CDF’s Frustration-Free Flexible Packaging—A Step Ahead!
Consumers, like never before, have driven a fundamental change the marketplace. Their vehicle of choice: the internet. Whether you are in B2C or B2B markets, you’re feeling this impact. It’s everyday consumers—looking for a new washer and dryer, the best running shoes, or the safest children’s toy—who have created this shift that has also reshaped B2B buying patterns and selling models. 
If you don’t believe us, just take a step back and consider that you’re reading this online B2B article. The way we now market our products in the B2B world has been largely influenced by how consumers complete their research for products and services online. This crossover in buying behaviors has jumped from B2C consumers to B2B customers, as both are entering the sales funnel much more informed than ever before—and are wielding much more power than ever before. This has inherently changed marketing strategies, research behaviors, buying expectations, and selling tactics and models.
So, when we see that online consumers have influenced a major packaging-related policy change with the largest retailer in the world, Amazon, we take notice. We see this as a barometer of things to come—or more precisely, what is already upon us. People are demanding—expecting—sustainable, streamlined, thoughtful packaging for their purchases. Everyday consumers care about the impact their lifestyles have on the planet and the environment as do large companies and the people who produce packaging products (that’s us!) even if the packaging does not directly intersect with their lives.
Frustration-Free Packaging
Amazon has introduced its Frustration-Free Packaging program. According to an online article from Packaging Strategies, this push has been a long time coming. It’s a program set up for vendors. It includes guidelines, financial penalties, and rewards, and reflects the “changing customer demand for sustainable easy-to-open packaging.” The article goes on to say that because of the nature of Amazon’s standard-setting practices, all e-commerce vendors can benefit from the following best practices for sustainable and protection packaging.
Some of those packaging best practices are:
- Evaluate the channel in which the package will be used
- Understand that less can be more
- Don’t make recycling too difficult for the consumer
According to Amazon, adhering to these practices will help minimize three of the main frustrations consumers have with packaging:
- Impossible to open
- Excessive for the product
- Destined only for landfills
Qualifications for Amazon’s Frustration-Free Packaging include vendor packaging that is:
- 100% recyclable
- Easy to open
- Designed to ship products in their original packaging; no additional boxes
- Easy “liberation” of product while reducing waste
The Future Is Flexible!
Our marketplace is not on Amazon, but our approach and packaging philosophy is very much in step with this latest mandate from the people, if you will. CDF has built a reputation as a packaging innovator, and we’ve been ahead of this curve in the B2B world for some time with our many flexible packaging solutions. One solution is Meta® Pail with Smart Pail Inside, which is the integration of two technologies to replace plastic pails.
The Meta® Pail is a semi-rigid, vacuum-formed, plastic pail insert with a hermetically sealed peel-reseal laminated film lid, housed within an 8-sided corrugated Meta container. Meta Pail transports semi-viscous, solid, and most liquid products currently shipped in plastic pails.
We’re proud to say that we have considered all of the above-stated pain points—and their solutions—when we designed Meta Pail.
Meta Pail has a very favorable “frustration-free” packaging profile that benefits our customers, along with positive sustainability alignment. These features include:
- Easy to erect in three easy steps
- Can be knocked down and easily stacked
- Lighter-weight material; less packaging (vs. plastic pails)
- Lowered supply chain costs: operational, storage, handling, transportation
- One extra layer per pallet; 33% savings on transportation costs and operational efficiency
- Easy open, easy close with large peel-reseal lidding structure—hybrid peel option with peel-reseal and one-pull features for ease of disposal
- Disposes easily—recyclable: collapsible plastic and corrugated
- Lighter weight than a 5-gallon plastic pail—easy handling
- Saves space from less packaging—collapsible insert for improved space savings at both the processor and end-user
Saving the Environment and Your Bottom Line
Everyone wins when we work collectively toward sustainability goals. When we all pitch in through simple practices and everyday business decisions, we all get there. Meet your sustainability initiatives, for your business and the planet.
Sustainable Benefits of Using Meta Pail with Smart Pail include:
- Less disposal volume, easier to recycle: 4 collapsed Smart Pails fit into the space of 1 five-gallon plastic pail
- Reduced impact on climate change (CO2 emissions) by 52% over rigid pails
- 72% less solid waste than rigid pails
- 64% less energy usage than rigid pails
- Recyclable components: HDPE pail and corrugated container
- Ability to collapse or nest for minimized and efficient disposal/recycling—takes up less space in a truck, plant, or dumpster
Disrupting the Packaging Industry
We set out to disrupt the packaging industry with concerted efforts to meet the needs of our customers while also taking care of the planet. CDF Corporation has a long history of innovation in flexible packaging, from accordion inserts to unique IBC liner valves. CDF’s high level of expertise and service ensure a reliable partner for many packaging needs: custom food packaging, chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and more. Download our Meta KD8 with Smart Pail brochure for more details about this innovative packaging system.
