When it comes to packaging for food, medical products, and other items, manufacturers have to balance several important considerations.
The Packaging Trinity
- You must have user friendly clamshell packaging. There is a need for user-friendly clamshell packaging solutions/options. Consumers are highly likely to reject packaging that is too difficult to open. It’s absolutely essential that thermoformed and blister packaging solutions be user friendly clamshell solutions.
- Retail packaging must be environmentally friendly. Sustainability is an enormous issue in the modern packaging industry, and increasingly consumers are demanding sustainable and eco-friendly designs in their user friendly clamshell packaging. Around the world, 52% of people report that they make purchases partly due to a packaging that indicates a particular brand is interested in making a positive impact on the environment or on society.
- Packaging must do its traditional job of protecting its contents. Protection goes both ways. Manufacturers and producers must be protected from theft, while consumers must be protected from tampering or damage to products they have ordered or bought. While it is important to have green packaging and user friendly clamshell packaging, it is equally important that the packaging does its job of protecting the items inside.
How to Choose the Right Design
The answer to the packaging dilemma comes by balancing size and shape, requirements of material, and volume. When it comes to volume, the more of a packaging solution any brand can buy at one time, the cheaper that packaging becomes. This makes it possible to afford more sophisticated, environmentally friendly, user friendly clamshell packaging. it’s also important to consider the size and shape of what’s being packaged. Obviously, the larger a package is the more material is needed to secure it. This also increases weight which makes it more expensive to ship. Thus it may actually be cost-effective and more eco-friendly to ship in individual packages rather than in bulk. Finally, it’s important to consider the materials being used for the thermoformed plastic packaging.
Making it User Friendly
Once you have determined the materials necessary to balance protection, costs, and sustainability goals, it’s also very important to choose a design that will please consumers. Sometimes, DIY clamshell packaging is not the best option. Sometimes, your best bet is to go with the tried-and-true packaging supplier you can give real insights which types of packaging are considered user-friendly by consumers.
Packaging has changed a great deal over the centuries and will doubtless change more in years to come. For now, all the interest is in making protective, sustainable, and user friendly clamshell packaging.