Aptar Beauty + Home has announced its progress made towards creating dispensing solutions designed to address the demand for omnichannel and more sustainable packaging. This represents the company’s response to the increase in e-commerce sales driven initially by the Covid-19 pandemic, but a trend that is clearly here to stay.
The segment’s three-pronged approach, “Adapt, Integrate, Rethink” is driving packaging innovation in omnichannel dispensing solutions, designed to meet the needs of both in-store purchasing and e-commerce shipments, while working toward recyclability.
According to Xavier Joseph, Vice President, Global Marketing & Innovation, Aptar Beauty + Home “Consumers expect a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels from in-store, to click-and-collect, to online. According to our research leaking in transit is the biggest pain point consumers currently face*. These innovative packaging and dispensing solutions are designed to eliminate that pain point for consumers, and improve consumer sentiment for our brand partners.”
Luigi Garofalo, Global Business Development Director, Aptar Beauty + Home explained, “We have taken a three-pronged approach to meet this demand. Our first step was to adapt our existing product range for requirements specific to e-commerce needs, including adding clips and increasing the robustness of pumps that are prone to breaking while in transit.”
“Meanwhile, our talented engineers were working on ways to integrate e-commerce features into the functional design of packaging while simultaneously rethinking our omnichannel approach: deliver superior technical design, optimise the consumer experience across e-commerce and in-store channels, and minimise environmental impact.”
“We have been working to inform and inspire brands to use these solutions to both simplify their fulfilment process and deliver more sustainable, recyclable packaging to consumers,” said Garofalo.
The initial phase of this development included 40 products in Aptar Beauty + Home’s catalog deemed “e-commerce capable” and were ISTA-6 certified.
The benefits of omnichannel packaging solutions additionally help brands who are working towards their own circular economy goals. By integrating built-in designs, and leveraging Aptar’s global network of manufacturing facilities, brands are also able to reduce their carbon footprint and minimise the use of excess packaging and overwrapping. Aptar’s public sustainability product commitments are aligned with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy, which includes developing dispensing and packaging solutions that are recyclable, reusable, or integrate recycled resin.
Xavier Joseph added, “Our innovative approach of how to make products more sustainable and omnichannel capable at the same time ensures we are eliminating excessive or unnecessary packaging components from the waste stream.”
“it is critical for all packaging suppliers to look broader than just one or two ‘sustainable’ features and truly understand the holistic impact we can make for the future,” added Joseph.
An example of this is Aptar Beauty + Home’s award-winning Future, a recyclable, mono-material and e-commerce capable pump. Future’s industry-leading innovation has received numerous recognitions.
In referencing Future, Kevin Davis, Packaging Engineering Director at Dermalogica shared “This pump is truly a game-changer in bringing recyclability to the next level and fully addressing the need for mono-material packaging. We chose Future because of this and took it one step further by pairing it with a bottle made of 50% post-consumer recycled resin (PCR). In addition to the sustainability features, this pump’s e-commerce-friendly design is equally important to our brand since we ship high volumes via small parcel.”