shipping in today’s world.

If you are a business looking for reliable and credible packaging solutions, understanding and implementing best practices is essential yet challenging. But don’t worry, we are here to help.

In this blog, we will discuss 9 must-know packaging innovations and trends that can help you create stand-out packaging for your business. Read on!

4 Modern Packaging Challenges for Businesses

Adhering to the modern market trends and meeting the needs of customers is paramount for the businesses. To do so, businesses need to figure out the challenges they face and build new ways to resolve these issues.

When it comes to product packaging for your business, you may face various unexpected problems. Here are some common challenges that will require extra attention to make your business succeed in today’s world:

• Choosing Durable Yet Sustainable Alternatives to Plastic Packaging

Protecting products from getting damaged, and keeping them pristine for the use of customers is essential for businesses. A robust packaging choice helps safeguard your products from bumps, dirt, and moisture in the environment.

Plastic packaging is one of the most durable and reliable options to pack your products. However, the environmental hazards caused by plastic can never be overlooked. Considering the rise in pollution and abrupt fluctuations in climate, most users prefer to buy products in sustainable or eco-friendly packaging.

This inclination of customers towards eco-friendly packaging creates a challenge for businesses in finding sustainable alternatives to plastic.

• Ensuring Convenient Transportation

Ensuring safe, convenient, and timely product delivery is important for businesses when it comes to shipping products. A durable and easy-to-stack packaging and reliable shipping vehicles are required to do so.

A streamlined shipping process not only ensures the products reach their destination safely but also helps manage inventory. Products packed in fragile packaging are neither well protected nor can be arranged easily in warehouses or retail stores.

Shipping product packaging with significant features is required that make the transit of items hassle-free. However, finding the right packaging with suitable properties for product shipping can be challenging.

• Adhering to Industry Trends With Packaging Designs

Industry trends keep on fluctuating because of changing customer preferences. Understanding the new customers' choices and focusing on the trends help you create product packaging that your target audience likes.

However, creating a product packaging that resonates with the changing priorities of customers is challenging. The reason is that a detailed market analysis is required to understand customer behavior and design packaging accordingly.

• Abiding by Rules & Regulations

Legislative regulations about product packaging are changing promptly. The government is taking part in controlling non-sustainable packaging and false claims on packaging labels by incorporating required amendments in the law.

Staying updated on these rules and regulations and abiding by the law of the state is paramount for businesses. Creating a product packaging design that adheres to the regulations is not always easy.

9 Packaging Innovations for Businesses

Now that we know the modern packaging challenges faced by businesses, let’s explore the innovations that can resolve these problems. Here are 9 innovations in packaging that are blooming out there and helping a lot of businesses grow faster:

• Smart Packaging

Smart packaging is an innovative solution that comes with remarkable features for ease of business. The exclusive features of this type of packaging not only enhance its functionality but also make it more appealing to customers.

The smart features of this packaging include NFC tags, QR codes, barcodes, etc. that can connect customers with digital content. These codes make your packaging a marketing tool that persuades customers to know more about your business.

Some QR codes direct your buyers to detailed information about the products. This is how you can not only gain the trust of nerds but also abide by the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. Smart security features like tamper-evident seals and RFID tags help you secure your items from theft or unwanted alterations.

• Active Packaging

Smart and active packaging are similar in many ways yet different from one another. Active packaging also comes with various smart features that enhance the overall functionality of your packaging. However, the features of active packaging are more focused on detecting and resolving product packaging problems.

Active packaging prolongs the shelf life of items making it more suitable for food products and pharmaceutical supplies. This type of packaging comes with water and oxygen absorbents that help keep edibles fresh for a long time.

Modern sensors enhance the functionality of active packaging to a great extent. These sensors detect the condition of items packed inside. It warns the inventory managers and retailers to take suitable measures before the product expires.

• Edible & Compostable Packaging

The rising health hazards associated with plastic packaging are the bottleneck for the food and medicine businesses. An alternative to plastic that doesn’t put the health of users at stake is edible packaging. This type of packaging is as durable as plastic yet doesn’t cause any harm to the health of the people.

Edible packaging is made of plant-based material that can be consumed by the users. Rather, certain edible packaging options are designed such that users are persuaded to eat after they take the product out. For instance, pasta straws and wafer cups for beverages encourage users to eat these packaging options after using the products inside them.

The most common edible packaging includes sugarcane trays, seaweed bags, etc. These packaging choices are made of eco-friendly edible, yet durable materials protecting your products as well as consumers’ health.

• Customized Product Packaging

Customization of packaging is classic, yet the dynamics of market trends increase the importance of personalized packaging in today’s world. Tailoring your product packaging according to modern trends helps you fascinate your target audience to boost your sales.

Colors and imagery for product packaging designs have been used for decades. However, the use of colors and the presentation of graphics have evolved greatly over the years. The evolution of packaging design is associated with market trends.

Considering the customer behavior, you need to personalize a packaging design that resonates with your brand voice and persuades your buyers.

Case Study:Yucatan got a 32% sales growth on its retail products after recreating the packaging design that resonates with its target audience.

• Nanotechnology in Food Packaging

Retaining the taste and aroma of food items is essential for food businesses to impress consumers. Nanotechnology has been used for a long time in the preservation of food products. However, when it comes to product packaging for food items, nanotechnology is blooming due to its ability to retain the freshness of edibles.

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights:

“The global volume of nanotechnology in the packaging market is expected to rise at a CAGR of 15.83% from 2023 to 2030.”

One of the most common nanotechnology in food packaging is nano-emulsion. This emulsion is dispersed oil and water that is stabilized by a surfactant. This emulsion is not only food-safe but also excellent in extending the shelf-life of your products.

The oxygen and water-repellent properties of this emulsion make them keep food fresh for a long time. Certain nanoparticles in innovative food packaging solutions also have antimicrobial properties and UV impermeability.

• Packaging Automation QA With AI

Packaging automation is essential to manage the supply chain of a manufacturing and retail business at a large scale. In automation, robotics is used to pack products inside boxes and wrap them with minimal chances of errors.

However, the automation process runs based on the instructions fed to the computer. If you want to alter any aspect of this process like shrinking the size of packaging without spoiling products, you will have to redesign all the instructions from the start. Redesigning the instructions won’t be possible without a comprehensive competitive analysis that will also require time and resources 

AI helps you avoid this by designing the new automation instructions without hassle. To do so, you can train machine learning models to do a competitive analysis and give you the best practices that help you do your task (shrink packaging size for instance) easily.

• Advanced Anti-Counterfeit Packaging

Anti-counterfeit packaging has been used for traceability and security of products for years. It also helps end customers check the authenticity of the product with a breeze. Some innovations in counterfeit technology of product packaging have enhanced security and traceability to a great extent.

Digital watermarking has been used to ensure product authenticity for years. This technology incorporates barcodes that can be scanned for product authenticity verification.

With the improvement in technology, AR (augmented reality) graphics can be added to the packaging that customers can experience by scanning with their phones. This feature not only enhances the user experience but also serves as a reliable anticounterfeit feature for your product packaging.

Modern tamper-evident seals for your product packaging are also a more advanced counterfeit than conventional seals. For instance, plastic numbered seals serve the purpose of showing the price and offering a tamper-evident closure for products at the same time.

Snap on cap seals is another example of innovative and remarkable tamper-evident closure for bottles. This type of seal is more suitable for caps tethered to the bottles.

Prevailing Digital & 3D Printing

When it comes to product packaging, printing can’t be overlooked. The reason is that printing has become an essential part of branded packaging that promotes products and informs customers about items.

Various printing methods are used in the packaging industry, however, the popularity of digital & 3D printing is rising these days. The reason is that these processes are not only efficient but also famous for creating high-quality graphical results on the packaging.

Digital printing provides you with ease allowing you to print whatever you want promptly and efficiently. Whether you want to print 100, 1000, or more boxes, you won’t get any restrictions if you opt for digital printing. This type of printing uses a computerized system to read your imagery and print it on your packaging material.

When it comes to 3D printing, its popularity is rising due to its high-quality printing results. This printing technique makes the graphics look realistic and eye-catching. If you want to offer a realistic experience to your customers with your packaging design, opt for 3D printing.

• Standardized & Registered Packaging Design

Meeting the standardized practices and abiding by the regulations when creating a product packaging is essential yet challenging. You need to remain updated about the regulations and incorporate the right packaging features to do so. Here are some innovative regulations for your product packaging you can never overlook:

• Tethered Bottle Caps

Most legislative rules are being designed to promote recyclability and biodegradability of product packaging. For instance, Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) introduced a senate bill in the US to control plastic pollution by tethering the caps to bottles.

The background behind this regulation is that detachable caps are likely to go to waste and not be recycled. Tethered caps to bottles will enhance the recyclability of caps along with bottles.

• EPR Implementation in Colorado

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is another example of legislative innovation in the packaging industry. EPR guidelines are already implemented in various states of the United States. Circular Action Alliance (CAA) is the process chosen for the implementation of EPR programs in these states.

In the end of 2024, Circular Action Alliance (CAA) registration was made mandatory for the packaging producers in Colorado. Implementation of this law is expected to be enforced in other states as well. Colorado and Rhode Island have also enacted bans on the use of plastic bags for single use in 2024.

Considering these legislative measures, more recyclable packaging and less use of plastic is expected in the future.

Bring Innovation to Your Product Packaging

Choosing an innovative packaging is necessary, however customizing it from a reliable packaging company is more important. A credible packaging company takes full responsibility for creating exclusive packaging for your products.

If you are finding a one-stop shop for your packaging needs, you can go to online vendors like OXO Packaging. We offer complete customization in materials, design, and finishes for your product packaging. You can also get free design support from us helping you create product packaging that your customers like.

Conclusion

Fluctuations in the market trends have brought various innovations in the packaging industry. We hope the above packaging innovations will help you adopt an appropriate approach to creating product packaging that helps your business succeed. If you want to know more about innovative packaging designs or buy custom packaging for your products, reach out to us!