05 Jan 2016 15:00 (London Time)

E-retail: changing the Christmas shopping season

Tony Foster, Sales and Marketing Director of the UK packaging division of DS Smith shares his thoughts about the changing Christmas shopping season and the effects it has on e-retail.

The expectation from consumers of seasonal events like Christmas is only increasing. Each year the festive stock seems to hit the shelves earlier and earlier, with eBay reporting that Christmas search terms begin to rise in late summer.

The popularity of buying online continues to increase and it seems this shift in Christmas shopping habits is unstoppable. This year saw £968m sales online taken on ‘Cyber Monday’ alone, a 34 per cent increase on the same day last year. The explosive growth of e-retail means that packaging must be able to cope with a huge range of product shapes and sizes. Crucially it needs to be economical, quick to pack and protective as well as easily opened, returned or disposed of in the home.

If retailers and brands are to compete effectively for market share during the key shopping peaks in the year, they need to ensure their packaging strategy is aligned with this shift in consumer behaviour, bringing their supply chain partners along with them. With this in mind, packaging is increasingly playing a much bigger part in the e-retail customer experience. The branding and personalisation of the package is a crucial part of transferring the shop/boutique experience into the home. The packaging also needs to arrive in the right condition. Customers for luxury branded goods will reject packs if they are damaged by the time they reach their doorstep.

Many new techniques in print and innovative designs can be applied to create the right look and feel, or that memorable first impression. At DS Smith, we are continually investing in the latest printing technology to ensure our customers have access to the highest quality and widest range of printing techniques. This ensures that the end result mirrors expectation whenever shoppers receive packs at home. This could mean imitating the intricate design of a luxury retailer’s primary pack across the secondary pack or ensuring that a children’s product arrives in packaging that is fun and colourful, bringing that in store experience to the home.

We constantly work with our customers to develop innovative solutions that can take full advantage of the opportunities the e-retail market provides. For example we worked with natural skincare brand Dr Organic to create a suite of e-retail packaging that conveyed its strong brand values, as well as delivered practically. As its customers are clearly environmentally aware, using just the right amount of fully-recyclable packaging was crucial and the securing adhesive tapes ensured security and tamper evidence.

E-retail is already disrupting the Christmas shopping season, and all of the evidence suggests that it will continue to do so. It’s easy to see why in the future, the battle for loyalty may well take place in shoppers’ homes rather than in retail stores.

At some stage there will be a ‘tipping point’ when more Christmas shopping is done online than it is in-store. These seismic shifts place even more emphasis on the need to have a flexible and responsive supply chain that is able to move fast and support the effort to seize market share.

However only those working in partnership with their packaging and supply cycle specialists from the start of their planning process, will be best placed to maximise sales during the crucial seasonal shopping peaks in the year.

E-retail: changing the Christmas shopping season

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